Resilience allows one to cope with adversity in four phases: eroding, reconciling, navigating, and thriving. Those with poor resilience succumb or become disabled when faced with hardship. The document outlines seven principles for building resilience: connecting to meaning, using strengths, maintaining perspective, generating positive feelings, realistic optimism, flexibility, and connecting with others. It also maps these principles to different levels of consciousness.

1. Resilience: the crucial
ingredient for cultural change
and personal alignment
Rod Warner
rod@buildingresilience.co.za
www.buildingresilience.co.za
http://www.facebook.com/groups/buildingresilience
082 456 0819

2. Experiencing adversity with resilience:
Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity
Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications
Phase 3: Navigating - moving forward and dealing with the issues
Phase 4: Thriving - experiencing enhanced resourcefulness and strength
Adversity
Usual encountered
Thriving
conditions
Navigating
Eroding
Reconciling
f ol eve L
Time
© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission

3. Experiencing adversity with poor
resilience
Phase 1: Eroding - encountering and assigning meaning to the adversity
Phase 2: Reconciling - coming to terms with the impact and implications
Phase 3: Succumb - overwhelmed; dysfunctional coping
Phase 4: Disabled - resistance; survival coping or “stuck”
Adversity
Usual encountered
conditions
Disabled:
survival coping or
“stuck”
Eroding
Reconciling
Succumb:
er f ol eve L
dysfunctional
coping
Time
© Copyright Performax Consulting 2006 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission

4. What is meant by “resilience”?
•Task focused and productive whilst
experiencing tough times
•“Bouncing back”
•Emerging stronger and more resourceful

5. •© Copyright Building Resilience 2009 No part of this material may be copied, stored in a retrieval system, displayed or distributed without written permission

7. Building Resilience Principles
1. Connect to your meaning in life
2. Use your unique strengths
3. Maintain perspective
4. Generate positive feelings
5. Be realistically optimistic
6. Persevere by being open minded and flexible
7. Reach out to others

8. Levels of consciousness and resilience principles
Levels of Consciousness Resilience principles
Service Connect to your meaning in life
Making a difference Reach out to others
Internal Cohesion Connect to your meaning in life
Transformation Use your unique strengths
Self Esteem Maintain perspective
Generate positive feelings
Be realistically optimistic
Relationships Reach out to others
Survival Persevere by being open minded and
flexible

9. Levels of consciousness and elements of resilience
Levels of Resilience Resilience elements
Consciousness principles
Forgives oneself and others and does not harbour grudges
Service Connect to your Lives life in such a way as to leave a legacy
meaning in life
Meets the needs of loved ones for intimacy, communication and support
Making a Reach out to Reaches out to other people to provide help and support
Sensitive to the feelings, needs and motivations of others
difference others
Feels own life has purpose
Internal Connect to your Undertakes activities which are meaningful
Believes that one has the resources to cope with the problems one
Cohesion meaning in life encounters in life
Lives life with integrity living up to espoused values
Is trusting and trustworthy
Feels connected to significant issues, such as people; causes; faith
Has life goals
Takes incremental activities to achieve life goals
Views adversity as having a higher purpose and meaning
Maintains a healthy work/home balance
Transformation Use your unique Has structured ways of learning from adversity and mistakes
Develops own skill sets
strengths Keeps current in areas of expertise
Understand own strengths and own vulnerabilities
Realistically optimistic about own capabilities and limits
Draws strength from having overcome previous adversities
Accepts self
Deals productively with own strong emotional feelings
Identifies and avoids the thinking which triggers persistent negative
thoughts

10. Levels of consciousness and elements of resilience
Levels of Resilience Resilience elements
Consciousness principles
Is realistically optimistic
Self Esteem Maintain Resists persistent ruminative thinking
perspective Maintains an overall positive attitude
Is optimistic in the face of challenges
Generate Open to listening to people with different views when problem solving
positive Takes considered risks
feelings Priorities effectively
Flexible when problem solving
Be realistically Persistent in seeking solutions
optimistic
Maintains close relationships with loved ones
Relationships Reach out to Communicates well with family and friends
Maintains close relationships with friends
others Resolves conflicts and disagreements
Shares confidences with trusted others
Easily accepts assistance and support from others
Engages in enjoyable, relaxing and recharging activities
Survival Persevere by
being open
minded and
flexible

11. Building Resilience Principles
1. Connect to your meaning in life
2. Use your unique strengths
3. Maintain perspective
4. Generate positive feelings
5. Be realistically optimistic
6. Persevere by being open minded and flexible
7. Reach out to others

12. Values shift and change
Step 1: What would you like to achieve or
change?
Step 2: What are you doing that makes
achieving this goal difficult?
Step 3: What do you fear would happen if you
did the opposite to Step 2?
Step 4: What is the big assumption on which the
fear in Step 3 is based?
Step 5: What small step can you take right now
towards achieving your goal?

13. Weight loss
Step 1: What? Lose 10kg weight
Step 2: Doing now? Very strict diet leading to
hunger followed by binging
Step 3: Fear if did opposite? Only dramatic diets
will work for me
Step 4: Assumption? I lack will power to stick to
a diet for the long run
Step 5: Small step? Test the assumption with a
gentle and gradual diet for a short period

14. Bureaucracy
Step 1: What? Increase personal responsibility
Step 2: Doing now? Don't volunteer; very
cautious; stick to rules; hide mistakes
Step 3: Fear if did opposite? Blamed and
punished for mistakes
Step 4: Assumption? Mistakes are punished and
career limiting
Step 5: Small step? Take small risks and admit to
small mistakes and see what happens

16. Summary
Resilience is needed to enable
culture shift and personal
alignment

17. Thank you
Rod Warner
rod@buildingresilience.co.za
www.buildingresilience.co.za
http://www.facebook.com/groups/buildingresilience
082 456 0819