Winter 2015 - Resiliency Reader Index
Featured articles include: • Molly's Corner — a few words from our Director • Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (book review) • Developing a Culture of Resiliency - Key Elements (summary paper) • Research Question of the Quarter • Resiliency Quote of the Quarter • Worthwhile Reads • Upcoming Events • Read the emailed version of Resiliency Reader.
Developing a Culture of Resiliency - Key Elements
This past July, the ASRC had the privilege to be invited to present a session at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. This conference, held annually at the Reed College campus in Portland, Oregon, draws participants from across the globe to build awareness of how different cultures with different social norms can interact successfully with each other.
Glen Fahs and Michelle Atlas embraced the task of presenting a day-long workshop, "Developing a Culture of Resiliency." From that, they developed a four-page summary document of the key elements that we're offering as a free gift to you, our Resiliency Reader subscribers! DOWNLOAD PDF HERE...
The ASRC will again be presenting a one-day workshop on "Cultivating Resiliency in Times of Nonstop Change" at the SIIC in 2015. View details.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
How we can learn to fulfill our potential
Carol Dweck, PhD
ISBN: 978-1400062751
Hardcover: 288 pages (other versions available)
© 2006
View at Amazon
I love this book. There were lots of "aha" moments while reading it. What struck me immediately is how the book demonstrates how we set the tone of life experiences with our mindset, and how different types of mindsets will respond to challenges and the unfamiliar differently. Is your mindset fixed on successes and failures or is your mindset fluid with growth and development? Once you reach your "success," will you stop your growth? It is unlikely. Recognizing the existence of a growth and development mindset shifts the paradigm in your response to life's challenges. It solidifies the resiliency skills of curiosity, lifelong learning and open-mindedness without judgment. Dweck states, "Mindsets frame the running account that's taking place in people's heads" and, "They guide the whole interpretation process." This thought aligns with my previous and current discussions on our how we respond to our circumstances. To me, this is fundamental and foundational to us and our connections.
Dweck also states in her book that, "The growth mindset is based on the belief in change." This belief in change and how we respond to it is the basic premise of the book. In the Oregonian newspaper some years ago, I clipped out an article with the title, "Perpetual change, continuous upkeep." I cut it out because it struck a deep chord in my soul and I still have it today. Each day you wake up is a new day and you as an entity or organism require continuous upkeep along with upkeep of your skills and intelligence with the idea of continuous development or growth.
I like how the book embraces several levels of intelligence and emotion and presents the potential for growth and development at each level. It sends the message that if you are interrupted in a goal or are perceived to fail reaching a goal, it can be re-framed to be a growth mindset of "not yet" or "not there yet." Setbacks or goals not yet achieved are just another stepping stone in the learning process for growth and development. I love the book's propensity for positivity, bouncing back, potentiality and resiliency in each individual. It is an absolute feel-good-about-yourself book.
(Review provided by Molly Siebert, ASRC Director)
