Image: Associate Professor Monique Crane (photo taken prior to current stay-at-home restrictions)

Last week, the Vice-Chancellor joined Monique Crane – registered psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology – for an in-depth discussion on personal and organisational resilience. Here are some of the highlights.

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Associate Professor Crane, on how stressors impact resilience
“Broadly speaking, for a person to demonstrate resilience, there are several processes interacting and operating. An individual has certain capabilities and vulnerabilities but, at the same time, the environment can also impose certain vulnerabilities, or provide resources that interact with the person’s capabilities.

“There is a plethora of different types of stressors [but you can simplify them to think about where you are most vulnerable].  Examples of stressors include things like loss of control; hindrance stressors like bureaucracy; ambiguity – where things are presently unclear and the person is not sure what they are supposed to do to get a successful outcome; threat to loss of life or limb, threat to esteem, threat to income or threat to your identity.”

The Vice-Chancellor, on recognising stressors
“I’ve always found that if I can understand the particular sorts of stresses I am feeling, in myself, I am better able to cope with them. We saw, particularly last year, an incredible resilience in our community as we worked to change things quickly. But certainly, for our community right now, uncertainty is a huge issue.”

Associate Professor Crane, on dealing with uncertainty
“Loss of control and uncertainty tend to be the super stressors. We want to problem solve but we don’t have control over our environment, and we don’t know what’s going to happen. It really inhibits our ability to plan and negotiate some of those stressors.

“People can react to uncertainty in different ways. It can depend on how high the stakes are for these situations, and how well we think we will cope with some of the scenarios we might encounter. If uncertainty occurs in a situation where the stakes are high, this can be incredibly stressful for people – they might project a future where it’s the worst-case scenario.

“People who tend to deal better with uncertainty put a lid on some of those thoughts – they don’t dismiss them necessarily, but they understand uncertainty can mean a lot of outcomes and there are lots of ends to the stories and they are not necessarily catastrophic.”

Associate Professor Crane, on the importance of recognising our coping efficacy
“Most of us haven’t led a charmed life and have had to deal with significant uncertainty and still we have managed to get through – maybe not perfectly, but we got there.  We are often really good at unpacking failure, in the sense we reflect on it and wonder what went wrong. But we are not that good at examining our successes and how we got there. When we succeed, we often go ‘that went well’ and leave it there.

“We need to give ourselves more credit for how we adapt and deal. Reflecting on those successes, even daily, is more helpful than reflecting on times where we failed, because coping efficacy is enormously important to resilience.”

Associate Professor Crane, on resilient organisations
“When we look at the attributes of organisations that are more resilient, they tend to be  organisations that have the ability to be self-aware in some way – they are aware of small red flags that they need to respond to, and when they learn to respond to those smaller risks it gives them greater capacity to respond to bigger risks.

“To be reflective as an organisation, you need to have a culture of learning, retain that knowledge really well and utilise it in a lifecycle of learning for large-scale dramas like the ones we are encountering at the moment.”

Associate Professor Crane, on how organisations can support resilience in times of stress
“When working with organisations, we always recommend that they try to put in place as many resources as they are capable of to enable coping. This might be flexible hours, flexible breaks, access to psychological support services, giving people decision-making autonomy where it is available or giving people greater control over the work they do.

“Leaders can help their team unpack success, which I spoke about before, but they also have a role in resourcing. If they can provide broader timelines or greater flexibility in practical resources, they should definitely try to make that happen. If they can reduce performance expectations, reduce ambiguity or other types of demands, this is helpful.  If they can down-regulate expectations or re-establish reasonable goals or reduce nonessential performance monitoring, these are the types of things we suggest to middle management, if it is within their capability to do so.”

The Vice-Chancellor, on how Macquarie’s leaders can support resilience
“There are a lot of leaders at Macquarie – both in and out of the executive – that have a responsibility for helping their teams manage during times of stress.  It is particularly important at the moment, I think, for leaders to feel a sense of empowerment to be able to act – to reallocate work to downsize expectations. I’m hearing very good information from across the University about how people are appreciating the team leaders, managers and supervisors that are exhibiting more flexibility or are rearranging some of the things that are not top priority now.”

The Vice-Chancellor, on his own personal experiences in drawing on resilience strategies through COVID
“I haven’t been able to see my family for two years, as they all live offshore. I’ve only seen my grandson twice and I’ve not seen my granddaughter at all yet. When I feel down in thinking about whether it will ever happen, I stop and say to myself ‘think about how fortunate you are to live in this wonderful country, at this time’. I’ve been in contact with colleagues around the world throughout the pandemic – folks who have had it tougher than we have had in Australia. So, for me, a sense of gratitude is very, very important in helping me to manage on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.”

Recommended resources

Managing for Resilience: A Practical Guide for Employee Wellbeing and Organizational Performance
Associate Professor Crane’s guidebook for managers is published by Routledge. An eBook version is available via the Macquarie University Library.

Coping and resilience tips for front line staff
Professor Nick Titov, Executive Director of Macquarie’s Mindspot Clinic, takes you through practical psychological skills to help you stay mentally resilient during challenging times. These tips are also available in a PDF factsheet.

Strengthening your personal resilience
Rachel Clements from the Centre for Corporate Health provides strategies to build your resilience, particularly in the adjustment to a ‘new normal’.

COVID-19 We’ve got this covered!
A collaboration between the Centre for Emotional Health and the School of Education, this site provides evidence-based resources for families and schools on preventing anxiety and depression in children during the pandemic.

Macquarie University Employee Assistance Program