Mark Agnew
In the Arctic, resilience was vital. Now I share my lessons with corporate audiences too.
Corporate resilience is easier said than done
Resilience is a buzz word in danger of becoming little more than a poster in your office. Countless companies espouse 'resilience' as one of their five pillars or values. When we set two world firsts in the Arctic, we needed buckets of resilience and those lessons are applicable to your workplace too.
A resilient workforce is vital to any company that wants to thrive in adversity. Countless studies have shown that resilient teams do not just survive hard times, they excel. The love the added pressure and it gives companies a competitive advantage when they need it most, not to mention the lower staff turnover.
But how to you get buy-in, so a resilient culture is real and not just a buzz word spewed out by the C-suite once a year.
Reward the effort, not the outcome
This will stave of fear of failure and facilitate your staff thriving in the face of adversity, rather than shrinking from it worrying about the possible negative outcomes.
Encourage team cohesion
A strong community is an important aspect of resilience. People are more likely to be resilient with teams they care about, and be confident that they will get the support they need if they are struggling.
There are two types of cohesion. 1. Task cohesion is how likely a team is to complete a task. 2. Social cohesion is about how likely a team is to get along personally. The reality is, these two are intertwined. If you teammates are trust worthy with the task, you are more likely to like them. If you get along, the team is more likely to pull in the same direction.
Team cohesion in the extreme.
So, to facilitate resilience, you should also facilitate social cohesion - team lunches, social events, fun ideas like sweep stakes for the world cup.
Also consider smaller group events, like taking a few team members for lunch, and the others for lunch on another day. Sometimes, different employees need smaller groups to get to know each other rather than constantly doing large group pizza days and drinks.
This is especially important in the days of remote working.
Have intrinsic goals
If you employees enjoy there work for the simple inherent value of doing it, rather than for the external reward of a salary or bonus, they are more likely to be resilient and ironically to achieve the external goal.
This is quite an abstract idea. How do you get employees to love their jobs?
- Listen to them. Have open lines of communication, encourage ideas, let them start their own projects and (again) reward the effort even if it fails. Making employees feel like they are part of the process and putting them in charge of their own ideas will make them enjoy the inherent value of the work, and not just the carrot of money or other external motivators.
- Staff development: Offer courses and learning so staff feel like they are learning and growing, and not just grinding for cash.
- Be flexible: If a staff member has an outside of work commitment, like a sports match, a kid's recital or a friend's funeral, give them the time off so they feel like their work is part of their life and not just an appendage that pays the bills but stops them from doing what they really want.
Tone from the top
The most important aspect of getting buy-in is that your leaders are seen and heard to be embracing resilient behaviours. Leaders have to be the ones rewarding effort, encouraging team cohesion and facilitating intrinsic motivations. If they talk the talk and don't walk the walk, all attempts to get buy-in to a resilient culture will be lost.
If you want help getting buy-in to resilience, I've helped countless audiences with my keynote talks and workshops.