This Technique Builds Team Resilience In 15 Minutes

This Technique Builds Team Resilience In 15 Minutes

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If the past few years are an indicator, adapting to changing conditions and recovering quickly from shocks and stresses is a critical capability for companies today. But according to recent findings from McKinsey & Co., truly resilient organizations don’t just “bounce back better: they actually thrive in hostile environments.”

To get your teams on the road to resilience, lead them through a technique known as That’s Great. After guiding clients in pharma, manufacturing, and entertainment through this exercise, it’s been known to win over even the most hardened of cynics.

If you’re gathered in-person, divide the room into groups of three to four people and ask each group to huddle, bringing along just one chair. If you’re meeting remotely, send people into virtual breakout rooms of three to four people — minus the chair.

Inform all participants that everyone will take turns acting as C.E.O. of any company of their choosing. While one person role-models as C.E.O., the other members of their group will present at least three alarming issues that need immediate attention.

Once you’re in the C.E.O. chair, you must reply to every issue by saying “That’s great!” and then make a case for why the issue is a positive development, not a negative. Responding in the affirmative keeps people in a can-do mindset, which is key for building resilience.

To illustrate, let’s imagine that you’re C.E.O of a shipping company and your team just informed you of a nationwide rail strike. For this exercise, you’d respond cheerfully with “That’s great! Now we can start getting R.O.I. on that fleet of driverless cargo trucks we acquired last year!” Another sample response could be “That’s great! Let’s see which air cargo company we can partner with to remedy this!”

A couple parameters to keep in mind: Since it’s a skill-building exercise, not an episode of Law and Order, none of the company’s issues should involve death or illegal activity. Also, every participant must act as C.E.O. at least once.

Building agility and resilience across your company results in employees who are trained to respond — and succeed — amid volatility and change. By conditioning people to respond calmly and with optimism to adversity, you’re preparing them for future challenges. Because the more often you encourage teams to find opportunity amid crisis, the more resilient they’ll be when they’re no longer in a simulation.

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