Page 47 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

16 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

responsibility for what. Dysfunctions affect all levels of the organization,
from leadership on down, and play out in disrupted work processes. The
most effective way to deal with these problems is to (a) extensively and
redundantly clarify decision making and work allocation at every stage
of planning, explaining why this is necessary even if it seems annoying or
pointless; (b) frame discussion of decisions clearly as such, stating needs
in short, straightforward messages; (c) recheck consensus prior to mov-
ing forward; and (d) make an explicit record of what agreements were
reached. When possible, it is useful to develop clear, simple work protocols
to ensure consistency, which include routine error checking for quality
control, and confirming consensus.

Conclusion

Collaboration takes work. It does not happen by chance. Collaboration
must be approached with purpose, as a shared high-priority task, explic-
itly agreed upon by all parties whenever possible. It cannot be overem-
phasized that the absence of dissent is not consent, that silence is likewise
not consent, and that initial agreement may later yield true feelings of dis-
agreement that, if unaddressed, foster destructive resentment and broken
trust, risking serious compromise to the vulnerable developing collabora-
tion; exquisite attention must be paid to notice potentially false assump-
tions of tacit agreement and, as often as is necessary, additional time must
be devoted to recontracting around needs and goals. Taking a moment
to pause and reflect, to consider carefully how to proceed, will allow sys-
tems to be put in place that reduce individual error, relieve burden, and
build organizational intelligence, freeing people to do what they do best.
Leaders must make it part of their responsibility to model effective strate-
gies in order to set the tone for others, including embodying the use of
speech to resolve problems between people, rather than other forms of less
useful action. While during crises, collaboration may come more easily
due to necessity and an enhanced sense of community; it is inadvisable
to take for granted the ongoing intentional efforts required to generate
self-sustaining collaborative processes. It is important to engage difficult
issues diplomatically, addressing disagreement directly and taking care
to use language, gestures, and silence effectively with a thoughtful con-
sideration of where others’ needs stand in the communication process. It
is important to maintain an atmosphere of empathic understanding even
in the face of significant differences in belief, personality (of individuals