Individual resilience is a learned behaviour and is associated with inner strength, competence, optimism, flexibility, and the ability to be ‘bounceable’ throughout difficult times.

Business resilience is the ability to be prepared to absorb stress and uncertainty, recover critical functionality and rise above the chaos. Having systems in place to manage the constant change in now a mandatory feature and will assist you to build your business resilience.

Building business (and your) resilience requires attention to these eight attributes: 

1. Play: Ha! I don’t expect you were thinking of this! “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.” Heraclitus. Encourage having a little fun! Allow and facilitate opportunities for laughter and play. Even set out some toys; colouring books; pens; cards; jigsaw puzzles or brain teasers. If possible have a section with bean bag chairs and relaxing music, calming posters. Places where people can just shift gears for a while.
2. Collaboration: This means across silos – if you still have them – and across any previously perceived boundaries. Sharing resources, preventing the waste of time and efforts on unnecessarily duplicating information, or procedures. Working together and supporting each other is a real resilience builder.
3. Team formation: Who is needed in this team to complete the task? Do you know the potential business impact of each team member so they may be used to their greatest effectiveness? At The Change Maker Group, we have a profiling tool that shows the strengths of each person to custom-build a change-ready resilient team and business.
4. Space: Where, when and how you choose to work is a gift that many now appreciate more than ever before. Allowing that flexible / hybrid working space encourages far greater overall focus and productiveness. Mental space in another crucial aspect for individual and business resilience. Blocking even a 20 minute time space for thinking / creating / daydreaming / mindfulness and meditation will reap manifold dividends.
5. Communication: One of the greatest eradicators of business resilience is a lack of clear, transparent, constructive, and respectful communication. This is not a natural skill for all people. The Change Maker Group (TCMG) has another profile we use to dramatically improve understanding and communication. This tool also improves even those ‘difficult’ conversations. Engaging, understanding, influencing, and supporting fellow workers and stakeholders builds business (and your) resilience.
6. Malleability: Can your business ‘touch its toes’? When I ask people to try to perform this act, many find their toes are far away! However, that is because they think they have to bend at the waist. The ones who are malleable and flexible in thought, will bring the knee up, or squat down, or sit down, or… Check how adaptable your business is. You may achieve the same result by several methods.
7. Culture: Does your business have a culture that allows for mistakes and failure? If not, you have a greatly reduced business resilience. Building on good communications and malleability is to have a culture that understands ‘accidents will happen’. Quickly accepting them, learning from them, and adjusting swiftly are crucial. Because having accountability and responsibility rather than blame as a part of the culture is also imperative.
8. Change model: Simon Philips, the founder of The Change Maker Group, created an iterative model called D.E.L.T.A. for the management of the constant change process. This is an acronym for Diagnose; Engage; Lead; Transform and Accelerate. When all your employees know this process, they can positively contribute to the change occurring, your business and you will even thrive, not just survive!

So, how resilient are you and your business?

Therefore performing an assessment based on these eight attributes will quickly provide you with the awareness of whether you need to build your business, or personal, resilience. Why not conduct a brief survey of all your staff to see what they think?  Further, when you asked them, it will heighten their attentiveness as to what they could do for the business resilience, and also their own.

In conclusion, building your business’s resilience will allow you to:

– make the most of any unexpected changes
– be ready and empowered to not only survive but thrive
– decrease stress
– become sustainable and
– create a competitive advantage and
– therefore when all staff members know their contribution to the change process and have the mindset of being a Change Maker you can enjoy ‘change-proofing’ your business.

At The Change Maker Group, we have many professional change resilience experts, please call us to see how we might be able to assist you to build your business resilience.

Vanda North is a founder of The Change Maker Group and their in-house resilience leader. Please contact her at here.   

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