While some companies react to change slowly and often way too late, others predict and prepare for future circumstances and client needs. Constant change requires companies to be agile and dynamic. Success comes to those who can use change to their advantage and become stronger after each new challenge. Every challenge endows the work community with new tried and tested tools, and every successful innovation encourages employees to come up with even more innovations. This ability to emerge from the whirlwind of changes stronger than ever is often called resilience.

Change with the changes

A Portuguese-American research paper links resilience to the constant renewal of competitive advantages. Just like organisms, companies can only survive if they can adapt to their changing environment. Researchers Eduardo de Oliveira Teixeira and William B. Werther Jr have discovered a link between successful companies and an innovation-oriented culture, in which employees are consistently encouraged to experiment with the new. If you want to develop your company’s resilience, then, company culture is your best starting point.

Create a climate of security

Think about how your work community deals with requests for help. It’s important to ensure that an employee does not look incapable or helpless when asking for advice, or a moody spoilsport when giving negative feedback. Make sure that the threshold to ask for, give and receive feedback and suggestions is as low as possible.

An employee who asks questions has confidence in their own expertise and the courage to explore and experiment with different options. American researchers Cynthia and Mark Lengnick-Hall compare the employees of a resilient company with the 1980s TV-show protagonist MacGyver, who uses unorthodox tools creatively to overcome near impossible challenges.

Tackle the future together

Openly discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead. It’s a great way to get the entire team to look at their work from new points of view and commit employees to shared targets. Make exploring the future a part of the team’s daily interaction.

Contemplate together how changes might affect the company. List the company’s strengths and decide what kind of new expertise will be needed first. Visualise several options of what the future might hold. This will help build a solution-oriented and flexible company culture, in which change is not a worry but a natural part of life.

Allow ideas to blossom

The employees of a resilient company are self-directed, take responsibility and participate in setting the direction of the company. Research has proven that ideas and innovations coming from employees rather than management tend to get a more positive reception. They are easier to accept, as they aren’t seen as orders from above. The role of the manager is to focus on opportunities – if an idea is truly fabulous, any challenges it brings are well worth the effort.

Of course, ideas and innovations must be considered according to market and financial circumstances, and the competitive environment, too. To avoid appearing dictatorial, it’s crucial for the manager to explain the rejection of any idea with valid external reasons.

Take charge of team-building

De Oliveira and Werther believe that today’s competitive advantage is based on a company’s ability to match its expertise with changing market requirements. Though developing the team’s expertise is crucial, it’s equally important to ensure that the work community pulls in the same direction and wants to share skills and knowledge for the common good. To achieve this, lead by example. Encourage discussion, respect people’s opinions and demonstrate trust.

Expertise shared is expertise multiplied, which in turn leads to the best innovations. Combine different competences and personalities in projects and mix up teams. Accept that all the expertise doesn’t need to come from within the company, and rather join forces with trusted external partners.

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A totally new company culture is not born in a day, but today is a fine day to begin the process. Long-term effort is rewarded with the end result of a resilient company, in which employees understand current and future opportunities, believe in their own skills, experiment creatively with the new and feel like part of a secure, close-knit work community. That is exactly the kind of a company that navigates with agility through the turmoil of change to come out thriving.