Developing Resilience in the Individual and the Organization

Topic Overview

The terms “Resilience” and “Stress” are tossed about so frequently that we have become numb to the meanings and applications. Familiarity does not equal knowledge. Exposure to a word or subject does not constitute understanding. In our opinion, resilience is much talked about but little practiced. Our goal is to make these familiar words take on more deliberate relevance in your life and help you strengthen your own resilience skill set.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will have:

• Recognized characteristics of a resilient person.

Readings and Research

Context

We provide you with a few articles and videos to view that might help clarify the definition of resilience if this term is new to you. (Alternate search terms: resilience definition)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/resilience
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/resilience
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_resilience

These websites offer multiple perspectives on resilience. They have much in common and some differences. For the purposes of this course, we will utilize the following definition:

Resilience is the capacity of the individual to respond to and recover from trauma or disaster, whatever its source or origin. It is the psychological equivalent of the physical phenomenon of "bounce back ability".

Learning Activities

Introductions

Context

The group discussions allow us to gain a variety of insights into the topics being discussed and to learn from each others’ perspectives. You will engage with your fellow participants in numerous conversations as you explore the topics in the course.

Task Description

• Step 1: If you are working on this course in a group, begin by becoming acquainted. Introduce yourself to the group and give the group members a little background about what type of work you do and how this training might be helpful. Also in your message, describe a person you know who you would consider to be resilient. Identify key characteristics (single words only) related to resilience that you believe that person possesses.
  
  If you are pursuing this training independently, identify a resilient acquaintance and his/her characteristics. You might even write down the name of the person to imprint those characteristics in your mind.

• Step 2: The following link will take you to a document that contains the titles of three traits that researchers have discovered in resilient people. Itemize your list of characteristics beneath the appropriate category on this spreadsheet. . Once everyone has completed the sheet, you can print it out for the next activity. [spreadsheet]

Recognizing Resilience in Others

Context

You have created a list of characteristics related to resilience. Now, let’s see how well you can recognize these traits in individuals whom we might encounter as we respond to a situation.

Task Description

In the following videos, you will be introduced to five survivors of an event. As you view the videos, try to identify traits that you recognize as being related to resilience. Once again, join your fellow participants in a discussion that will be led by your facilitator. You will be asked to identify those you think will be the most resilient survivors based on the characteristics you discover in their interviews. If you are working independently, write down the resilient characteristics you identify in each character.

Late Breaking News...

Late yesterday evening, shortly after dinnertime, a severe thunderstorm produced an F3 tornado (good sized tornado) along with high winds and large hailstones. The tornado touched down outside the city limits and proceeded along the riverbank before jumping inland and creating extensive damage in the historic downtown district. The tornado continued through the city’s east neighborhood uprooting trees and damaging houses on its way out of town. Large hailstones accompanying the severe thunderstorm damaged approximately 40% of the area’s homes within the city limits, while the high winds brought down power lines, leaving 2,000 of the city’s 13,000 residents without power.

The Mainstays Medical clinic sustained significant damage to the roof and windows. Glass is shattered throughout the waiting room and parking lot where an uprooted tree lays across half the lot’s parking spaces. The building’s roof is missing multiple patches of shingles, but the roof does not leak. The building is one of the few still standing on the community’s historic downtown main street.

 

Characters	Review their Stories (read the transcript or select the icon to access the videos)
Full transcript of each video	transcript
Dr. Maria Sanchez, M.D. - Clinic Owner (3:32 minutes)
Marge - Office Manager and COOP Plan Developer (3:36 minutes)
Robert - Physician's Assistant (3:00 minutes))
Jim - Billing Clerk and Sometime IT Guy (2:42 minutes)
Jason - Office Receptionist (3:03 minutes)

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