Resilience Plan (Four S)
The Resilience Plan is a structured exercise in which people work out what helped them through a past setback and reuse those resources to plan for a difficulty they face now. What helped is sorted into four boxes, the Four S's: supportive people, strategies, sagacity (the wisdom or insight they held on to) and solution-seeking behaviours. The framework was published by Lucinda Poole and Hugo Alberts for PositivePsychology.com in 2019; the group procedure described here follows a classroom adaptation by Penny Sheets Thibaut for the Transition Makers Toolbox.
Facilitation script
- 1
Introduce resilience and the four boxes. Each person picks a recent setback they overcame and are comfortable working with, and describes it briefly in writing.
20 min - 2
Individual work on the first matrix: supportive people, strategies, sagacity and solution-seeking behaviours for the past setback. Circulate and ask for specifics.
40 min - 3
Pairs compare matrices and select two entries per box. Build the joint matrix on the whiteboard and look for patterns.
30 min - 4
Each person describes a current difficulty and fills in a second matrix, drawing on their own past resources and the joint matrix. Set the practice task and reflection questions.
45 min - 5
Second session after a practice period: pairs share what worked and what was missing, then the plenary collects practices worth keeping against the joint matrix.
45 min
Tips
Let people choose their own setback and say explicitly that a moderate one is enough: a failed exam, a project that went wrong, a difficult move.
Share only at the level of resources, never the story behind them, so that nobody has to disclose more than they want.
When someone writes a vague entry such as 'stayed positive', ask what they did on a bad day that made that possible; the specific answer is the usable one.
Common pitfalls
Letting participants pick their most painful experience. The session turns into distress the format cannot hold, and others in the room become reluctant to continue
Accepting general entries such as 'friends' or 'thinking positively'. A plan made of generalities gives no guidance on a bad day and is not used
Asking people to tell the story of their setback in plenary. Disclosure becomes the price of participation and quieter members stop contributing resources as well
Presenting resilience as a personal duty. Participants hear that struggling is their own fault, which damages trust, especially when the pressure comes from the organisation
Dropping the follow-up session. Without a review, the second matrix stays a worksheet and nobody learns which resources actually held up
Variations
Single session: run steps one to five in about 135 minutes and replace the follow-up meeting with a written check-in after two weeks. One-to-one coaching: the two matrices work well in an individual session, with the coach asking for specifics in place of the pair exchange. Team version: after a shared setback such as a failed launch, fill the first matrix as a team for that event, then plan for the next demanding period. Online: use a shared document with one private copy of the worksheet per person and a common board for the joint matrix. The wording of the four boxes varies between sources: the original uses 'supportive people' and 'sagacity', the classroom adaptation speaks of 'support systems' and 'sage wisdom'.
Where it fits
When to use it
A team or cohort is heading into a demanding period and you want people to prepare with resources they have already proven to themselves
People have come through a setback and talk about it only in terms of what went wrong
A well-being programme needs a practical exercise that ends in a personal plan, not in general advice
The group meets at least twice, so the plan can be tried out and reviewed
A coaching client faces a difficulty that resembles something they have handled before
When not to use it
Someone is in an acute crisis or dealing with trauma or bereavement. A group worksheet is not adequate support; refer to professional help and do not ask them to work on that event
The difficulty is caused by workload, unclear roles or poor management. Personal resilience planning then shifts an organisational problem onto individuals; run a retrospective or address the working conditions instead
Trust in the group is low and people will not write honestly with colleagues nearby. Use the format in one-to-one coaching
You have less than two hours and no follow-up. The second matrix gets rushed and nobody tests the plan; a short Guided Journaling session is the more honest choice
The group wants to analyse a shared project failure. Use a retrospective format, which looks at the work, not at personal coping
Related methods
Frequently asked questions
What is Resilience Plan (Four S)?▾
The Resilience Plan is an exercise for building a personal plan to deal with a current difficulty, based on what helped in the past. Participants recall a setback they overcame and sort what helped into four categories, then fill in the same four categories for a challenge they face now. The framework comes from Lucinda Poole and Hugo Alberts and was published by PositivePsychology.com in 2019.
What do the Four S's stand for?▾
They stand for supportive people, strategies, sagacity and solution-seeking behaviours. Supportive people are those who helped you keep going; strategies are what you did to cope with difficult thoughts and feelings; sagacity is the wisdom or insight you drew on, such as a saying, a belief or a lesson from earlier experience; solution-seeking behaviours are the practical steps you took to deal with the problem. Some adaptations use slightly different labels for the same four ideas.
How long does the group version take?▾
The classroom version runs for about three hours across two meetings: roughly 135 minutes for the two matrices and the group exchange, and a 45-minute review after participants have tried out their plans. The individual worksheet alone can be completed much faster, but the pair and plenary exchange is where people pick up resources they had not considered.
Can the Resilience Plan be used with a whole team?▾
Yes, in two ways. Team members can each work on their own setback and share only resources, which builds a common pool of practices without anyone having to disclose personal details. Alternatively, the team can fill in the first matrix together for a setback it went through as a group and then plan for the next demanding period.
Does the facilitator need a psychology background?▾
No, but the facilitator needs to manage boundaries. That means steering people towards moderate setbacks, keeping sharing voluntary and at the level of resources, and knowing where to refer someone who turns out to be in real difficulty. The exercise is a planning tool for everyday adversity, not a treatment.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Lucinda Poole and Hugo Alberts, PositivePsychology.com (2019); group version by Penny Sheets Thibaut, Transition Makers Toolbox.