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In a steady state world, “bouncing back” is an apt way to describe resilience. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a steady, consistent, unchanging world.
Tomorrow Will Be Different
If it can be digitalised it will be digitalised. More information doesn’t mean better information. Tomorrow’s competition will emanate from a city you have never heard of or business sector you rarely think of. And where organisational capability is widely held, “speed” becomes the basis of competitive advantage. Be bold or become irrelevant. Be tough-minded or tackle a new line of work. Be fast or be last.
In a steady state world, “bouncing back” is an apt way to describe resilience. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a steady, consistent, unchanging world. Today’s environment is marked by disorder, uncertainty and, where technology is involved, a pattern of change where each step is greater than the step that went before. What was frustrating is about to become even more so.
In any conversation around change, language isn’t important … it’s everything. With the scope and nature of change likely to become even more turbulent, resilience seen as a way to reinforce/retain the status quo isn’t very helpful. Indeed, it’s misleading.
Being Strengthened by the Storm
A more relevant approach presents resilience as adapting to the new state, reflecting on the experience and developing new ways to behave. It’s a dynamic rather than a static process.
It’s about leading and learning … not absorbing and then acting as before. Resilience means not only weathering the storm … but being strengthened by it. In assuming that resilience defines an individual’s personal resources – as is invariably the case – we miss an important piece of the puzzle. Context matters and the right network, a support system and being around positive people make a difference. Tomorrow’s successful leaders will surround themselves with people who are resilient.
Accepting the plasticity of the brain, we can learn to become more resilient. There is a link, for example, between resilience and the research on positive psychology. Conversely, for leaders who are overly anxious, risk-averse, trapped by yesterday’s success, have difficulty facing adversity or are simply overwhelmed by life, resilience is spelt “resistance.”
And the difference that makes a difference: Surround yourself with resilient people, provide an opportunity to assess personal resilience, make resilience a central plank in ongoing coaching and help high performers connect with and shape their own story. There is nothing more tragic than those not living their own story … because they are living someone else’s.
This article is an extract from “Tomorrow’s Leadership Will Be Different“, © Orxestra® Inc.
John O. Burdett is founder of Orxestra® Inc. He has extensive international experience as a senior executive. As a consultant he has worked in more than 40 countries for organisations that are household names. John has worked on organisation culture for some of the world's largest organisations. His ongoing partnership with TRANSEARCH International means that his thought leading intellectual property, in any one year, supports talent management in many hundreds of organisations around the world. Get in touch with John O. Burdett »
