Resilience-Building Organisational Programs and Interventions

To optimise resilience we recognise the need to focus at the individual, team and leader level, as well as on the work structures, policies and processes that support the behaviours required.

We work in collaboration with in-house staff to implement organisation-wide programs using the following principles.

Holistic

A holistic approach is achieved through employing a systems perspective; that is, considering the inter-relatedness of staff behaviours and the structures, processes and policies needed to support and sustain these.

Strategic

A strategic focus is achieved through including resilience-building within relevant elements of the organisation’s strategic plan and values rather than being part of ‘duty of care’ activities that can confine it to an HR or OH&S responsibility.

Sustainable

Sustainability is achieved through up-skilling leadership and internal OD/HR staff to lead activity, as well as working at multiple levels of intervention (individual, team, leader and processes).  It also involves identifying and leveraging on resources and effective strategies that already exist and using evidence-based practice.

High Impact

High impact for minimum resource allocation is achieved through prioritising areas for attention and customising the strategies that are developed.

Cost Effective

A cost-effective program is achieved through maximising use of internal resources in leading the program and in ensuring a targeted approach  The focus is on embedding new behaviours, actions and systems – all of which are done as part of everyday work and not as a separate project that needs energy and resourcing.

Our Approach

Evidence-Based Strategies

We take an evidence-based approach to resilience-building based on:

  • Your specific needs and the organisational challenges you face that create a risk to resilience and sustainability.  Common examples are excessive workloads, major restructuring, expansion or downsizing, lack of agility in adapting to external demands and poor leadership.
  • Relevant research findings from the literature and from our own research.  We are influenced, in particular, by theories of organisational change and behaviour, occupational stress, positive psychology and clinical and community interventions in resilience-building.
  • More than 30 years experience consulting with leaders, staff and teams working in challenging jobs.  We have first hand experience of what creates high performance, as well as in-depth knowledge of the factors that can lead to non-coping, psychological distress and dysfunction.

A Systemic Approach

In-keeping with models of organisational behaviour and change our approach is to recognise the interrelatedness of all aspects of organisational life.  We believe that sustainable change is optimised through simultaneous investment in the individual, the team, and in the structures that support the team in managing the specific challenges of the operating environment.  As each team and organisation is unique a customised approach is required as a fixed menu of strategies cannot be effective.

We work with you to develop:

  • Leader behaviours that both support resilience in the teams they lead and create a culture conducive to both wellbeing and performance
  • Individual behaviours of staff that are conducive to personal resilience-building
  • Team behaviours that promote a culture of well being and resilience
  • Processes and structures within the organisation that support resilience such as protocols, resources, performance expectations, strategy, accountabilities, assessment processes, recognition and organisational structures
  • Assessment of risk factors in the operating environment that impact on resilience and identification of relationships with key stakeholders such as customers and funding agents that enhance capability.

Flexible Delivery

Interventions can be conducted at a team, division or whole of organisation level.  The methodologies used are blended to meet specific needs and budgets.  They can include individual and team resilience assessment, whole of organisation diagnostics, team and leader learning sets, team coaching and workshops, leader and employee individual coaching and on-line program delivery on employee resilience-building. There is no fixed formula and the scope of work is defined by you.

Partnering With In-House Staff to Build Resiliency

To promote sustainability we prefer to partner with in-house OD/HR or management staff in delivering in-house interventions.  Our approach is to provide the framework and resources and to mentor and support in-house staff in delivering what they are able to deliver within their capacity and capability.  This approach also promotes cost-effectiveness.

This often involves internal specialists such as OD staff undertaking R@W accreditation, enabling self-management of use of the R@W Toolkit.

What people are saying about our interventions…

“I just wanted to say thank you. I found the resilience program extremely beneficial for myself and my team. It really gave us a framework to pull the team together and to get focused on a positive future”.

CEO, Disability Sector