Cultivating a resilient organization

Work and life are not mutually exclusive. Most of us spend one third or more of our days at work and derive deep meaning from engaging purposefully in our profession. Our resilience responses are personal and are shaped by our unique history, personality, and personal and societal context.  Resiliency is born of work, community, and family environments that are safe enough to ensure our needs are met. 

Given that workplace plays a critical role for many, organizations that value an inclusive well-being culture will nurture resiliency at both the individual and system levels and will ground themselves in a human-centric approach that recognizes how deeply the individual and system are connected. Such environments debunk the belief that employees’ resiliency is dependent solely on their personal character and resolve and seek to understand how the work environment supports or undermines their resiliency.

A Resilient Leader is Not Enough

As interconnected beings, we exhibit self-determination and have varying capacities to actualize emotional well-being within our many social systems. Sheer will alone is insufficient to achieve human resilience. Resilience is communal. 

When faced with uncertainty, bold leaders may overestimate their leadership capabilities and are then unable to adjust their interpersonal approach to fit the context.  

Leaders who demonstrate care for their teams’ welfare while simultaneously tending to their own well-being, cultivate resilience responses by emphasizing integrity and psychological safety.  

Much has been written about psychological safety, and it is as much a skill as it is an imperative: being vigilant about one’s bias, nurturing deep humility and empathy, creating space to acknowledge sidesteps, and being curious and willing to expand our perspective. In an atmosphere of psychological safety, an organization cherishes open, honest dialogues, respects the needs of diverse team members, and asks contributors what they need to be successful in their role and how leaders can support their growth. Leaders in these organizations encourage team members to lead initiatives, participate in decision-making, and to remain connected to both their own and the organization’s values. 

This resiliency is a team effort, and is further strengthened by contributors’ input and support, which, in turn, foster inclusive governance structures that ensure representation and participation in the decision-making processes to create a more just, resilient organizational approach wherein policies reflect contributors’ everyday experiences and emotional conditions. This is a tall order, yet it is possible when an organization adopts a systemic approach that focuses on the environment and the people within it. 

Setting The Tone

When employees work in an organization whose values and purpose feed into their own, they thrive and are excited to contribute to the organization’s collective well-being. 

How, then, during uncertain times, do we balance being valued contributors while taking care of our well-being? 

Cultivating a resilient organization is neither easy nor simple, and the factors that contribute to promoting organizational resilience are unique to that organization’s composition. Yet, the CEO or senior-most executive plays a critical role. They set the tone and model behaviors that support or undermine resiliency. Chamorro-Premuzic and Lusk write about “The Dark Side of Resilience” and share a cautionary tale about bold leaders who are unaware of their limitations and who compromise organizational resiliency when driven by self-enhancement. 

“Personal resilience and organizational resilience
are cut for the same cloth, and
diversity of perspective and backgrounds
is ‘paramount.’”
—Hilrud Werner

There is therefore a difference between demanding that everyone is resilient and cultivating an environment where everyone feels they have the ability to move toward their level of resiliency. 

Simran Jeet Singh offers three steps for leaders to adopt to promote their organization’s resiliency: 

1. Develop a clear understanding of what true resilience is and what it isn’t. Bring awareness to biases and how these impact the way you interpret or misinterpret individuals’ capacities for resilience.
2. Consider how shared challenges impact people differently. Meet people where they are, as opposed to where you believe them to be. Avoid assuming that people from marginalized backgrounds will have higher levels of resilience.
3. Don’t use perceived, individual resilience to deflect real, systemic problems. The issue may be flawed systems breaking down, rather than individual resilience factors.  

When our resilience lens contains the experiences and needs of diverse team members, it allows for a wider perspective and a better appreciation of others’ experiences, needs, and expressions of resiliency. It is therefore easy to be resilient in an environment that fosters resiliency. If “diversity of perspective and backgrounds is paramount” for both individual and organizational resilience, which of these steps will you embrace?

Uncertainty is inescapable 

Our unique history, personality, personal and societal context, and the systems in which we function—such as our workplace—shapes how we weather uncertainties. Organizations that ensure that their professionals feel supported through times of uncertainty demonstrate care and foster an inclusive governance structure that contributes to cultural cohesion.  

A resilient organization is based on the resiliency of its employees, who are its greatest asset. A well employee makes for a well organization and a well society. We have a substantial opportunity to curate inclusive well-being strategies that amplify employees’ resilience. Imagine what we can cultivate if we provide employees opportunities to identify, engage, and take on behaviors to live their best life.