How to create a culture of resilience

Hot on the heels of the pandemic, organisations are now facing global economic pressures and political upheavals. At a time when businesses were looking with hope towards a sense of recovery, the new normal is now more uncertainty. And with that uncertainty comes increased stress, mental and physical health challenges, and lower levels of productivity for most people.  

As this pace of disruption increases, how your people face these challenges is key to how your organisation or business weathers this uncertainty. Organisations that foster a strong resilient culture, driven by both crisis and opportunity, can gain a strong advantage over their competitors. Early research on the relationship between organisational health and financial performance during the pandemic shows that businesses with strong resilient behaviours, such as knowledge sharing, performance reviews and bottom-up innovation, were less likely to suffer severe financial difficulties or even bankruptcy, than those without. Resilience is a trait and competency that every individual, organisation and society need. But few of us work in isolation. For most of us, our ability to support the resilience of our team is just as important as our resilience as individuals.

Resilience is about adaptability

Often considered by many to be a sign of toughness, resilience is, in fact, more about adaptability. When your team can pull together and roll with the punches, approach problems from a new perspective, reframe challenges and improvise, they are resilient in an organisational context.  

All leaders and teams can learn and develop the behaviours, thoughts and actions that create resilience. But this requires continuous focus at both an individual and team level. It’s important that managers nurture a more engaging and solution-focused mindset by ensuring their own language and mindset reflect this. In resilient organisations, leaders and teams can quickly assess situations and re-orientate themselves, enabling them to think creatively, collaborate and find innovative solutions. Bringing focus to shared purpose and building trust between team members can help your organisation develop and maintain a culture of resilience that will ensure your team is equipped for whatever challenges life throws at them, now or in the future.  

Resilience then is not so much an inherent trait, but rather a learned and practised behaviour. Creating a culture of resilience requires leading by example, so let us look at specific behaviours leaders and managers can practice fostering resilience.

Focus on what you can control

If we didn’t know it already, this pandemic has shown us that focusing on what you can’t control is a waste of time and effort. Resilient leaders are able to focus on what is working and walk away from the environmental and other factors they’ve identified that are beyond their control. This allows them to experiment with different ways of working within these boundaries to discover what helps to move things along in stressful times. 

Communicate effectively

Clear communication is the foundation of a functioning team that thrives even in times of crisis. Calmness and clarity in the way messages are communicated throughout your team and organisation is important to how informed and confident employees will feel and how they will react.  

Make sure your teams have a clearly defined purpose that gives meaning and connection to their work. Seeing the ‘bigger picture’ allows people to view challenges as bumps in the road to the main goal, rather than obstacles in control of their journey. It also helps to make smaller stresses and frustrations more bearable.  

It is also important to make sure every member of your team feels empowered and clear about their individual role and how their work contributes to their team’s overall achievements. This fosters a sense of connection, collaboration, and purposefulness. Equally important as what you communicate as leaders, is how you listen to your people, especially during a crisis. 

Build trust

Resilience is a team effort and creating a strong network of people who are there for each other is a significant part of creating an environment that fosters resilience. Showing true compassion and empathy for each other, in success and failure, nurtures strong bonds and loyalty. 

Leaders can set the tone by taking a genuine interest in their team’s activities. Asking the right questions, listening carefully and even reading between the lines are all valuable skills. Taking regular ‘pulse checks’ of employees is something all resilient organisations do to ensure that they know how their workforce is feeling.  

Australian software giant Atlassian sees this as having an open ear to the workforce. This highly successful company regularly undertakes pulse checks with their employees to examine resilience. They intentionally lead with empathy by constantly seeking to understand and gain insights into individual’s situations.  

It was thanks to this ‘ear’ that they were effectively able to move to remote working overnight. They were already aware of exactly what they needed to supply employees with at home to create the same level of technology and comfort they had in the office. For a company that was very deliberate about the layout of collaboration spaces in their offices, priority was given to building a new framework to onboard new talent in a virtual world to ensure this important aspect of working would not be impacted.  

Promote psychological safety

A psychologically safe environment in which team members feel they can express themselves without fear of judgement or retribution is a key component of a resilient culture. To be adaptable, you need to be open to new thinking and not fear the possibility of failure, but see it as an opportunity to learn and improve. 

When people aren’t fearful of making mistakes, raising issues, or bringing innovative ideas to the table, they become more engaged in finding solutions and innovative in their thinking, which is essential in helping organisations navigate through a crisis. It is about being transparent and candid and making it possible to discuss and disagree while being productive and constructive.  

Case studies show that ‘fearless organisations’ are higher performers, as they have the confidence to take risks, share new and different ideas and are candid in sharing feedback or concerns, even when it’s considered sensitive or threatening. 

Boost your talent resilience

With more job openings than workers to fill them, employers and HR professionals should be taking a look at their hiring and retention approach to enhance talent resilience. A good place to start is by taking a deep dive into how talent works across your organisation, starting with a fresh look at the skills and knowledge you need to be successful.  

This type of talent deficit analysis should help you decide how to strike the right balance between internal or external training and hiring for specific skills. Switch your emphasis to soft skills with a particular focus on adaptability and a willingness to learn to develop skills ‘on the job.’ 

In looking to attract people to your business or retain existing employees, policies like flexible hours or hybrid work locations, once considered a prize, are fast becoming ‘the norm’. Think outside the box to position your organisation as one to work for with perks like time off for volunteering, tuition assistance or even ‘dogs at the desktop’ day. Companies that have policies in place that promote the physical and mental wellbeing of their employees, another key component of a resilient culture, are also highly attractive to job seekers.

It’s the curve balls that make us stronger 

Anyone can thrive when things are going well. It’s how we adapt when things go wrong that proves our metal. Building a resilient culture isn’t just about dealing with adversity. It’s about your long-term sustainability. Your people’s ability to work together to support each other, adapt and innovate makes your organisation stronger in the good times, and, crucially, in unpredictable times.