BOUNCING BACK

EMERGING STRONGER AFTER SETBACKS

Whether a team or an organization you are part of was permanently damaged by the disruption, or only bruised – or took the challenge in stride and learned from it – isn’t just a matter of how big a challenge it faced. It has to do with its level of resilience. In your essay entry for this year’s Drucker Challenge, we want to hear how your peers, colleagues, or leadership responded when the going got tough, and how you think they – and we – could build a greater capability not only to face future setbacks but to come out stronger.

You might also share your personal story if you feel it would inspire others.

Is there an organization you’ve seen displaying an inspiring level of resilience? If so, tell us what you think were the keys to it, and what that example could teach the rest of us. For instance, does it point to skills or processes we could put in place, individually and collectively, that would better prepare us to navigate future storms?

You might want to take your essay into wider territory. For example: Can you perceive a generational or cultural difference in abilities to “bounce back”? Is the rising generation of managers and leaders more or less resilient than other cohorts, and if so, why? Does greater power to recover from calamity come with experience and perspective? Can it be learned from lectures and books? Finally: How important is it to improve organizational and individual resilience? Taking the long view, is this really a time of greater change than in the past, and – among all the superpowers you might choose to develop – does resilience have the highest priority?