Creating a Resilient Workplace

Welcome to the Generous Benefits Podcast, where we talk about building benefits that actually help people and still make business sense. I'm your host, Amanda Brummitt. Today's conversation is about resilience, but not in the way it is usually framed. We are not talking about telling employees to meditate more, tough it out, or manage stress on their own.

We are talking about systems, leadership, and culture. Our guest is Joyce Odidison. She works with leaders and organizations to build environments where resilience is supported structurally, not just encouraged individually. She helps teams identify strain early, address burnout at the root, and creates cultures where people can actually sustain performance over time.

Let's jump in. Joyce, thank you so much for being here today. So appreciate your time. I would love it if you could start by just telling our guests who you are, both personally and professionally.

Amanda, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm a wife, a mom, I'm a believer. I believe in that, you know, that there was a Christ. And so I think that has resonated in my work and what I do.

I'm a conflict analyst. I have a bachelor and master's degree in conflict analysis and management. I'm also a master's certified coach of ICF. I've trained and certified coaches across the globe.

So what I do on a daily basis is help organizations to identify early signs of conflict, burnout, and mental health risk before they become expensive. Because let's face it, we're facing a resilience crisis and many people are coming to work empty. It's a leader, you find yourself having to give so much that you're always, it's like you're pulling water uphill, trying to get individuals, your team members to function and to participate. And as a conflict analyst, I came into this work and started to see the impact that these conflicts were not Just people not getting along.

People were not getting along for deeper reasons. And I created the nine-dimensional well-being intelligence system. So we look at spiritual, social, emotional. We look at occupational, intellectual, environmental.

We look at financial. We look at the physical. Then we look at the interpersonal. So they were starting to look at where are people burning out, where they're losing energy, where they're not doing well.

Because when we have a deficit in one area, we start to lose energy, we lose focus, and we overcompensate in another area. Our subconscious tells us, I'm not doing well, this is not going right, and we don't have the capacity to stop and listen or to even make decisions or change on our own because we would have done it if we knew how to. So many people need that awareness to say, wow, I didn't realize this was going on. Or this was going, but I didn't realize it was affecting me at this level.

I've been doing this work for 28 years. It provides a system that organizations can look at and say, okay, which of the systems are we addressing? And so we're able to pull all these scattered wellness activities into a system so the organizations can see, okay, we are providing wellness. We are providing opportunities for people to measure, map, and build resilience in two or three of the nine dimensions instead of just doing one dimension and think that, you know, we have meditation, we have yoga, we have aerobics, we have nutrition.

That's all the physical dimension. How does it align with the KPI for organizations? And so what we do is give them the opportunity to measure, map, and build resilience and have KPIs that's just as important for the organization as when they're looking at the financial data. Okay, well then let's dive in.

How would you define either a resilient workforce or truly a culture of resilience? Okay. That workplace is one where there is psychological safety. I am able to come into work.

And when I'm at work, I'm able to speak to my colleagues if I notice something without fear. I am able to meet with my boss to ask about what's coming up or what being put on a plate and what my concerns are or what my joys are about it. Sometimes we're excited, sometimes we have concerns or we have questions. It's one where people are respected, where they feel part of the team, where they're given an opportunity for growth and to do their best work.

I have a small team myself and I'm always looking at, am I doing as a team leader? How am I protecting my ability to do my work as well as being able to manage my team's questions and their requests for support, more information, or the supervision of their work, the feedback. So we have to manage that as leaders. So part of what we do is helping leaders to understand their role as a leader means that you need to develop the people so that one day they can do your work just as good as you are without feeling threatened knowing that that is part of leadership.

A resilient workplace is one where teams can have conflicts. Good constructive conflict, because conflict is a catalyst for change. We avoid the conflicts. We learn nothing.

We miss opportunities for growth, for expansion, for innovation, because we're hiding because it's going to be uncomfortable. Well, growth happens in discomfort. It does. So when you're out having a drink in the bar, that's not when, you know, growth happens.

It happens when you walk through the discomfort and you say, what am I feeling? Why am I feeling upset about this? Why am I concerned about this? Are you hearing my concerns?

What is it telling you? What are we missing? What am I missing? What am I missing?

How do I shift to become, you know, we talk about that single, double and triple loop learning where in with single loop, I look at there's a problem, let's fix it. Double loop is like, there's a problem. I wonder what happened and what would be the best solution. And then triple-loop thinking is where we say, huh, so this has occurred.

What is it telling me about myself? And who do I need to become as part of that awareness? And how do I transform to be part of that solution? Yeah.

So we don't stay the same, right? And otherwise, we stay stuck. And we never grow. And we rust out.

So there are two things. You can burn out or you can rust out at work. And I've seen many people rust out because they've avoided conflicts all their career. So they just rust out and they become bored and disengaged and things don't matter anymore.

There's no passion. Right. Okay. Speaking of burnout, rust out, turnover, are those systems issues or are those individual issues?

Yes. They're both. Okay. They are both.

What we're facing right now in our society is what I call a resilience deficit, meaning that most people come into work very empty. By the time they sign in, whether they're working from home and they sign in on their computer or they have to transport themselves to work. By the time they sign on to their computer, they're empty. They've watched disaster somewhere, bombing somewhere.

They've been called by family members that are struggling. They're neighbors. They've had to pray for someone. They become aware and sneered into all kinds of things.

So by the time they show up at work, they are stretched. And if the workplace system doesn't allow for them to be able to reconnect with their humanity and see themselves as people participating into something better or greater good, working towards a greater good, then we lose them for the whole day. They never wake up. Yeah, man, that is so, that resonates so much with things that I see just across businesses.

And I don't think there's an industry that doesn't deal with that. Just our bandwidth is low. People are worn out. Yeah, and it's gotten worse over the last 20 years.

What we see slowly, I mean, over the last 10 years, as people become more glued to these devices, we have lost touch with reality. You could actually sit there and go into this little thing in your hand and lose connection with everything around you. And if you remember how we lived before that, right, if you went into a waiting room, a doctor's waiting room, you saw the people, you talked to people, you said, good morning, you connected with people, you played with the little kids, you encouraged the young mother or the young couple, you know, people connected.

But now you're at a waiting room, it brought you, got you. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So we're much more disconnected as humans because we don't have these people making connection with us.

We may be talking to someone on the phone, but we don't have that physical connection. We're not able to, those mirror neurons are not firing, the oxytocin that we get from the human connection. We were created to be in networks, relationships, right? Networks of relationships in families.

We're communal beings. Exactly. We are social beings. but we've lost the art of connection.

So one of the resilience currencies that we teach is attending, the art of connecting and listening and recognizing the emotional value to that and the wellness and wellbeing aspect of connecting with others. So while remote work is great, the connection that we miss in the office is also adding to the loneliness. And so, with everything that's happening, we've become a less resilient people. So if someone is trying to do it on their own, do the best they can, are there a couple of things that you would recommend to them while they're growing before they, you know, invest in a coach?

Are there some things that you think that they should do first? 100%. And just to answer that, I'm passionate about working with small businesses and not-for-profit organizations. And that was one of the incentives to create the platform.

Because with me physically helping them, I can only help so many people. Sure. But with the platform, they don't have to sit across from me to get the intelligence and to learn from all the learning we've learned from all clients that we've put into the platform. Now we're able to help small businesses, help not-for-profit organizations to map, measure, and build resilience for their team so they can get to that next level.

Awesome. Okay. And then what are those tangible things that they should try on their own? And some of the tangible things they can do on their own is help employees to start identifying where they are at, how they are contributing, how are they feeling at work?

What are some things they can do? Take time to connect with themselves. Take time to listen to their colleagues, to work things out. And don't be afraid of conflicts.

I know, it's always funny when a conflict analyst tells you don't be afraid of conflict. But don't be afraid of conflicts. You got to talk about it. Yes.

Take a deep breath and say, okay, this is feeling uncomfortable, but I know there's growth that's going to happen for us at the other side. So can you bear with me? I may cry. I may feel uncomfortable, but can we go through this process together?

Can we look at why this is uncomfortable? Can we look at why, what we need to learn and learn it together? Because it's always best when we do it together. Yeah.

I really appreciate that statement and leading people for 25 years. And it's never dawned on me to just get it out in the beginning. This is going to be uncomfortable, at least for me. Maybe not for them.

And I shouldn't put feelings on them. But this is hard for me. Mm-hmm. And people appreciate that.

Yes. People appreciate that because when they know, now they know. They're like, you know, they help you along. They're like, okay, I get it.

But can we make it even less? Can we make it less uncomfortable? We can. Yeah.

Let's do that. Let's do that together. Right. And then once people address the things in their organizations that are keeping their people from being resilient, what does that workplace start to look like?

Oh my gosh. People can talk to each other without fear of reprisal. They can work with their leaders knowing that if there's a problem, if there is an accident or an error, they can talk about it, learn through it, and come out on the other side. And you know, we talk about that double look, triple look learning before.

It's a concept. And once we make it part of the foundational way we get along and we work with each other, it's a lot easier. It's not as painful because we're looking at, who do I need to become in this next phase? Who do I need to be in this next chapter for us to move through the challenges and grow together in our workplaces?

Definitely. And spending most of my professional time in the healthcare environment, I would also say that it gets safer because when people can talk to each other, it literally gets safer for the patient. 100%. 100%.

Because they don't need to hide and lie and hide. They can bring it out in the open, and we can all learn from it. And if we can take away those opportunities and create more learning opportunities, it makes our work and our life a lot better. Yeah, most definitely.

All right, well, I always got to tie it back into benefits. How do benefits, leadership behavior, and organizational culture either reinforce or drain that resilience? Oh, have mercy. In so many ways, as a leader, you can lead resilience.

How you communicate with your employees, what you do, how you deal with challenges. Most people start to, you know, they research what does resilience mean. Resilience means bouncing back. But I believe resilience is a currency.

And it's something you spend and you can spend it wisely or you can spend it foolishly, just like you would with any other currency. Understand the currency of resilience, which is the framework that encapsulates my work, then we recognize that we can actually save and extend our resilience. Instead of becoming upset and flustered and, you know, flying off the handle for the least of the thing, we can conserve our energy. We can breathe and stop and say, what did I just encounter?

What two worlds collided for me? and how do I bring them together to make sense? Then we are more curious human beings on the planet. So it's very important as a leader for you to start seeing the things in your workplace and leading people through that triple loop concept that your people are growing, they're becoming their best self.

And as a leader, you need to create opportunities for them to transform. And if you don't create those opportunities, there you go, you're going to still have the same problem. And you're the ones that are going to say, choice, why can't people just grow up? Why can't they just do their work?

I feel like I'm leading little children. I feel like I'm in kindergarten. That's because you're not creating the growth opportunities for your people to move through the triple loop learning concepts. And so they're staying the same and you're having the same problems all the time.

I don't mean to laugh about something that isn't funny, but it does make me laugh that, you know, I see this in practices and employers that I consult with. But looking at your stage, I mean, you do this internationally with tiny organizations, big organizations. And so it just, it cracks me up that the problems are the same from country to country, organization to organization. We're still dealing with the same stuff.

Yes, we're dealing with human stuff. You know, I talk about this in one of my books. I say, we have belly buttons. Humans have belly buttons.

That makes them strange creatures. You never know what to expect from them. Right? But it's at the same time, we're the same.

Right? It's just that we all have different style of belly buttons. Some people on a bigger some are out some are in some a little tiny some are folded in bellybuttons, I'm going to think about belly buttons the next time I feel like I'm herding cats at work. Exactly.

Okay, Joyce, you've given us so much good stuff. But if you could give just one piece of advice today for employers about resilience, what would it be? Resilience is not a standalone thing. I broke and I got up and I fixed myself.

Resilience is a system. And you need to create a system of resilience for yourself as an employee, meaning that you've created healthy relationships with your colleagues, good communication skills. You can connect. You can build network at works.

If you look at the nine dimensions, it gives you a really good framework, a system for resilience. In your emotional, it helps you to get self-mastery so you understand what you're feeling and understand that your emotions are not who you are. They're how you experience life. And so you determine how you express that, then you go into your occupational and you recognize part of that is your career growth, your professionalism, your relationship with your colleagues.

All of that is part of that occupational well-being that we develop. Then there's the intellectual, your ability to make good decisions, critical thinking. Those are very important. When we come to interdependence, we're looking at diversity, inclusion, social responsibility, our ability to maintain healthy work environments.

Very important. We're going to financial wellness. We're looking at innovation. Ability for long-term planning, for, you know, capital expenditure to save, to be able to do those things.

That's really important, right? To be creative. That's all. Those creativity and that deals with, you know, putting away some of the fears and going for what we need to in all lives.

Then we go into the physical. And that's that whole vessel that we've come here into. And taking care of that vessel, it looks at nutrition, it looks at stamina, it looks at all the different. So we cannot have one, we cannot put all our energy in one dimension and expect to do well.

We have to feed all the nine dimensions. We have to see them as elements of our lives that needs to be cared for just as much as we love our work and we're doing our work well. We need to take care of all those. And then there is the interpersonal.

That's how we connect with others, how we forgive, how we solve conflict, how we collaborate, how we are in a team. Those are very important skills that we need to develop. That's where belonging happens, right? as a relational resilience occurs.

So we tend to start to stop looking at ourselves as, Just me. There's no just me. We're all in it together. We're in this life process.

We are so fortunate that we get to do life with this generation of people on the planet at this time. And we need to all make the best of it. And so what we do with the currency of resilience, when we're born, we've been given a pocket of energy and we can invest it. We can expand it.

We can grow it. So we have a nice nest egg or we can squander it. It's the currency. Amazing.

Well, Joyce, thank you so much for your positivity, for your enthusiasm, and for sharing all of your many, many years of wisdom with our listeners. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Amanda. That was Joyce Odidison, and here are key takeaways for leaders and employers.

Resilience is not a perk. It is not a program. It is not an individual responsibility alone. It is the result of how systems, leadership behaviors, benefits, and culture work together every day.

When organizations design environments that reduce hidden strain and support people before they reach burnout, the results show up everywhere. Stronger culture, better retention, lower absenteeism, and healthier benefit utilization. If today's conversation made you rethink how your organization approaches resilience, that awareness is the first step towards building something stronger and more sustainable. Thanks for listening.