Operating in a time of constant change is something that Nordic Morning and its Group companies have taken for granted for quite some time. Annika Parkkonen, Vice President, HR, prefers to focus on management under conditions of constant change rather than the term “change management”. Accordingly, she is interested in the concept of resilience: what it’s about, what it means and what it could mean for Nordic Morning, and how it could be taught.

People have a natural tendency to strive towards stability and control. Not everything can be controlled, but increasing one’s competencies in relation to change is a useful tool for achieving a feeling of control.

“The better individuals understand their personal tendencies and strengths in relation to changing circumstances, the better they can cope with them. The same can be said for organizations. That is why I want to determine what the strengths of Nordic Morning and its subsidiaries are, and how we can maintain stability in changing situations.”

Dealing with changes expends both mental and physical energy. The more people can develop their flexibility, the more energy they will have left over for actually carrying out work. Ultimately, it boils down to self-awareness and recognizing one’s own strengths and weaknesses.

“When you are able to analyze your resilience and capacity for change, and better understand your actions in situations involving changes, you can start to improve in the areas in which you are not at your strongest,” Parkkonen says.

Flexibility should not be assessed in terms of good versus bad, or right versus wrong. The key is to find a balance with one’s personal tendencies with relation to resilience. Companies and teams should learn to leverage the various strengths of their members through all stages of change. Parkkonen believes this plays a large part in determining the success of the companies in question.

“We provided coaching to two companies and one team in 2015. During the coaching sessions, we spent a lot of time thinking about the nature of change as well as questions such as how stress arises. The participants also carried out self-assessments – focusing on their resilience tendencies – and prepared development plans based on these assessments. To ensure continuity, we aim to follow up on the implementation of these plans in subsequent development discussions,” Parkkonen adds.

Resilience provides courage but does not guarantee success

A flexible and proactive company will be more successful than one that resists change. However, the correlation is not straightforward. To ensure success, much more is required, including business expertise, customer insight and, in many cases, pure luck.

“Nevertheless, perceiving change as a positive force and having the ability to set appropriate priorities does increase the likelihood of success,” Parkkonen says. “Resilience can strengthen the tendency to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. It all comes down to attitude.”

Since it’s still early days for this work, Parkkonen prefers not to offer an analysis of the resilience of Nordic Morning and its Group companies at this stage. She is, however, prepared to make two preliminary observations: “At the Group level, we need to get even better at leveraging our expertise across organizational boundaries. We should also encourage more experimentation and have the courage to test ideas and take action, even while a new product or service is still unfinished.”

The seven tendencies associated with resilience:

• positive view of oneself as part of the change
• positive view of the world in general
• flexibility: being able to see multiple possibilities in situations
• social flexibility: the ability to use other people as a resource and to turn to them when help is needed
• the ability to set appropriate priorities
• the ability to organize and make things systematic
• the capability to be proactive: the ability to experiment and take action

Text: Sari Kuvaja, Corporate Responsibility Advisor