Developing Resilience and Overcoming Barriers

Students and staff were invited to the event, which was organised by the school's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee, to hear from a range of speakers and to discuss and share their own experiences and thoughts about resilience.  This was one of a series of events that have been organised this year by the EDI Committee to facilitate open and honest conversations on the themes of diversity and personal development.

Resilience in our rapidly changing world is increasingly identified as an important attribute by graduate employers, and is also increasingly important to help our students and staff deal with the pressures of academic life and juggling multiple priorities.  We wanted to create a safe space for experiences of overcoming barriers and developing resilience to be shared and discussed and to help our school community to share solutions and techniques for developing resilience and overcoming barriers

Chris Jones, School Employability Manager for ADBE introduced the event and provided an overview of definitions of resilience and why we had decided to put this event on.  We heard firstly from our keynote speaker, Jonathan Hale of Offgrid Coaching.   Jonathan gave us some practical insights and tools on how to develop resilience and motivation by using the analogy of working through the layers of an onion - potentially quite slippery and might make you cry!  He guided us through a short series of steps to isolate a specific area of life we are trying to make changes in, to further understand this area and identify what small actions we could take to improve it, and finally to consider how we could immerse ourselves in activities or habits which could help us create effective change.

Jonathan was followed by Patricia Topliss, Director at Innes England, who shared her experiences of developing resilience through being a 'woman in a man's world' of the construction industry, how her confidence had developed over her career, and the importance of self-reflection and a growth mindset.  Finally we heard from Dotun Garuba, an NTU graduate working as an Assistant Quantity Surveyor with Arcadis.  Dot shared his experiences of coping with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and his strategies for developing the resilience to manage his condition so it was no longer a barrier for him.

Jonathan, Patricia and Dotun were then joined by Paul Whitehouse, ADBE Quality and Standards Manager, for a panel discussion and Q&A.  The panel gave thoughtful and insightful responses to questions such as:

• What is your favourite strategy for overcoming barriers?
• How do you build in time for self-reflection in your day to day life?
• Do you think there are more pressures today on students than there were 5-10 years ago?
• To what extent do you think the industry you work in creates a supportive environment for the development of resilience?

Finally, we concluded the event with networking and discussions over refreshments.  Participants were invited to talk to at least 2 people they hadn't met before and share their thoughts about the content of the session, as well as adding post-its to our 'positivity wall' giving examples of barriers that they are proud of having overcome and their favourite tips for developing resilience.

This was a really great event that was very well received both by the participants in the room and those who joined the event online.  Many thanks to Jonathan, Patricia, Dotun and Paul for their honest and insightful contributions to the event, as well as to the students and staff who contributed their own perspectives, advice and questions.  We leave you with the advice from Dotun about how to overcome barriers in life - "just do it"!