True Grit
Photo by Harry Cooke
The word resilience is everywhere you look at the moment, in every article and publication describing situations from the American election to the British high streets.
Perhaps it’s because it’s the end of November and a month-long second lockdown; add to that a bleak forecast for the months ahead. Will we be able to celebrate Christmas with our families? Should we? Will there be another lockdown in the new year regardless?
Testing times call for both personal and collective resilience. How resilient are we as individuals and how stable are our businesses and institutions?
In this blog post you’ll find some ideas to measure yourself against as well as links to longer reads on the subject of business resilience, risk and continuity planning.
Personal Resilience - 11 signs that you're a truly resilient person:
You hold yourself accountable - Resilient people don't blame others or outside forces for their problems. They cultivate a healthy sense of personal responsibility, which allows them to tackle problems head on instead of wallowing in despair.
You don't complain - An occasional venting session is fine, but anyone with grit knows that complaining gets you nowhere. Resilience is all about having a good attitude.
You're self-aware - If you're going to navigate stormy seas, you've got to really know and trust yourself. Resilient people practice mindfulness and cultivate self-awareness.
You accept your limits - The key to grit is accepting that you're neither perfect nor limitless. You've got to accept your weaknesses along with your strengths in order to adapt to trying situations.
You're not afraid to ask for help - Anyone with grit knows that asking for help isn't the same as asking for hand-outs. Even the most successful people could use some assistance once in a while. Part of being resilient is being strong enough to ask for it.
You never wallow - Wallowing in your sorrows is just about the worst thing you can do in a bad situation. Resilient people know to grieve their losses, make a plan, and move on.
You don't compare yourself to others - Everyone has their own hidden struggles and their own definitions of success. Measuring yourself against your neighbor is futile and potentially harmful.
You find humor in the absurd - Life is terrible sometimes, but you can't let go of your sense of humor. You've got to be able to laugh at yourself and the often confusing, painful nature of reality. It's truly the best medicine for getting through tough situations.
You know you can't plan everything - You never know what life is going to throw at you next. People with grit accept this and are willing to be flexible. If you're too locked into one path or one plan, you're liable to fall apart when things go wrong.
You cultivate a support system - Resilient people are usually not lone wolves. They have a trusted network of people who they know they can depend on during troubled times.
You take care of yourself - Grittiness isn't just about enduring hardship. You've got to prepare for it too. In order to become strong enough to weather adversity, you've got to practice self-care and make yourself a priority from time to time.
Business Resilience
Some hand picked longer, general reads from trusted sources.
What can business leaders do to prepare?
The simple answer is the healthier your business is today, tomorrow, and the next quarter, the more resilient you will be in a downturn, in the sense that if your costs are lower, you have more buffer to take on stuff. If your balance sheet is not so leveraged, the more capacity you have to take things on and the more capacity you have to invest. That’s one thing.
Read more: What makes an organization healthy?
Mckinsey: Preparing for and managing through a downturn
Harvard Business Review: a guide to building a more resilient business
Aviva: Business resilience, the 6 factors
Workshop – The Well Thought Workspace
What have we done and what are we doing at Workshop to help our members and their businesses?
Flexibility – we have frozen memberships during lockdowns; adapted our policies to permit short notice switches up and down tiers; shifted office layouts to accommodate new members and to allow social distancing; created new membership plans like couples shared desks; allowed short term temporary memberships.
We have continued to support local, independent suppliers, provided a space for TEDx to host a remote event when the original event was moved online. We have engaged with the local Winchester Creatives initiative by providing free meeting space and pledged funds while members of our community have signed up as business mentors. We have continued to communicate with our members to facilitate a network of connected individuals and teams.
What next? We are tentatively looking forward to the new year and welcoming back returning members but also building back an active events programme and figuring out how we can best adapt to meet the needs of remote workers and distributed teams looking for regional spaces. We believe we are well placed to help our members by providing a space where remote working is the norm and a home to a diverse community of open-minded professionals within a creative and collaborative culture.