Resiliency Culture

Welcome to Sunday Morning Coffee! I hope that whenever you’re reading this, you’re joining me from a place of peace and joy. I wish our lives, both personal and professional, were in a perpetual state of peace and joy, but life doesn’t work out like that, does it? As a parent, I always remind my kiddos to revel in good times and have heart in bad ones, because neither one last. I give the same advice to people in organizations about their work life. But….

…organizations can build a culture that ensures the people of which it is comprised have mechanisms to deal with the bad times and be celebrated when times are good.

We can do the same in our personal lives, but today, let’s talk about work. Building a culture of resiliency should be intentional for every organization (building culture should ALWAYS be intentional, by the way). There are a couple of ways to look at trauma in the workplace. One is when something big happens that affects everyone…a school shooting, the death of an officer, a student or resident suicide, a natural disaster, a riot, etc… In the horrible case of major events such as these, every prison, jail, and school system should have access to some type of critical incident response team. Some organizations have their own, which is a fabulous way to ensure you’re building a resiliency culture for your staff and students, but leadership can also reach out to crisis intervention teams from other jurisdictions or from organizations that specialize in crisis response to ensure they are responding quickly to traumatic events.

Perhaps the most common of these responses is CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management). Here’s a description of CISM from CISM International’s website: Critical Incident Stress Management, or CISM, is an intervention protocol developed specifically for dealing with traumatic events. It is a formal, highly structured and professionally recognized process for helping those involved in a critical incident to share their experiences, vent emotions, learn about stress reactions and symptoms and given referral for further help if required. It is not psychotherapy. It is a confidential, voluntary and educative process, sometimes called 'psychological first aid'.

I’ve worked with the Workplace Trauma Center to launch CISM in a correctional setting and also as they have responded to traumatic incidents across the world, big and small in numbers, to help people make sense of the senseless. Making sense of the senseless…I love that. It’s the perfect way to describe a resilient response to trauma. My friend Marc Junkerman, a former police officer turned crisis-response-professional, uses it in such a matter of fact way, that even in the throes of the aftermath of a traumatic event, it gives people hope that better things are to come.

What about the daily rollercoaster of life and work? What happens when individual or organizational issues disrupt someone’s ability to do their best work? Does your organization have a method for its people to get help when life throws them a curve?

What if you could leverage the experience of employees who have overcome set-backs and have been trained to provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social, or practical help to colleagues? And what if you could do the same with students (incarcerated ones too!)?

Peer Support programs are a cost effective way to build a culture of resiliency for organizations. These programs consist of trained supporters who provide confidential services such as peer mentoring, reflective listening, or counseling. Peer Group team members are usually overseen by a clinician, but they aren’t providing clinical services, just a listening ear, coping skills, and most importantly, a confidential place to talk through disruptive issues. Peer Group team members can refer colleagues to professional counseling services if they determine it’s needed and appropriate, they never take notes that can be read or accessed by someone else, they work from a therapeutic and private space, and they are absolutely confidential. I already mentioned that, but it bears repeating. Peer Support is never used for disciplinary purposes, and the team must be comprised of colleagues who are trusted and respected. The organization needs to make sure they’re made available at all times on all shifts. Leadership needs to commit to prioritizing these services. In other words, it needs to be intentional, organized, codified, and supported.

Are we investing in the mental and physical well-being of our people?

How about our students/residents? In a carceral setting, it’s common to prohibit any activity that places a resident in a position of ‘authority,’ but I’ve lead initiatives that trained residents to be peer coaches/mentors with great success. Are we leveraging the wealth of lived experience of our students to build a culture of resiliency for them? And if our students are more resilient, doesn’t that, in turn, improve our working culture?

If you’re interested in learning more about CISM and Peer Support, you can check out the Critical Incident Stress Foundation’s website. Their training is internationally recognized and the gold standard of training. I can’t say enough good things about the Workplace Trauma Center, so if you’re looking for a response team or guidance in building Peer Support or crisis response teams, I encourage you to contact them. If you’d like assistance in building these programs, and if you’d like to explore building student/resident mentoring programs, please contact me. I’d love to help!

Enjoy your caffeinated (or non-caffeinated, if that’s how you roll) beverage this morning, and never forget to take care of your personal mental and physical well-being. Being resilient is always a good thing.

Cheers!