Resilience in the workplace: how to keep going when change gets hard

The problem

The start of a change has energy. There's a launch, a reason, a sense of momentum.

Then comes the middle. The new system has teething problems. The old way is gone but the new way doesn't work yet. A key person leaves. Results dip before they improve. People get tired, and slowly start sliding back to what they know.

Every change hits this point. The question isn't whether it will get hard. It's what you've agreed, before it does, about how you'll get through it together.

The story

In the Southern Ocean, I hit a point where I didn't think I could keep going. The conditions were brutal, everyone was exhausted, and there was still another month at sea ahead. I couldn't see how we'd get through it.

Ian, our first mate, said something I've never forgotten. "Don't think about the next month. One watch at a time. What do we need to do in the next four hours?" (On a boat, a watch is your shift on deck, usually around four hours.)

That conversation didn't change the Southern Ocean. It changed how I saw it, and that changed what I did next.

Core Truths

Resilience is built before the storm. Teams that cope well under pressure have usually agreed how they'll behave long before the pressure arrives.

Shrink the horizon. When the whole change feels too big, focus on the next watch. What do we need to do in the next four hours, this week, this sprint?

Values only help if they're lived. A list on a wall does nothing. When everything went wrong on our family voyage, what came to mind straight after the first reaction was our values, because we'd talked about them every day. Values shape behaviours, behaviours become actions, and actions create outcomes.

Safe teams recover faster. Google studied 180 of its teams to find out what made the best ones different.¹ The answer wasn't talent. It was whether people felt safe enough to admit mistakes and speak up early.

Use what people are brilliant at. Under pressure, teams fixate on gaps. Strengths go unnoticed, often by the people who have them, because what comes naturally feels unremarkable.

Energy is a resource. Humour, play and small wins aren't a distraction from the change. They're what keeps people going through it.

The conversation with yourself

• What puts me at my best when things are hard? Sleep, exercise, time alone, time with people?
• When I'm under pressure, what do I do that makes it harder for others?
• What do I do well that this team needs from me right now?
• What's my "next watch"? What's the one thing that matters in the next few days?

The conversation with your team

Allow 40 minutes. Choose two of these four, depending on what your team needs most.

1. What's helped us through before? Go round the group: "Tell us about a time you really struggled, and what helped you through it." Listen without fixing. You'll find people cope in very different ways, and the team learns what each person needs.
2. Make your values specific. Pick two or three of your team or company values. For each, ask: "What does this look like when things are hard? What would we actually see someone do?" A value like "respect" becomes "we say it to your face, not behind your back." That's the difference between a skinny value and a fat one.
3. Who brings what? Each person names one thing they've seen each colleague do brilliantly. Write them down and give them to the person. Then ask: "Where could we use these strengths more in this change?"
4. One watch at a time. When the whole change feels overwhelming, agree the focus for just the next week. What matters most? What can wait?

Finish by agreeing one small thing the team will do to keep its energy up: a weekly win, a walking meeting, a reason to laugh.

Not leading the change? You don't need to lead the team to start this. Next time things get hard, ask a colleague: “What's helped you through tough stretches before?” Then share yours.

Depth Check

1. We haven't talked about how we'll get through the hard part.
2. We've talked about it once or twice, usually in a crisis.
3. We've talked, but we haven't agreed how we'll behave under pressure.
4. We've agreed it, but we don't yet live it day to day.
5. When it gets hard, we know how we'll respond, and we do.

What would it take to move one level deeper this week?

Your commitment

My "next watch" this week is:

The strength I'll name in a colleague is:

Questions people ask

How do you build resilience in the workplace during change?

Agree before the hard part how the team will behave under pressure, learn what helps each person cope, use people's strengths, and shrink the horizon to the next few days when the whole change feels too big.

What does a resilient team look like?

People feel safe to admit mistakes early, they know what helps each other through tough stretches, and when pressure rises they stay steady and focus on the next step rather than the whole problem.