Resilience matters in the COVID-19 era. Here's why.

The long-term effects of COVID-19 on our society are impossible to predict and difficult to imagine at this state. My biggest concern is that the world of a few short months ago does not have the resilience needed to respond to, recover from, and thrive despite COVID-19’s effects. 

Merriam-Webster defines resilience as the ‘ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.’ Another way to think of it is simply a measure of toughness. How, then, do we tell whether we have the #resilience required by COVID-19?

At this point we can’t possibly understand the long-lasting ramifications of COVID-19 on the world economy, trade, education, business, commerce, and international relations. A trusted advisor of mine captured this idea perfectly:

“What is considered difficult today will be easy next week… and next week may pose new challenges we can’t even begin to fathom right now.”

At first blush, that seems like a very daunting proposition. 

Determining the path forward in the COVID-19 era is difficult. In the language of project management and strategic planning, there are too many ‘unknown unknowns’ to give us any realistic expectations of what the coming weeks, months, and years may bring. Maybe some of our existing business processes may not be the right tools for the job.  Maybe new companies will arise to become the leaders of markets we can’t fully understand yet. Maybe new skills and competencies will be the prized pedigrees of the new era.  

In the post-COVID-19 world, we can’t just try to anticipate the future and plan for it. Rather, we must build resilience in our businesses, in our families, and in ourselves. Here are a few of my suggestions on ways to build resilience in businesses, families, and ourselves:

1.      Return to First Principles. 

“We never go so far as when we don’t know where we’re going.”

 – Antoine de Rivarol

In philosophy and formal logic, #firstprinciples are a set of ideas which are factual and cannot be deduced from any other ideas. An example? “The sky is blue.” In business, first principles are the mission or vision statement of a company. What are we here to do? Who are our customers? What constitutes success in our business? In families, first principles could be the roles each family member plays: partner, parent, child, student. In ourselves, first principles could be any number of truths about who we are and what we believe. By examining first principles, we can build resilience by carefully defining our bedrock foundation and identifying the things that are most important to us, no matter what crises may arise.

2.      Deal with things as they are, not as we want them to be. 

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.”

― William Arthur Ward

One second after a crisis erupts is not the time to think about how we should have prepared beforehand. When a crisis strikes, it’s time to act quickly and make the best decisions possible. The normal method of solving problems in our business may not be an effective way to solve problems in response to a crisis. 

Resilient organizations take a realistic look at the state of their businesses following a crisis and then gauge their ability to operate within the new conditions. They scale up or scale down depending upon the demands of the market, building in #surgecapacity to their existing structures so that they can respond to increased workloads. If you’re already working as hard as you possibly can in your everyday operations, you’re unable to absorb the additional challenges a true #crisis will deliver. 

Resilient families take changes in stride and arrange caregiving, teach children how to complete online lessons instead of classroom instruction, and make sure financial resources are in place to deal with unexpected changes.  

Resilient individuals make sure they’re in good physical and mental health and that they have the necessary skills and qualifications to be effective in their normal jobs as well as their crisis positions too.  

3.      Don’t be afraid of sudden change. Use it as a serious opportunity for continuous improvement. 

“If you're running businesses anywhere in the world, people who really do well are the people who have mental toughness.”

-Robert Kraft

The surest way to build resilience is to test our business organizations, families, and ourselves. Think of a fire drill at an office or a school. There’s a well-laid plan and after a couple of drills, everyone knows how they ought to respond. The crucial part of testing our resilience, however, is to develop lessons learned. What went well during the fire drill? What could have been improved? Did everyone understand where to go and what to do?

Resilient organizations value lessons learned as an invaluable tool to help revise business processes and to guide business decisions. Resilient families and individuals test themselves in a variety of ways, from mental toughness to physical fitness and spiritual growth. Opportunities to learn and improve always present themselves. Whether we choose to take advantage of them is another issue entirely.

In closing, no one knows, for sure, what comes next in business and society in the world following COVID-19. One thing is sure, however. Resilient organizations, families, and individuals will be the ones best positioned to deal with whatever challenges they may face in the future. By using the lessons of COVID-19 as a learning experience for our businesses, families, and selves, future crises may just be a little easier to handle. Our current experience with COVID-19 gives us the opportunity to pause and regroup. 

Now more than ever, it’s vital for business leaders, families, and individuals to #ChallengeEveryDay to build, test, and enhance resilience.