Transcript Bouncing Back and Moving Forward:How to Build Resilient

Bouncing Back and Moving Forward:
How to Build Resilient Business Colleges that Promote
Creativity and Innovation
Jennifer Moss Breen, Director, PhD Program
Director in Human Capital Management
Stephen Linenberger, PhD, Program Director
Leadership Programs
Pamela Imperato, PhD, Dean College of Business
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Agenda
1. Setting the context – challenges in higher education
2. Developing resiliency in yourself and others
3. Organizational initiatives that can encourage the
development of resiliency in business colleges
4. Creating a resilient community – faculty, staff and
students
5. Linking resilience to innovation and creativity
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Resilience Defined
• Resilience: the capacity to “bounce back” from
adversity and change
• “constructive reaction to disappointment and
failure” (Friedman, 2007, p. 64).
• Lack of resilience: reactive leaders tend to blame,
deny, or make excuses, ultimately impeding the
follower’s ability to make sense of loss and then
move on.
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The New Educational Landscape
New Modalities and Competition
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Demographic Change
Period 1 (Past)
Period 2 (Now)
Period 3 (Future)
Period 4 (Future)
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College: Is it Worth It?
The Daily Beast 01.24.14
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Attack on the Academy
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Mal-Employment: 37% of college educated workers under the age of 25 are
working in positions that don’t require a degree (underemployed) - CNN Money, June 25,
2013
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Millennial Satisfaction: 53% of all employed college graduates in their mid-20s
and early 30s say they are “very satisfied” at work. …37% of comparably aged
Millennials with a high school diploma or less are as satisfied with their job…” Pew
Research Survey http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/3/
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Federal College Rating System: ……to help students make smarter choices
about higher.” CNNMoney August 22, 2013 Measures may include tuition rate
comparisons, loan debt, graduation and transfer rates, the salaries of graduates
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Ill-prepared, says who! “Graduate and employer definitions of ‘prepared’ differ,
study suggests.” http://dailyfreepress.com/2014/02/02/graduate-and-employer-definitions-of-prepared-differ-studysuggests/ Feb 2, 2014.
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Becoming Resilient: The Stages
(Stoner and Gilligan 2002)
Stage 1: Disillusionment/Why ME!
Stage 2: Reflection/Gaining Perspective
Stage 3: Transformation/Reframing
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Stage 1: Disillusionment
(Stoner and Gilligan 2002)
– Develop a strong support network and rely upon it
– Take excellent care of yourself through healthy diet and exercise
– Talk to others who can act as sounding boards, provide
encouragement, and allow the leader to vent negative emotions
– Allow those closest to you (i.e. spouse, partner, friend or sibling)
to support and uplift you without encouraging self-pity or a
depressive decline
– Work through the disillusionment quickly and move on in order
not to become immobilized
– Attend to the business at hand and move on
– Maintain a sense of humor, if possible
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Stage 2: Reflection
• Spend time alone and in quiet introspection
• Seek input from others as to what happened and
make sense of the adversity.
• Using reflection time to gain a broader perspective
on the greater meaning of life, our position it the
world, our personal value system and significance,
and deepening our self awareness
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Stage 3: Transformation
“If I got through that, then I can get through this!”
• Cognitively reframe both the adversity and what we
can learn from it.
• Continued reading and study
• Continued time in isolation
• Development of ‘rebound’ networks -- those that can
support your intellectual, emotional and spiritual
needs)
• Development of diversionary networks – those that
can help you take your mind off the adversity
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Encouraging Resiliency in Faculty,
Staff and Students
• It starts at the individual level –
Resilient people can teach others to be resilient
– Affective (I am ok, I belong, I am valued)
– Cognitive (beliefs, worldviews, I understand)
– Behavioral (I can contribute, I have ability, I am competent)
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Developing Resilience in Others
(King and Rothstein, 2010)
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Feedback
Stretch assignments
Coaching
Humor
Reflection time
Balance
Mind/body connection
Realistic expectations
Learn from mistakes
• Learn from mistakes
• Seek solutions, not
blame
• Help people understand
why they resist change
• Contingency planning
• Create opportunities for
social support
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Building a Resilient Community
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Resilient individuals create resilient teams
Resilient teams create resilient communities
Workplace culture shift, over time
Collective healing
Collective learning
Role Models at the top
Champions at the bottom
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Resilient Employees, Organizations, Communities build
Resilient Societies
• Impact on Students
• Impact on Business/Industry
• Impact on the Broader Community
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Links to Innovation and Creativity
through Resilience
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Positivity
Realism
Energy
Learning from Mistakes
Space to reflect – create
Intentional Practice
Lack of blame
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