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Resilience: This issue of Wisdom Words is focused on resilience. What exactly do we mean by that?
Resilience can be considered as the ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; or strength in the midst of change; or the capacity to proactively maintain balance and poise. At Wisdom Works, we define resilience as the capability to operate and lead from your strengths and values no matter what the situation. This is a particularly important topic right now. Consider:
- Economic struggles continue to be a major stress factor all over the world. People and organizations are finding that they must make significant changes and discover new ways of navigating their needs. This requires creativity and risk taking.
- While job loss has slowed dramatically, there are still millions of people without work. This lack of reliable income and meaningful contribution can erode even the most confident among us.
- War and natural disasters continue to disrupt our world. That backdrop can provoke a mood of fear and uncertainty that makes it difficult to live up to our values and our visions.
While these dynamics impact all of us, one segment of our population is literally in the line of fire: our military. We have been delighted to learn that the Army is taking clear steps to enhance soldiers' resilience. We believe the takeaway of these stories is relevant to anyone facing crisis and seeking to understand and engage their own resilience.
On a personal note, Wisdom Works has a special interest in the pressures facing members of the military and their families. With one of our offices in Colorado Springs — home to the US Air Force Academy, Fort Carson Army Base, and Peterson Air Force Base — we see military families every day working to face their personal challenges with courage. Our own executive assistant, Melissa Williams, is one of those military wives. Her husband Matt is currently serving in Afghanistan.
In our client work, we repeatedly find that resilience is an important key to enhancing vitality and creating high performance. We invite you to read on while considering the resilience of yourself, of the other leaders and executive teams around you, and of your organizations.
Table of Contents
In the Trenches: Army Takes New Holistic Approach to Resilience Training
 The Army's chief of staff addresses master resilience trainers, part of the new CSF program. Photo credit: D. Myles Cullen
In discussions of resilience and performance, it's hard to imagine many tougher proving grounds than service in today's U.S. Army. Far from being blind to the pressures of its field, the modern Army is actually quite forthright about its challenges. A few recent headlines:
With intense scrutiny swirling around suicide numbers, cases of PTSD, and November's tragic shooting in Texas, the Army is redoubling efforts to support the mental and emotional needs of its people. A new program which began in October will serve as a testing ground for a form of "resiliency training" which could benefit not only the military, but virtually any organization's leadership.
In March, the Army's vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, said: "The Army's charter is more about holistically improving the physical, mental and spiritual health of our soldiers and their families than solely focusing on suicide prevention. If we do the first, we are convinced that the second will happen."
The new program, dubbed Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF), takes a five-prong approach, focusing not only on physical strength, but also emotional, social, family, and spiritual resilience. The program's tenets carry the stuff of Wisdom Works' own approach to leadership vitality. CSF, for instance, defines emotional strength as: "Approaching life's challenges in a positive, optimistic way by demonstrating self control, stamina and good character with your choices and actions."
Wisdom Works' definition of emotional fitness:
The degree to which you engage in behaviors to accept, express and utilize "positive" and "negative" emotions effectively within your life, your work and in relationships with others.
In an Army more traditionally known as hard-nosed and intolerant of emotions or "weakness," this is not expected to be embraced instantly. Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum explained in her September 2009 interview with NPR: "We don't seem to have any problem discussing people's weight or people's ability to run or people's ability to do push-ups, but we — everybody just kind of gets uncomfortable right now talking about psychology."
For that reason, the Army has chosen soldier-to-soldier contact, starting as early as basic training, in addition to 100 percent anonymous self-evaluations which will allow soldiers to begin a dialogue about their emotional state without stigma or fear of backlash. These 30-minute online surveys resemble Wisdom Works' eScape™ assessments: "No one will see your answers," explains Chaplain (Colonel) Kenneth Stice, who is familiar with the tool. "Your answers will focus on weaker areas of mental well-being, and point you in the right direction for help. It's all up to the soldier whether he or she takes those crucial steps to seeking the help they may need at that time."
Wisdom Works' own framework for resilience and well-being, employed for almost 11 years, similarly offers an online self-assessment (eScape™) that can be completed in 10-15 minutes. Individual responses as well as aggregated group results provide both an initial assessment as well as a mechanism for tracking progress.
 Soldiers review the curriculum, featuring resilience skills, November, 2009. Photo credit: D. Myles Cullen
The CSF program originated in the Army's sobering realization that it was overly focusing on problems as opposed to addressing the causes. The Army's chief of staff, Gen. George Casey said: "When we looked at the front end, we were very light on the preventive tools ... We didn't have ways of building resilience and enhancing performance." Note that the General connects resilience and performance and indeed that is a critical function of the new program.
"Soldiers learn that there's a normal distribution of emotional response to combat and adversity, anxiety and depression being a normal part of it, and that most people experience those things," reports The University of Pennsylvania's Dr. Martin Seligman who developed the program. "The great majority of [soldiers] show resilience, and quite a number show post-traumatic growth, as well," continues Dr. Seligman. "So this is an attempt to de-stigmatize depressive and anxiety reactions to high adversity." If the program achieves the Army's goals, you better believe it will be adapted for civilians facing high adversity in their own lives and work.
Spotlight: Magis Group's Stephen L. Robinson
We connected with Stephen Robinson through the three-degrees-of-separation principle that is so prevalent in our industry. Both Renee Moorefield and Nina Peterson are graduates of Newfield Network, a coaching training program that includes a focus on language, body, and emotion. We asked one of our Newfield colleagues, Chris Balsley — who specializes in somatic integration — about his work with the Army on resilience. Chris pointed us to Stephen, with whom he works to deliver this critical support.
Magis Group LLC focuses on resilience at the heart of its training programs. With a foundation in health care and corporate settings, Magis has expanded its focus to military, law enforcement, and first responders — all high-stress environments that demand resilience. We spoke with co-founder, co-owner, and CEO Stephen L. Robinson.
Wisdom Works: What are the keys to your optimization approach?
Stephen Robinson: The Magis Group approach to "Optimization" is built around first generating awareness then building and applying skills. We focus on a body-based awareness that is digestible and practical.
 Principles of neuroscience form part of Magis Group's resilience training. Photo courtesy Magis Group
SR: We use a model of training that is designed to address the lower and upper brain centers by tying in breathing, attention control, and energy management skills. Most of us automatically use certain skill sets all the time, whether we are consciously aware of them or not. Our programs teach how each of us can develop a systematic way to perform and recover effectively by using the skills of elite athletes as well as the awareness of an experienced self-mastery practitioner.
WW: What is the link between resilience and performance?
SR: High performers bend with challenge but don't break. Most elite athletes have faced injuries and run into developmental pitfalls that have tested their resilience. A certain amount of resilience we're born with, some is gained over time and experience as we grow, and a third version is learned — consciously. That's the piece we teach.
WW: Building resilience is often a personal endeavor: We've all faced difficulties that require painful growth. Can you share any personal connections to this process?
SR: Everyone on our team has faced the painful growth you mention. If self-mastery were easy, we'd all already be there. I have been tested primarily in the growth of the company, having opportunities seemingly arise then fall away, navigating the ebbs and flows of finances and individuals moving in and out of the company, and more. On the more personal front, I have had relatives who served in the military who struggled with their post-war experiences and watched as they were impacted over time by their service. Lacking tools to deal with their experiences led them to behaviors that they might not have chosen otherwise. Moreover, having experienced, on a small scale, some of life's traumas, I have had a first hand opportunity to both apply our training model as well as help others on our team apply it to their own lives. The gratifying piece for me is that it creates results — people change positively and are transformed.
WW: This is a pretty intense and stressful time for many people across the country and worldwide. Do you sense that the military may actually be leading the way with programs that could benefit a much wider audience?
SR: Absolutely — the military's operations tempo over the last eight years has required that the Department of Defense look intensely at the nature of resilience: how do we adapt and change through stress and trauma? And what programs can enhance the innate human capacity for resilience? We have been hard at work for a number of years shaping our programs first for the military and now for law enforcement and first responders.
WW: Thank you and keep up the good work.
SR: Thank you.
Wisdom Works' Resilience Approach for Today's Leaders
Between the hectic pace of business, the dramatic changes in the world, and the crises we read about daily, leaders often feel depleted and on the brink of breakdown. Becoming more resilient is essential when we're in the trenches facing change and challenge. Resilience has many facets, some of which may be in our strong suit and others which may need our attention.
The elements of resilience include:
- Elasticity: flexibility, spring, recuperation
- Bounce: animation, energy, liveliness, vitality, well-being
- Stamina: backbone, endurance (physical, emotional, and mental)
- Capacity: building rather than depleting energy reserves; limits
- Flow: mind, body, and emotions in sync
- Challenge: learning, new wisdom, the emergence of health and healing from breakdowns
Sure, that all sounds pretty desirable, but how do we develop these with a sense of ease? One tool we've used extensively at Wisdom Works is our Executive Lifestyle Analysis (ELA). In ELA interviews, we explore the 18 dimensions of health and well-being from our online eScape™ tool. Each dimension focuses individually on one aspect of life. "Nutrition" and "creative growth," for instance, are dimensions that influence our resilience in different ways.
Understanding these dimensions and how you are currently using them gives you the ability to proactively access them as sources of energy. This becomes a powerful tool for enriching and sustaining your resilience. As we have worked with clients, it is clear that there is no "one size fits all" approach. We have seen, for instance:
- A group of over 500 women leaders at a Fortune 100 company reported the high value they placed on sleep to stay engaged, but that wasn't a behavior they consistently demonstrated.
- A professional organization reported optimism as a key to their work effectiveness.
- One group of executives reported that nutrition, exercise, and play were areas that were rarely used consciously as resources.
Each individual has his or her own personality and way of being. Different activities and values feed us. But we're not entirely on our own to find and engage sources of resilience. Our organizations' cultures can emphasize specific strategies and resources that rejuvenate our capacity to live and lead with our best selves.
While this work is powerful for everyone, we have frequently worked with leaders one-on-one to unlock hidden resilience boosters so that they can achieve their goals with more ease and energy. Today, organizations are increasingly concerned with the health of their executives and the well-being of whole leadership teams. For example, developing resilience is one of the key goals of our work with Centura Health's South State executives. The purpose of this project is to positively impact the effectiveness of this particular executive team. The program also targets executives and teams within the larger healthcare system, providing best practices for enhancing their resilience, wellness, and sustained high performance.
We are available to assess your resilience and its connection with high performance. Our coaching, consulting, and online applications can surface likely sources of energy for individuals, teams, or whole employee populations. Contact us and we'll work with you to answer these questions:
- What dimensions are you already using well to support your overall resilience?
- What dimensions could use some attention? Are they depleting your overall resilience?
- What dimensions are screaming for your attention, right now?!
- What can your answers tell you about building and sustaining your personal resilience?
- What can you do, with ease, to tap into new sources of personal resilience?
Think of it like a sound mixing board that audio engineers use in recording studios: Once you know what's depleting your resilience, you can choose to dial down everything that's draining you while dialing up the dimensions that provide new 'juice.' Just exploring the options can enliven you.
Recalling your available resources and the choices that you can make in every moment is the most direct path to increasing your elasticity, bounce, and flow. At the start of this new decade, make your resilience a priority and reap the benefits of sustained energy and renewed performance. If you don't do it for yourself, who will?
News & Announcements
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Engineers Without Borders — Nina Peterson will be conducting a workshop at the EWB-USA conference in March. The topic, Leading between the Lines, will address what it takes — in leadership presence, communications, and daily behaviors — to operate as a successful, progressive leader. Nina will also be moderating the corporate panel on Embracing Change and Leveraging the Power of New Generations. Visit the EWB-USA conference website. |
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University of Colorado at Boulder — Nina will be a guest speaker for the Leeds School of Business class, Topics in Sustainable Business, on April 1. She will present on Sustainable Business Leadership. |
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Journal of Global Responsibility — Throughout 2010 Renee Moorefield will be working to promote sustainability and responsible performance at the global level, having recently joined the review board for the Journal of Global Responsibility. Learn more about the JGR. |
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2010 Wisdom Scholar Announced — Our latest scholarship winner is Alexis Hyder, an MBA candidate at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. Prior to her current MBA program, Alexis spent several years creating social media campaigns at MTV and mtvU on issues ranging from civic engagement to the crisis in Darfur. She has completed the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs, which trains college graduates in ethical and effective leadership. In 2008 she volunteered in Liberia with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, helping to address health infrastructure needs. Learn more about Alexis and the Wisdom Scholars program on our website. |
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Coaching Conference Recap — During the annual ICF gathering in December, Jane Cocking and The Coca-Cola Company's Jeremy Brown co-presented on the topic of What Do Leaders Really, Really Want from Their Coaches? The session highlighted Jeremy's evolving partnership with his coach, Jane. Using survey data (detailing what other leaders expect from their coaches) and first-hand experience, the presentation explored the sacred cows of the coaching profession. Jane reports on additional perks of the conference:
"Other highlights were the myriad of people I was able to reconnect with and new friendships I was able to begin. It is wonderful to come together with a community of coaches from all over the world and to receive an injection of their energy and the impact the profession collectively has. The opening keynote session led by Peter Block was an absolute joy, experiencing this master at work as he created a community within an audience of 1,300. His ability to use humor, his own humility, and experience as a springboard to connect the group through conversations left me and the audience largely spellbound."
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GiveGuide — In the spirit of thinking globally and acting locally, Wisdom Works has been supporting the efforts of Colorado Springs' Give Guide to promote charitable giving within the local community. The November 2009 initiative raised over $198,000 for 29 worthy nonprofits.
 Wisdom Works' David Moorefield (left) with local philanthropist Wayne Mashburn at the Give! Awards Ceremony in January. Photo Credit: Cayton Photography |
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Leader-to-Leader Blog — If you haven't been following Renee's bi-weekly blog, you've missed entries on big hairy audacious goals, decision-making in the face of onrushing dilemmas, the importance of belonging for leaders, and the debut of guest writer Jane Cocking. Visit now to catch up on back entries, subscribe, or share your comments.. |
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Wisdom Words is the quarterly newsletter of Wisdom Works Group, Inc.
Editor: Greg I. Hamilton. Contributing writers: Nina Peterson and Jane Cocking.
Tree photo by Markles55, bark photo by schizoform
© 2010 Wisdom Works Group, Inc.
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