Business sustainability is often de ned as managing the triple bottom line, a process by which companies manage their  nancial, social and environmental risks and these three impacts are referred to as profits, people and planet. In order to achieve sustainability, organisations need to constantly re-prioritize its activities by identifying unsustainable risks to eliminate the negative impacts as well as opportunities for improving the positive impacts in order for the organization to strive and thrive in the long-term.

However, given the turbulent economic times, companies frequently opt to downsize for the sake of pro t. As such, individuals find themselves becoming victims of cost cutting, restructuring and downsizing and the people factor within the organizational structures, policies and processes are being sacrificed. Emotion work plays a vital role during these dif cult times and if not handled properly, this may have a negative in uence on the psychological and physiological systems of the employee as well as his/her colleagues and may lead to a vicious cycle of negative emotions at the individual, the group or the organizational levels.

It is important to remember that during organizational changes, staff may feel stressed, overwhelmed, disappointed, frustrated, aggressive, angry, aggravated, anxious, suspicious, skeptical, cynical, panic or scared. And yet, in order to satisfy a work role, his/her publicly expressed emotions do not match the private emotions actually felt and this can lead to dysfunctional behavior of the employee. This emotional dissonance can be a very stressful experience, leading to lowered self-esteem, increased depression, cynicism and alienation from work.

On the other hand, in the pursuit of sustainability, especially in relation to change management, human factors and their relationships with other elements of the system including the economic system, ecosystem and social system are of great importance. Staff inertia, their intellectual and emotional buy-in for the changes in the company and the behavioral components to support the change; their fears and concerns about the unknown future; potential cultural collisions, possible resistance during power change as well as the many operational changes will affect productivity, error rate, compensation, turnover as well as the company's brand image among future job-seekers in the longer run. As a result, building resilience within the organization can contribute much to supporting the organization's sustainability.

Resilience is embedded in the  eld of positive psychology and positive organizational behavior. It stands for the ability to recover or bounce back quickly from disruptions in functioning. Evidence shows that resilience is a "developable capacity". Resilience at work is about the building of positive psychological capital in staff and it will elevate the individual's confidence and their emotional capacity in terms of Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, Optimism (H.E.R.O.), thereby promoting their engagement in work, productivity and work satisfaction. The basics start with emotional literacy whereby staffs understand the working of stressors, negative emotions and emotional crises. In order for the staff to care for themselves and help other colleagues who are in trouble, they need to understand the knowhow of resilience building in self, family and organization.

"Workplace Emotional First-Aid" entails training on applying quick self-relief, avoiding traumatization and when appropriate, raising red flag for professional help. This basic training will equip the staff with essential self-help skills to ground oneself and cope, then to bounce back quickly. This will also improve their skills in helping others around them, thereby defusing potential crises.

Building staff resilience is a proactive strategy to flourish and an important corporate decision to achieve long-term sustainability, rather than just survive. This is becoming all the more critical due to the unpredictable effects of globalization and economic turbulence. Trained resilient staffs will be well endowed with psychological capital to better adapt, cope and still maintain effective and productive in times of change and uncertainty. Trained resilient managers, supervisors or team heads will become better leaders grounded and focused in pursuing the company's mission while fostering hope in the team.

It is also of strategic importance that HR professionals be especially well-trained in resiliencebuilding as well as effective communications. With HR professionals playing such a pivotal role in change management, they need to deal with human resistance as well as staff's potential diminishing engagement both in the workplace and in their personal lives. Trained resilient HRM are better equipped with the basics in emotion regulation, counseling competence for better understanding of the staff, better management of adversity and conflicts in the constantly changing workplace and building a closer and more trusting relationship with the staff members. Finally, a de-stress as well as a selfcare program for HR should also be in place to help HR learn about the importance of self-care, to avoid burnout and to draw the line as to when to seek professional help. With the above resilience-building programs in place, the organization will be better positioned to sustain and prosper in the long-term.

As for the individual, there is also strong evidence that Hong Kong people are extremely stressed. Executives with  nancial burden, stressful work-life as well as responsibilities at home, eg. sandwich generation raising children as well as caring for their aging parents or those caring for their sick and loved ones, are actually functioning at risk of their own physical and emotional health. Evidence also shows that starting mid-life, we should actively equip ourselves with resilience competence and knowledge on successful aging. Through resilience training, one can learn to build up one's positive psychological capital, cultivate optimism in self, nurture connection through active, constructive responding skills in communication and most importantly, learn grounding techniques to help one cope, bounce back, to self-renew as well as to take proactive measures to identify and prepare for future risks and challenges, which is the true essence of sustainability.

Finally, it is also worth mentioning that Hong Kong has been a much caring city with many employers choosing to show their CSR commitments in caring for our environment etc. However, given our dif cult economic outlook, we cannot afford to ignore that the ultimate goal for each company, family or individual is to remain sustainable in the long run. In the sustainability formula, human factor is the most important determinant and building resilience is the key.

---

About Aging & Better Care Limited

Aging& Better Care Limited (ABC) is a self-sustainable, non-pro t organization set up by a group of healthcare professionals and business executives. Our mission is to help people recognize the importance of and equip themselves with resiliency skills to weather various life transitions.

"Resilience for Executives Series" is led by our Principal Advisor & Program Leader, Dr. Rhoda Yuen, Adjunct Associate Professor, CUHK and Counseling Psychologist with over 30 years of experience in helping both corporations as well as individuals. Her team in Heart to Health Center (H2H) is comprised of counselors and trainers with over 20 years of experience in counseling, management as well as training and education.

By Dr. Rhoda Yuen, PhD (USA), Counseling Psychologist. Founder of De-stress & Be Well® Psycho-Education Series. Principal Program Advisor at Aging & Better Care Limited