In a world that feels increasingly volatile, where change is inevitable and seemingly relentless, where information overload is the norm, where deadlines are often tight, where priorities seemingly change with the wind, life can feel stressful and challenging.
Set against this backdrop, it’s easy to see why resilience isn’t some fluffy add-on to learning and development, but rather a fundamental skill that forms an essential component in both individual and organisational success.
Helping people develop the skills needed to retain a positive focus, keep going in the face of adversity and bounce back from setbacks isn’t just something we need to be doing to build resilient teams and organisations, but something we should be doing to help support our people’s wellbeing too.
In this month’s Focus On, we’re highlighting a small selection of the training materials and activities in
Trainers’ Library® that will help people better understand resilience and its importance - and develop skills and habits that will enable them to be more resilient, inside and outside of work.
Click on any module title to find out more.
Some research has suggested that as much as 80% of our ‘self-talk’ is negative. This is another simple, yet powerful activity that helps participants challenge that process and establish more healthy habits.
This activity introduces participants to six key factors that can influence resilience:
- A sense of purpose.
- A positive mental attitude.
- Connection with others.
- Determination.
- A sense of control.
- Self-care.
“This is a powerful activity and worth the time it takes. Make sure you have it really clear in your mind how it works; creates a lot of discussion and sharing.”
This is a simple story-based activity, with a powerful message! It illustrates how debilitating fear can be and helps people explore the concept of comfort, learning and panic zones - and what happens in each of these.
This activity will remain with participants long after the training ends!
This module provides an excellent opportunity, when working with a wide range of participants, to consider how attitude can impact their own and other’s performances.
“I have used this activity as part of managing change workshop and it fits in really nicely in terms of what the individual can do to help themselves and how powerful their own attitude can be and how this might impact others and themselves.”
A simple but powerful icebreaker, that uses a bouncy ball as a metaphor for resilience.
Everyone has a unique stretch zone. Our capacity and willingness to take risks is influenced by, amongst other things, past experiences and past successes. For example, someone who has achieved a goal against the odds is less likely to feel daunted by a new challenge than someone with fewer positive experiences.
This module teaches participants how to step beyond the shackles of their comfort zone and set goals that make them feel good, and which help them to grow resiliently.
Another activity that highlights the importance of the stretch zone and raises participants’ awareness of the brain’s flexibility and the potential to expand personal stretch zones.
This module encourages participants to think about their own short, medium and long-term goals and reflect on how success will make them feel.
It demonstrates the importance of starting and takes them through a process that will help them overcome negative thinking that’s perhaps causing procrastination.
By the end of the activity, they’ll have started to develop robust goals they can approach with a renewed determination.
So, there you go, just a small selection of our favourite activities and modules that will help your learners develop a skill that’s critical to success...resilience.