Resilience - what it means and why it matters

Here's a business tip from the Harvard Business Review: LINK to original article

"Resilience" is one of those business buzzwords that's picking up in popularity. What does it mean? Why do you, as a cabal leader or cabal manager* care about resilience?  Resilience is the ability to weather adversity and 'be cool' about it, and running a cabal in TSW (or a guild in any MMO) is going to have moments of sharp adversity. So perhaps it's worth looking into a bit further...

(From a Google search on Resilience LINK)

From a psychological perspective (LINK, LINK, and LINK), resilience is the ability to bounce back from hardship.  It's the difference between one person who loses a job and goes to pieces, and another person who loses a job, loses a spouse, and still manages not to slide into depression. Resilience allows someone to keep going when life gets rough, and allows a person to stay calmly confident after a defeat or let-down.

And it's likely also true in cabal management!
(From Harvard Business Review's 'How Resilience Works' LINK)

Some business intelligence (LINK) believes that resilience, rather than intelligence, drive, or opportunity, is the trait that really separates the great leaders from the merely good ones.

In some sense, by the time you're an adult, your amount of resilience is already "baked in" to your personality. Some research indicates (LINK) that people become more resilient as they age and mature.  However, on the other hand, resilience is at least partially a skill that is learnable if you set your mind to it.

In general resilient people (and resilient organizations) possess three characteristics (LINK)

• Resilient people are aware of, and accept, reality.
• Resilient people have a deep belief/a strong value that life is meaningful.
• Resilient people ready and willing to improvise, and often enjoy it.

Facing Down Reality

Resilience isn't based solely on optimism. Think about that for a moment. This isn't 'merely' putting on rose-colored glasses and assuming (hoping, believing) that everything will be okay.  That sort of naive optimism actually prevents you from realizing 'oooh crap, this is a bad situation, I need to DO something!'  Overconfidence or naive optimism can be a form of denial that will prevent you from taking needed steps to adapt to your situation. Resilience depends on a realistic view of reality.  You should not only consider your challenges from your own point of view, but also from others.  Be sure to communicate with people in your cabal about how they see things so you can get a broader view of what is actually going on, and a realistic assessment of the challenges ahead.

Finding Meaning

Why is your cabal here? What is your cabal's purpose?
(From Funcom's Media Library)

This is tougher, and really ineffable. While a lot of thought has been had on finding meaning (particularly in the context of the business world), for the world of the MMO, perhaps it's better to narrow this down. Ideally, your cabal should have some sort of purpose. Maybe this has been formalized, or maybe it's an unspoken agreement.  If you've never thought about it, then now might be a real good time to start having that discussion with your cabal officers and veterans.

When challenges arise, knowing what your purpose is gives you something to 'default' back to.  "We want to be a fun, family-friendly social cabal where people are happy to come in and chat OOC on teamspeak and quest together... so given that's our goal, how are we going to deal with X..."

Improvise Intentionally

The US Marine Corps uses the phrase 'improvise, adapt, and overcome' and this is one of the fundamental elements of resilience.  Running a cabal is full of screwups like PvE content that is just cursed by the Random Number Gods today, the vagaries of PvP, and RP where no plot survives first contact with the players.  Every single day, as a cabal manager, you need to intentionally improvise to find your way around these things. Maybe, from a PvE perspective, your hot DPS just needs to slot an aggro-shedding power because the tank is having a rough day, which means that the DPS's whole build has to change.  Maybe today is NOT your day in Fusang, and it's time to go see what PvP in El Dorado is like.  Maybe you just have to take a deep breath, yell 'plot twist!' and rejigger your plot on the fly.  Be ready to improvise and accept it as a way of life, and that will make you more resilient.


Challenges come at you when you don't expect them, but you can train yourself to face down reality, to seek meaning, and to improvise intentionally to increase your resilience in the face of adversity.







* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.