How to leverage resilience to create transformation
I know of three distinct types of resilience:
Bounce back resilience, which is when we return to our previous state.
Adaptive resilience, which is about testing, learning and editing as a result of a challenge.
And transformative resilience - which a is a step further.
Transformative resilience is about using a challenge or difficulty as an opportunity to evolve and not just edit our behaviour or a habit, but completely change who we are. So where adaptive resilience might be like a tree finding a way to grow out of rock, you could say transformative resilience is like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar growing to become butterfly.
It’s a radical shift. It’s becoming something different.
In leadership and career terms, this could mean taking a Covid-19 challenge and choosing to transform. For example:
- Having proven working remotely works, making permanent changes to how you use office space
- Taking the moment to pause, reflect and notice that your job isn’t the right one. Plan a career change.
You have a choice as you test your resilience muscles right now - recovering back to your original state isn’t the only option. Consider using the challenge of this past few months as an opportunity to adapt or transform.
