There is renewed emphasis on resilience this last year, which PwC defines as “an organization’s capacity to anticipate and react to change, not only to survive, but also to evolve.”
The byword in this definition is change, and much of the focus has been on how to build a culture of agility.
As literal Groundhog Day passed this last week in a time when every day is metaphorical Groundhog Day, it struck me that an overlooked part of resilience is simply the momentum to keep going.
“Resilience is about how you recharge, not how you endure.”
This observation is from an HBR article by Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan a few years ago that explores resilience at a personal level. They go on to write:
“We often take a militaristic, “tough” approach to resilience and grit. We imagine a Marine slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate….
“The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient. Research has found that there is a direct correlation between lack of recovery and increased incidence of health and safety problems. And lack of recovery … is costing our companies $62 billion a year in lost productivity….
“If you really want to build resilience, you can start by strategically stopping.”
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
