Creating Communities of Resiliency

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Creating Communities of Resiliency

• Bryan Hiebert
• Presentation to
• Risk and Resiliency
• Leading and mentoring for Change
• Centre for Leadership in Learning
• October 14, 2004

Faculty of Education Division of Applied
Psychology
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Overview

• What is resilience?
• Resilience comes in people
• Some environments are more easy to be resilient
  in than others
• Leaders are responsibility for creating an
  environment conducive to being resilient

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What is resilience?

• The ability to bounce back (recover) when hit
  with unexpected demands out of out of the blue
• Take things in stride

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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors
• Environmental contexts
• Person-environment transactional process
• Internal resiliency factors
• Resilience process
• Adaptation and reintegration

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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors

DEMAND
Appraisal
Nature
- Demand
Intensity
- Coping Resources
- Consequences
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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors
• Environmental contexts
• Person-environment transactional process

DEMAND
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Avoid self-blame
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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors
• Environmental contexts
• Person-environment transactional process

• resilience outcome
• adapt well to stressful situations

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Perspective is Important
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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors
• Environmental contexts
• Person-environment transactional process
• Internal resiliency factors
• Self-efficacy
• Peoples beliefs in their ability to control
  their own functioning control what occurs in
  the environment

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Kumpfer (1999) Resilience Model

• Stressors
• Environmental contexts
• Person-environment transactional process
• Internal resiliency factors
• Resilience process
• Secure attachment
• Leads people to form positive perceptions about
  self and the world
• Develops in social interactions

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Resilience model
Flexibility
Adaptability
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Say NO! to zero tolerance

• Zero

Tolerance
A little tolerance is a good thing
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Watch your perspective
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Creating Resilient Communities

• 3 factors are predictably difficult to deal with
• Intense and unpleasant demands
• Uncertainty (about outcomes)
• Ambiguity (regarding expectations)
• Not all demands are reasonable

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Watch out for the band wagon
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A Starting Point

• All things
• To all people
• All the time
• is
• All over

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Creating A Positive Climate

• Say something nice to colleagues
• Every day
• Warm fuzzies or cold pricklies?
• Message seen is stronger than message spoken
• Need to model what we are trying to accomplish
• Walk the Talk
• Create slogans to keep a positive focus

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Slogans to sustain a positive focus

• No one can insult you
• Without your permission
• I am lovable and capable
• Stop Psychosclerosis
• (hardening of the attitudes)
• I will not should on my self today
• Change is inevitable
• Growth is optional

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Learn to roll with it
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Resilient
Communities
for Students
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Student Realities

• 80 of grade 10 students aspire to university
• 50 of grade 12 students plan to attend
  university
• 20 of grade 12 students plan to attend college
  or tech school
• 40 of students 18 - 21 attend post-secondary
  education
• 50 continue on to their second year
• 50 change area of study

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Many return to formal education later

• In Calgary, the average age of
• 1st year trade apprentices
• fire fighter recruits
• police officer recruits
• is 27years old

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Resilient Communities for Students

• Career Pathways
• One example to help promote relevance for students

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What is Career Pathways?

• Aligned curriculum from junior high to
  post-secondary, includes
• Academics
• Fine performing arts
• International languages
• CTS programming
• Internships
• Portfolio development
• Transitional opportunities
• Intended to foster student career development

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Career Development is

• the life-long process of managing learning, work
  and transitions
• in order to move toward a personally determined
  and evolving preferred future
• Career / Life Planning
• Developing a vision for your life

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Basic Career Development Principles

• Multi-potentiality
• Career self-concept
• Planned happenstance
• Opportunity awareness
• ----------

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The High 5 (1)

• A Changing Theme For Career Development
• Change is constant
• Focus on the journey
• Follow your heart
• Keep learning
• Access your allies
• Believe in yourself

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Why do this?
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In numerous studies

• National studies
• Studies of Calgary junior and senior high school
  students
• Most frequent and intense worry
• 1 cluster of student-reported needs
• Concern about the future
• What do I do after high school?

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When students are involved as partners in their
learning experiences

• Greater academic achievement
• Reduced drop-out rate lower absenteeism
• Reduced student alienation
• Reduced bullying and harassment
• Reduced incidence of smoking and drinking
• More positive school climate
• Greater satisfaction with school
• Students report school experiences as more
  relevant and better preparation for the future
• Students indicate that the quality of their
  education is better

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Resilience-related outcomes

• Many of the processes and outcomes connected with
  Career Pathways address factors involved in
  fostering resilience.
• It works the same way for students and teachers
  and administrators, and

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Creating Resilience Whos job is it?

• Its a leadership job to create a healthy work
  environment
• Model the goal set a good example
• Jump on mistakes OR jump on successes
• Its often easier to seek forgiveness that to get
  permission

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2 key factors for motivation

• The goals must be valued (valuable)
• The goal must be perceived as achievable
  (achievable)
• The people in charge need to model
• Marketing accomplishments
• Support self-care initiatives
• Actually, everyone needs to model this and
  support it, and encourage it

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Collaboration (A brief aside)

• Just because people are working on a common
  project, doesnt make it
• a partnership
• or
• a collaboration

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Collaboration??

• For example
• Lets get together and work on this project
• I know how to do it
• Well do it my way
• You can help
• Well be working on it together

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Collaboration is

• Group think
• Lets work together on this, and
• figure out together what it is we want to do, and
  
• how we will attempt to do it together, and
• decide together how we will evaluate success.

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A New Approach to Leadership

• If it goes wrong,
• say I did it.
• If it goes sort of OK,
• say we did it.
• If it goes really well
• say you did it.
• Reduce Look at me, look at me.
• And replace it with Look at us
• or better yet, Look at them.

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Creating Resilience Whos job is it?

• Its a leadership job
• BUT dont wait for your boss
• Learn how to train your boss
• Approach your boss with solutions, not problems
• Stroke your boss, what goes around comes around
• You can make a difference in YOUR emotional
  climate

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Control and Choice

• Lobby for structural changes
• Some people always will feel they have no
  control
• Many teacher feel that the clocks are controlled
  downtown
• Perhaps consider ditching the clock?
• Demands gravitate towards competence(so be
  prepared or be less competent)
• Basic assertiveness helps keep balance
• Develop a resilient personal and professional
  identity

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Keep your priorities on track
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Summary Tell them what you told them

• What is resilience?
• Resiliency comes in people
• How do you contribute to your own resiliency?
• How do you interfere with it?
• Some environments are more conducive to being
  resilient
• What have you done to make your environment more
  resilient?
• Creating a resilient environment is a leadership
  responsibility
• How have you helped others be more resilient?
• How have you encouraged your boss to do more to
  foster resiliency?

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Creating Communities of Resiliency

• Bryan Hiebert
• Presentation to
• Risk and Resiliency
• Leading and mentoring for Change
• Centre for Leadership in Learning
• October 14, 2004

Faculty of Education Division of Applied
Psychology