LERNLUST #36 // You can LEARN resilience.

Resilience seems to be the hot topic at the moment. 
Is it all in our heads or is there some truth to it? 
In any case, it was chosen as the business word of the year 2022 because it entered the public vocabulary last year and has been used disproportionately often since then.
But what exactly is resilience? Why is it so important? What characterizes resilient people? And how can you learn resilience?
In this edition, we talk to tts Product Manager and newly minted Resilience Trainer Kristina Kreibich. We also talk about what resilience and learning might have to do with each other.

Shownotes

Host:
Claudia Schütze // LinkedIn

Guest:
Kristina Kreibich // LinkedIn
 

Mentioned links to the topic:
- Blog of the Resiliency Academy (de) 
- Business Word of the Year (de)

You can also find all episodes of our LERNLUST podcast at:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music | Deezer

[Intro]
Lernlust, the podcast for everything related to corporate learning. We are Susanne Dube and Claudia Schütze and we are learning consultants at tts. It's great to have you with us today.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, for me, resilience is, above all, a skill. That doesn't mean that we have less stress as a result of resilience, but we can handle it better. So it doesn't always have to be rose-tinted spectacles, for God's sake.
Mindset is a very important topic.

[Claudia Schütze]
Resilience is a term that I have come across more and more often recently. Be it in internal training courses, in one barcamp session or another, or in various articles that I have read about it on the internet. That means I have had a little taste of the subject, I know a little about it.
I have a rough idea of what resilience means and what I can do for myself to react more resiliently in stressful situations. But all of this is only superficial knowledge. So what could be more obvious than to invite my highly esteemed consulting colleague and resilience trainer Kristina Greibich to join me in this episode to take a closer look at what resilience actually is?
What characterizes resilient people? What can they do better than others? And what can you learn to be able to react resiliently in stressful situations?
And together we will talk about what learning and resilience might have to do with each other. Hello and welcome to a new episode of our Lernlust podcast. It's great to have you back and I'm especially pleased to have a very esteemed colleague as a guest today who has not yet sat on our Lernlust sofa.
Kristina Greibich, welcome.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Hello, nice to be here.

[Claudia Schütze]
Yes, it's great that you're taking the time to chat with me today about a topic close to your heart. And Kristina, it's the topic of resilience and maybe I'll make it a little bit bigger, the topic of mental health, which is of course also part of what we want to talk about today. Since you haven't been a guest here before, Kristina, I'll take this opportunity to briefly introduce you.
You have been working for us in the consulting area for about seven years and in the meantime you have become a product manager for tts Labs in the consulting area and you are a team lead, so a managing consultant. In addition, maybe we'll make the facets a little richer, you have dedicated your life, I hope I'm saying this right, quite a bit to sports as well, or maybe even a little more. I believe that in the past you were in any case, that's what I understood, but today you were also one of the initiators, or perhaps even the initiator, of a sports initiative that we started during the pandemic, namely the tts Runners.
I'm very happy that you're here and that you're willing to talk to us today about a topic close to your heart.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, thank you very much.

[Claudia Schütze]
Kristina, we have already said that resilience will be our topic today and my favorite topic is learning.

[Claudia Schütze]
So, we may have points of contact, overlaps, maybe one has to do with the other, not just maybe, I think, but there will be things and that's what we want to talk about today. Well, I'm a bit of a learner, and we're also on the Lernlust podcast and we want to look at the topic of resilience and maybe we'll just start with something like that, which is almost a platitude, I'd say.

So resilience, I think we've all been hearing more and more about it for many years. You, me, all of us probably. And I do feel that it's becoming more and more present.

And in our preliminary discussion, you also told me that resilience was actually the business word of the year in 2022. And that was probably not without reason. And besides the many quotes we could find and share, which I don't want to do at this point, I would just like to start with the question for you.

[Claudia Schütze]
What exactly is resilience?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, for me resilience is above all a skill. It's something you can develop or improve. And it's mainly about how you deal with stressful situations, with adversity, with crises, and how you can handle these situations better so that the next crisis, the next difficult, stressful situation in the future, actually turns out a bit positively for you.

[Claudia Schütze]
Okay, so that means that someone who is resilient or has acquired resilience can deal with situations differently than someone who has perhaps not yet internalized this for themselves. Have I understood that correctly?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, I think in the broadest sense you could say that. So there will probably never be a perfectly resilient person, but you can move towards it. And each person is at a different point on this continuum.
But it is definitely true that anyone can do something to become more resilient and better able to deal with such situations.

[Claudia Schütze]
I think that's a super important message. That's exactly what it's supposed to be about. And that's also our perspective from learning, what can you do?
But before we get to that, Kristina, I would like to hear from you, if you like, if you would like to share with our listeners, how did you actually get into the topic?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, that actually goes back to personal reasons. So basically, you deal with topics that interest you, for whatever reason. And I'm interested in resilience or mental health for personal reasons, because I have a chronic illness, since I was a child, so to speak.
And I always have to take extreme care of myself. I have to watch how I deal with stress because, of course, stress also makes my chronic illness worse. And I actually have to take care of myself every day.
And resilience came at just the right time. And to be honest, I've been trying to develop myself since I was a child, to somehow make my illness better, so to speak. And yes, that's what drove me to study resilience more last year.
It's probably a bit late, too, since I'm no longer the youngest. But it's never too late.

[Claudia Schütze]
I would say it's never too late to deal with issues and, above all, to have faith that I can cope with them at any point in time and can tackle them and achieve an improvement for myself as a result. And maybe it's still a good time to point out, Kristina, that you didn't just get involved in this because you might have had an interest in it yourself, but in the meantime you have actually spent so much time on it that you can now call yourself a trainer in the field. I would like to have that included at this point in your introduction.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, the background is actually that I would like to bring the knowledge that I acquired out of personal motivation into our company, into our organization. And of course I would also like to help other people who are in a similar situation. In whatever way, that's not yet clear, but the competence is now, let's say, in the company and then we'll see what comes of it.

[Claudia Schütze]
Yes, a lot of it is context learning, which is definitely the right keyword for it, Kristina. You told us a bit about how you came to it. So now I think we have understood a bit about your trigger, what it was that prompted you to deal with the topic.

[Claudia Schütze]
And of course it makes sense now to take a look at what can be learned. What can we all learn about resilience?

[Kristina Kreibich]
What I find particularly exciting about resilience is that it looks at different areas, of course. I find my own attitude, my mindset, the way I think, very exciting. Of course, I can achieve an awful lot there.
So I can tend to focus my thoughts on positive things, because we humans are naturally more inclined to be pessimistic or we always pay attention to dangers, for example. And I can try to actually influence my own attitude. I can look at what my protective factors are, what really gives me energy in my everyday life, and of course I can continue to strengthen that.
On the other hand, I can look at what risk factors are, i.e. what stress does, what drains my energy, and then I can also try to switch that off a bit. This can be something very small, such as a nice example that I always think is quite fitting: when I take a shower in the morning, I have a glass wall in the shower and of course I have a nice squeegee. And here in Munich, we actually have a lot of limescale, so squeegeeing is a must.
And this squeegee was actually broken for weeks, well it was already a year or two years ago, but it was broken for weeks, so it drew smears. And that actually caused me a bit of stress every morning. It almost always increased my stress a little bit before I even started my day.
And what I would learn now through resilience, I mean, I could have thought of that myself back then, but of course it was okay, what can I actually change in the next 72 hours so that it doesn't happen the next day. And then I can decide, okay, I'll go to the hardware store this afternoon after work and actually get a new squeegee. And just like that, I've solved the problem.
It's just a tiny thing, but it's these tiny things that cause my stress to rise throughout the day.

[Claudia Schütze]
Now you've used the term stress twice. I'm assuming that's a fixed piece of terminology, perhaps from the topic of resilience. Nevertheless, would you like to briefly explain to those who haven't yet dealt with it in much detail what it is, what it stands for and perhaps also explain the context in which you use it?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, I think that's a pretty good image to visualize it. It's like a rain barrel, which, when it rains, steadily fills up. And then there's maybe a spout at the bottom, where you can let the rain out from time to time and water flowers with it.
And it's the same with our body. So it patters daily stress on us. And we can also let off the stress from time to time, for example, by doing sports, meditating or actually doing something good for ourselves.
And resilience is like a protective shield or umbrella over it. It just makes sure that the stress that comes from above doesn't cause our barrel to rise so much. Because if the barrel really overflows, we can end up in a burnout.
And that's why the stress barrel is a very nice image.

[Claudia Schütze]
I think that's a very nice metaphor. And now you've painted a nice picture of it. And now the question is somehow how we can develop this protective shield so that we can use it to prevent the barrel from overflowing, to prevent this stress barrel from overflowing.
And when you say it's a protective shield, then there are certain things that create this protection or that constitute this protection. And what is it exactly that would really make up resilience? Well, there are certainly a lot of theories, a lot of approaches.
But maybe just in general terms, a few things that have stuck out for you from all of that.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, I've already briefly mentioned one's own attitude. So this mindset is a very important topic that you can work on. What I also find important are actually the emotions, because we actually deal, at least in my environment, actually also in my family and also, I think, quite certainly at work.
Relatively little with emotions, but nevertheless they belong to each of us, of course. And every emotion has its right to exist. So joy has a right to exist, but on the other hand, of course, so do anger and sadness.
And it is precisely these emotions that you should not suppress. So if you are feeling sad or angry, you should really go through them. That doesn't mean that you should freak out at work or anything, but you should really look behind them to see where they come from and how you can deal with them.
Emotions are also a huge topic in resilience. And what I also find really nice is that you also get a kind of toolbox that gives you a bit of an idea of what you can really do, what exercises there are or what topics you can tackle, for example, the protective factors, risk factors, so that you can first do an analysis for yourself. What are my protective factors anyway?
What gives me energy and what drains my energy? So really, having certain exercises at hand to get there in the first place, because that's not so easy either.

[Claudia Schütze]
Okay, I think I can understand that. Kristina, there is a world that is spinning faster and faster, where I have to learn more and more in a short period of time, because what I have no longer represents certainty for tomorrow in terms of knowledge and probably won't necessarily guarantee me that I will be able to answer tomorrow's questions with it. And now you have described a bit where I can look for myself, but now I would like to make it a bit bigger.
So what can everyone do? What can we all do? Me, you and everyone else who is listening now, perhaps.
In the context of resilience, what can I really learn and what are requirements that simply result from the environmental conditions and where can I build up competence on certain issues, on certain topics, in order to be able to meet these requirements better first in a different way and then hopefully better?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, I mean, it's very complex, of course, but I think the first step is to, I would say, deal with the topic in the first place, to be really open about it. Yes, the world is unpredictable, uncertain, complex, etc. And to reflect on yourself or look inside yourself, how do I actually deal with these things, what do they do, what do they do to me?
How can I deal with it better? So that you really start to deal with the topic at all, because I think we are also so overburdened with all the digitalization, with social media, that there is often no time at all to even think about it. We are so caught up in the hamster wheel and then there is, well, on the one hand you have work, then you have family, then you have social media that you maintain, then you also want to learn something new.
So I think you're so overburdened that maybe you should just take a step back and see what it's all doing to you. And then maybe the next steps will emerge from that, I could imagine.

[Claudia Schütze]
And I think what also arises from this is that you take a look at what they are. I came across a term while doing research on the internet that I would just like to mention now. There is something called pillars of resilience, things that make up resilience. Because we've talked a bit now about where I can look for myself, how I can observe and perceive myself and understand a bit, okay, what does it take for me to feel healthy and not stressed by environmental conditions. And that has to do with how I approach certain topics, as you've said quite clearly, and how I deal with them.

And on this topic, the so-called pillars of resilience, and you can find many quotes on the internet and not every one of these models is identical, but there are topics that keep coming up no matter who you dive a little deeper with. They all have something in common. Kristina, would you like to start with one or two things from your perspective?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, exactly, maybe to start with, you've already said it, so there are actually an incredible number of models that have been repeatedly revised and there are actually an incredible number of names in the field, people who have studied them. So I'm referring to it now because I actually learned it at the Resilience Academy from Sebastian Mauritz. This is a model by Dr. Franziska Wiebel and Sebastian Mauritz has just added to it.

[Kristina Kreibich]
On the one hand, it is about connection, about networks. And that is, for example, what I think we all realize: that good relationships with others and, in fact, contact with ourselves, give us stability and security. And of course, in the world we live in at the moment, it is important that we have a good and healthy environment and that we have good connections and good networks with friends and family, but also, of course, with, I would also say that work colleagues and colleagues, bosses, etc.
So bonding plays a big role.

[Claudia Schütze]
Well, I would like to support it, Kristina, even if you are the expert on this now, but these are my thoughts on why it has been resonating with me so much since we started talking about the VUCA world out there and saying that learning is changing and has changed and will continue to change for what is now popping up out there at an ever-increasing speed, for each and every one of us. We have said that one thing is to definitely get out of our silo and say that maybe we alone will no longer be able to provide the answers to certain questions that arise and that we will encounter in the future. And each of us is certainly an expert, but several people coming together are a better expert or are better experts in this network, small or large, in order to utilize the intelligence of the masses, so to speak, and to try together to find answers to these questions that we will encounter, where we may not have ready-made knowledge that we can access. And that's why network orientation resonates so strongly with me, because you also know that, for example, social learning is extremely important to me personally. And I think it probably doesn't even matter whether we look at the private or the professional world, but this togetherness, learning from each other, listening and participating from the experiences of others and generating benefits for oneself from it, because I also know that there are people out there with whom I can join forces and exchange ideas on issues that are currently acute for me , no matter what the topic, I can exchange ideas and gain from the contact with others. So that is perhaps just one facet of the idea of the network, but it resonates very strongly with me, I must say.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, definitely, I think so too. I think people inspire each other tremendously. So you can somehow work on a topic alone in the afternoon and somehow not really make any progress in three hours.
And then you only have to talk to someone else for five minutes and you become more creative and something comes of it. And I would actually quite like to refer to that again, because it resonated with me right now, because what you said just now, is to relate it to mental health again, because especially in mental health, if someone is not feeling so good mentally, then he or she is never alone. So there are always people with whom you can exchange ideas.
You probably just have to take the plunge, but you're never alone out there in the world. And you're never alone in this, there are always lots and lots of people out there in the same situation. And of course you can join forces and learn from or support each other.
That just occurred to me too.

[Claudia Schütze]
Yes, that's a good thought. And I think it starts with being aware that having others can support me. And regardless of whether it's for my own condition, so to speak, to focus on stabilizing, supporting, improving my own condition, or whether it's perhaps my state of mind on some subject matter.
So in that respect, I think it doesn't matter which glasses we look through. But knowing that I can contact others, work together with others on something, or ensure something for myself through conversation or exchange with others. I think raising awareness of this is the first step and that's the important thing, I think.
And that's where we actually learn. No matter how, but that people can acquire this perspective, so to speak, to say, yes, I understand, bonding or networking is something that can help me to gain stability in these learning topics or in topics for myself and to say that a pillar can be networking, for example. Okay, great. 
Kristina, there are actually seven pillars if you look at the literature. In most cases, there are seven. I don't want to claim that this model says there are seven, but often there are seven in the written works.
Not everything resonated with us in our preliminary discussion, where we said, okay, this is something we definitely need to talk about. But I think there were two or three where we found something, yes, that's something where you can acquire skills and where learning could actually set a focus. Would you like to choose another one from the ones we already discussed a bit at the beginning?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, because we were just talking about this, I would just like to emphasize healthy optimism again. So it doesn't always have to be rose-tinted glasses, for God's sake, but actually asking yourself, okay, what is going well right now, what shouldn't change? So really focusing on these positives, on these strengthening factors, to really come to a healthy optimism, I actually find that quite exciting.
And because we can all be pessimistic.

[Claudia Schütze]
We're all super good, if you ask me. I think that's also a bit of an attitude, in fact, that's my conviction. And I mean, we all know this saying, is the glass half full or half empty.
And yes, we probably often dismiss it as a saying, but I think there is a quintessence in it. And that tells me how I relate to things in my environment that tend to stress me out. The fact that I have to learn certain new topics, that I have to reorient myself, that I might have to re-qualify for a new job at all, can all stress me out.
These are all topics that are coming up now. And if I develop an attitude for myself that says, yes, I didn't choose this, it wasn't at the top of my list as the next topic I want to work on. But if it's on the agenda now because things are changing in our environment, then not to perceive it as a threat at first.
So the glass is half empty, but rather to look at it and see if the glass is half full? And what good can I find in it now? Seeing that there is an opportunity in it, for example.
What exactly is the opportunity? How do I get there? What positive things for the future does it reveal?
And now you could somehow say that you can't really teach attitude. But I can give people tools, I think, with which they can generate a different view of their attitude or even perceive what their attitude is in the first place. And maybe try the positive thing, the positive way of seeing things, and integrate it more into their perspective.
And I think that would be an asset for many in such a situation.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, it's definitely not an easy task. So there's a lot of work behind it. It's no walk in the park.
But I have also seen it in myself that if I really get stuck into it and try to really work on this optimism or healthy optimism with certain exercises or by reflecting on certain things, I have actually noticed that it does something for me. Of course, it starts on a small scale, but then it can of course become much bigger. And what must not be missing either is hope.

[Claudia Schütze]
Absolutely. And that can develop a power. And I think these specialized topics, the one thing we can offer support and learning guidance, that's one thing.
But what you have just described is another facet that makes us wonder what we can offer learners so that they may gradually move away from a glass-is-half-empty orientation and towards a glass-is-half-full one. And I think our task as learning professionals, regardless of the specific topic, is to really consider the options that arise from new topics, the opportunities that come with a different way of working, with new software, with other skills that people need to acquire in order to be able to do something well in the future in a work context. Maybe it's also our job to communicate these opportunities that are involved in a clear and transparent way. So maybe this is also a story for change communication.
So that's always such a nice thing to say, we're doing a change story. And what exactly are things like bonding, for example? How can I, together with others, how can I, as you put it, instill healthy optimism, how can I perhaps even instill a healthy, optimistic attitude in such change situations?
And everyone can still consider for themselves whether it suits me, is it mine? But we can make offers. That's a thought I'm having as we talk about it.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, and what also comes to mind is the role model function. That was also the reason why I did resilience. I did it for personal reasons and for myself, but my ulterior motive was to also drive it into the organization and to give it to other people.
And I'm not the perfect resilient person now, but I can still lead by example, talk about the issues, even address them, make sure that there is a conversation in the organization at all and then incorporate that step by step. And what you said as a trainer, but also in everyday life as a completely normal role model, setting an example. And so that others might also take a cue from it to some extent, or at least start thinking about it.

[Claudia Schütze]
That's a good point, Kristina. I think creating this awareness is the first step, we've already mentioned that, and then saying, and I'm starting to think about it and deal with it. And I think if I try again to formulate a goal, then it is indeed the wish that we can all gain a little or a little more or a lot more resilience for ourselves, in order to deal with the current situations in the private context, which are certainly different for everyone, but in the work context they are relatively similar for many of us, precisely in this fact that everything is moving much faster and we have to learn more new things much, much faster. And if we are aware of this, what does it do to people? What kind of challenge is it to have to learn something new again and again?
And nothing that I learned yesterday is a sure bet for what is coming tomorrow or the day after. So if we are aware of this, I think we can also take our learners in the organizations much more seriously, with their sensitivities, which they also have. And not everyone is shouting, yippee, yes, something new again, but maybe it is also a challenge for one or the other.
And optimism, what we have just discussed, is definitely a very important facet of this.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Exactly, and I didn't want to step in, but then again, self-awareness is also involved. We've been talking about that the whole time, too. And that's actually another pillar.
Okay, tell me, what's the official one? So according to the model I started with, that's self-awareness. And of course that also leads to self-efficacy.
So if I perceive myself better and know what is actually going on inside of me, then I can also become more effective, that is, effective myself. And these are all pillars or topics of resilience in fact.

[Claudia Schütze]
And to feel an effectiveness myself, I think. You can turn that up a little notch, so to speak. And that also gives us another idea for us as learning providers.
So designing learning contexts in such a way that they are as naturally related as possible to real life and to challenges is nothing new. We have been doing that for a long time. But maybe also creating or taking situations that are there where I myself notice that I am achieving a result with what I am doing.
I'm not quite sure what the right way to achieve the result is, but I'm going to try out what I've been given in the learning program. I'm going to start doing it in practice, even if it's a contrived situation now, but I'm going to try to apply it, I'm going to try it out. And when I notice that I'm having success with it or with learning aids that are given to me, then I experience a certain self-efficacy.
So I can help myself with this topic. I can go two steps further than I might have been able to at the beginning. And that's why I actually think that's a very exciting point in the context of learning.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, it's about the how.

[Claudia Schütze]
Yes, absolutely. And how do I perceive myself in the process and how do I judge it, how do I evaluate it? And I would actually, Kristina, pick one that I really liked.

[Claudia Schütze]
I was actually very much in favor of this solution-oriented approach, which is also present in many of these models. And why do I find it so important? Well, this understanding and knowledge that I am not helplessly exposed to these changes, but that I can see that it is not the situation that does something to me, but that I have tools that can be the network, that can be the exchange with others, that I have myself through supportive offers.
But I can, so to speak, see what a possible solution might be. And not always dig in the past, yes, that didn't work with the internet either, and anyway, that never really works at all. And have this past and negative orientation, so to speak.
And why did something fail, you have to look at that too. But still, I look ahead, I look for a solution, I look for how we can take a step further and move forward on the topic. And to experience that through trial and error, I think, is also a great learning effect.
And it is perhaps also a challenge for us as learning providers to pay attention to this and take it into account in our design.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, definitely. So I absolutely agree.

[Claudia Schütze]
I think we are now trying to offer our topics a bit and always see what is valuable for the other person. That's how I perceive our conversation now. And that's what we wanted to do.
We wanted to see what one topic has to offer the other. And I think we've touched on a few things now, Kristina. We certainly don't have everything there is to learn on the subject.
So we've said, what could people learn? What can people learn about resilience? That was our question at the beginning.
And I think we've now picked out three things and tried to shed some light on them. And as I said, there are more. And depending on the model you look at, there would probably be many other aspects to it anyway.
But it should be a start. And Kristina, now we have tried to be a bit more specific, so to speak, to also address learning contexts in organizations and companies. But still, now our listeners may also have their own smaller challenges at the moment.
And maybe we should take another look at this question: What can each of us do for ourselves? I think you already gave a pretty good example with your stress barrel earlier. But maybe we can pick up on that again briefly and see if there is something we could simply give our listeners now, to answer the question of what each of us can do.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, maybe something small and practical for everyday life that you can easily incorporate. I actually learned that during my training to become a resilience trainer. We actually did that every single day of the training.
What did you do? We actually started with the question, what made me smile today? And of course, it was usually 8 or 9 in the morning.
And it took a little while because some people naturally sat down directly in such a passive way. And today nothing good has happened yet. But when you actually think about it, you can think of a lot of really small things.
And because we were just talking about healthy optimism. And that would be one example of something you can incorporate into your daily life. Whether you do it in the morning or in the evening with the help of a gratitude journal, etc.

[Claudia Schütze]
And I think it's really nice that you gave this example. There probably could have been 20 other possible examples or 200 other possible examples. But I think it's so nice precisely because it reminds me of one or two check-ins that I actually do with my participants in our training sessions in the meantime.
Not with the actual words, but what made me smile today? But I ask questions like, what have you done really well this week? So what have you done really well this week or last week?
That's a slightly different wording, but I think it fits with what you wanted to say. I would also say it. It's such a positive approach.
And I actually notice that I always feel a bit of incredible amazement at the beginning. And then often nothing comes at all, just the first reflex. And then usually something like, “Think again.”
And I always start, so I always try to lead by example. And then you notice that something is coming. And everyone has a smile on their face.
And that it just helps to apply a bit of that optimism, for example. And the more you do it, as we were talking about a little earlier in our preliminary discussion, Kristina, the more, I think, a kind of habituation to this way of doing a check-in in a training session, for example, and thus also a habituation to seeing things in this way becomes established. And now we are back to our pillar of resilience, a possible pillar of resilience.
Your example was healthy optimism. And how can I integrate the creative into my life? That's the challenge.
Theory is one thing, but how can I really integrate it into my life? And maybe by doing something like this much more often in training sessions and meetings, for example, is a very, very, very small thing. But it is one that can become established.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, I also think that through habit it becomes more and more a part of the person. And I also think that it lays an incredibly beautiful foundation at the beginning of the training. It gives a positive attitude.
As I said, it is a strengthening factor. And that can really lay a good foundation for a training. Because you may approach the training very differently and be much more receptive and willing to learn.

[Claudia Schütze]
Yes, and maybe just more open as well. And for me, it really is like a separator. I consciously want to leave the day-to-day business and things that could have stressed me out behind.
That's where we were at the beginning. Things that stress me out don't put me in a good state. I probably won't be able to change things.
But I can learn to deal with them differently in order to perceive less stress. And then you make a clean break and say, okay, day-to-day business was like that until now and now we're starting over. And we're starting with a positive attitude, so to speak.
And I think, yes, that should be a good basis for good learning.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, I think so too. And it really is a nice exercise. Whether you do it as you do in training, for example, so really on a professional level.
You can do the whole thing in a private context. So I think you can apply it to all possible areas of life. You can also, for example, you could make it a ritual in your relationship somehow.
That you and your partner say to each other once a day what made you smile or what went well. So I think you can apply it in all kinds of contexts. Absolutely.
And it's something nice and positive. I think so too.

[Claudia Schütze]
Do you have any other nice little things you would like to share with us, Kristina?

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, well, I think it's a very good keyword. I've already said that you can also combine it with a gratitude diary, for example. So it goes in the same direction, that you just write a few lines about what you're grateful for that day in the evening.
You actually often write a diary. Well, not everyone does that either, for goodness sake. But when you write a diary, you often write down what's not good, what's not going well.
And to specifically look for the positive things and really only write down the positive things for which you are grateful. So that's something else that can actually change healthy optimism and also your attitude. And there are also studies about that, that if you do it really regularly, that it actually does something to you.
And meditation is also based on something like that. And all of this has actually been proven in studies.

[Claudia Schütze]
And now, if I may, I would actually also like to give an example from the learning context. You know, I also find it a really nice thing to do, for example, to open meetings. No matter what the context is, wherever you apply it.
But for example, this story, what have I already learned this week? So this looking back. We have come from a world that is changing.
We have to learn more and more, learn new things faster and faster, forget the old and learn new things. But we don't know how long what we are learning now will last. And many people really do find it difficult to say or name what they learn in a work context.
For many people, learning is still somehow associated with school-based learning experiences, with going to a course and learning something there. And where we do a lot to signal that even the little help I call up is something I can learn with. A conversation with a colleague can be something I can learn with.
Or, for example, this awareness of what I have learned and sharing it with others. Or maybe also saying with whom I have learned something this week or through whose help I have learned. And then we are back to the topic of network orientation, which can contribute to this.
Or this solution orientation, I have learned something, I have taken a step forward.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, I agree. I also liked your last example with what I have learned. Because we are often not aware of everything we learn along the way.
For example, we met here on a Miro board to prepare for the interview. And we've simply switched to online whiteboards in the last two or three years due to the pandemic, since we are no longer on site with the customer and training or giving workshops, advising customers. And we just learned that on the side.
And we don't even realize that. But we learned that anyway. And that's why I actually find your exercise or question very interesting, because it raises awareness again.

[Claudia Schütze]
Very nice. Then I'll ask myself what I've learned today, Kristina. I learn a lot, you know.
I used to have a saying as a trainer: if you can't do something, do a training session on it. And today I say, or do a podcast on it. So resilience was a topic that I didn't know that much about before we started exchanging ideas on it in a different context, in an internal learning opportunity.
Kristina, where you did a learning offer on the topic of resilience or mental health, it was actually both. And I can now say that I know more than I did at the beginning of this conversation or at least more than I knew when I was preparing for our conversation. And of course I'm very happy about that.
And I know that the topic is still very, very big, Kristina. There is still a lot that we can shed light on. But I think for today it's a good start, a good beginning, a good introduction to the topic.
And then, looking at the clock, I would like to say a big thank you, Kristina, for talking to us today about resilience and everything that's involved, and hopefully giving our listeners out there some valuable inspiration and suggestions. And then I'll say goodbye and thank you very much for being here today and, Kristina, for sharing your topic.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Yes, and from my side, thank you very much for the invitation. And I was happy and am happy when the topic gets more attention.

[Claudia Schütze]
We've definitely made sure of that with this episode, Kristina. Feel free to contact Kristina if you want to exchange ideas. You can find her on LinkedIn, of course.
And we publish all the contact details in the show notes, of course. And if there are any other valuable links, take a look. And for today, I say thank you very much and see you next time.
Kristina, bye.

[Kristina Kreibich]
Bye, Claudia, thank you.

[Claudia Schütze]
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