Resilience in action

Resilience has become a popular word this year as it represents one thing that people can lean on to get through this clear and present crisis.

But it’s a word that might make you feel like you need to take on more than you have already - when you might feel less and less like doing anything at all.

It’s funny because by definition it refers to our ability to both “cope with adversity” and “protect ourselves from it”...which is why it’s such a sticky word. From that perspective, we should really think about how we do both of these things.

So, despite the challenges we’re facing, I’d guess that we’re all still doing stuff. Still getting up and finding something that needs doing - and doing it. And what I’m talking about is framing up those actions in the form of a roadmap to resilience that builds over time.

A plan that puts Cause and Effect in a perspective that has them pumping in unison.

Do you know how the heart works? Basically it receives oxygen-poor blood from veins into the right ventricle - and it pumps oxygen-rich blood into arteries from the left ventricle. But what happens in between? The heart also circulates oxygen-poor blood through the lungs to oxygenate it before pushing back into the body…  

In a similar way, we act because inbound information informs the energy we need to output - but that outbound information must be enriched by the oxygen of purpose and purity of meaning and intentional outcomes…in order to keep us “alive”

That’s how I think about resilience - a way to oxygenate my actions so that they are focused on long term results and some sort of health benefit...for me, my family, my business partners and associates, my clients and any others indirectly affected by the things I do...

Purpose, focus and diligence - not intrinsically heroic words. But anybody who has tried to get fit - lose weight - learn a skill - run a marathon - get elected (ha ha) - knows that their success will be achieved incrementally - that every little decision and action over time adds up...

And, they draw from their experience and the experiences of others - unavoidably fraught by failures, disappointments, injuries, losses (or gains, in the case of weight loss)... Resilience is a mental callus - not to totally dull sensation, but to endure the pain of repeated effort… To minimize the risk of injury, while improving chances of greater success.

This year has required a lot from us all. And, a lot more from some. And, for others it’s even meant paying the ultimate price… From all of this sacrifice we can learn and draw strength.

As you and I, Thiago, shared our experiences from this year we landed on this topic for a few reasons...Eileen McDargh’s podcast on your Business Access feed stood out as really insightful. She spoke about the perpetual energy required for Resilience - and how it’s all about moving forward and adapting to change… This resonates with me.

Then we talked about your “rake in the car” story...I don't know if you’ve already shared this story on your podcast, but you should... It concluded that failure doesn’t have to be a foregone conclusion…

What’s really cool and motivating about all of this is that much of the value of Resilience lies in the storytelling - which proves it’s a universal theme -  it’s relatable and accessible… This is super important. In some ways, Resilience is contagious. Take that, CoronaVirus!

In fact, the New York Times has dedicated a series to Resilience…with subsets in Health, Wellness...and even Horse Racing - incredible storytelling - and ingredients for Resilience themselves...  

Feel like you’re going out of your mind? Consider your mindset

Fixed mindsets don’t believe their abilities, intelligence and personalities can morph and change; they see mistakes and setbacks as incompetence -- and they tend to give up...

Growth mindsets understand that intelligence and capabilities are malleable; they see base-hits are part of baseball, not just home runs...they see strike-outs as ways to help the next batter gauge the pitcher… They see success as incremental attempts at moving forward, not binary win/loss moments to be judged with finality…

Is resilience overrated?

Meaning, is it enough?

Is it too much of an additional burden?

Is it fair to ask of us?

And more very human, very relatable anecdotes worth reading…

The point is, this word is salient right now - but we have to agree that it must be put into action to mean anything. And, those actions must be part of a Ritual of Resilience for each of us…

For me I had to think hard about how to respond to the toll Covid-19 has inflicted on my industry - live events… Pretty much overnight the whole industry vanished in a fog like Brigadoon. It’s been devastating for many people - agencies, vendors, suppliers, and experts of all sorts… It’s been hard on our clients too.

And clearly it’s been hard on everybody. No question...

But it’s also been a source of great invention, like this podcast. And, for me, it’s been a source of jet fuel for my business - enabling it to ascend to a new level and see the world much differently. We’ve increased our vernacular, expanded our expertise, and brought an arsenal of new skills to market...and while business is still challenging (really challenging), we feel very optimistic - and that enables us to achieve new milestones every day…

As I thought about what we’ve done and decisions we’ve made this year that have enabled us to realize true progress… I landed on 5 essential inflection points in our process that made a huge difference. And I thought they might be worth sharing on this podcast…

Since we don’t have visuals, think of a 5-pointed star where each point is an angle supported by 2 sides... maybe that helps following along. And we’ll start at the top...

RESILIENCE: Begin by seeing resilience as a process of equilibrium. We have to intend to achieve Resilience, not assume that bouncing back from adversity will just result in resilience. From this starting point recognize a balance between Ingenuity and Preparedness

Preparation: There’s a great McKinsey series on Building a Resilient Organization... It’s all about preparation. Preparing for resilience by investing in agility, speed and flexibility - and understanding that adversity can’t be avoided, only anticipated...

Ingenuity: Set goals for ingenuity - meaning newness of approach and fresh perspectives on potential… And recognizing that ingenuity needs space to breathe - it needs a place to grow and become something discernable and valuable… Preparation buys you that time...

Balancing Preparation with Ingenuity is the necessary overarching condition.

RESET: Reset your business plan and its related actions. This means striking a balance between what most people have said or heard in the form of “pivoting” -- and the concept of “unrealized potential”

Pivoting: As annoying as it sounds, came from this notion of doing what you do, but in a different direction. At face value it actually understates what’s really important and misleads around what’s really happening… But the important part is that a pivot literally changes scenery, alters perspective and forces minds to open to new options.

Unrealized potential: The balancing part of this duo is employing necessary introspection to identify untapped skills, dormant or sidelined assets, unrealized expertise, raw abilities and potential applications.

Seeing your Pivot as the key to unlocking otherwise latent potential (i.e., potential revenue opportunity)

EXPERIMENTATION: The action that follows point 2 is Experimentation - the cause that begets effect...this is subjecting latent potential or unrealized potential to real world conditions… The balancing factors for Experimentation are (1) recognizing that a “new normal” is a fiction...a security blanket of belief that never covers your entire body; and (2) that risk and reward share an inextricably codependent relationship…

No New Normal: Don’t get sucked into the notion of “new normal” because you cannot allow yourself to cozy up to regularity - good or bad. This extremely stressful COVID condition has forced us to feel discomfort - and it’s the gnaw of discomfort that we have to draw inspiration from…

Risk & Reward: This condition pushes us into an exploratory mentality that’s more creative and more excitable than our more comfortable self - inviting experimentation into our workflow - and opening ourselves to the joys of new discovery. Risking failure (at all levels) is paramount to reaping the benefits of success… So it’s important to determine what you’re 100% willing to risk (i.e., possibly lose) in order to gain something otherwise unattainable...

Without oversimplifying too much, we can’t truly be good students of our crafts without staying uncomfortable - and inviting risk into our lives…

MENTALITY: Adopt a Mentality that can survive your new Resilience - this is what professional sports coaches teach the greatest amateur talents...making success a practice, not a result. You cannot truly be Resilient if you see it only as an end state and not infuse it into the essence of who you are…

EQ: The two-parter here starts with EQ - which sounds super pretentious. But since there’s a ton of great info out there from reputable medical and psychological sources, I’ll just say that this means digging our heels into the soil of our humanity...the primordial grit we have as evolved animals whose instincts are somewhat atrophic, but not gone. Patience, focus and desire for fulfillment…

Break-even mindset: The second part of this mentality is a break-even mindset...which doesn’t sound pretentious, but may sound somewhat lame. What it means is that in our world of quarterly profit making and double-digit annual growth...we recognize that if we can just break even - make and spend in value-oriented flatness, we’ve not lost. We’ve maintained. We’ve survived. As Elizabeth Warren epitomized...we’ve persisted.

PROOF: Finally, we must convince ourselves that we are in fact achieving resilience - otherwise we never get there. We have to Leverage Proof...for ourselves and for those who we depend upon for support and encouragement. And Leveraging proof has its own duality of decision making… Proof is an outcome. And an outcome can be analyzed and SHOULD be used as a gauge of progress to determine readiness.

Stay the course - we’ve demonstrated resilience, we’ve effectively reset our practice, achieved our new goals and have begun to see the fruits of our labor - however small, subtle or dubious… Keep going!

Alter the course - as evidence of decline, adverse or harmful outcomes, or even just concerning irregularities...make changes to the approach, to the team, to the organizational structure...or otherwise… Go back to point #2...

Is it too convenient then to come back to Point 1 - and as proof points accumulate, the very definition of Resilience - preparatory practices - and proportions of ingenuity can be scrutinized with greater clarity and focus…

I’ve charted these 5 points out for myself. If they seem glib, then perhaps the meaning isn’t clear - maybe oversimplified for this conversation. But these 5 points have emerged from our efforts R Original Syndicate over months of hard work... And now they have become part of our machinery, if that makes sense… Hopefully a positive part of your machinery, too...

I see evidence that the world has permanently changed this year...and we have only just begun to glimpse at the massive challenges we will be facing for decades to come.

So, is Resilience a convenient word at the moment. Yes, likely. But like all other words, it’s meaningless until it isn’t. And that’s up to each one of us to find meaning or not… And I hope it does. And I hope your listeners are already there - and are seeing the silver lining in this dismal cloud in their own ways.

As we continue to stare into the inevitably of adversity, we should have a smile on our faces because we have a plan. A tough, thoughtful, flexible plan that’s at the ready.