There are winners and losers in every economy. Some people and companies collapse under the weight of changes and uncertainty while others seem to thrive. Same conditions, similar circumstances, but one group withers away while others not only survive the challenge but go on to do great things. What makes the difference?
What is Resilience?
Before we break down what resilient people and companies do differently, it might be helpful to define what we’re talking about. What does it mean to be resilient? According to Merriam-Webster, resilience means “able to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens.”
Seems simple enough. But being able to bounce back when bad things happen is largely related to the foundations laid prior to those bad things happening … and then building on the foundations as needed.
So what do healthy organizations do that help them survive the crises that take down their competitors?
Prepare: Build a Healthy Company Culture
Just as a healthy person is better able to fight off illness and injury, healthy organizations give themselves the upper hand in both good and bad times. In his excellent book “The Advantage”, organizational health guru, Patrick Lencioni, outlines four disciplines of healthy companies:
Build a cohesive leadership team—the people at the top understand why the company exists, what challenges are top priority, their roles and responsibilities, and how to work together to make things happen;
Create clarity—the leadership team is intellectually aligned and committed to the same fundamental values and actions. There can be disagreements at the top, but not dissension.
Over-communicate clarity—healthy organizations make sure everyone is on the same page, working together from top to bottom to accomplish their goals. People know why the company exists, how they’re changing the world, and how their particular role factors into that goal.
Reinforce clarity—“in order for an organization to remain healthy over time, its leaders must establish a few critical, non-bureaucratic systems to reinforce clarity in every process that involves people. Every policy, every program, every activity should be designed to remind employees what is really most important.”
Just being in business isn’t good enough to withstand real economic challenges. Companies that know what they’re about, why they exist, have leaders who are aligned and able to guide employees to the future, and help people link arms in the struggle give themselves incredible advantages in the marketplace.
Act with Discipline and Purpose
Discipline is key to resiliency at personal, brand, and organizational levels. Healthy organizations move with a sense of purpose in good times and bad. Because they establish their foundations early and understand why the exist, they can align their teams on disciplined pursuits of their goals.
In his book, “Great by Choice”, author Jim Collins details the 20-mile march concept used by explorer Roald Amundsen to successfully reach the South Pole. To summarize: “Enterprises that prevail in turbulence self-impose a rigorous performance mark to hit with great consistency—like hiking across the United States by marching at least 20 miles a day, every day. The march imposes order amidst disorder, discipline amidst chaos, and consistency amidst uncertainty.”
Does preparation build resiliency? In many ways, yes. Because it helps people not collapse when faced with uncertainty.
To quote Collins again, “Having a clear 20 Mile March focuses the mind; because everyone on the team knows the markers and their importance, they can stay on track. Financial markets are out of your control. Customers are out of your control. Earthquakes are out of your control. Global competition is out of your control. Technological change is out of your control. Most everything is ultimately out of your control. But when you 20 Mile March, you have a tangible point of focus that keeps you and your team moving forward, despite confusion, uncertainty, and even chaos.”
Collaborate or Die
There are many advantages to creating a collaborative work environment for organizations, from attracting better employees, and retaining your best people, to improving productivity and getting better ideas out of everyone involved. So why isn’t every company already committed to collaboration?
It starts with leaders—but it isn’t just leaders by title. I like the way Liz Wiseman’s talks about a better grade of leaders. In her book “Multipliers”, Wiseman defines multipliers as “genius-makers who bring out the intelligence in others. They build collective, viral intelligence in organizations.”
It’s important to make the distinction between leaders who are multipliers and people who are what Wiseman calls “diminishers”, or those who “are absorbed in their own intelligence, stifle others, and deplete the organization of crucial intelligence and capability.”
The multipliers in your organization help foster the kind of environment where people feel they are free to collaborate and share their best ideas because they feel valued, energized, challenged in positive ways, and therefore enthusiastically lean into helping the team and organization thrive.
How people feel is really important here. Organizations that post empty values about empowerment and authenticity, and then run people over when they express those values, are doomed to having an empty staff—people who come to work to get paid, not to give 110% of who they are.
Multipliers worry less about getting people in the right seats and accountability charts. They instill a sense of ownership, “provide the necessary resources for success, and hold people accountable for their commitments.”
By bringing out the best in everyone in the company, and leveraging a collaborative culture, organizations gain flexibility, agile work styles, become more adaptable and seem to have the ability to see around corners—not because their people are better or smarter than any other work force, but because every employee is fully engaged and fully utilized.
Worry About What You Can Control, Not About What You Can’t
Resilience is largely focused on companies controlling the right things and getting the right people and processes in place so they can capitalize on opportunities or shift away from issues faster. Success isn’t guaranteed, but resilient companies give themselves a better shot at success than their less prepared counterparts.
In their HBR article “A Guide to Building a More Resilient Business”, co-authors Martin Reeves and Kevin Whitaker identified four significant benefits of resilience at a corporate level:
Anticipation—the ability to recognize threats faster.
Impact—the ability to better resist or withstand the initial shock. This can be achieved through better preparation or a more-agile response.
Recovery speed—the ability to rebound from the shock more quickly by identifying the adjustments needed to return to the prior operating level and implementing them swiftly and effectively.
Outcomes benefit—increased fitness for the new post-shock environment.
In summary, resilient companies prepare for the days ahead and give themselves the advantage of a healthy culture, act with a sense of purpose and move at a steady pace, encourage collaboration in, around, and through their people and bring out the best in every individual, and take care of what they can control.
As a result, healthy companies are better prepared to enjoy the fruits—even in a down economy or turbulent environment—when their competitors struggle to survive.
Tell us your thoughts on what resilient companies are doing better and differently than others.