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Resilience matters. In fact, it’s become pretty much the No.1 topic in management and leadership circles. We’re all supposed to be made of Teflon. We’re supposed to be able to cope with the crap that the world (and the world of work) chucks at us. And if we can’t cope we’re supposed to pop off to the hot yoga studio to sweat it out. Or colour-in a complex series of geomantic shapes in super bright fluoro colours. Mindfulness has become the talk of the town and the chief chatter in the office.
However, I can’t help but think that all this is missing the mark when it comes to resilience.
Gradually, the increased interest in resilience as a construct in recent years has seemed to shift the focus away from poor behaviour and poor culture and onto the victim of the poor behaviour and poor culture.
The rise of resilience is all too frequently leading to something sinister and something that needs rejecting out of hand; victim blaming.
Instead of the focus being on the poor manager or on the terrible culture and on the toll that these things take on those who experience them, it’s now much more frequently on the way that the staff can learn to cope with these ‘things’. It’s as if the answer to working for a bully or working in a culture that is less than ideal is to pop off at lunchtime to do some Tai Chi in the local park. And breathe. You’ll feel better equipped to cope with your bullying boss in the afternoon.
It’s nonsense.
Via David Hain, Kevin Watson
