This decade marks the most radical disruption of the workplace in our lifetimes. The confluence of big data, information transparency and innovative business models compels organizations of every size to change at head-spinning speed. In the next few years, as artificial intelligence and cloud computing spread to every corner of every business, the pace of change will only accelerate.
Organizations are also changing fast, scrambling the old order. Five generations are active in the workforce. Old organization charts give way to temporary teams. Remote and on-site employees work together in real time. Innovation, emotional intelligence and so-called “soft skills” like communication and creativity are the new competitive edge.
This exciting new world also threatens a significant human cost. The tsunami of changes has swept away old barriers between work and life. We work in 45-minute increments all day and check our work messages, email and project status reports first thing in the morning and last thing at night. We expect instant response from ourselves and others. Our powerful technology has, paradoxically, made us more stressed than ever. And stress is killing us. An incredible variety of stress triggers, from email alerts to noisy open offices to nonstop meeting schedules, seem built into most of today’s fast-moving, always-on jobs. Stressed-out people suffer low productivity and high rates of depression, absenteeism and “presenteeism,” (showing up physically but checking out psychologically). These negative effects, multiplied by every affected employee, represent a huge gap between an organization’s actual and potential performance.
You can’t ignore these amazing technologies or turn back the clock. Their benefits and promise are too great. That leaves leaders with the question of dealing with the rising tide of stress, and there are three possible responses:
-Do nothing and try to endure the stress. This is a one-way ticket to burnout.
-Turn to tricks like Reset Pods or Foosball tables to help people cope. Teach a mindfulness class or suggest a mood-tracking app. These might give temporary relief, but they don’t empower employees to manage stress over the long term.
-Or you can build the practice of resilience into the culture of your company and the core skills of your workforce.
Why should leaders care about resilience? Simply put, resilience is the power to manage stressful situations, life changes and adversity, and bounce back. Clinical studies identify seven learnable skills like emotion control, empathy and impulse control that increase resilience. The overall resilience of a workforce can be measured as the degree to which people use those skills. That measure is what I call a company’s “Resilience Quotient”—a quantified profile of employees’ ability to rebound in the face of challenges.