Resilience: It’s Not About Bouncing Back: How Leaders and Organizations Can Build Resilience Before Disruption Hits

The power of resilience within organizations and can transform an average company into a powerhouse. Yet, even in times of rapid disruptive change, there is no manual for building resilient organizations.

This book is that manual.Resilience, left to individuals, will only ever be built by people in the moments that require them to dig deep and find it. The real power in building resilience before we need it, lies in what we can accomplish when our organizations become resilient.

This book presents a simple framework for leaders and organizations to prepare for sustainable results in the face of rapid, disruption.The power for organizations lies in the act of methodically and collaboratively building a collective resilience framework to increase their ability to thrive in the face of complex challenges for which the answer, and often even the definition of the problem itself, may not be obvious.

These challenges frequently require both the organization and the leaders within them to make trade-offs in values and loyalties. Often, an individual’s resilience will ‘get them through’ such changes, but a more effective approach is to build organizational resilience before we need it. Building resilience involves intentional preparation to increase our ability to emerge from challenges better equipped to deal with them than we were in the past–a transformation into a stronger self.

For organizations in an environment of rapid, disruptive change, there is often no ‘back’ to bounce to after disruption, because by the time they right themselves things have changed. This book presents a simple framework that can be applied to both individuals and organizations. It’s proven and it works.

Written in our ‘pull no punches’ style, Resilience: It’s Not About Bouncing Back begins by explaining the case for resilience, how building it is not only possible, but imperative for creating successful leaders and organizations in today’s rapidly changing world.

The book goes on to present the our proven, proprietary LeaderShift Resilience Framework drawing on real examples and pointed exercises to deliver a down-to-earth strategy for building resilient leaders and companies. Connecting the dots between Resilience and ground-breaking work on Adaptive Leadership from Harvard’s Ron Heifetz and others, we’ve intertwined our own wisdom gleaned from years spent tackling these issues with leaders across the globe. The result is a candid, insightful and easily absorbed template that helps organizations banish ‘change fatigue’ once and for all and instead be energized and elevated by disruption – one leader at a time.

Spanning a combined five decades of corporate leadership positions and consulting work focused on organization restructuring and leadership development, Cynthia Barlow and Jennifer Eggers have seen thousands of organizations struggle in the face of change. They have seen it all – the good and the bad – and believe that resilience is the key ingredient to building healthy, thriving leaders and organizations.

Cynthia runs C3 Conversations, Inc., a boutique consulting firm out of Toronto, coaching leaders and delivering life-changing personal-growth programs for over 30 years.

Jennifer runs LeaderShift Insights, a firm focused on building adaptive leadership and alignment at some of the most recognized brands in the world. She founded her firm after serving in several leadership roles for Fortune 50 companies.