Resilience in Motion: Embracing Change with Confidence

By Corporate Education

Resilience Training: Needed Now More Than Ever

Today, more than ever in recent history, we are confronting the unknown. Our responses can range from anxiety to outright debilitating fear. The norms we once relied on to keep our lives predictable and within our control have been fundamentally challenged. This disruption activates our innate survival instincts—our brains are wired to perceive change, whether expected or sudden, as a potential threat. As a result, many of us find ourselves trapped in a constant state of fight, flight, or fear due to civil unrest, and economic instability. These pressures feel overwhelming and unsurmountable to many.

Stress and uncertainty contribute to performance anxiety and diminished focus. Beyond impacting personal life, they significantly affect productivity in the workplace. Businesses are responding by laying off employees, closing permanently, and those remaining are struggling to sustain business performance at viable levels.

This crisis is nationwide. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), stress acts as a silent terrorist within our bodies. Healthcare costs are nearly 50% higher for employees experiencing elevated stress levels. Our workplaces, clients, and vendors are all adapting to a new and often unfamiliar playing field. Meanwhile, traditional opportunities and time for relaxation and stress relief have become increasingly scarce or financially out of reach.

What does the research say?

Research indicates that understanding the stages of stress, change and transition facilitates greater ability to adapt to the changes. Learning stress management tools helps you design self-care practices. Resilience enables organizations to cope effectively with unexpected events, bounce back from crises, and foster future success. While flexibility and agility are necessary, resilience is the critical success factor to deal with unexpected crises because it includes adaptation to exit crises stronger than before. This characteristic distinguishes resilience from the simple ability to maintain function, despite disruptions.

Three main perspectives distinguish organizational resilience. The first is an organization’s ability to resist adverse situations and return to a “normal”. The second is an organization’s ability to recover from impacts that exceed the firm’s coping range. The third looks beyond the maintenance and restoration of organizational functionality and focuses on process advancement.

In Harvard Business Review’s Article Resilience: Continuous Renewal of Competitive Advantages, organizational resilience is defined as an organization’s ability to anticipate potential threats, to cope effectively with adverse events, and to adapt to changing conditions. “Resilient businesses focus on speed, discipline, and flexible adaptation.”  The paper also states that “the changing landscape will demand a more flexible adaptation to business and that companies need to “build a muscle” composed of three capabilities. 

1. Strengthening the speed and execution they have experienced over the last 60 to 90 days.

2. Increase the pace and quality of skill building through upskilling sales teams, frontline managers, and other company customer-facing employees of the organization.

3. Develop the ability to handle uncertainty through real-time monitoring and iterative testing of operating plans. 

CPTC Corporate Education offers a solution to help your organization and employees cope with the stress and uncertainty, and work positively through change.  And we bring this program out to your business either through in-person training or through an interactive live virtual experience.  

We train and coach you on these practical and effective action steps:

• Quieting your limbic system
• Employing tools to stay positive
• Knowing “what you know” and “don’t know”
• Embracing what you cannot control
• Focusing on solutions
• Creating contingency plans
• Resisting the need for perfection
• Reflecting (mentally or journal) 
• Avoiding “shoulding” on yourself 

CorpEd’s training program focuses on these topics:

• How brain science and stress are intertwined with change
• Ways the triune brain responds to stress
• Practical skills for managing stress
• Three stages of change and transition
• Strategies for communication during difficult times
• Managing mental and physical health in challenging times

How do we structure the program at your business?

Session #1 for large group: 1.5 hours

We begin with the whole group at a live or virtual all-hands meeting for 1.5 hours. The facilitator will have already interviewed a few selected leaders to learn the big picture about change and challenges at your organization. This large group session will launch an introduction and transparent discussion on the above topics.

Breakout Small Group Sessions for follow up training and application

We will address practically how change and stress can be responded to through resilience with three 2-hour follow up sessions for 10-15 ppl each, to provide customized support and application on dealing with stress, change and resilience. We will cover strategies and self-assessment tools with real time practices to engage in. The smaller groups create a format for personal interaction and each participant will work on a personal resilience plan.

For more information, contact:

CPTC Executive Director, Don Sosnowski at 253-583-8860 | donald.sosnowski@cptc.edu

CPTC Business Development Manager, Steven Kovacs at 253-583-8865 | steven.kovacs@cptc.edu