The Resilience Factor: A Step-by-Step Guide to Catalyze an Unbreakable Team

Business consultant Hartwig (Teams That Thrive), pastor Crump (Renovate), and church researcher Bird (Better Together, coauthor) offer sensible advice for building professional teams that can tackle unexpected challenges. Resilience doesn’t develop through superficial team-building exercises, the authors write, it must be forged through the “pursuit of a shared purpose” and a focus on faith. First, it’s important for teams to discuss the broader goal that the organization is fighting for, which can be easily forgotten amid day-to-day work routines. Once that’s done, they should craft a charter that outlines their purpose, working norms, responsibilities, and accountability structure. It’s also worth inventorying each member’s skills and brainstorming how to harness them. And rather than leaving it all to top-level leaders, resiliency work should involve all employees, as each can exercise leadership skills, push colleagues to improve, and hone mutual respect rooted in Christian values. Drawing on solid business principles, the authors take a practical stance toward team unity and dispense plenty of brass tacks advice, much of which applies regardless of faith, whether on meetings (conduct only when necessary), deliverables (create team accountability systems) and evaluations (develop regular “after-action reviews” to assess projects). Christian leaders looking to refresh their organization’s approach will want to check this out. (June)