In this week during April, stress awareness month, the Resilience Engine gets into why one person reacts differently than another to the same situation.
You’ve got it, it’s all down to resilience.
There are of course stressors that everyone would find traumatic; these are entirely outside our control and are classed as ‘absolute’ stressors. ‘Relative’ stressors are quite different; people’s reactions will depend on their resilience. The Resilience Engine uses one of our research models, the Resilience Dynamic® as a lens to understand more:
A person with high levels of resilience will respond flexibly to stressors. They will look truthfully at the data of the situation, including their own response, and by understanding the data more, will seek different options. Their response will also derive from deep-rooted intentions. Even when a situation is very unexpected, a highly resilient person acts coherently with who they are and what they wish for in life.
If a person’s resilience is low, their response to stressors will be entirely variable. If the situation tips them into feeling unsafe in some way, you will get their stress-response. Their reaction will be quite independent of whether they believe in what is triggering the stress. They may for example really want this new structural change in the department! But at this very moment in time, they are unable to take that change on; their capacity for change is very low. Instead you get the well- known stress response of ‘fight’ or ‘flight’, and/or ‘freeze’ or ‘appease’.
The key is to notice the difference in the response. If someone who has so far been vocal about something, is suddenly rather quiet, they may be suffering from the ‘freeze’ stress response.
To incorporate the person’s response into your thinking and handle any situation, you will have a number of options of how to handle any situation. If your resilience is high, you’ll spot the resilience data in the situation and act flexibly. In particular, when dealing with someone acting from their stress response, you’ll help the person raise their resilience in simple and immediate ways, thus giving them more energy and perspective. That in turn will unlock their capacity for change. And lo and behold your conversation together will be much easier and more constructive.
The Resilience Engine enables high performance and wellbeing; this is what resilience delivers. If you want to know the kinds of ways that you and your organisation can increase resilience, talk to us today.
A person with high levels of resilience will respond flexibly to stressors. They will look truthfully at the data of the situation, including their own response, and by understanding the data more, will seek different options. Their response will also derive from deep-rooted intentions. Even when a situation is very unexpected, a highly resilient person acts coherently with who they are and what they wish for in life.
If a person’s resilience is low, their response to stressors will be entirely variable. If the situation tips them into feeling unsafe in some way, you will get their stress-response. Their reaction will be quite independent of whether they believe in what is triggering the stress. They may for example really want this new structural change in the department! But at this very moment in time, they are unable to take that change on; their capacity for change is very low. Instead you get the well- known stress response of ‘fight’ or ‘flight’, and/or ‘freeze’ or ‘appease’.
The key is to notice the difference in the response. If someone who has so far been vocal about something, is suddenly rather quiet, they may be suffering from the ‘freeze’ stress response.
To incorporate the person’s response into your thinking and handle any situation, you will have a number of options of how to handle any situation. If your resilience is high, you’ll spot the resilience data in the situation and act flexibly. In particular, when dealing with someone acting from their stress response, you’ll help the person raise their resilience in simple and immediate ways, thus giving them more energy and perspective. That in turn will unlock their capacity for change. And lo and behold your conversation together will be much easier and more constructive.
The Resilience Engine enables high performance and wellbeing; this is what resilience delivers. If you want to know the kinds of ways that you and your organisation can increase resilience, talk to us today.
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