Is it time to swap resilience for sustainability?
Resilience and wellbeing at work have become a dynamic duo. They usually appear hand in hand at Town Halls and team meetings as the solution to helping teams maintain performance despite change in direction or turbulence.
Change is no longer a one-off event. We’ve heard it for sometime, and we see it in action - change is constant. Big changes, little changes, they are happening, and they are necessary for companies to keep pace with broader societal, economic, and other changes.
When change was an infrequent one-off event, resilience worked… somewhat. It was more about finding the energy to power through while trusting that the destination, when we get there, will be well worth the uncertainty and turbulence.
As change of all levels of magnitude become more common, resilience is not going to cut it. We need to design work in ways that promote sustainability over resilience.
Resilience is a back-up generator. Sustainability is the real power source.
We’re not here to say resilience is not needed, but rather that resilience is more like a back-up generator - what saves the day when all power sources have failed unexpectedly despite all the right checks and balances. Sometimes, these things just happen and well.. that’s why we keep a back-up generator, so we can keep the lights running while we fix what needs fixing. Resilience is in our view, that bak-up generator. For the rare occasions when clarity is nowhere in sight, and the “all hands on deck”, “let’s roll up our sleeves”, and “jump in the deep end” energy is the most reliable power source.
Just like we can’t power communities exclusively with back-up generators, we can’t expect our teams to be powered by resilience. We need a reliable power source - sustainability.
Sustainability in the workplace provides a steady source of power in the form of role clarity, clear decision-making systems, forums for sharing risks and opportunities proactively, and reliable feedback mechanisms.
Designing sustainable systems is about designing role and team structures that maximize clarity and accountability, while minimizing duplication. It’s also about designing day-to-day workflows and processes to help minimize friction so that the system has capacity to absorb minor fluctuations and resilience remains as a backup for when it’s truly needed.
As leaders and organizations continue to explore ways to build capacity, it may be time to look beyond resilience and design for sustainability. The need for resilience is not gone, but for people and teams to thrive, resilience needs to be treated as the back-up generator, not the main power source.