Resilience skills training - notes from the field
I have found myself of late providing learning and training events that are concerned with helping people with their resilience. Much of it is centred around the challenge of change at work.
“Resilience is the human capacity to deal with, overcome, learn from or even be transformed by adversity”. (Edith Grotberg)
Resilient people have some attributes which can be learned - they:
Can turn bad into success, learn from it and change
Can let go of old internal structures of thinking & behaving and create new ones
Are able to ‘bounce forwards’ (some use the term ‘bounce back’)
Have the attitude & skill set that enables them to cope efficiently
Can be tested and come through
Have a true view of reality and interpret set backs well (this is about being able to focus on what is in your control and options for taking action)
Understand and live with the fact no one has a fully controlled life
Providing resilience training - 10 things to think about
First of all, anyone who has identified this as a ‘learning need’ should remember that ‘training’ is part of the answer, and that attention to staff wellbeing at work, manager support, coaching, creating a motivating and engaging environment, inter alia, are all part of this too. Training is not a replacement for therapy and mental health / emotional support.
Personal resilience levels vary between individuals, so any classroom based training, which is invaluable for promoting peer support, needs to take this into account.
I deliver what I would term a ‘framework’, with clear session goals, into which learners bring their own personal experiences, and I make sure that other learning and onwards support is understood before a session ends. It is worth holding an upfront discussion with the client to make sure links to e-learning, online learning and in-house support are identified and are real.
Build on what is there. Everyone has some level of resilience. And as learning to be resilient is about thinking skills, helping them to consciously identify their strengths is a good starting point.
Help people understand that what they find difficult points to what they need to work on. I give space to help people think about what the challenge is for them.
Resilience comes from within. Everyone is different, but most of what is involved in being resilient is behavioural, so the skills to learn are the same, and the good news is they can be learned, of course.
I have found that identifying resilient role models as an exercise works very well as it is relatable and prompts thinking about attributes, skills and behaviours.
I would say ‘confidence’ is top of the list of what learners find to be a challenge when they need to be reslient (based on what they bring to sessions I deliver).
Learners want tools and ideas, so this needs consideration, as much of resilience ‘training’ is about how someone thinks about something and then doing things within their control. The advantage of this approach is that it keeps it firmly within the realms of ‘training/learning’ rather than therapy. And it doesn’t become ‘preachy’ about things such as reminding everyone to get enough sleep (very important but not the point). I use a variety of tools, thinking and ideas, and draw on Albert Ellis, Reivich & Shatte and Marty Seligman in particular. The Robertson Cooper i-resilience online self assessment tool is also good to point people to (but it’s in depth, so needs to be managed well).
Instill the practice of asking for support. An important part of being resilient is social support, so at work, people need to be able to discuss challenges and talk them through, whether it be at team meetings, in manager 1-2-1s or with a colleague over a cup of tea.
Lessons learned
Providing training in resilience skills means the trainer needs to be a good role model
Helping clients think about why they want resilience training and whether ‘training’ is the right approach is important
Work based resilience has to be wedded to reality and training must be relatable
Online and work place learning helps, but this is an example of where facilitating some peer practice through classroom based learning is invaluable
Here’s a sample programme. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss resilience skills training. .