Are you sure you know what resilience is? When you hear that word, do you think of ‘being tough’, ‘strength of character’, ‘courage and resolve’ and ‘having a thick skin’? Have you said that a young person is not ‘resilient’ when there is avoidance of learning tasks, they struggle to cope with making a mistake or they do not persist with an extracurricular activity?
Let me challenge this thinking by sharing a metaphor I used to explain resilience to my son. My apologies to actual engineers, but this is the gist of what I said.
Resilience is like the O-rings on the rocket that launched the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986. Up until that point, all the O-rings on all the rockets launching space shuttles into space had been fine. On 28 January 1986, these O-rings catastrophically failed, tragically leading to the breakup of the rocket and the deaths of all the astronauts on board. O-rings are important because they keep the very hot and combustible gases involved in a rocket launch inside the rocket booster. To maintain this seal, they need to be pliable so that when they are squashed between components they leave no gaps. Sealant putty is also added to make sure nothing leaks out. Ordinarily, O-rings are very flexible, but when the stuff that these particular O-rings were made of gets very cold, it becomes hard. The putty is also less effective in the cold.
In January 1986, the launch of the Challenger had already been postponed more than once. For this launch, unusually cold conditions were forecast. The engineers were very reluctant to give the go ahead to launch, because they did not know what might happen to the O-rings given the weather. All the successful launches so far had happened when it had been warmer. The engineers objected quite strongly, but management made the decision to launch anyway. During the launch, the putty failed and the O-rings did not squash properly because they were too hard. This triggered a chain of events that resulted in the escape of flames which ignited the fuel and destroyed the rocket (www.engineering.com & https://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v1ch2.htm).
Just like these O-rings, resilience is dependent on the natural and human conditions around a person being ‘right’. It can also only be seen and known to be working when there is adversity. Therefore, to promote resilience we need to make sure that contextual resources are both available and appropriate so that when resilience is needed it will work. Resilience is therefore not the same as grit, persistence, endurance, perseverance or determination. It is not something a person has, or does not have. It is about what is around us and not what is within us.
To further challenge your thinking about resilience, for yourself, your friends, family, colleagues and students, come along to hear about the Resilience Ball, a framework describing those contextual ‘conditions’.
You can also buy the book from Amazon (at cost), or follow on twitter: @ResilienceBall
Dr. Cath Lowler is a positive psychologist who believes in the possibilities of change.
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