Never waste a good crisis! (Winston Churchill)

As an entrepreneur in the training and consulting field, this spring looks to bring massive challenges and will test our capabilities to deal with the crisis. For many of us, the next few months will require adaptation and capability to change at a very rapid pace. For some of us, this is something we have never before had to do in our personal or professional lives. 

Personally, I have always enjoyed the ever-changing world and the challenges that come along with it. Having worked over 20 years in the military and law enforcement environment, you never knew what came around the corner. Some of us will go through the next months without any visible change in their behaviour and/or performance, but most of us will require plenty of resilience to cope with the events. Resilience, according to the Cambridge English Dictionary, is the ability to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened. Resilience Alliance defines it as “the ability to absorb high levels of disruptive change while displaying minimal unproductive behaviour”. Many people will have difficulties in coping with the change and will need support and advice to handle the crisis. As the stress levels elevate, we might struggle to get enough sleep or the quality of sleep deteriorates. We become grumpy and have difficulties to focus our thoughts. You might feel that you are not able to manage everything. You will need the energy to get through the spring and summer.

My personal motto is to “embrace the crisis”. Once this outbreak is over, we are all wiser and prepared for the next change or crisis, big and small.

If you feel the outbreak has put a strain on your resilience and capabilities to deal with the current situation, please check out the following seven “resilience muscles” that should help you to get back on track. I have also added a few examples of individuals and organisations how they have dealt with the crisis. When you apply these muscles, you help to save and focus your energy so that the next months will be easier to deal with.

1.) Positivity

With positivity, you are able to see possibilities and hope in challenging situations. You are using your energy to produce positive solutions to the change and crisis and at the same time, the positive mindset helps you to get energy and focus on actively dealing with the events. As a grim example one of my favourite quotes by USMC general Chesty Puller during one of the battles during WWII; “We are surrounded, that simplifies our problem”. My wife commented on the current “work from home” situation, that it finally gives us time to do chores back home that we have not had for in the past. I have a stack of books that I look forward to reading through. In social media I have noticed that some people have put Christmas lights back again, to uplift the spirits and to bring joy to the neighbourhood. People have also noticed positive changes due to crisis, the air quality in Hong Kong has improved while many Chinese factories have been closed for a few months, the water in Venetian canals has cleared and people have seen fish swimming in the canals and swans have returned to the city when the boat traffic has stopped. I am also sure that many of us have seen the “Italian way” of socializing during quarantine with people singing and/or dancing on their balconies.

2.) Confidence

Engage your energy in approaching challenges. The global pandemic and actions following it is new to many of us, you might want to think back about smaller changes and crisis you have experienced. In most cases, you have dealt with the change successfully which should also prepare you for the bigger life events. When your past experiences lead to self-confidence you might see the coming months as an interesting learning opportunity and instead of trying to avoid situations you could tackle the situation at hand and come to grips with the future. A few weeks back during one of the programs I conducted I had a senior citizen as a participant. He told the class that he has noticed during his lifetime that eventually things turn for the better, so he is no longer overly stressing himself about the future since he knows he has tools to handle the situations as they arise.

The road to confidence is paved by daily accomplishments. ~ Keith Johnson

3.) Priorities

Direct your energy toward your most important goals. In change and crisis, it is important to be able to prioritise tasks and missions. If you are trying to manage the current events with the same focus as prior to the outbreak, you might miss important tasks that are necessary to survive and use your energy to tasks that at this time as not as relevant. Our other author, Tero, commented about some managers' difficulties to figure out how to prioritise tasks. Quoting Tero; “Don’t try and tackle the entire Covid-19 outbreak, focus on supporting the core business functions of your own organisation. Focus on doing the most important duties first and don’t feel bad about missing some trivial tasks. You maximise your efficiency by doing one task at a time and paying attention to detail. When the first news about the outbreak in various continents hit the headlines, some people decided that hoarding toilet paper is more important than perhaps other tasks, while other people decided to use their energy to some alternative goals.  

A Finnish corporation that owns a number of restaurants and grocery stores in the Capitol region decided to close all 82 restaurants during the outbreak and move their 800 employees to temporarily work in online food delivery services, supporting packing, logistics, and deliveries.

4.) Creativity

Generate a wide range of possibilities and ideas. During change and crisis, the people who are able to use their creativity can often find new solutions, ideas, and possibilities to deal with the situation. New ideas are sometimes amazing and you might even get excited from the exceptional opportunities. A Michelin star restaurant in Helsinki started to make 15 euro sushi boxes to combat (sometimes) boring basic take away meals. The idea has created amazing popularity amongst residents in the city.  Many training and consulting companies have boldly started to expend their services to the online environment, streaming their workshops and offering programs that the clients can download at convenient times. Chinese nightclubs that were forced to shut their doors have turned to virtual “cloud clubbing.” Our company mainly works with problematic behavior and conflicts, so at the moment many government and county organisations are faced with highly emotional people who vent out their distress to the civil servants. The need for additional skills is at high demand. So we focus our services on online programs and streaming our workshops. Something that I am not personally very fond of, but at the moment this is one of the few ways to reach our clients. Companies in other service fields have started to sell gift vouchers to be used later so that the cash flow is not completely cut off. With great delight, I have also noticed that people realise how difficult the next few months will be, so there has been a surprisingly strong movement to support small, local businesses.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

5.) Connection

Draw on others for resources and support. Friends can support you during hardship, but they can also be a wonderful resource in solving problems and providing you with ideas that you might come up with by yourself. In self-quarantine, your friends can provide you with peer-support through social media. This is certainly a good time to spend more time on social media and not feel bad about it. How about getting in touch with your friends abroad? Just keep in mind that you need to stay level-headed regarding information that you come across mass hysteria and “clickbait” news that we often see in the net. Keep in mind, that this is not a one-way street, besides asking for help you can also provide help and support to people around you.

A Finnish student Ohto Pentik?inen decided to help people who are in voluntary self-quarantine at home and put together a website that has information regarding services and products that people can use and enjoy at home. The homepage has information about various delivery services, free online exercise programs and other options to make staying at home more enjoyable. One page specifically targets senior citizens. I just finished reading an article where the author objected to the use of “social distancing” because we now need to be social more than perhaps ever before. According to Margie Warrell, the author, “physical distancing” would be the more appropriate term.

6.) Structure

Apply organization and discipline to use energy efficiently – during change and the crisis it is good to have a plan (or to make one) that builds a structure to your situation. Having a structure helps people around you (family and employees) feel more secure when they know you have been preparing for the future crisis and change. You are building a structure to the unstructured future. Through planning, you are able to use your available resources effectively. Very often structure also helps you to prioritise actions. Remember that preparation is not paranoia. In my previous line of work in the police, every call had main plan, back-up plan, and emergency plan. Later in a business environment, I have also added contingency plan to our daily business and family life. As a part of the planning, we have been building a financial bumper to protect us from unforeseeable events that sometimes take place in life.

One of my personal favourites I learned over two decades ago while in the police was the OODA-loop. The OODA loop is the cycle observe–orient–decide–act, developed by military strategist and the United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level during military campaigns. I was thought to use this in a tactical environment, to make decision making process faster, but you can apply this to several areas of resilience.

Knowing you have a plan is half the battle.

7.) Experimenting

Take action in the face of uncertainty and learn by doing – the next few months will provide us all the possibility to experience something that we hopefully can call a ”once in a lifetime” event. Keep an open mind and acknowledge what you have learned in the face of adversity. With over 20 years’ experience from military and law enforcement communities, most days were not carved in stone. You had to learn to embrace the ever-changing situations and cope with the events. If you shift your focus to new opportunities you could get more energy from the excitement that the opportunities bring you. Also, in times of change and crisis, you sometimes need to have the willpower to move forward, take calculated risks. If you are bunkering in your hole, you might miss great opportunities to do something new. Finding the right balance is where many advisors struggle, but a good starting point is the “40-70 rule,” made famous by a retired four-star general and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. The essence of the rule is this: collect 40% to 70% of available facts and data, then go with your gut. Working with less than 40% of the facts means taking a poor gamble with obvious potential disadvantages. On the flip side, gathering all data beyond a level of 70% confidence means a window of opportunity closes and the competition capitalizes on your hesitation. I mentioned earlier that smaller changes and crisis will often prepare you to face bigger changes, but keep in mind that after the Covid-19 events your resilience to face smaller changes could have changed tremendously. Smaller changes and crises might not impact you at all.

Some ex-combat veteran friends of mine say “You can’t run away forever”. Find a way to gather, manage and deploy resources and get back to battle.

The following months will also bring possibilities to learn something new about yourself and hopefully you are able to share your new knowledge with the people around you.

The article is based on training materials from Resilience Alliance Inc. and personal observations of Mr. Totti Karpela and Mr. Tero ?lander, accredited personal resilience coaches as well as a combined professional experience of 50+ years from crisis management.

More information and resources related to personal resilience can be found at:

www.mielenrauha.com

www.peaceofmind.hk

www.resiliencefactory.fi

www.resiliencealliance.com