Enhancing Resilience in the Workplace

Enhancing Resilience in the Workplace through caring relationships 

“Resilience "lies at the heart of human evolution" (Flach, 1988, p. xi); it plays a critical role in the change process, for it helps us successfully adapt to situations in spite of adversity.”

Resilience can be enhanced and nurtured within a workplace with the help of caring relationships. It first describes that resilience plays a role in any change process- change is needed in times of adversity and pulling through. It is important in any work place, as the change process that comes along with it is “more likely to occur in healthy ways for individuals who are resilient to change.”

“The one thing that has not changed is how individuals psychologically respond to change.” Through any challenge, or change, what is even more challenging is the transition phase. Another way to express this transition is deep change which means “surrendering control" as well as “letting go of old beliefs, assumptions, and behaviors…”.
Transitions require an emotional process of letting go of the old and welcoming in the new.The idea of being mindful of the present seems to be a good aspect to consider. During the transformation phase, the first important approach is becoming more aware of the source of our ‘dissonance’ or sense that something needs to change for the better. Trying to understand the source of the stress helps in the development of examining one’s beliefs, emotions and behaviors to determine what we no longer need. Therefore, as Flach (1988) believes, this structure developed from beliefs, assumptions and values provide a sense ‘of comfort, predictability and coherence” The second challenge is dissolving this homeostatic structure for a while to be able to let go what is no longer needed or  ‘serving our interests. This leads on to a third challenge- living in a state of chaos which “bears new possibilities.” The fourth challenge is being able to deal with the new homeostatic structure, which has developed, and matured, once again gaining a sense of predictability and coherence. What is important for new directions (i.e once overcoming an obstacle) is to ‘live them out.’

Keeping in mind that relationships encourage individual freedom, “it allows us to share our feelings and frustrations, which helps us to process our thinking and to gain from the wisdom of our friends as to how we might move forward in our lives.”

A supportive environment also needs to include open communication amongst each other. This allows the individual the freedom to share out their ‘ideas, hopes, dreams and disagreements.’ When there is certain conflict or disagreement (for e.g. competition between friends, getting roles, hard rehearsals and choreography, injuries ) there is more tolerance to be able to make amends through reconciliation.

Personal Autonomy

This relates to the idea of doing a certain something for one’s self, therefore dancers need to think about dancing more for themselves. Flach describes autonomy as a state of mind concerning how an individual feels in relation to the world around them. Self-esteem is a big challenge for many dancers, as well as trying to impress others in the pursuit of perfection. However, If our autonomy is well developed then we are likely to have the strength, courage, and confidence to make decisions about our futures; moreover, in the process of change, when we experience stress and confusion, our autonomy helps to restore our self-esteem.” (Flach 1988)

Emotional Maturity

Goleman (1995) describes an emotional intelligent person as exhibiting self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management; such a person is able to positively manage emotions in times of stress.

Flach (1988) also adds that emotional maturity aids in communicating one’s feelings well.

The article stresses how we as human beings often don’t like change and that we like life as it is with our set homeostatic structure. However for change to happen, it is necessary to experience the entire process of dissolving and reintegrating. Resilience requires recognising the pain or tough situation, acknowledging its purpose and being able to tolerate it for a reasonable amount of time until the challenge begins to take shape, or transform, for the better.

Creativity

Helps promote new possibilities. “Creativity is our ability to imagine something new, to generate new ideas, and see new possibilities, with attitudes of open-mindedness, curiosity, and intellectual honesty.”

Hope

Having faith in the change process is important for a person to reach their certain goal. It helps to successfully transition from the old to the new.

This requires faith in others, where it helps to regain balance and get support.

“Resilience can be fostered through relationships, by engaging in other human beings that understand the same experiences.” This statement proves that social support could be a contributing factor to maintaining any type of resilience, emotional resilience included, Good healthy relationships could therefore ‘improve our ability to change.’

Wilson, S. , 2005. Enhancing Resilience in the Workplace Through the Practice of Caring Relationships, Organization Development Journal (E-journal) Available through: Middlesex University of London summon library