Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Resilience
The Leading for Resilience set consists of the following modules:
You are in the Social resilience module
Social resilience
The big idea: The characteristics of healthy social systems
As you may remember from the Relationship Resilience module, recent research is proving the 'common sense' idea that our personal resilience is strongly connected to the resilience of our social groups – even at the level of our personal physical
regulation. There is increasing evidence that groups and communities can actively influence the resilience of individuals – either positively or negatively. If you want to know more about this important subject, here is a thought-provoking
video on Supporting Resilience in communities and groups from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
As a member of any group or community, we can actively support our colleagues or peers to be more resilient, which, in turn, helps us too! And if we want to 'Lead for Resilience', we can think carefully about the kind of interpersonal 'climate'
that gives us all the chance of coping with difficult circumstances and thriving together.
In this module, we look at two key aspects of social resilience in our groups and teams:
- How we can understand and support our 'social needs' in a group setting
- How you, as a leader, can take practical actions to help any team be more resilient.
Qualities of a healthy group
One of the most useful models that we have come across was developed from the ideas of Bert Hellinger – a family therapist who extended his work into wider groups using a practice called 'Constellations'. Bert Hellinger identifies four qualities
that everyone in a group needs in order for the group to function as a cohesive whole.
While he is referring as much to family and societal groups as to organisational ones, his model gives a way into understanding the qualities that are present in a resilient group.
There are many useful guidelines for making a group more effective in its work, but what about the emotional and social needs that we all have as part of any group or community? What characterises a group that works well at an emotional level?
Hellinger says that well-functioning groups pay attention to the following aspects:
Belonging
Is everyone here made to feel welcome and valued for their contribution?
Place
Are people clear about their roles and the level of authority that they have in this group?
Fair exchange
Does everyone have a sense that, over time, the balance of what they give to the group is matched by what they receive?
Loyalties
Are my history, values and traditions respected and taken seriously by the others?
When any of these characteristics is missing – for everyone, or just for one individual – the group is likely to feel emotionally 'out of balance' and less resilient over time. This is also true for wider social systems like communities, organisations
or even places. When people feel unwelcome, unclear about their participation, disrespected, over-burdened or helpless, the sense of 'social cohesion' soon falls apart.
So, as a Leader for Resilience, it is worth asking yourself regularly if any of these four characteristics of social wellbeing have gone out of balance in your own teams or other groups you belong to.
Continue to: Helping groups be more resilient
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