The Resilience Advantage Part 1
Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
Perhaps you’ve noticed in your own life that some people just seem to weather a storm or rise to a challenge better than others. When the unexpected happens—whether it’s positive or negative—they seem to roll with the punches, don’t panic, and simply pivot to address the situation.
Under the right conditions and leadership, organizations can operate the same way. They can adapt to challenges and even drive change when market opportunities or shifts arise.
Less than one-fifth of organizations “exhibit a notable capacity to withstand disruption,” and only 15% showed resilience in the face of the pandemic (Source: Accenture). Have you ever wondered what makes them different? What makes those organizations better able to pivot, adapt, and not get flustered or paralyzed in the face of change?
The secret is resilience.
“Resilience plays a vital role in Adaptability, but the two are not the same,” says Krista Sheets, president of Competitive Edge and a certified delivery partner of the AQai method. “Resilience is a key part of an adaptable organization, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle, and in fact, too much resilience can actually hinder Adaptability.”
In this two-part series, we’ll delve into why resilience is a strong advantage in fostering Adaptability Intelligence, how to encourage resiliency among your team, maximize what Accenture calls your “Return on Resilience” (Source: Accenture) and avoid going too far to the point of undermining Adaptability.
Resilience vs. Adaptability – What’s the Difference?
Resilience is having a moment. With more talk about resilience (Source: Accenture) in corporate earnings calls than before the pandemic, companies are recognizing and prioritizing the value of resilience in building a successful organization. But what is resilience, exactly?
Resilience is the speed with which you recover from unexpected change, and it’s akin to tolerance and perseverance.
In the event of change, think of resilience like a shock absorber—it insulates a resilient person or organization from “damage” and allows them to come out on the other side minimally affected. And like the shock absorbers on your car when you hit a pothole, resilience prevents you from suffering too badly so that you aren’t much worse for the wear after it’s over. You got through it relatively unscathed, whether you liked it or not.
The standard shock absorbers intended for use on paved roads and highways are just fine for those conditions. But what if you’re going off the beaten path? What if your journey includes blazing new trails or takes a sudden turn across uncharted terrain? You’ll need to adapt your equipment to support that off-road performance, right?
That’s where Adaptability Intelligence comes in.
“Adaptability is the process of not just absorbing change but leaning into it as an opportunity for learning, growth and development,” Sheets says. “Instead of just tolerating change, Adaptability gives people and organizations the tools to embrace it, seek it out or even drive it themselves. You can’t be adaptable without resilience, but it goes far beyond simple perseverance.”
Signs of a Resilient Organization
Like Adaptability, many organizations inherently believe they’re resilient, despite signs to the contrary. While the AQai Adaptability Assessment can gauge an organization’s Adaptability Intelligence, resilience is a bit more nuanced. Here are some observational signals of a resilient organization:
- Open communication. Leadership explains the “why” behind changes, conveys the intended outcome, and emphasizes the vital role each individual plays in achieving the goal.
- Shared vision. Even if the path toward the goal might be rocky and take a few turns, the team understands the journey will be worth it and therefore has the enthusiasm and drive to get there.
- Minimal negative side talk. In resilient organizations, employees aren’t grumbling amongst their peers. They’re recognizing challenges and collaborating to overcome them, rather than commiserating.
- Leadership accepts negative feedback. In resilient organizations, leadership listens to the concerns of their team, even if they can’t heed them all. They may not be able to accommodate all of the individual perspectives, but hearing and showing that they have considered their input on risks, disruptions and potential pitfalls, validates employees’ perspective and value to the organization. So many organizations grossly underestimate the importance of simply acknowledging that input, and yet not listening can rapidly undermine trust in the organization and leadership.
- Boots on the ground leadership. In resilient organizations, leaders aren’t managing from the corner office with the door shut. They’re out on the floor, interacting with their teams every single day. They understand the reality of what’s happening and the challenges they face day-to-day, which gives them a much better sense of how change might impact their team even if they don’t articulate it.
- Change is based in reality. When leaders look only at productivity, efficiency and other metrics, they often ignore the realities of the situation or the task they’re asking to be completed. Amazon’s push to improve order fulfillment speed in its warehouses is one famous example: in order to achieve the desired metrics, employees were forced to forego restroom breaks and use outrageous tactics to relieve themselves—certainly not the outcome leadership expected. Management had no idea how the change they asked for would affect their employees “in real life” by simply looking at a dashboard.
These benefits can translate directly into profitability and growth. For example, Accenture’s Resilience Index finds that companies scoring high in their resilience parameters can expect to achieve revenue CAGR 6% higher (Source: Accenture) and profit margins 8% higher than their less-resilient peers.
When Resilience Goes Wrong…
Just like your car’s shock absorbers as it repeatedly hits potholes, resilience can only take so much before damage occurs. Where there is empathy, psychological safety, collaboration and a shared vision for growth, and people are healthy, well rested, appreciated and rewarded, they’re able to absorb a lot more because their “equipment” is in good condition.
Eventually, if they’re pushed too far, the shock absorber may break. Assuming people are doing fine because they’ve absorbed a few bumps and potholes before is risky. Like any shock absorber, without proper maintenance, their resilience becomes worn out after taking too much abuse, and you often don’t see the damage until it’s too late.
That means perhaps the third time there’s a change in the hybrid work policy or the fourth pivot in as many months on product development or brand messaging, people start to break down. Frustration builds, they feel pulled in too many directions, and their stress level hits the roof.
Sometimes, they default to relying on grit. And just like resilience, too much grit can be a bad thing, too. When change is poorly communicated or misunderstood, grit can manifest as resistance or willful apathy. Individuals might become so resilient to poorly executed or badly managed change that they either stonewall or simply don’t speak up even when they see things going the wrong way. In the worst-case scenario, grit and resilience can even make a person bullheaded or eventually cause burn out.
Even worse, if there’s a lack of communication around why change is happening, people are left to walk a tightrope between being a good employee who trusts the leadership yet not understanding the why behind their decisions. At some point, their resilience shifts to endurance, and they begin to disengage or look for a way out.
Finding the Right Balance
Cultivating resilience at the right level is a lot like playing The Price is Right: you want to expose employees to the right amount of change to build their resilience without going over.
The best way to start cultivating resilience is to start with a baseline. From there, you can measure improvement along the way. The AQai Adaptability Assessment can help you gather empirical evidence about how resilient and adaptable your team is today, and pinpoint areas that could use some development so they can tackle–and even enjoy–off-road adventures and blazing new trails.
To learn more, contact us today to get started with an AQai Adaptability Assessment.
And stay tuned for our next installment: How to Build a Resilient Organization!