Sheryl Sandberg’s life seemed ideal — she had a great job, a best-selling book, a loving family. But in the spring of 2015, her husband was felled by a cardiac condition while the couple was vacationing in Mexico. Struggling to regain her footing after his death, she reached out to her friend Adam Grant, a Wharton professor and author, to explore what research tells us about resilience. That led to their collaboration on the newly published book Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy.
In this edited interview with HBR editor in chief Adi Ignatius, Sandberg and Grant share what they learned about developing resilience in yourself, your team, and your organization. They discuss how to respond when a colleague suffers a loss (“Acknowledge that there is a ginormous elephant sitting in the room”), how to grow not just in the wake of tragedy but before it, and ways that individuals and organizations can “fail well” and adapt to changing circumstances and unforeseen crises. “The best thing you can do is build routines that might be applicable in an unexpected situation,” they say.
Sheryl Sandberg’s life seemed ideal—she had a great job, an influential book, a loving family. But then, in the spring of 2015, her husband, Dave Goldberg, was felled by a cardiac condition while the couple was vacationing in Mexico. Sandberg suddenly had a new, unwanted identity: grieving widow.
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