If you missed our webinar Resiliency Training for Non-Profit Teams on November 16, 2021, we’ve got your back—the recording is now live.
Non-profit organizations often have limited staff and need to work lean. Faced with scrutiny over administrative costs, staff need to do more with less. Budgetary pressures can pose significant challenges for employee retention, and those staff members who do remain often experience high levels of stress. According to a recent Qualtrics study, mental health issues have doubled in the last nine months in organizations.
With high rates of burnout and attrition at organizations, staff often find it hard to dig in and discover their own resiliency. Our founder, Leah Chang CEO and Lead Instructional Designer & Learning Strategist Leah Chang sat down with Debbie Pearmain, Senior HR Consultant and Coach, to host this 49-minute webinar on skill building for resiliency.
Here are the learning objectives we covered in the session:
- Define resiliency
- Identify signs of resiliency and signs of struggle
- Discuss the importance of cultivating resiliency
- Explore best ways to do this in your organization
- Ask questions & share success tips
What is resiliency? The modern definition for resiliency is “Advancing despite adversity.” It’s the capacity to bounce back from tough situations and to become even stronger as a result. When people are resilient, they are able to stay positive and focus on what they need to do. The dandelion is a great example of resiliency. Sure, most of us aren’t big fans of dandelions on our lawn, but you have to admit, they sure are tough. And they keep coming back!
What are signs of resiliency? What does resiliency look like, sound like and feel like? Many phrases nicely sum up the concept of resiliency:
- “I can handle it.”
- “I’m gonna keep on going.”
- “I don’t sweat the small stuff.”
- “Every mistake is a lesson learned.”
- “Bring it on! I’m ready for anything.”
Not only are resilient people persistent and gritty; they also tend to be optimistic. They tend to smile. They appreciate everything that happens, even if it’s challenging, and especially if they can learn from it. They enjoy problem solving. If they feel stuck, they find a way to climb out of their rut. They don’t let themselves be defined by setbacks. And at the end of the day, they feel gratitude.
Another key characteristic of resilient people is empathy. When you have resiliency, you have compassion for yourself and others. Resilient people recognize other people’s efforts and appreciate them.
On the flipside, people who lack resiliency may struggle at work and in their personal lives. You may have observed signs in your employees such as:
- Irritability, anger or reactivity
- Poor memory or decreased focus
- Loss of motivation or quality engagement in teams
- Apathy or even joylessness
- Changes to appetite or sleep (coming to work with dark circles under the eyes)
The 6 domains of resiliency
- Vision describes a person’s sense of self-efficacy and ability to achieve goals. This domain includes hopefulness and future planning.
- Composure is all about emotional regulation – the ability to hold it together under stressful circumstances by remaining self-aware.
- Tenacity is synonymous with grit and perseverance. It’s the ability to keep going even when things are hard.
- Reasoning is all about higher cognition, including solving problems, being resourceful and cultivating a growth mindset.
- Collaboration describes our ability to network. How coherent are our relationships? How secure do we feel with others? Do we have the sense that we can rely on social resources. The quality of our network is not just a predictor of how we function at work but also how we deal with serious personal crises.
- Health has three dimensions: nutrition, sleep and exercise. Nutrition has a documented connection to general wellbeing. Exercise stimulates memory and reasoning. And good sleep hygiene can protect us against degradations in cognitive function.
Looking at your team, which domains do you think are strongest? Which could use improvement?
Why this matters, and the role of VUCA
Our world is a VUCA world! In other words, it’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.
Change happens quickly and unpredictably. We need to be agile to stay aware of trends and issues, as well as complex cause-and-effect relationships and the confusion that results. And we have to get comfortable with ambiguity, whether it comes from misunderstandings, new information or fast-changing conditions.
Key skills for dealing with this VUCA world are:
- Emotional intelligence – our self-awareness and self-management, plus the ability to navigate social situations and relationships.
- Collaboration – how we work together to complete tasks or reach goals.
- Change management and change leadership – how we handle change and how we influence and inspire others to respond to growth, disruption or uncertainty.
- Positive intelligence – mastery over our own minds so we can reach our full potential and perform effectively in the face of challenge.
- And finally, resiliency is the #1 protective factor in weathering storms, becoming adaptable, persisting through difficulty and developing mental toughness.
How can non-profits support resiliency?It starts with skill development. Organizations can invest in their employees’ resiliency by providing them support systems and giving them the tools to thrive. They can cultivate a healthy workplace culture, embrace a vision/values statement, develop policies that enhance wellbeing, and recognize employees both when they’re doing well and when they’re struggling.
For some organizations, training may be the answer. Learning consultants look at analytics and to determine how an organization can build capacity over time.
Instructional designers use a framework called Bloom’s Taxonomy to measure organizational learning. At the lowest level of the taxonomy, learning tasks are simple (e.g., remembering.) Going up the taxonomy, learning gets more complex and demanding. Learners understand, then apply what they’ve learned; from there they analyze, evaluate, and create solutions of their own.
Where does resiliency fit in the taxonomy? It’s at the highest level: extremely complex. This means it takes time to build; it’s not a one-time event. Learning professionals can support organizations with a program to build resiliency for individuals and the organization as a whole.
Keys to learning resiliencyA provincial organization rolled out resiliency training to 350 employees. It set up consistent language, job aids, operational events, and leader/team meetings. The roll-out was successful, but something was missing – coaching.
Coaching (peer-to-peer, external, between leaders) can be a key element in an organization’s journey toward resiliency.
Additional tips for building resiliency
- Reframe how we think. Even though COVID forced us into the virtual space, we still have many of the characteristics that make teams great. There are opportunities to build resiliency regardless of whether we meet in person or virtually.
- Hold leadership development roundtables with practice coaching.
- Deploy employee engagement surveys (10- or 15-question “pulse checks” every month or two).
- Use learning and development for social connection. Challenge the notion that it can’t be done!
- Acknowledge the importance of creating a safe space to learn about technology. Give everyone time to talk and share. We can’t learn when we’re stressed.
Summary: Training for resiliency in non-profit teams
A key message for organizations is that it’s important to seek out experts who specialize in supporting non-profits. Leaders are often working flat-out, and it’s hard to do this off the side of a desk. Finding the right supports can make the difference between struggling to keep employees engaged and present – and having a resilient team.
Takeaways:
- Engage HR and L&D professionals to support you.
- Monitor for signs of resiliency and struggle.
- Talk about resiliency often with your teams.
- Identify where your organization needs support (domains of resiliency).
- Be specific and intentional to build resiliency on remote teams.
- Be patient: Resiliency takes time to build.
- Be broad: Resiliency needs to be adopted by the entire organization.
