Great workplaces navigate change through resiliency | Great Workplaces

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In mid-July 2018, I received a call about a young member of our team who had fallen gravely ill. She would pass away about a month later. Earlier that same year, the husband of one of our long-time agency leaders, a man considered part of our extended agency family, was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Additionally, we were grappling with the loss of a longstanding client, which had an impact on our business. To say that time was a pressure cooker for our leadership team would be an understatement.

When the pandemic struck less than two years later, our team found ourselves in a similar situation. We were tasked with building structures to keep our employees safe, forming policies to comply with rapidly shifting government guidelines and making unprecedented decisions about our work environment.

Meanwhile, our business was in flux as our clients navigated the pandemic’s impact on their own organizations. Drawing on our experiences from 2018 provided a roadmap for how to endure the challenges of 2020.

In 2021, the Great Resignation emerged, presenting yet another challenge. Our workforce experienced a 27% attrition rate, a stark contrast to the 7% annual rate we were accustomed to, which was well below the industry average. Once again, we relied on the resilience we had cultivated during the pandemic to adapt and rebuild our team.

In 2018, we were ill-prepared for the emotional toll we would face. By 2020, we were better prepared emotionally but still lacked robust systems and structures. And by 2021, we had improved those systems and structures, allowing us to adapt even more rapidly to environmental shifts.

As Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” When change is upon us, whether unexpected or planned, we must rely on past experiences to navigate it effectively and fuel our progress. The potential consequence of not doing so is stagnation and, ultimately, losing ground to competition. We evolve, gain new levels of understanding and exercise perseverance. This resilience doesn’t develop naturally; it solidifies and compounds through experience, relationships and the networks we build.

The rapid onset of technology, particularly AI, adds another layer of change for organizations. Adapting to new communication technologies, transitioning from manual to automated processes and learning new ways to manage workflow all require skills that may not come easily to those resistant to change. The sheer volume and speed of these changes can exhaust even the most adaptable individuals.

In a May 2023 article in Harvard Business Review, Cian O Morain and Peter Aykens wrote:

“In 2022, the average employee experienced 10 planned enterprise changes — such as a restructure to achieve efficiencies, a culture transformation to unlock new ways of working, or the replacement of a legacy tech system — up from two in 2016. While more change is coming, the workforce has hit a wall: A Gartner survey revealed that employees’ willingness to support enterprise change collapsed to just 43% in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016 … Relentless sprinting means many employees are running on fumes. To create more sustainable change efforts, leaders must prioritize change initiatives, showing employees where to invest their energies. They also must manage change fatigue by building in periods of proactive rest, involving employees in change plans, and challenging managers to help build team resilience.”

Resilience is the antidote to change. It is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional and behavioral flexibility in response to external and internal demands.

When we help our teams train and flex this muscle, we pave the way for organizational transformation and growth. While everyone has the innate ability to build resilience, learning how to establish and harness it takes experience, practice and significant emotional intelligence. It’s about tapping into inner strength that allows teams to move from exhaustion, stagnation and fear to welcoming challenges with grace, perseverance and strength.

In 2020, London-based business consultancy Aon conducted a study showing that resilience at work increases employees’ enthusiasm by 45%, energy by 39% and concentration by 27%. This suggests that there is true business value in supporting our teams in building resilience.

According to the American Psychological Association, psychological research demonstrates that the resources and skills associated with resilience can be cultivated and practiced.

A popular model introduced by Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg in the early 2000s and published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2006, is the 7Cs model. The 7Cs of resilience were adapted from the Positive Youth Development movement, initially described by Rick Little and colleagues at the International Youth Foundation. They first identified the 4Cs: confidence, competence, connection and character. Ginsburg later expanded the model to include coping and control.

This model has been widely applied in educational and psychological contexts to help build resilience in children, teens and adults. It can also be adopted in the workplace as a framework for supporting and maintaining resilient teams.

Here’s how to foster each in the workplace:

Competence: Building or strengthening problem-solving abilities and providing technical skill training to help employees face challenges. Offering frameworks and access to upskilling opportunities supports your team in this endeavor.

Confidence: Building confidence involves providing feedback mechanisms within your workflow. Performance management processes and clear, constructive feedback foster self-assurance and the ability to face difficulties.

Connection: Navigating challenge and change often requires collaboration. It’s rare for a transformation or an unexpected shift in business to be solved by a single person. Strong relationships and workplace networks are crucial. Providing time, space and mechanisms to support team relationships is one of the best investments you can make.

Character: Building character in the workplace can be challenging. We often think of character-building as something that happens before entering the workforce. However, a person’s values are crucial, and that includes their character. When great workplaces hire, core values alignment is a top criterion. Hiring for character and values alignment assures organizational resilience during times of change.

Contribution: When people contribute, they feel a sense of fulfillment and purpose. But contribution must also be acknowledged to have its desired impact on employee well-being. Offering opportunities for employees to contribute ideas during times of change and publicly acknowledging those contributions supports resilience.

Coping: One of the most important things an employer can do is support their employees’ mental well-being. Providing resources for stress relief — such as EAP programs or virtual sessions, monitoring PTO use to ensure employees are stepping away from work and spotting and avoiding burnout — are all ways to support mental health.

Control: A 2022 Gartner survey found that 75% of organizations adopt a top-down approach to change. Powering over a team and dictating the plan rather than involving employees in shaping it leads to resentment, misunderstanding and low success rates. Allowing team members to participate in decision-making, providing autonomy and offering ownership opportunities helps build a sense of control and supports resilience during challenging times.

According to McLean & Company’s HR Trends Report 2024, supporting change is among the top five HR priorities. With the rapid acceleration of change driven by AI, the need to innovate and stay ahead of the competition places significant pressure on organizations and their teams. Gone are the days when change directives were set at the top and mandated across the organization. Similarly, gone are the days when employees were left to fend for themselves in times of crisis. Today’s workforce requires empathy, support and compassion from leaders to maintain business continuity and generate alignment through challenging times.

Lauren Dixon is board chair of Dixon Schwabl + Co., a marketing communications firm, which has been honored as a Best Place to Work.