This document provides an overview of building resilience at both the personal and team level. It discusses defining resilience as maintaining performance and well-being during adversity. The presentation emphasizes that resilience is about adapting to change, not being immovable. It offers strategies for building personal resilience such as reducing multitasking, exercising, activating the parasympathetic nervous system through relaxation, and practicing gratitude. For building team resilience, it recommends using strengths-based approaches and measuring team energy for change.

1. Building resilience in a
world of uncertainty
Rosanna Hunt, Ph.D.
rosanna.hunt@nhs.net
@rosielhunt

2. • Defining resilience
• Building personal resilience
• Building team resilience
This presentation is
about….
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt rosanna.hunt@nhs.net

3. “Resilience at work can be described as the capability to maintain
high performance and positive well-being. Resilient individuals are
able to sustain successful performance and positive wellbeing in
the face of adverse conditions, and to recover from or adjust easily
to misfortune or change.”
Robertson Cooper (2013)
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt rosanna.hunt@nhs.net

4. “It’s snowing still”, said Eeyore
gloomily.
“So it is.”
“And freezing.”
“Is it?”
“Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he
said, brightening up a little, “we
haven’t had an earthquake lately.”
A.A. Milne. Winnie the Pooh
RESILIENCE AND REFRAMING
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt rosanna.hunt@nhs.net

5. RESILIENCE IS NOT ABOUT BEING TOUGH
OR IMMOVABLE
 “It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can
get hit, and keep moving forward. ” (Rocky Balboa!)
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt @rosielhunt

6.  “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor
the most intelligent, but the most responsive to
change.” (Charles Darwin)
RESILIENCE IS ABOUT BEING ABLE TO
ADAPT TO CHANGE
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt @rosielhunt

7. The nature of human memory
• Basal ganglia (routine, familiar
activity)
• The prefrontal cortex (takes in new
information and matches it against
old = rational thought)
• The energy involved in detecting
“errors” when something is
different – takes place in the
orbital frontal cortex
• Fear circuitry is in the amygdala
IMPACT OF CHANGE ON THE BRAIN
SOURCE: CIPD Presenter: Rosanna Hunt @rosielhunt
ORBITAL FRONTAL
CORTEX

8. ‘In this world nothing
is certain but death
and taxes.’
Benjamin Franklin
A WORLD OF UNCERTAINTY

9. What personal strategies do you
have for building your resilience?
Share them!
TABLE DISCUSSIONS

10. • Reduce multi tasking & find your “flow”
• Sleep & exercise
• Activate the parasympathetic nervous system
• Practice gratitude
Building personal
resilience

12. Reduce multi-tasking and find focusREDUCE MULTI TASKING AND
FIND YOUR FLOW
“Do what you can, with what you have,
where you are”
Theodore Roosevelt
Two key scientific benefits of meditation practice:
1. It strengthens the brain’s ability to move from one focus of attention to
another
2. It improves the brain’s ability to resist distractions
Richard Davidson – Neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

13. • Exercise, such as taking a brisk walk shortly after feeling
stressed, not only deepens breathing but also helps
relieve muscle tension.
• Walking meetings
• Tiredness and stress are linked!
Exercise
“sitting is the new smoking” BBC 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36411403#
SLEEP & EXERCISE

14. “The sympathetic nervous system functions like a gas pedal in a
car. It triggers the fight-or-flight response, providing the body
with a burst of energy so that it can respond to perceived
dangers. The parasympathetic nervous system acts like a brake.
It promotes the “rest and digest” response that calms the body
down after the danger has passed”
http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response
Stress is caused by over-activation of the
sympathetic nervous systemSTRESS IS CAUSED BY OVER ACTIVATION
OF THE SYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM

15. “Okay, your posture’s very
good. Now, relax,
concentrate, and slowly let
go of your mobile phone”

16. • Relaxation Response Training reduces anxiety and depression (third-
highest causes of US health costs after heart disease and cancer -which
also are affected by stress).
• 4400 study participants had an average reduction of 43 percent in their
use of health care services in the year after RRT
Relaxation Response and Resiliency Training and Its Effect on Healthcare Resource
Utilization. Stahl et al Oct 2015. Journal Plos One
• Relaxation Response Training includes deep abdominal breathing,
focus on a soothing word (such as “peace” or “calm”), visualization of
tranquil scenes, repetitive prayer, yoga, and tai chi.
Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind
Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.
ACTIVATE THE PARASYMPATHETIC
NERVOUS SYSTEM

17. GratitudePRACTICE GRATITUDE
Gratitude improves psychological health.
- reduces toxic energy such as envy, frustration and regret
- increases happiness and reduces depression
Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., - research on gratitude and well-being
Gratitude improves self-esteem.
- increases athlete’s self-esteem - an essential component of
optimal performance Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 2014
- reduces social comparisons
- able to appreciate – not envy other people’s successes
Gratitude increases mental strength.
- reduces stress and increases capacity to overcome trauma
http://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/11/23/7-scientifically-proven-benefits-of-
gratitude-that-will-motivate-you-to-give-thanks-year-round/#145a2cf56800

18. • Use strengths-based approaches
• Build Energy for change
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt @rosielhunt
Building TEAM
resilience
Psychological
Physical
Spiritual
Social Intellectual

19. Team leader identifies the change that
they want to measure energy for
TEAM DEVELOPMENT TOOL:
The SSPPI Energy Index
Psychological
Physical
Spiritual
Social Intellectual
“With alarming
regularity, we find
that team
members do not
know what
energises the other
people in their
own team”

20. TEAM DEVELOPMENT TOOLS: Some
strengths based approaches
Presenter: Rosanna Hunt @rosielhunt
• Gallup strengths finder
• Inner Skills & Landscapes of the Mind
• Or just ask: what are you most looking
forward to this week?

21. Change
‘All great literature is
one of two stories; a
man goes on a journey
or a stranger comes to
town.’
Leo Tolstoy

22. “Go for no!”
- And learn from it
Our mantra on the School for
Heath and Care Radicals:
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