Tod Treat

Editor's Note: Originally posted April 21, 2016.

Lately I have been reflecting on the characteristics that enable organizations and individuals to respond to change – whether of the turbulent, disruptive or more incremental ilk. While response to change is a common topic in the literature, practice is another matter. As is so often the case, I find myself integrating some of my running experiences with professional experiences and the recurring concept of resiliency.

In the athletic world, resiliency refers to the ability of the body to undergo stressors without breakdown. Factors include strength, flexibility, endurance, and recovery time. These can be developed through intentional training and careful attention to ensuring that stress does not exceed the ability of the body to withstand it but is increased systematically to allow the body to adapt. Intention also means particular attention paid to the core, such that the body can make rapid adjustments and balance forces in opposition — the pounding of pavement, resistance, and speed. Finally, there is a very definite mental component to athletic resiliency. High-performing athletes visualize performance and develop an ability to withstand extreme pain and oxygen deprivation in order to achieve desired performance goal.

All of these attributes are equally appropriate when considering an individual’s response to institutional stresses. As an administrator for example, the opportunity exists to develop “thick-skin,” to withstand verbal and mental stressors, to develop communication and problem-solving skills to realize particular performance goals, and to develop experience and past practices that allow “visualization” of how a particular circumstance could best be addressed. Most issues are not novel, but fit into categories or archetypes that can be intentionally framed in an ongoing effort to optimize one’s administrative practice.

While development of administrative resiliency can be an important goal and can be intentionally developed, it is not the resilient administrator who jumps off the page, but the administrator who has lost resiliency. In the past several months for example as instances that should be familiar to me have arisen, I find myself reacting badly – defensively, reactively, and sometimes even unprofessionally. These are not my normal practices, and they are not the normal practices of administrators who work for me. Whether I’m looking in the mirror or observing others, such behaviors are a sign that institutional stressors have exceeded the resiliency of the administrator. Like a canary in a coalmine, loss of individual resiliency is a sign that something is wrong.

Similar positive and negative examples are easy to spot organizationally. A resilient organization is one that takes institutional stressors in stride – openly, adaptively, transparently, and collectively. Communication and problem-solving skills are directed to the problem and teams, both formal and informal, coalesce around addressing the issues. Resilient organizations can maintain flexibility and responsiveness for a longer duration and under a greater amount of pressure than those that lack resiliency. By contrast, organizations that have lost resiliency short-circuit, groups retreat from one another and resort to blame. Trust erodes, expectations sink. Morale suffers.

One cannot escape the logical conclusion that organizations have primary stressors just as individuals do. For individuals, moving, losing (or starting) a job, having children, or getting married (or divorced) are all shown to be primary stressors. What are primary stressors for organizations? Certainly a new institutional leader and adoption of the new technology would make the list. So too would new (or unknown) financial circumstances. Finally, like marriage or divorce, significant employee turnover would fit the bill. An institution beset by all of these stressors at once is likely to lose resiliency.

Resilient administrators and college personnel create resilient organizations. Prolonged stressors degrade this capability. Our responsibility as administrators is to look in the mirror, recognize when our capacity is degraded, and self-correct, self-care, and create spaces to heal, while simultaneously providing the opportunity, support, appreciation, and guidance for others to likewise restore resilience. This is our obligation.