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Do you
think of yourself as resilient? Perhaps my preoccupation with
resilience is connected to my mid-life point of view—a 180-degree look
at what’s behind me and what might lie before me in the uncomfortably
dwindling time I have left. Like most people, I feel that I have
weathered some rough water and had my share of ups and downs. But what
is it that gets us through? Resilience? My thesaurus offers these
synonyms for resilient: flexible, durable, stout, sturdy, tough,
buoyant and irrepressible.1 I’d like to think of myself as
resilient, but on a day-to-day basis, I’m not so sure. And I certainly
don’t feel irrepressible!
As I mulled over the idea of resilience, I began
to think of my friends, many of whom are librarians. I thought of the
number of librarians I know who have been downsized, outsourced, and
otherwise required to morph into new forms, new positions, new
organizations. How many changes have we all experienced in our work? How
many changes have occurred in our profession since we graduated from
library school? The internet—a blinking colon in the bottom left corner
of my old 386 computer—became public the year after I graduated and
things have never really been the same since. I decided to see how my
colleagues felt about change and resilience.
What
is Resilience?
The
American Psychological Association (APA) defines resilience as “the
process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy,
threats, or even significant sources of stress—such as family and
relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and
financial stressors. It means ‘bouncing back’ from difficult
experiences. Research has shown that resilience is ordinary, not
extraordinary. People commonly demonstrate resilience.”2
Other psychologists say that resilience is at least partially genetic,
but most emphasize that it can be cultivated. Good news indeed.
The APA
has developed a program called The Road to Resilience which
recommends ten ways of building and maintaining resilience. Last year,
librarian Kim Dority wrote an excellent article in Colorado Libraries3
offering tips for coping with change in our profession. I was curious to
see if recommended resilience-building strategies are commonly used by
information professionals in the trenches.
Challenges We Face
After polling my
librarian friends, I posted a note to a number of library listservs
asking for “stories of resilience.” The topic obviously struck a chord—I
received more than 40 responses over a period of several days. Some had
been in the business since “the days when the library had a huge party
to celebrate getting their first dumb-terminal,” while several were
currently completing their degrees.
The challenges and
changes they described illustrated the interconnectedness of our
personal and professional lives. I received stories about downsizing,
merging of organizations and cultures, funding cuts, difficulties with
senior management, personality conflicts, isolation in the physical,
professional and social sense, and continually changing roles and
responsibilities. Some described narrow or stereotypical attitudes from
friends and co-workers outside of the library, the need to continually
learn new skills (often without support), and the belief that
“everything is on the Internet.” I was inspired by the stories people
shared. Even more encouraging was evidence that the strategies these
librarians used to bounce back from professional challenges were indeed
those recommended by the experts.
Resilience Tips from the Trenches
Change happens: bring it on!
Librarians
consistently said that “change is a given.” Accepting that change is
inevitable is the first step toward resilience. Mary Sue Livingston in
Michigan described the challenges of changing technology and dramatic
changes in her library’s organizational structure. “The attitude of
accepting change as constant has been necessary for me to survive in the
college as a whole … coping with all these changes sounded overwhelming;
but I’ve been amazed to see that I’ve been able to cope quite well.
I have served as reference librarian, head of
circulation services, assistant to the library director, and
librarian-at-large; so when changes occur or problems arise, I am quite
prepared to cope with them and ‘roll with the punches.’”
A
number of stories mentioned colleagues who had worked for 15-20 years in
the same position in the same organization. While one person noted that
long tenure in one position often pays off financially, several others
commented on the benefits of experiencing different positions in
different environments. According to cataloguer Julie Renee Moore, “Some
folks have trouble with change … mainly because they have not practiced
it much! Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I cannot imagine
working 20 years or more in one place. I wouldn’t trade my life for
anything. I’ve seen so many different places and things and people. It’s
given my life a lot of excitement.”
Julie
offered a breathtaking account of her career which has taken her from
Florida to Alaska, New York, New Jersey, and finally to California where
she currently works. As she describes her 18-year library career, you
get a sense of the energy that has propelled her through the darker
times. “During my career, I’ve done chores as menial as unplugging the
toilet and cleaning cockroach droppings off books to tasks as
interesting as cataloguing lichen samples and grey literature to the
challenges of supervising library assistants to the complete joys of
being involved in a mentorship program and the thrill of writing
articles, providing training, and giving talks at library association
conferences.”
When I
asked Julie what she thought people entering our profession should know
about change and how to cope with it, she said: “Change happens in our
profession and it happens in ways that you often cannot predict. It is
important to take the attitude that change is good. Embrace change! Just
roll with it! Don’t be afraid of it. Change can make your job exciting
and fun and take you places you’d never imagined possible!”
Relationships and support: ask for help!
Maintaining a
reliable support network is a familiar strategy for coping with personal
and professional challenges. Information professionals are perhaps
better equipped than others in this arena because of our long-standing
tradition of information sharing and professional networking.
Julie Renee Moore
notes that support from other librarians has been critical for her.
“Relationships with colleagues are of utmost importance. Were it not for
Autocat [listserv] while I was in remote Alaska, I think I might have
just curled up and died! I have known one person from the beginning of
my career, and she has been a trusted guide and mentor throughout.”
Others also
describe the importance of relationships. Laura* notes the difficulty of
adjusting to significant change at work. “The feeling of frustration,
grief, the need to keep motivating your staff even though you feel like
hell … the need to motivate yourself to keep going.” What helped was
“the support of staff who think that you will get them out of this,
clients, mentors, champions. Above all, make sure that you have senior
people as champions. Work on this aspect so that when the time comes,
they are there to support you.”
Perspective: is the glass really half-empty?
The value of
adopting a positive perspective has received considerable attention
recently and is central to Appreciative Inquiry and the positive
psychology movement. Reframing or looking for the benefits in a
challenging situation was advocated by librarians discussing
resilience.
Linda
Howard, a colleague working in British Columbia, describes how
perspective has helped her. “One of the ways in which I have become more
resilient is to find the positive aspects of this change [moving her
library 5 times in 15 years]. For example, with a library move, there is
the opportunity to have new neighbours, and therefore to introduce
library services to ‘new’ staff. Of course there are negative aspects to
each change or move, but focusing on the positive helps increase one’s
ability to adapt and adjust. One no longer holds onto the past with the
same intensity.”
Margaret says, “I
kept my priorities straight—no matter what the circumstances; I tried to
do my job to the best of my ability, and kept a patrons-first attitude.
This paid off at one point when a major faculty committee went to the
manager’s office to tell him how much they needed me.”
The benefit of
having experienced change can help with perspective. Julie Renee Moore
says “I try to let the small stuff go. Things that used to get my tail
in a twist are now just fleeting blips on my radar screen. I cannot
afford to expend energy, time, or other resources on things that do not
really matter.”
Be brave! Believe in yourself
Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton4
write that “Aside from the policies of your organization, there is only
one obstacle barring your progress: your own reluctance.” They argue
that people direct most of their energy toward their weaknesses rather
than their strengths. For example, if we feel that one of our weaknesses
is public speaking and we believe this is a skill required for success,
we’ll focus on developing that skill. Buckingham and Clifton write that
this “fixation with weakness is deeply rooted in our education and
upbringing. … [T]he reasons seem to stem from the same three basic
fears: fear of weakness, fear of failure, and, fear of one’s true self.”
Focusing on your strengths in difficult times will foster greater
resilience than lamenting your weaknesses.
In situations requiring resilience, believing in
yourself can take a lot of courage. For most of us, it becomes easier
with each positive outcome or experience. Alana writes that as a
librarian, “You need to believe in yourself, the validity of your
emotions and reactions, your understanding of a situation, your value as
an employee. What would I do differently now? [I] would be less afraid
to confront situations.” Jean says that one of her strategies for
managing change was “to continually stay focused on not falling into
fear-based thinking and to trust that I have incredible resources.”
Know yourself and take care of yourself
Self-knowledge and self-care are really at the core of resilience.
Without knowledge of and appreciation for who you are, tips from the
trenches really won’t help you be resilient.
Julie
Renee Moore believes that “It’s important to not allow work to take over
your life. For me, little breaks are important … to get me out of my
usual environment and away from my computer.” She also uses journaling
as a “way to take time to reflect on how things went and are going. And
it is kind of fun to look back and see how far I’ve come.”
Kim
Dority writes about the importance of “honouring our sense of humour.” I
believe this is critical to my resilience. There is a growing body of
research supporting the value of humour in managing illness, pain, and
depression. Surely 2500 laughter yoga clubs5 around the world
can’t be wrong! Using humour as a way of maintaining a positive
perspective should not be underestimated.
Another
gem from Kim Dority is “embrace ‘beginner’s mind.’” It is indeed
unsettling to suddenly feel that we “don’t know”—we don’t know what is
going to happen, whether we’ll have a job, how to do a new job, or what
the next change will be. Embracing “beginner’s mind” is a reminder to
treat ourselves with compassion. As Jean notes, in the midst of change,
“we can only gently observe how we respond, feel it fully and be kind to
ourselves, while remembering a bigger vision of what we want.”
Final Reflections on Resilience
Paul T.
Jackson, possibly the most resilient librarian I know of, said to me,
“People are resilient because they have to be … although the scars
never disappear totally.” Then he added, “I like to think of ‘real’
librarians as described by Librarian Avengers6 … ‘people
become librarians because they know too much,’ and they can usually do
anything they choose to do with grace and excellence.”
I had
lunch last week with my librarian friend, Marjory Jardine, to discuss
resilience. She said “Resilience is the big picture. Day-to-day we cope
… get through. Resilience is not only bouncing back but how you
bounce back. It’s developing awareness so that on a day when you’re not
feeling on top, you rearrange your schedule accordingly if you can. It’s
all in the attitude.” Hmmm… I thought. I can do that. Then I
talked to my co-worker, Jane Dyson. She said, “I think I am resilient,
yes. I’m more resilient now than I was when I was younger.” When I asked
her why, she said “Hope.” I felt relieved. I’m pretty sure I can manage
hope. I think I really am resilient … if not irrepressible.
* Use
of first names only indicates a pseudonym.
References & Resources
1
Oxford
Paperback Thesaurus.
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 728.
2
American Psychological Association. The Road to Resilience.
(c2004, accessed August 26, 2005); available from
http://www.helping.apa.org/featuredtopics/feature.php?id=6&ch=1.
3
Kim Dority, “Change, Chaos, and Control: Strategies for Change Agents,”
Colorado Libraries 30 (Spring 2004): 13-16.
4
Buckingham,
Marcus and Clifton, Donald O. “Are You Afraid of Your Weaknesses?
Obstacles to Building Your Strengths (Part 1).” Excerpted from
Now, Discover Your Strengths.
(New York: Free Press, 2001,
accessed August 26, 2005); available from
http://gmj.gallup.com/content/content.asp?ci=559.
5
Laughter Yoga/Laughter Club International. Welcome to Laughter Yoga
Therapy. (n.d., accessed August 26, 2005); available from
http://www.laughteryoga.org/meditation/.
6
Librarian Avengers. Worship. (July 13, 2005, accessed August 26,
2005); available from
http://librarianavengers.org/?page_id=3.
Appreciative Inquiry Commons
http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu/
Positive Psychology Center
http://www.positivepsychology.org/
About
the Author:
Shelley Hourston is a librarian who uses Appreciative Inquiry, life
review and coaching to help information professionals recognize and
maximize their skills, talents and resilience. Learn more in The Art
of Resilience 101, an online program beginning October 3, 2005.
Visit
http://www.shourstonandassociates.com for more information.
Article published Sept 2005
Disclaimer: The
ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective
authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer
editors.
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