Tod Treat

Stay in the saddle: resilient responses to setback.

One of my favorite quotes is by Louis Pasteur who noted that chance favors the prepared mind.

As a scientist, I am trained to see systems and processes in very biochemical ways. System is perturbed by an agonist or antagonist, cascades of reaction ensue, processes speed or slow, and ideally foreseen outcomes are reached. On the other hand, my graduate work in human resource development includes a considerable amount of reflection around social construction and the certainty that what we humans build will not follow natural scientific response, precisely because we built it. In fact, recent political climate has led to significant discussion around attacks on Truth, or more precisely attacks on truths. In their book Truth Decay, Jennifer Kavanaugh and Michael D. Rich (2018) identify four drivers for these variances: cognitive bias, changes in information systems including social media, lack of information fluency due to inability of educational systems to keep up, and political social polarization. In short, culture creates belief systems that superimpose themselves over objective reality. For many reasons, I don’t much like this erosion of rationality even as I watch it transpire daily in my work.

What does this have to do with Pasteur and chance?

Discoveries such as pasteurization, penicillin, Post-it notes, and the myriad of other transformational developments came as part of scientific processes punctuated by a good dose of serendipity, that is chance. Pasteur was open to discoveries outside the scientific system and recognized that careful observation, careful listening, good notetaking, and persistence mattered almost as much as great technique and scientific method.

Staying in the saddle- persisting, watching, and learning- while remaining open to chance sets us up for the best opportunity for success, even when the unexpected occurs. In fact, the opportunity exists not only to survive but to flourish – to make lemonade out of lemons. Al Siebert (2005), author of The Resiliency Advantage describes this as a resiliency skill,

Serendipity is an advanced-level resiliency skill. Individuals with many basic resiliency strengths are often able to convert a life-disrupting experience into one of the best things that ever happened. This is more than bouncing back; while struggling to cope with a life-disrupting event, you find new strengths and may discover unexpected opportunities. You see that you can take your life or your career in a new direction that would not have opened up to you without the disruptive event. The adversity creates an opportunity for taking your life in a different and better direction than you expected (p. 158).

One never knows what is just around the corner, but the random surprise has a much better chance of being a great opportunity when you are prepared for the unexpected.