Resigility’s unwritten mantra
While Resigility is best known for driving resilience and agility in client organizations and communities, there’s an unwritten mantra that also defines the company: getting things done and overcoming challenges. I rely on this ability in my work with clients and as an Assistant Scoutmaster for my son’s Boy Scout troop. Two recent examples from both roles reinforce the value of what I consider a Resigility core competency.
Be Prepared
For most scouts, a 12-day backpacking trek at Philmont Scout Ranch in northwest New Mexico is the premier High Adventure™ experience, with a climb up 12,441-foot Baldy Mountain the pinnacle. This past summer, I was lead advisor for a group of seven teenage scouts—two girls and five boys—plus two adult advisors on this rigorous adventure.
The Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” enabled our crew to get ready for the physical demands of backpacking with around 40 pounds of gear on daily hikes of five to 10 miles in a high-altitude environment. That advance preparation also equipped me to follow the prescribed advisor role of offering advice but allowing the scouts to make decisions on choosing our path and navigation, and determining when to stop, where to get water, and who cooks and cleans at camp.
The day we summited Baldy Mountain’s peak, the weather quickly turned from pleasant to cold, raining and windy. As the only crew that chose to summit and continue to the mountain’s other side, our descent was more strenuous and proved especially arduous for an advisor and scout. My priority was to keep everybody moving together and preventing hypothermia. At one point, it became clear I needed to intercede for safety reasons, so I recommended waiting out the inclement weather and getting warm. That turned out to be the right call since our crew was able to continue the hike, go all the way around Baldy Mountain and deal with a potentially dangerous situation. In other words, we got the job done despite adverse conditions.
Deploying Teams
That scouting experience correlates to Resigility’s support of a large federal government client’s implementation of Microsoft Teams. Before the pandemic, the 20,000 agency employees and contractors had desk phones and used Skype for teleconferencing. When COVID-19 forced the move to telework, deploying Teams became crucial to stay connected and have meet, chat, call and collaborate capabilities all in one place.
During the agency’s initial Teams rollout, we recognized the internal help desk couldn’t address all questions and support issues, especially given the agency’s culture of autonomy. I came up with the strategy of training a select group of people from across the organization as experts in the technology, what we called Teams champions. People could turn to their Teams champion for inquiries and assistance to become proficient and comfortable with the product. Again, an illustration of getting things done and tackling an obstacle.
Not because they are easy…
My experience with the Boy Scouts at Philmont and deploying Teams throughout a government agency reminds me of President John F. Kennedy’s famous quote,
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
When faced with hostile weather on Baldy Mountain, we all pitched in and helped each other get through difficult conditions. The same is true of the federal agency’s Teams champions, who were invaluable during the pandemic and continue to play a key role in supporting their colleagues. In both cases, resilience, agility and a get-it-done attitude made all the difference.
Please feel free to contact me if Resigility can help get things done and conquer your biggest hurdles—even if they’re not over 12,000-feet tall or involving 20,000 people!
