The whole world is grappling with adversity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic – and especially the travel and tourism industry. Therefore Bench Events made a great choice when they invited Dr. Paul G. Stoltz to speak on ‘The greatest adversity of our times: How do we survive and craft our response in this moment of truth’ at Hospitality Tomorrow, a virtual event for the global hospitality industry held on Tuesday 07 April 2020.
Stoltz is the Founder and CEO of Peak Learning and author of Adversity Quotient, as well as the world’s leading expert on human resilience. He has been researching this field for 33 years in collaboration with top thinkers from Yale, Stanford, Cornell and Harvard, among others.
“Every person has an AQ, a learned response to adversity, which is also often referred to as resilience or grit.”
Out of this research, Stoltz has developed the concept of the Adversity Quotient (AQ). Every person has an AQ, a learned response to adversity, which is also often referred to as resilience or grit. In his talk, Stoltz explained that AQ focuses on four CORE questions that can be adapted and used to define your own strategy for dealing with the coronavirus crisis – or any adversity life throws your way. These are:
1. CONTROL: To what extent can you influence whatever happens next?
What facets of the situation are ones that you can influence, so that you can improve your chances to come out of this better?
2. OWNERSHIP: How likely are you to step up to do anything to improve the situation?
Where can you step up and start to take actions?
3. REACH: How far will it reach into and affect everything else?
Where and how can you minimize the downside and fallout from this crisis? You cannot damage control or cost control your way to greatness, but what can you do to maximise any upsides to this adversity?
4. ENDURANCE: How long will it take to get past this situation/adversity?
What can you do now to get through this as quickly and brilliantly as possible? (Remember that faster is better.)
Stoltz closed by saying that adversity is the fuel that can take you or your business to a place you wouldn’t have arrived at otherwise. As difficult as it is, aim to treat adversity as an opportunity to learn, grow and do something brilliant.
