Some – though not all – leaders of organizations — maybe your’s — maybe you (!) will object to the thought of resilience…What’s the big deal? Who needs to be resilient? Resilience implies some sort of change process, doesn’t it? Change is hard! Why would anyone want to be subjected to change or to learning something about being or becoming resilient?!
In short – you don’t have to.
Resilience resonates with me in mass. But don’t just take my word for it, here’s what William Clay Ford Jr (Executive Chairman) had to say about resilience following Ford Motor Company’s post-2008 global financial crisis recovery:
“The number one factor in getting here is our culture; our people pulled this off.”
I know, he didn’t say “resilient”, he only said “culture”. Now, what did Diane Craig, CEO of Ford Canada have to say about the most important aspects of Ford culture? Craig points to “emotional resilience” on the back of the ONE FORD card and states:
“This all came at a time when we needed that vision, clarity and consistency of purpose. It’s really the way [Alan Mulally, CEO Ford Motor Company] changed the culture and especially the level of transparency that is in our business today. He established the process and the discipline, and he took the fear out of the culture, enabling people to speak up and to talk about what needed to be fixed. You can’t manage a secret. It didn’t happen overnight, but it has certainly evolved over time to enable people to really be themselves, and I think that has brought out the best in people.”
Want to learn more about how you and your organization can move beyond surviving to thriving? Check out my new book: “Resilience; How culture impacted the rebirth of Ford Motor Company”
