Why Resilience Training Fails in Broken Systems
Wellbeing does not collapse because people lack resilience. It collapses when systems make good work impossible — and leaders pass the burden instead of fixing them.
Editorial Note
This essay is part of the Cultivated canon — a body of work exploring how better work is built. It reflects a recurring theme in this library: that wellbeing, performance, and engagement are outcomes of the system people work within, not traits people must summon on demand.
Why Resilience Training Fails in Broken Systems
I once consulted in an organisation experiencing a genuine wellbeing crisis.
Sickness levels were rising. Burnout was becoming common. Long-term absence was the highest I had ever seen. Despite this, the organisation was not short on initiatives to address wellbeing. There were wellbeing programmes, workshops, helplines, yoga sessions, longer lunches one day a week, and resilience resources.
And yet, nothing improved.
As pressure mounted, leadership searched for an explanation. Eventually, a narrative formed: the company (and system) was fine — the people were the problem. Employees simply needed to be more resilient.
So resilience training followed. Books were distributed. Courses were rolled out. Guidance was shared. Motivational speakers were brought in.
The outcome did not change.
The issue was never a lack of resilience. It was a broken system of work.
This pattern is more common than many leaders realise. When wellbeing deteriorates, it is tempting to shift responsibility away from the organisation and onto individuals. “People need to cope better.” “They need thicker skin.” “They need to manage stress more effectively.”
This is what systems thinkers call passing the burden.
Instead of addressing root causes, responsibility is pushed to those with the least power to change them. Leaders feel action has been taken, but the conditions creating the problem remain untouched.
In this case, the organisation leaned heavily on engagement surveys and headline metrics. Engagement scores became proxies for wellbeing and, in some instances, for performance. The assumption was simple: if engagement is high, people must be well.
But engagement is not the same as wellbeing — and neither guarantees meaningful work.
Over time, unintended consequences emerged. Difficult conversations were avoided. Poor behaviours went unchallenged. Teams learned how to optimise for survey results rather than outcomes. Performance issues were tolerated in the name of morale and wellness.
Ironically, some of the teams reporting the highest engagement were struggling the most. Value creation stalled. Frustration grew. Absence increased.
The system was quietly exhausting people. And turning in on itself.
When work is constantly blocked, delayed, or stripped of meaning, even reasonable workloads become draining. People burn out not from long hours alone, but from sustained friction — from trying to do good work in environments that make it unnecessarily hard.
Not every leader in that organisation fell into this trap.
A small number of leaders and managers focused elsewhere. They paid less attention to survey scores and more attention to how work actually flowed. They removed red tape. Clarified roles. Addressed poor behaviours early. Made expectations explicit. Created the climate where people could succeed with their creative action.
Their teams told a different story. Lower sickness. Higher trust. Better outcomes. And yes — healthier engagement as a by-product, not a target.
The lesson is not that resilience has no value. It does. People benefit from learning how to manage stress, emotions, and pressure.
But resilience cannot compensate for a system that consistently undermines good work.
If leaders want to improve wellbeing, the work starts with ownership. Studying how work is designed. Listening carefully to those doing it. Fixing what is broken. Balancing care with clarity. Supporting people while removing the obstacles that frustrate them every day.
Wellbeing improves when leaders stop asking people to endure poor systems — and start building better ones.
That is where care becomes credible.
And where healthier organisations are actually made.
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Editor’s note: This essay grows from an earlier exploration in another medium. The thinking remains central, even as the format has changed.
This piece forms part of Cultivated’s wider body of work on how ideas become valuable, and how better work is built.
To explore further:
→ Library — a curated collection of long-form essays
→ Ideas — developing thoughts and shorter writing
→ Learn — practical guides and tools from across the work
→ Work with us — thoughtful partnership for teams and organisations
