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Resilience training a practitioners guide

Matthew Smeed, Business Psychologist, Robertson Cooper

Over the last five years training to improve the resilience of staff in the workplace has undergone a
meteoric rise in popularity. It is perhaps not surprising during a prolonged recession that organisations
are more inclined to seek to increase their employees ability to cope with change and to bounce
back from setbacks effectively. But whilst organisations are commissioning resilience training in a bid to
drive sustainable levels of high performance, this is not the only motivating factor. Outside of the present
economic context, resilience is also becoming more widely recognised as a key driver of well-being and
as the basis of a set of skills that employees can continue to build and utilise throughout their career.

Whether you are an internal practitioner or an external trainer there is a number of things to consider
when planning a resilience training intervention - this piece will set these out and in doing so provide a
template for designing and delivering effective resilience training.

Top-down development

There is a number of ways to hardwire resilience into an organisation and each has its own pros and
cons. It is important to note that this hardwiring is not defined entirely by distinct delivery of training or
a specific intervention, rather training is often the most tangible and accessible tool for those looking
to address their resilience goals, or indeed any problem areas that may have been identified. Many
organisations opt to outsource this training process entirely, both because they may not have the internal
resources to design and develop it, and because it can also provide a starting point to build broader
behavioural repertoires around, accessing external expertise and using that expertise to inform a wider,
ongoing strategy. Another reason for outsourcing is that organisations often feel that training will be better
received if delivered by external and impartial experts, a view that is often based on the perceived risk of
employees interpreting new resilience initiatives as justification for, or a precursor to, increased workloads.

These days many organisations are opting for a train-the-trainer led approach, with their own trainers
delivering resilience sessions to the wider organisation, after themselves undertaking training with an
external specialist. This approach is more cost effective than outsourcing all training delivery, but does
inevitably use more organisational resources, in terms of the time required from the HR department
and its related functions. The principal advantage of a train-the-trainer model is the transference of
knowledge into the organisation itself, something which may be essential for resilience building strategies
in businesses with a large number of employees where the cost for external trainers to deliver to the entire
workforce, or even a percentage of it, is just not viable.

Bottom-up development

The popularity of Robertson Coopers free online resilience development tool i-resilience used by
over 30,000 people to date, shows that individual employees too are actively looking for a way to deal
with challenges such as change, uncertainty and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. If the goal of
resilience training is to deal effectively with these challenges, and to do so on a continuing basis, then the
tools and training programmes used must be fit for purpose.

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Building a training course to deliver your objectives

The starting point for any training programme is to consider your resilience goals. Do you want to build
the resilience of a specific group for example a key occupational group such as line managers, or one
which may be particularly vulnerable to high workloads and related stresses? Or do you have broader
goals for resilience across the organisation. The answer to this question will have a significant bearing on
whether the training is delivered by external providers or if there is a need to develop internal capability
(or a hybrid of the two). It will also inform the contextualisation of the training, including how resilience-
building techniques are applied to departmental or role-specific scenarios. For example, if line managers
already play a crucial role within the organisation, either in disseminating learning or holding particular
responsibility for the well-being of their staff, you may wish to target that particular group. Alternatively,
an organisation which has identified resilience as being particularly important from a customer service
perspective may wish to train a larger group of their frontline staff.

The aim of this piece is not to examine the full range of possible goals and circumstances that influence
resilience training; we want to highlight the importance of having the right conversations at the right time
to ensure clear goals are in place before resilience training is designed and rolled out. The first stage is to
define what a success for the organisation would look like in terms of building the resilience levels of staff.
This isnt a measure that sits in isolation, but should be linked to wider well-being goals and organisational
objectives. For example, is the aim to reduce levels of stress as well as having a positive effect on levels
of customer service? Do you want to see a reduction in sickness absence? This combination of objectives
will be unique to the organisation and it is crucial to define it precisely as it will affect all subsequent
decisions involved in the training design.

Flexible delivery

Time is fast becoming the most valuable commodity for all organisations, surpassing even the
importance of budget. A recent study by Opinion Matters 1 showed that although 93% of 500 leaders
surveyed intended to increase or maintain their current training budget over the next year, many didnt
feel a similar increase in staff time available for training was viable. With this in mind, there has been a
growing requirement for suppliers to deliver resilience training courses in a more flexible way. Financial
or operational considerations may mean employees cannot be spared for long periods of time but it
should also be noted that many people actually learn more effectively in bite-sized chunks, rather than
full-day sessions.

One approach that is commonly used where time is in short supply is e-learning. Employees can work
through these online programmes in their own time, making it a flexible approach which to an extent
negates the opportunity cost of traditional face-to-face training that requires a group of employees
to be in one room at a given time. So, e-learning can be highly cost-effective but by its nature is not
as comprehensive or effective for the transfer of learning, or hardwiring resilience. Blended e-learning
is often the best option, with learning being brought to life in training workshops and delegates also
continuing to access e-learning materials in their own time.

In some cases organisations are incorporating a resilience module into existing line manager training,
in order to develop the resilience of this key group (see the Atkins case study on page 27). This can save
costs and time compared with running a specific stand alone session on resilience. Line managers can
play a key role in supporting resilient organisations - encouraging employees to put into practice the skills
and behaviours they have learnt during their training and leading on the cultural shift required to embed
this within an organisation. It is also important that line managers understand the benefits and do not see

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this as an extra task to perform that brings with it more pressure (for more about this see page 21).

As an example of how this can work in practice, Robertson Cooper have recently re-designed their
resilience training to add more flexibility, both in terms of the time available for training delivery and the
content that can be incorporated for a particular team or group. Figure 1 below shows how the new
structure works. In the black boxes is the core resilience training content the essential elements which
are required to ensure effective learning outcomes. The coloured modules can then be used flexibly in
different contexts, depending on the client goals and specific pressures affecting a particular group
of staff.

Figure 1. A flexible resilience


training structure
Introduction to Resillience

Understanding your
workplace pressures

Confidence Adaptability Purposefulness Social Support

6 Essentials of
Bullying Workplace Well-Being Presenteeism

Making it stick...

This modular approach means the training can be delivered in short, focused courses based on one or
more of the topics. It also means we can tailor the approach to the needs of an organisation or team.
For example, if there is a particular hotspot that would benefit from the confidence module, this can be
targeted as such. By training in this way employees get the maximum personal value from the sessions
and organisations will optimise their investment by targeting real problems.

Based on the latest research

It is essential that training is based on the latest thinking in the area. This may sound obvious, but many
courses fail to integrate the latest developments from the academic world and even fewer take steps to
ensure that they are applicable on a practical level.

One example of how thinking has developed and influenced training practice is the introduction of the
concept of mindfulness into more traditional resilience training. Mindfulness has its origins in Buddhist
tradition, but has been creating waves recently as a way to alleviate stress/anxiety and to treat disorders
such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. It supports resilience training techniques by
helping people to focus on the present moment. Often resilience and stress management training

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programmes will focus on using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) alone to challenge thinking errors,
encouraging individuals to reframe their thoughts and words in a positive way. This works, but only if you
can catch the thoughts and challenge them before the automatic response kicks in. Most of the time
we run on a kind of autopilot, where our thoughts and feelings operate below the radar in the same
way that driving a car becomes unthinking with practice. Mindfulness helps us to stop and pay attention
to the present moment before reacting, giving us the time to put our resilience training in to practice.
Practicing mindfulness for only eight weeks has been found to result in the development of high levels of
awareness, a more positive attitude and even a better immune system.

Mindfulness is just one example of a more holistic approach that can be blended with traditional CBT-
based techniques to create a bespoke resilience training programme. When choosing or designing
a course you should make sure that it not only covers all of the areas you deem to be important to
resilience, but that these have been tried and tested in the working world.

Make it personal to the individual

Many training courses offer up a range of generic tips and techniques to cope with stress. This kind
of learning is useful up to a point, but a more effective approach is to tailor each programme and
address specific pressures faced by an individual in their workplace. This makes the benefits of stress
management techniques, for example, much more recognisable and as a result participants will be
far more engaged with the course. At Robertson Cooper we achieve this objective by incorporating
one of our diagnostic tools into the training programme. Using a short well-being questionnaire, we
diagnose levels of resilience, identify well-being hotspots and pinpoint the barriers to well-being in that
area. For example, it may show that resources and communication is a particular problem for one
team or department or even across the whole organisation. By profiling the pressures associated with
an individuals job we can ensure that the training resonates at a personal level. This means time is not
wasted discussing areas an individual is already skilled in dealing with, or on pressures to which they are
not exposed. Instead the training provides them with the tools and behaviours required to cope with their
own specific pressures.

It is also worth noting that if training content has been chosen with a keen focus on the specific
challenges faced by a particular group of employees, it is already more likely to resonate with the
individuals involved. Any additional techniques, such as diagnostic tools, then reinforce those links already
made by the individual. This is another example of the interdependence of the various aspects of
designing successful resilience training, and is a key determinant of successful programmes.

Fully evaluated

The final and possibly most important consideration in building a resilience training programme is how
the outcomes are evaluated against the goals that were identified at the start of the process. At the
simplest level, this is about testing whether the training has led to an increase in resilience levels across
those groups that were targeted. However, it is by linking this increase to other organisational goals and
performance metrics that real success can be measured. Not only will making these links enable better
organisational learning and inform future training programmes, but it will also help to build a business
case for continued investment.

Having a training evaluation model provides the focus that is essential when attempting to measure the
often wide-ranging impact of resilience interventions. There is a number of well known training evaluation

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models and they tend to follow a similar pattern adopting one of these standard approaches makes
it easier to benchmark programmes against each other and provide a foundation for continued
organisational learning and development.

The Kirkpatrick model is a one such framework, and one adapted by Robertson Cooper to evaluate
clients resilience training programmes. The framework covers the following five key levels:

Level 1: Reaction Do the delegates like the training, and are they engaged with the
content? At this initial reaction stage, do they intend to transfer what they have learned
about resilience into their day-to-day work?

Level 2: Learning What skills, knowledge or attitudes changed directly after the training?

Level 3: Training transfer Did the participants change their behaviours on-the-job,
based on what they learned on the course?

Level 4: Results Did the change in behaviour have a positive effect and most
importantly enable staff to achieve your wider organisational and well-being goals?

Level 5: Return on investment Was the training worth it? Can savings or increases in
productivity be linked to the impact of the training?

The first level is in many ways the easiest to put in place. With any training course it is essential that
the content is interesting and engaging for the individuals in the room. Building in the individual focus
discussed in the previous section increases the chances of achieving this aim. Evaluation of individuals
reaction to the training should happen as soon as possible after the content has been delivered in
order to give the most accurate reflection. It is also essential to evaluate the reaction to any follow-up or
ongoing support that is provided, for example e-learning.

Levels 2 and 3 are all about the delegates ongoing development. At a very minimum, you must make
sure that resilience levels are captured at the start of the training, at the end of the training and a certain
period of time after the course elapsed. Only by incorporating this from the start will you be able to
see whether individuals have taken what they have learned back into the workplace, and whether the
behavioural goals have been achieved. Resilience is all about doing things differently, such as reframing
negative thoughts, challenging thinking errors, setting realistic goals and adapting your approach to fit a
situation. A training programme just provides individuals with these types of skills, it is only then through the
experience of applying the techniques in real-life situations that they can truly master their own personal
resilience.

Transfer of training

There are various approaches that help to embed learning and encourage behavioural change. You
may want to provide learning materials for staff to use on an ongoing basis, or encourage the adoption
of a common framework that links resilience with individual and organisational objectives (see The 6
Essentials of Workplace Well-Being). Using techniques that are employed after training sessions to reinforce
and contextualise the learning also means that there are tangible processes which can be measured as
part of any evaluation.

Finally, we have levels 4 and 5 of the Kirkpatrick model Results and ROI. These are the most difficult
measures to put in place, and to influence, because the links are often more indirect. However, if

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you want to get the buy in of senior leadership, making the link to return on investment is vital. Most
organisations will already be tracking metrics such as sickness absence, turnover and performance
outputs. Identifying which of your existing measures could be affected by resilience training will help to
provide insight. It is also worth considering whether there are new outcomes you want to influence at this
point.

Summary

Successfully defining training objectives is a vital first step in designing resilience training, but simply
aiming for a general increase in resilience is not enough. Making links between resilience levels and
wider organisational and well-being objectives provides a focus for achieving tangible outcomes; in
addition it helps to provide more contextualised learning that can better encourage the adoption of new
behaviours.

The next stage is to find the best fit between those set objectives, the various training content and delivery
options and, importantly, the resources that are available to the organisation:

Sourcing an external supplier or delivering the training through the existing HR function;

The use of flexible delivery methods such as blended e-learning;

The tailored content you choose to add to the standard resilience elements,

Making the learning personal to the individual.

All of these aspects will have implications for both budget and the way learning is transferred into the
organisation.

Finally, evaluating the training programme, at a number of levels from the individual to the impact on
organisational goals is imperative to build a clear picture of the effectiveness of the provision. This not
only helps to demonstrate ROI, which is in most cases required for continued investment, but should also
drive future development and the fine tuning of both resilience training and wider well-being provision.

Implementing resilience training within an organisation can be a daunting task given the range of options
available in terms of content, its delivery, and the myriad of ways that building resilience can feed
into wider organisational goals. However, by considering the key aspects of the training design process
that have been presented in this piece, organisations will have the best chance of improving levels
of resilience among employees and creating a base for a continuing resilience strategy, one that is
evaluated and evolves dynamically. For many organisations, achieving this goal is often the gateway to
further investment in well-being and the first step in embedding a truly resilient culture in the workplace.

Matthew Smeed
Business Psychologist,
Robertson Cooper

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