Three Ways to Boost Collective Resilience

This week is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and I’m sad and conflicted. 

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I’m sad because the truth about this holiday is horrible. Knowing the truth, it’s hard to celebrate this day. 

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But I’m conflicted because it’s one of the only times my extended family and I gather, and I cherish the time together.

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More broadly, I also appreciate the ritualized gratitude reflection that Thanksgiving provides for so many. 

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If you, or your team, are anything like most of the people I’m talking to these days, you’re carrying a lot, both personally and professionally, as the calendar year winds down and the list of to-dos builds up. 

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Here’s a recommendation if you, or your team, need a boost: seize the opportunity this holiday provides to practice gratitude. 

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If reading that makes you skeptical, I understand! Until I did the research and saw the data, I gave a hard side-eye to the gratitude journals that popped up everywhere. 

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Now I’m a convert. I’ve explored the hard data and experienced enough of the benefits to know that practicing gratitude does cultivate resilience. 

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Gratitude helps us strive for our goals and inspires us to be better. It prompts us to feel more connected to others, to feel humble, and to feel a sense of responsibility for others, which can compel us to invest more into our work, community, relationships, and even into goals we thought weren’t possible. 

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Gratitude is not a passive emotion that lulls us into complacency or makes us sit back and marvel at the wonders of our lives. Instead, it can fuel our emotional resilience, and with the increased energy we have when we’re resilient, we can help others. 

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Practicing gratitude is a power move for thriving teams and individuals. 

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If your team could benefit from a boost, here are three ways to incorporate a practice of gratitude into your next team meeting: 

• Storytelling: Provide a few prompts for storytelling. Invite each person to pick one and share. You might include:some text
  • When was the last time you experienced awe?
  • What was a little thing you experienced lately or was done for you, that made a big difference? 
  • What was the last thing that made you smile or laugh out loud?
  • What is one thing that made you feel seen and valued recently?  
• A magazine hunt: Provide lots of magazines. Have people search for an image (or several) that represents something they’re thankful for. They can then attach the image to a notecard, piece of cardstock, etc. Have each person share why they selected their image. Participants can take their creations with them and keep them in their workspace as a reminder.  
• A flurry of appreciations: Set a timer for 5 minutes. Provide a stack of post-its or notecards for each participant. Challenge them to write down as many things as they can think of that they are grateful for. If what they wrote down is about someone else, encourage them to give that appreciation to that individual that day or week.  

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Learn more: 

• Subscribe to my Weekly Wisdom Newsletter to get content like this sent right to your inbox weekly
• Read Chapter 12: Celebrate and Appreciate in Onward to learn more about the power of gratitude 
• Complete the activities in Chapter 12: Celebrate and Appreciate in The Onward Workbook to continue cultivating your resilience 
• Attend The Art of Coaching Teams to learn more about how to develop thriving teams that get stuff done