skills further. The purpose is also to show students that they can handle these things. Our PE teacher used to say: “If you feel you can’t go on, you still have 60 per cent of your strength left.” However, hearing that statement alone was never enough to teach me how to actually tap into this energy reserve. First and foremost, business schools are learning institutions and we cannot ignore skills such as resilience and grit that have historically been assumed to be innate, simply because that means we don’t really know how to teach them. We do have research to rely on. In general, the efficacy of resilience training is well-documented in psychological and educational studies. A recent paper from Kate Brassington and Tim Lomas at the University of East London, published in The Journal of Positive Psychology , highlights that structured resilience training significantly improves overall wellbeing. Their findings demonstrate that individuals who undergo resilience training report a greater ability to manage stress and higher levels of general psychological health. A study led by James Driskell and published in the Human Factors journal showed that stress training can be generalised to novel settings, so that its outcomes are more effective than vaccinations are against diseases. Moreover, as is the case with vaccinations, it is those that are more prone to stress that have a bigger need to be inoculated. The necessity of resilience extends beyond individual wellbeing; it is a critical competency for future leaders and entrepreneurs. The business landscape is fraught with VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), making resilience a vital skill for navigating challenges. Reflective sessions are a key part of the X-tream management programme, giving students the chance to analyse their responses to stressors, identify areas for improvement and develop strategies for enhancing their resilience. This practice is also crucial for internalising the lessons learned during the training and applying them in real‑world scenarios. Our approach bridges the gap between building day-to-day resilience and the ‘whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ tenet. It seeks to accelerate the development of resilience, much like a fitness bootcamp aims to provide a concentrated boost to physical conditioning. By combining sustained practice with high-intensity training, we ensure that our students are equipped to deal effectively with
both the gradual and sudden challenges they will encounter in their professional lives. The programme runs across three phases: comprehensive pre-diagnostic testing; intensive outdoor training; and managerial profile consultation and development. Participants receive personalised feedback and actionable insights based on their performance during the training, as well as completing and reflecting on a training journal. This also allows us to award European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits for such training. Indeed, while X-tream management has historically been a core component of our MBA programmes only, in recent years we have offered it as both a standalone offering and a blended intensive programme funded by Erasmus+. Scaling resilience training Scaling and internationalising a resilience training programme is a challenge of its own. Mirroring the development of a vaccine, the dose has to be just right and this requires years of research and testing, as well as an awareness that different demographics might
“The necessity of resilience extends beyond individual wellbeing; it is a critical competency for future leaders”
26 Business Impact • ISSUE 3 • 2024
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