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76 / Flight Time / NOVEMBER 2018
Business Focus
Gone are the days when change
was an unpleasant but necessary
thing that came into our lives
every so often, made us unhappy
for a bit and then went away
again. For employers and
employees change is now the
norm, moving resilience up the
agenda for businesses.
The first way to improve
your resilience is to make an
active choice, every day, to live
it with a positive attitude. All
the positive psychology research
shows that when we approach
life with a realistically-optimistic
attitude, our happiness, energy,
productivity and resilience
will improve dramatically, and
stress, anxiety and ill health will
decrease. The thing is, deep down,
we all know this. When we have
a ‘great’ day, those times when we
are the best versions of ourselves,
things just go well, problems are
easily dealt with and if bad things
happen we have the capability to
handle them better and bounce
back quicker. When we’re not
having a great day, the smallest
setback can derail us and if bad
things happen it can feel like the
end of the world. The truth is,
most bad days are usually just a
bad five minutes that we milked
for the rest of the day, sometimes
longer.
Unfortunately, our brains
are wired to focus on avoiding
danger and societal norms are to
be a little pessimistic. Let’s face it,
we all like a bit of a moan. So, the
choice to be positive is a choice to
be different from others and that
naturally takes a bit of effort. The
fab news is that wherever you are
on the Positive – Negative attitude
spectrum, it’s a learnt and practised
thing and you can change it. The
easiest and best way to do that is by
practising ‘gratitude’ and regularly
focussing on the things in life you
are grateful for. Throw in a little
kindness to others and you’ll soon
be on your way to making positive
your default attitude.
Leadership – The Multiplier Effect
is co-authored by Dr Andy Cope,
Jonathan Peach and Mike Martin,
published by John Murray Learning.
For more information go to www.
arto
We tend to think of Google, Apple, and similar
giants in terms of success. But it is really their
approach to failure – mistakes big and small – that
helps strong companies dominate competitors.
Resilience is all about rebounding from
setbacks. When applied to mental health,
for instance, being resilient helps you cope
with stress. In a business context, it promises
a positive approach to problem-solving.
Punishing staff who make mistakes is clearly
a negative way to help them avoid similar
experiences, but being OK with mistakes
can promote innovation, and raise employee
engagement, satisfaction and autonomy.
Inventors rarely create new sensations on
the first try. If they don’t capitalise on their
mistakes, they’ll never have breakthroughs
– after all, James Dyson ran through 5,127
prototypes before designing Dyson’s leading
home appliance in 1987.
After 10 years of testing a “failed” reusable
adhesive, 3M debuted “press and peel” Post-its
in 1979. The company now deems failure
so valuable to innovation that missteps are
tracked on spreadsheets for later use, to not
only understand what went wrong but also shed
light on what they got right.
Due to the nature of innovation, you might
have to try something 100 ways in order to
achieve one or two really great outcomes. That
means failing 98 or 99 times. But what remains is
worth the trial and error. For companies that wish
to remain vibrant and at the top of their game,
refusing to learn from failure is not an option.
Chris Dyer is the author of The Power of
Company Culture: How any business can
build a culture that improves productivity,
performance and profits, out now published
by Kogan Page. For more information go to
COMPANY CULTURE EXPERT
Chris Dyer
DR OF HAPPINESS
Andy Cope