Aiming for Unshakable Part I
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An Unshakable team is adaptable and relishes challenges. An Unshakable organisation treats resilience and well-being as part of every result.
What’s needed to become Unshakable? The levels apply to individuals, teams, leadership, companies and sectors, and provide some guidance.
Fragile
Pressure causes a tailspin. Many people get dragged into the drama. Restoration is difficult and costly. Scars are felt for years.
I recently spoke to a HSEQ Manager. They had 2 suicides a week apart. Tragic loss of life. Unmeasurable, lifelong impact on their families, friends and peers. Camp was shut down for weeks. A supervisor took 6 months off to deal with grief and feelings of guilt and responsibility. The company was bracing for the 12-month anniversary. This time of year will never be the same for them. Aside from the unmeasurable human costs, there are significant legal and economic risks too. Suicide is a worst-case scenario, but every instance of stress leave, mental illness, loss of focus or rumination on problems has a tail and a cost. People want to get out of the fragile state, but often can’t see how.
Cost of Fragile:
Time: picking up the pieces, holding things together
Happiness/engagement: Well-being and resilience declining. Engagement may seem high as people try to ‘rescue’ each other or the situation, but stress and unhappiness are rising.
Status: People can bond over drama which creates more drama.
Money: Increased cost. Opportunities lost.
Reactive
Like‘whack-a-mole’. No plan, no strategy, trying to stay ahead of the game. Reactive is productive but easy to disrupt. Exhaustion is common - no light at the end of the tunnel. Proactive work goes out the window. Action-oriented people find the rush of ‘fixing on the fly’ addictive. In monotonous environments, reactive feels important and purposeful. Time pressure and addictive appeal can make it hard to shift.
Cost of Reactive:
Time: Wasted on immediate fixes not underlying causes.
Happiness/engagement: Well-being and resilience low. The buzz of overcoming hurdles falls away as stress, lack of progress and exhaustion kick in.
Status: Short term praise for quick fixes. Long term reputation for last minute, chaotic action.
Money: Short, focused bursts for unanticipated workload or issues can be useful. Long term, everything happens on the fly. High turnover, balls dropped, do overs, wasted time – all hurts bottom line.
Where do you and your team lie?
Next week we’ll look at the more effective levels Resolute, Cohesive and Unshakable.
More from Mike
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+61 423 193 196