Beyond Burnout: How to cultivate resilience in your workforce

In just four years, it feels like our workplaces have changed irrevocably. New technologies like AI threaten old jobs; shifting demographics bring new interpersonal challenges on teams; and our work location — be it home, the traditional office or a hybrid of the two — has become a flashpoint between leaders and employees. So what's the antidote? Professor Julie McCarthy joined the podcast to talk about resilience, why organizations should work to instill it in their teams, and how it can help us all move beyond burnout.

Show notes:

[0:00] The world has been a very stressful place, and some people are talking about burnout as the new baseline.

[1:02] Meet Julie McCarthy, a professor of organizational behaviour and HR at the Rotman School of Management. She studies workplace stress.

[1:20] Her antidote for a stressful life? Resilience.

[1:44] How do you define stress, stress reactions and anxiety?

[3:13] While a little bit of anxiety can be useful…

[3:36] …too much is detrimental to your well-being.

[4:23] What is resilience?

[4:48] What chips away at your resilience?

[6:10] How do you build resilience?

[8:27] What does this look like, organizationally?

[9:14] What does anxiety cost organizations?

[10:30] Why a one-size-fits-all approach to resilience is destined to fail.

[10:55] Step 1: recognize there’s a problem and commit to dealing with it strategically.

[11:22] Step 2: Don’t waste your money fixing the wrong problem.

[12:04] Step 3: evaluate, re-evaluate, and then evaluate again.

[12:53] Be prepared: this is a big cultural shift for lots of organizations.

[13:31] Questions to ask yourself to kick things off.

[14:46] Look deeper: do you need to change procedures, the people you hire, or the types of training you offer?

[15:42] It is a time and financial investment.

[17:18] “But if it's done properly, it's not a matter of, will it work, but it's just a matter of when.”