Resilience Management

Welcome to the Transforming Stress with Dr Ash podcast. Day two, Funilla. Amazing.

It's good to be back, Ash. Thanks so much. I'm Funilla Featherston here with Ash doing the Thriving Through Crisis. And from the lovely Glasgow in Scotland. Yes, it's a bit drizzly outside, but it's warm in here.

So, Funilla, today we are on day two. Yeah. We are going to discuss about the resilience management, which is the second section of the boiling frog framework. Yes. And when I say resilience, my earliest recollections of resilience is when the when the going gets tough. The tough get going.

Okay. And this is the idea that you just hang on in, maybe kind of grimly or So it's much, much deeper.

Yeah. Okay. Much profound.

Yeah.

Much more intricate than just hanging in there.

Yeah. So it sounds like there's a lot for us to scope. And looking at the picture that we have here, I'm really intrigued. So we've got this tree, and the tree is self-management, which is where we were yesterday.

So the resilience tree is something I've created. Yeah. And as you can see, the trunk of the tree is very much the self-management. Yeah. And the roots of the trees will go into self-belief, different aspects of self-care, self-compassion. And the five foundational pillars of resilience, which are the emotional intelligence, social intelligence, having a growth mindset, so important. Adaptive response in tough situations. Yeah. And finally having resourcefulness. So what we are going to do is to have a bigger picture view of all these skills. Yeah. And then we will have a deeper dive into all the skills for our listeners today.

Amazing. So we've got this tree that symbolizes resilience. And we're going to think about how that can be rooted firmly. And that's partly in what we were talking about yesterday and our work on the self. And today we're moving into something that's a bit more team-oriented as well at points because we're going to be talking about social intelligence and how everything plays out once we're in an organization and working with other people.

Definitely there is a big element to that, Funella. Even in the nature, you see there is a huge amount of synergy. Yeah. If you see the tree, the tree, the way the tree is interacting with the entire environment. Yes. With the with the ground, with the roots. Yeah. And with the birds and animals. Yeah. So there is a whole ecosystem out there. Absolutely. There is nothing exists in isolation. Yeah. But it all builds on each other. Like yesterday we spoke about different aspects of self-management, which is awareness, reflection, self-care, self-discipline, accountability. Today we talk about emotional intelligence, but then social intelligence builds on the emotional intelligence.

Yes, because there's something in there about our knowledge about ourselves, what's going on in here, what data can we gather about our emotional weather, how we're communicating. And I love the analogy that you're using of the tree and ecosystems around the tree. There's been so much great research recently into trees, and below the soil there's as much tree again. So the root systems are enormous and they inc interconnect with other trees and they send biochemical messages. And trees are constantly regulating themselves and sharing resources with other trees and creating networks underground and as well as above ground because they're all of the creatures and the weather and everything else that they're interacting with. So that this is an even better metaphor when we start to consider those things.

That's really fascinating. I didn't know did not know about all these intricasies.

Yeah. Trees are communicating with each other. That's so much more complex than we thought. Yes. And when we take a deep dive into the research around resilience, we find increasing complexity, and that's what you're unearthing here. This is what you're exposing, which is so helpful.

And there's no wonder that people who have support networks. Yeah. Strong support networks which are meaningful are far more resilient when life throws curve balls. Yeah.

Yeah. We're talking about being really proactive, aren't we? We're talking about creating a great soil for the tree to be in. We're talking about the tree being in an environment where there are those other trees that the tree is set up to communicate with. And there's all sorts of communication going on underground there. So we're looking to get this sturdy, beautiful tree that has branches that can reach out and capture light and feed the tree even more, those beautiful roots that are bringing water into the tree. So we're looking to create something that before the first puff of wind can really stand there quite solidly. And it's going to weather those storms. That's what we want for ourselves. That's what we want to be able to do. And to be able to share our resources with others and build something that's really beautiful.

Yes. When you when you mentioned weathering the storms, I recall that I was in Fiji last year, and I was going around with the natives and they were telling me about the several storms which hit the country more recently, and then after that the COVID pandemic hit. Wow. So what were I was really and the and then you know the country is really hugely dependent on tourism. Yeah. So after the after the big cyclones they had and after that COVID happened, what I was really curious that as a society they were able to build up everything.

Yeah.

And they were resilient.

Yeah.

That's a lot to come back from. There's events. Two huge big events. And one of the unifying principles I could see in that society, in that culture, was huge amount of interdependence between each other.

Yeah.

The communities. The way they care for each other.

Yeah.

That was really inspiring for me. And it taps into the same insight you are sharing, Funella, that it is also about creating that networks, supportive networks, being conscious, but it comes from having that emotional intelligence, then having dev developing that sub social intelligence. Yeah. And I also speak about resourcefulness in this particular section. And resourcefulness is both internal resourcefulness as well as external resourcefulness.

Yeah. Yeah. And we can bring these resources to ourselves. And it's something we can do that's really proactive. We can do that ahead of anything really, really challenging us. If we start to do that at a very early point, then we can certainly be prepared for what comes. We won't be able to tell maybe what's going to happen, but we will have some strengths in place already. And I like that observation as well, Ash, that you know, people are part of the environment. When we talk about our boiling frog environment, we think about the communities we're in, we think about the networks that we have. And all of these things are things that we can observe, reflect on, be aware of, and we can make adjustments inside ourselves and adjust our own behaviors. And that's going to make for those supportive networks. And we can look at social intelligence, emotional intelligence, growth mindset, resilience, how we can leverage all of these skills.

One of the things you mentioned just now, and the picture which came to my mind was the first time I heard the boiling frog metaphor was when I saw the documentary by the Vice President Al Gore about the greenhouse effect.

Yeah.

And that is talking about how the issues of global warming are affecting the overall ecosystem.

Mm- Just turning up the heat, turning up heat.

Just turning up the heat slowly and slowly. Well, on the surface things are not noticeable, but we are seeing what's happening in the environment. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is becoming more obvious now. So we can see there's a model where we don't at the moment kind of have sufficient resilience and the experts are looking at what can we do, what can we change, people are trying to take individual responsibility, and we can in our own personal lives just try and be a bit more ahead of the curve. We know more about ourselves, we know more about people, probably, than we know about the rest of the world out there.

True. I like what you said just now, staying ahead of the curve, Canella, because you see, when adversity happens, what you are going to bring out is what you have got inside. Yeah. So it's relatively more difficult to develop newer skills when you're facing with high level of challenges. Yeah. So it's better to be prepared for when the challenges come, of course, as the very nature of life is to keep working on these skills. And it's not it's not a destination. No. It's a lifelong journey. Yeah. And these things are like very, very common, the very common sense. Of course. To have the emotional intelligence, the social intelligence, to have a growth mindset.

Yeah.

And to have in COVID happened. How many people even thought in the wildest dream that it's going to happen? And when it happened, it completely turned the world upside down.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think quite a few countries had modeled what might happen when there was a pandemic. They had looked at it, they had thought about it, but actually the operations that then kicked in kind of varying success around the world or failure, to be honest.

Yeah. True. But nevertheless, in the context of the boiling frog framework, resilience is like having a thicker skin. That's a really good thing. That doesn't mean that you have a thick skin and the environment temperature keeps on increasing. Yeah. There will be a point where the person or the organization might break down. Yeah. But there is a lot of things we could do to improve our resilience.

Yeah. And going in with a thicker skin to that hot pot, you can s hang on in a bit longer. You can find the shift. Maybe have enough time to find what you need to do before it gets too hot.

It gives you it buys you some time to navigate the challenges. See if you can temper down the temperature. Yeah. Which I will be talking about in the environmental management. Yeah. But Funella, why don't we take a deeper dive into all these skills we are talking about in the context of resilience management? And it would be lovely to have some more insights with you. I think that would be really helpful for us to take that deep dive, Ash.

Thank you, Funela. Thank you.

If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a five-star review, a like, or subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Your support helps us reach more people looking to transform their stress into new comfort. We'd love to hear your thoughts, so don't forget to comment and share. For more tips and updates, please be sure to check out our social media links in the description box below. We can't wait to have you with us next time as we continue this journey towards turning stress into resilience. Remember, it's not the stress itself, but how we rise above it that defines our strength. So stay resilient and keep thriving, and we will see you next time.