Fact or fiction: building resilient teams?
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WELLBEING LUCY HONE
Fact or fiction: building
resilient teams?
Whatever your interest in to ensure teams are resilient, asking resilience that science shows to be
human resources, no doubt what steps they can take to help true for most people, in most places,
employees adapt and cope. most of the time.
your inbox is flooded with
companies offering resilience I’ve been investigating the answers The basic definition is easy to get.
training right now. To help you to these exact questions since 2008, Resilience enables us to cope with,
studying what scientific research can or steer through, adversity. It’s not
sort the wheat from the chaff,
tell us about resilience. about toughing it out and not about
we asked Dr Lucy Hone from avoiding negative emotions or
• Who’s got resilience?
the New Zealand Institute of negative experiences. Instead, it’s
• What builds it?
Wellbeing and Resilience to about coping in the moment and
• What detracts? learning from the challenges that
share her insights on how to
build resilience. • Can it be learned? face us. It’s not a fixed trait (that
• Can we train people to be some people have and others don’t)
more resilient? but a capacity that can be built.
B
What is more complex to grasp
ack in 2008, during the Global My research encourages human
is that this capacity comes from a
Financial Crisis, I became fixated resources to think beyond employee
highly individualised combination of
by the concept of resilience. I recall engagement and EAP schemes
what we refer to as ‘nature, nurture
being told the economy needed to towards developing organisational
and culture’. Yes, nature does play
be more resilient, leading me to--- cultures that foster sustainable
its part: psychology has identified
-- ponder, what did ‘being resilient’ high performance, which new
key personality traits influencing
mean and was this something we research shows has an ROI of
our ability to adapt and cope with
could build? Three years later, in 8:1 compared with 3:1 of EAP
challenges (google the Big Five
the aftermath of the Christchurch schemes (NZ Institute of
Personality Traits). For instance, being
earthquakes, it became the zeitgeist Economic Research (2021),
extroverted and open to experience
word for the region, as organisations Wellbeing and Productivity at
makes you more likely to grow from
realised (often too late) they needed Work report).
trauma. Conversely, being a die-
to review their risk registers and boost
Nature, nurture and culture hard pessimist – always expecting the
the resilience of their infrastructure
For clarity’s sake, let’s start with the worst to happen, viewing setbacks as
and systems. If forced to shut up shop
basics. You cannot hope to nurture permanent and taking them overly
tomorrow, could their businesses
resilient teams without a fundamental personally – is strongly associated
cope? Fast forward to the current
understanding of what resilience with hopelessness, depression and
day, and resilience is the hot topic
is and how it is built. Because I’m adverse physical health outcomes,
again. In the wake of the COVID-19
a social scientist, let’s stick to the including reduced immunity.
pandemic, businesses around the
globe are now wondering how best facts here, these are the aspects of
14 HUMAN RESOURCES WINTER 2021
But our genes are not our destiny. In aspects that can be nurtured at the Every people leader, team and
addition to the ‘nature’ element, we individual level. They don’t focus employee needs to have an agreed
can do a lot to boost our resilience enough on building resilience- rank order of work priorities. We
day in day out. The way we choose enhancing cultures that boost equity, train people to start each week with
to think and act has a significant diversity and inclusion, belonging two lists: on the right-hand side of
influence on how we feel and and psychological safety, all the the page, put down everything that’s
function moment by moment; the fact while ensuring systems prevent, on your plate and cluttering up your
it is possible to train people to think not promote, burnout. Burnout is, mind – get it out and don’t worry
and act more resiliently comes under after all, an individual response about the order; then, identify five
the ‘nurture’ umbrella. For example, to unsustainable pressures and to ten things that are your priorities
several studies show that people insufficient support and resources at and add them to the left-hand side
can be trained to spot their reflexive the systems and organisational level. of the page. When you look at the
pessimistic thinking patterns, question left-hand column, you should gain
So, what can you do to nurture
their accuracy and conjure alternative comfort from knowing that, if you
resilience in yourself and your teams?
or more realistic explanations. achieve those things by the end of the
What does research show is effective?
week, you’ll feel satisfied and know
My co-director at the Institute, Here we share lesser-known practical
you’ve prioritised important work. If
Dr Denise Quinlan (part of the team insights from psychological research
someone asks you to deviate, adding
that rolled out the Penn Resilience you can implement – immediately,
more to your plate, ask, “Which of
Program to schools internationally), at no extra cost – to build the type
these existing priorities do you want
has not only seen this done but of cultures that prevent burnout
me to delay or not do?”. In other
also readily acknowledges that and cultivate sustainable high
words you’re asking, “Where does
teaching others to dispute their performance.
this fit in the order of priorities?”.
overly pessimistic thinking styles
helped her to override her own Mental agility – teach the Another way to teach mental agility
natural pessimism. As people CAN method is by training teams to use the CAN
leaders, it is absolutely possible to Mental agility – being able to three-step approach to challenging
coach employees not to personalise think flexibly and accurately – is situations and adversity: What can
problems, to communicate better, foundational for resilience. Given you Control? What do you have to
nurture high-quality connections, and more work is continually being Accept? Now, what purposeful action
promote hope, confidence, trust and added to our plates (and everything can you take? (See https://nziwr.
other leadership skills. All of these feels urgent and important!), co.nz/hr-can/ for a step-by-
fall under the ‘nurture’ component training teams in the art of ruthless step guide.)
of resilience. prioritisation is a core mental
agility skill.
Too many resilience programmes,
however, focus exclusively on those
WINTER 2021 HUMAN RESOURCES 15
CONTROL ACCEPT NOW ACT Resilience. Paula was part of the
team that trained resilience skills to
more than 40,000 soldiers and their
Write a list of the things you Then write a list of the things Next, consider what families. Here are some of her TNTs
can Control – where you have you can (or have to!) Accept purposeful action can you
some leverage or wiggle room. – these are the things that are take? Write down what you (tiny noticeable things) that, when
This is where your focus fixed, that you have no can do Now. modelled consistently by leaders,
should be. Make this list as influence over, you can't foster resilient teams.
long as you can. change, and just have
to accept. • Saying thank you more (probably
much more) than you currently do
builds trust and is a profound way
of saying “I see you”.
Build your teams’ social capital phone or orchestrating ‘bumping’ • Offer in-time feedback to
One of the most effective ways to into them to catch up on lost peers and direct reports: make
build resilience is by nurturing broad, information and opportunities. it specific and actionable so
strong supportive relationships. The they can create winning streaks
Be a ‘good news’ amplifier
more connected we are, the more we (positive feedback) or make
can cope with tough times. Studies Research shows that how we respond
the necessary adjustments
show the COVID-19 crisis shrunk to other people’s good news predicts
(constructive feedback).
people’s social networks during the quality of our relationships and
fewer conflicts (see diagram on • Make assignments clear (“clear is
2020, meaning we are losing vital kind” says Brené Brown) and keep
social capital, those broad (often p17). Only when we respond actively
and constructively to shared good people informed of changes:
casual) connections we draw on to transparency drives a stronger
help us be more creative, resourceful news does a relationship flourish.
Work through the insert box, asking sense of trust and inclusion within
problem solvers. the team.
yourself, who at work would benefit
Build social capital by allocating from some active constructive • Ensure senior leaders minimise
five minutes to identify who are you conversation (ACC) practice? Who conflicting requests and ambiguity
missing bumping into at the water- in your team do you need to have (two known accelerants of
cooler, who did you used to catch an ACC with? burnout) so no one has to guess
up with after work who you wouldn’t about assignment priorities and
get the same support or information Tiny noticeable things that make
deadlines; adding a couple more
from via a virtual meeting? With work relationships better
sentences to an email can be a
the ANZAC bubble opened up, we When I was at the University of simple way to boost clarity.
encourage clients to rapidly rekindle Pennsylvania, I enjoyed working • Keep track of and share small
any neglected casual connections with Paula Davis, author of Beating wins and successes regularly;
– both internally and externally – by Burnout at Work: Why Teams checking items off of your to-do
making a hotlist, picking up the Hold the Secret to Well-Being and
16 HUMAN RESOURCES WINTER 2021
"I got a promotion"
ACTIVE PASSIVE
CONSTRUCTIVE
"That's brilliant! What's your new role?
When do you start? What did your boss "That's nice"
say about why you got it?"
Joy multiplier Conversation killer
Enthusiastic, eye contact, genuine Delayed response, low energy, quiet
DESTRUCTIVE
"Wow. How are you going to fit in all that "Nice one. Hey did I tell you Andy is
extra work? You already do so much." coming over for dinner tomorrow night!"
Joy thief Conversation hijacker
Quashing the event, dismissive, demeaning Avoids and ignores speaker, turns focus
on self
list motivates us and prevents and organisational level, through a
burnout by making us notice that ruthless lens assessing ‘is this helping
we are making progress. or harming’ can we claim to really
• Provide a rationale or explanation care about our human resources and
for projects, goals and big-picture their lasting resilience.
vision; providing context helps
teams get the bigger picture and
creates buy in. Nurturing resilient teams
• Prioritise ‘you matter’ cues like with Active Constructive
calling people by name, making Conversations
eye contact and giving colleagues How you commonly respond to good
your full attention; it might not news is more indicative of the future
Whether it’s writing academic
seem like such a big deal, but outcome of relationship outcomes articles, books, columns
your brain is constantly scanning than how we respond to bad news. or blogs, creating
conferences and online
your environment for signs Over the course of the next week, courses, delivering training,
of belonging. try to monitor which of these four or consulting for non-
governmental organisations
I’ve got nothing against EAP schemes response styles (see above) you and government agencies,
or resilience training – indeed, commonly fall into. Don’t beat Dr Lucy Hone has been on a long-term mission
resilience training is a big part of yourself up, but start to notice to bolster population health by busting myths
and bringing the best of science to the masses.
what we do at the Institute – but these which relationships and types of Trained by the thought leaders in wellbeing
two alone will not create a culture conversations prompt these four science at the University of Pennsylvania, and
of sustainable high performance. different responses in you. We all now an adjunct senior fellow at the University of
Canterbury and co-founder of the New Zealand
To do that, you have to look at how fall into these different quadrants Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience, Lucy’s
your workplace system is enabling or with different people, over different research is published internationally, and her
inhibiting wellbeing and resilience. content, and even at different times. PhD was acknowledged for its outstanding
contribution to wellbeing science.
Only when we examine all of our What might you change? See www.nziwr.co.nz
practices at the individual, team
WINTER 2021 HUMAN RESOURCES 17You can also read
