How resilient organisations advocate a futurist mindset

Another article on resilience? Wow, no thank you.

I’m sure you must have heard a lot about resilience in the past few months; a buzzword that’s ringing in everyone’s ears so loudly! Slow-onset changes, such as changing demographics, as well as rapid natural hazard occurrences, pose challenges to any business. Building resilience capability is the key for any organisation to be able to thrive no matter what comes their way!

According to a recent survey, 66% of CXOs still don’t feel completely ready to lead and 70% don’t have complete confidence in their organisations’ ability to pivot and adapt to disruptive events. Being prepared entails more than just developing business continuity plans; it also involves developing adaptive capacity in your team and incorporating flexibility into your organisation’s policies and processes But what’s most intriguing is the linkage between resilience fostering a futurist mindset and deriving comprehensive approaches that can be tailored to prepare employees, old and new, to drive the organisation’s success in this revolutionary era. Read along to see how.

The first step is to unlearn traditional notions of resilience and understand that it is a way of life rather than something we impart.

The standard SWOT analysis can be amplified by considering some of the questions that the modern era has transverse along with. Questions like, how can these challenges present new opportunities? Or what are the possible threats that they can reinforce? Do they have any familiarity with old ones? etc. It will help the organisations anticipate the upcoming changes and challenges beforehand and take the
necessary actions.

Undergoing such analysis helps leaders to be prepared, responsive, and have the ability to adapt to
these emerging changes. It also enables an organisation to be resilient and prosper in altered
circumstances. It also provides a competitive edge over its competitors and attracts and retains top
talent. The modern workforce is constantly job-hopping in search of the most up-to-date company. A
resilient organisation can serve as their one-stop-shop destination for all of their requirements.

Based on the SWOT analysis, organisations need to redefine their vision, mission, and goals, as well as
the purpose and values, and ensure that they are transparently communicated to their employees. The
expectations must be reciprocally beneficial to create a culture that fosters an efficient workforce.
Building resilient organisations encompass a range of strategies such as increasing employee ownership in planning, drafting policies, balancing power, seeking feedback, and so on.

Talent alone does not create success and neither does change happen without concerted effort.
Therefore, despite resilience being something that can be developed, it is not something that will
happen passively, it is something that requires time, effort, and personal resources. This effort can
potentially carve out suitable pathways that provide opportunities for the employees to help the
organisation achieve its goal of being resilient.

Implementing a people-first culture requires a people-first mindset. It is relatively not a new concept but the desire to meet is much higher. Inculcating concepts like mental and physical wellness, belongingness, emotional intelligence, purpose and meaning while strategising the roadmap for the organisation will motivate employees to give back and perform better. Adopting the factors mentioned above and improvised new-age friendly employee benefits will take the front seat for building resilient
organisations as they drive through the modern era.

When there is proper alignment of organisational and employees’ individual goals, the plan can never
fail. Leaders must allocate enough time for their employees to develop and acquire soft skills like agility, flexibility, resilience, and so on to be able to sustain in the long run. Additionally, resilient organisations are built with employees willing to grow and progress within the company.

We cannot simply do more to learn more. Employees typically learn and practise new skills in the
workplace through L&D activities such as hands-on training or simulations in classroom settings with no time for reflection. Weighing on the opportunity to reflect, such programmes can be far more effective at bringing about real change. In order to change and grow, we must also reflect on what we have done. By practising reflection, employees can better integrate learnings and approach work with an improved state of awareness and confidence.

New-age employees want to work for organisations that will let them do what they do best. Our recent survey suggests that 51% of workers would prefer career growth opportunities while accepting a new job offer. Organisations must proactively offer a working environment that fosters continuous training and development to tap on employees’ strengths and interests, and an opportunity to grow and advance in the direction that aligns with their goals. Providing these career and growth opportunities internally turns the employees into advocates, a responsibility that they are willing to happily take.

As mentioned earlier, resilience is a way of life which means it needs to be practised every day. These
tactics will not sure shot make you resilient overnight or put an end to the hassles anytime soon. They can surely be taken as a reference for reshaping and strategising certain techniques to combat any imbalances in life as well as the corporate world. When you look at the top-performing organisations, they are often home to visionary leaders. This process works both ways. There’s a continual need to engage in building resilient organisations to build resilient and futurist employees and a need for such employees to contribute and play a vital role in building such organisations. This kind of synergy avidly leads the organisations and their employees to thrive irrespective of the circumstances.

When you think about it, everything we do, knowingly or unknowingly, presupposes some level of
resilience. Now that we have all witnessed the downward trend of organisations in the face of adversity,
what’s next for HR leaders? Have you ever considered what it would be like to try to embrace the
inevitable by being more resilient both personally and professionally?

Check out the 8 core areas of resilience to build a solid foundation for comprehending the nature and extent of resilience!