[p.1-18 How Resilience Works, Diane L. Coutu]
p.1-2 three fundamental characteristics seem to set resilient people and companies apart from others...
The first characteristic is the capacity to accept and face down reality. In looking at reality, we prepare ourselves
to act in ways that allow us to endure and survive hardships. We train ourselves how to survive before we ever have
to do so.
Second, resilient people and organizations possess an ability to find meaning in some aspects
of life. And values are just as important as meaning; value systems at resilient companies change very little over
the long haul and are used as scaffolding in times of trouble.
The third building block of resilience is the ability to improvise. Within an arena
of personal capabilities or company rules, the ability to solve problems without the usual or obvious tools is a great strength.
p.5 As Dean Becker... puts it: More than education, more than experience, more than training, a
person's level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails.
p.5 Academic research into resilience started about 40 years ago with pioneering studies by Norman Garmezy,
now a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
p.7 resilient people have very sober and down-to-earth views of those parts of reality that matter
for survival.
p.9 The fact is, when we truly stare down reality, we prepare ourselves to act in ways that allow
us to endure and survive extraordinary hardship. We train ourselves to survive before the fact.
p.17-18 Resilience is a reflex, a way of facing and understanding the world,
that is deeply etched into a person's mind and soul. Resilient people and companies face reality with staunchness,
make meaning of hardship... and improvise solutions from thin air.
