How to Prepare Your People to Thrive in Change & Uncertainty

AKA - Developing resilient people that can flex, adapt, and be their best selves at all times

Have you ever repeated a phrase or idea so many times that you just accept it without thinking - even when it is demonstrably incorrect? So incorrect, in fact, that you could easily disprove the notion yourself if you only stopped to consider it for a moment?

I know I have. While I could share a few examples, the one that springs first to my mind takes place several years and a couple of continents away. I was leading my L&D department town hall when I uttered this phrase:

“I know this past quarter has been chaotic, and I’ve asked each of you to go far beyond the norm as we’re adapting to historic customer demand and significant operational changes. I want to thank you for your heroic efforts, to acknowledge that I see and appreciate you, and I want to encourage you - we just have to push a little bit more, and then we will see things go back to normal.”

Later that same day, while I was hosting a series of skip-level meetings, one of my people asked me to clarify my point from the earlier town hall. “What do you mean by normal?”

I hadn’t expected that question, but I expected something memorable from this team member. This was an employee I had recruited from the product support team early in my tenure as the head of learning. I knew them to be fairly quiet but extremely thoughtful, so instead of simply reiterating my points from before, I dug a bit deeper into my view of the future and “normal,” ending my response by asking, “What questions do you have about my explanation?”

“Your predecessor had similar thoughts,” they began. “In my experience, constant change - mixed with periods of unplanned chaos - seems more like our normal than short periods of calm and order. We prove the saying that the only thing constant is change.”

I smiled, despite myself. Touché. My team member was more right than they knew. The truth is that there is no such thing as normal. And not just at that business. As time, teams, companies, and positions have progressed, I am continually reminded that current challenges and changes are not an aberration; they are the norm. Since change is the only given, that begs the question - how can we help our people thrive (not just survive) in the midst of change??

Focus on Resilience Instead of “Getting Through”

Change and uncertainty are the status quo in our modern workplace. According to PWC’s 2024 Global CEO Survey, “45% of CEOs believe their company will not be viable in ten years if it stays on its current path.” There is a persistent drive for greater agility and elasticity in businesses, the way they operate, the way they communicate and perform routine activities, how they allocate resources, etc. In the same report, over 70% of CEOs agree that “Generative AI will significantly change the way my company creates, delivers, and captures value.”

Change is here and ever-present. Rapidly evolving technology and customer needs are pushing change ever faster. Change is not something you can plan for and then move on from - it’s the new operating model in your board room! That is why I focus on building resilience.

What is resilience? Let’s start by talking about what resilience is not. It is not:

• Suppressing or ignoring your emotions to create a false feeling of peace
• Bouncing back from adversity via an indifferent attitude or mindset
• Running from or avoiding conflict for the sake of artificial peace
• Relentlessly and irrepressibly remaining cheery and optimistic??

Resilience is about actively choosing to engage with the change, the strife, and the stress you face. It’s about identifying your stressors and addressing them with curiosity and self-compassion rather than with anxiety and aggression. To sit with yourself and the chaos as an impartial, non-judgemental observer to take notes and learn.?

What does resilience feel like? It feels like a calm and controlled core that anchors you to your mission, your values, and what is important to you. In its final form, resilience feels like the goal that Bruce Lee spoke about: to become water.

Let me give you a short overview of a typical mindfulness or resilience journey, just to provide more insight (note that you normally wouldn’t tackle all of these steps in a single session):

1. You begin by separating yourself from the business and its challenges. You remove your ego from the equation as you reflect that the failures and challenges of the business are not your personal failures. Your job is a part of you, but you are not your job. Going back to Bruce Lee, you are water, but you are not the entire ocean.
2. You find your focus in your goals, your mission, and your values. Recall what is most important to bring meaning and purpose to your life. You may be two hydrogens combined with one oxygen, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are only water - you could alternatively be ice, steam, or all three.
3. Identify what is asked of you by the business to find ways to adapt while maintaining your goals, mission, and values. In Bruce Lee’s quote, he reminds us that water poured into a cup forms itself to become the cup. The water does not cease being water. It stays true to its core form as water, aligning itself with the realities of the cup.
4. Visualize yourself thriving in your new normal, realizing what it will take to achieve your goals. You can’t be it if you can’t see it, so imagine what it will take to adapt yourself - as the water - to the cup. What will it take? How will it feel??

Though it sounds simple in this description, developing resilience in your people and teams is critical for their ability to thrive in our fast-paced and ever-changing work environments. And (spoiler alert!) it’s rarely as simple to implement as I’ve laid out. Thankfully, one of the most powerful tools you have to build resilience is a culture of lifelong learning.

The Role of Lifelong Learning in Building Resilience

When it comes to building resilience, one of the best tools that your culture of lifelong learning provides is curiosity. Specifically, the ability to:

• Not feel like you have all the answers, or that you should/are supposed to
• Ask open and honest questions without judgment, bias, or self-criticism
• Generate new ideas, innovate, and overcome

As I mentioned in the last section, I wouldn’t normally complete all 4 steps in one session. Instead, let me give you a few examples of how I have hosted portions of a mindfulness or resilience session in the past:

• Observational Breathing: After hosting a short introduction on how to separate yourself from your work (you are not your job), I walk a small group through an observational breathing exercise. The rules for the exercise are few:

1. Close your eyes and breathe.
2. Focus on your breathing. Observe how you’re breathing.
3. When other thoughts enter your mind, don’t berate yourself. Observe them with curiosity and return to observing your breathing.
4. When time is up, share what thoughts seemed to enter your mind the most during the activity. These thoughts represent where you’re focused and they should be acknowledged if you want to improve your resilience.

• Dare to Lead Self-Assessment: From the work of Brene Brown, conduct a facilitation on the importance of identifying your core values, both professionally and personally, and their import in leading a purpose-driven life. After instruction:

1. Share the list of “Dare to Lead” values without defining them.
2. Ask participants to consider what values resonate most strongly with them and why - ask them to define the values and give examples from their life (either lived or what they have observed of someone else).
3. Create “buckets” or categories that hold similar values and put their values within the bucket/category they deem most appropriate.
4. For the buckets that represent their categories of core values, ask the questions, “What does this category of values mean to me, and what are my expectations of others as it relates to those categories? Of the values listed in each category, which is the truest expression of who I am in the world?”
5. Finish by creating a value statement that summarizes your values into a concise expression that clearly and truly expresses who you are, sharing 1-2 examples to aid your users.

• Value Mapping Board: On your poster board you will have three columns:

1. Your core values (from the Dare to Lead Self-Assessment)
2. Your organization’s mission and values + the core mission of your specific role
3. Your overlap between your values and the organization + your specific role

a. For the third column, use any of the following questions to identify the overlap:

i. Think of times when you felt the most fulfilled or motivated at work. What value(s) was/were present in that moment?

ii. What are the tasks or responsibilities that allow you to shine? Consider what value(s) make those moments so special?

iii. Complete this sentence, “I feel energized and passionate when I get to ______ at work,” and fill-in the blank. What do you notice about the tasks and responsibilities that energize you?

iv. Are there any areas of your role that do not align with one of your core values? Why or why not?

v. Is there a role (not a person, but a role) within your team that you find inspiring or that you admire? Consider what you’ve observed of that role’s responsibilities that especially align with your values.

4. Identify your action plan to optimize the overlap between your personal values and the mission + values of your organization and role.?

a. Action plan should consist of specific tasks and a specific period of time (e.g., request a role adaptation with their manager for the next 4 weeks, practice daily check-ins with your colleagues to improve colleague relationships over the next 30 days, etc.).

b. Meet on a weekly basis with your accountability partner to share challenges, successes, and further visualize and brainstorm additional ways to drive alignment.

Discussion

As usual, I’ve likely spent too much time talking about my experiences and ideas. Let’s open things up for my favorite part of these articles; your ideas, opinions, and suggestions! Please consider any of the following questions when you respond and share your feedback:

• Have you included resilience building into your learning and development strategy? If so, what are the results?
• If you haven’t added resilience to your learning and development strategy, has this article encouraged you to do so? Why or why not?
• What benefits of resilience have you observed in the teams and organizations you support??
• What other strategies have you used to build resilience in your people?

As a reminder, you don’t have to be in L&D to participate. This is an inclusive space for all lovers of learning, regardless of your field, experience, background, or career level. Make sure to tag your friends and invite them to join the conversation. Let’s geek out together in the GrowZone, my fellow Learning Green Thumbs (i.e., those who are skilled at growing the careers of others through growing their capabilities)!

A Note of Clarity

Please note that the views I express are solely my own. They do not reflect the positions of my current or former employers. All examples I share are generalized or modified to protect confidentiality and the integrity of the experiences and organizations involved. Finally, I used ChatGPT to create images and edit, but I am the writer of all of my articles.