Remember this?
On the 23rd of March 2021, Ever Given, a container ship, got stuck on the shore of the Suez Canal in Egypt. By 27 March, over 300 ships were lined up to pass through the canal while they waited for the problem to be fixed. Such a small event triggered a global supply chain crisis because there is no other convenient option to ship maritime goods from east Africa to Europe and the Middle East.
This event, along with Covid, triggered one of the big new mantras in the supply chain business: 'From just in time, to just in case.'
This is a resilience mindset, institutionalised.
There are lessons we can learn on a personal level. Rather than running your bank account and physical capacity to its limits, you reduce your exposure to known and unknown disruptions by building redundancy into your life, usually in the form of a healthy buffer, a backup, or a fail-safe.
Personally, this means:
- Generating multiple sources of income
- Investing in friendships and family (building your social capital so there's a meaningful number of people that are there for you if things fall apart.
- If you have a family, making sure both parents are not running on fumes, and you're looking ahead to see what pressures may be on the horizon for your children, so you can avoid convergence of stress
- Having a ‘what if’ savings fund. This sounds like basic adulting, but 41% of Brits don't have enough savings to live for a month without income. You need to have at least six months of income if you experience a serious life setback and need to take time out to recover.
As a resilience strategist and wellbeing keynote speaker, I can reassure you that resilience is less about breathing techniques and more about scenario planning.
My True Resilience Training reflects these hidden aspects of resilience, which you can book for your team for World Mental Health Day, October 10th.
This piece was originally shared as a post on my LinkedIn and inspired by day-to-day insights from my own experience with burnout and my work as a wellbeing keynote speaker and resilience strategist.
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