The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2021 45 are also multidimensional humans facing a host of life challenges, made all the more complex with transnational moves and caring for (and sometimes grieving the loss of) loved ones scattered across the world during a global shutdown. Managing Expectations to Promote Agility To help members of the foreign affairs community mentally prepare for an onward assignment, the Overseas Briefing Center has nowmigrated to a fully virtual “Post Info To Go” platform, with information that caters to the needs of diverse Foreign Service communities. Creating accessible, updated information from diverse lived experiences is essential to managing expecta- tions and fostering resilience. To ensure that content resonates with all members of the foreign affairs community, OBC regularly solicits feedback from underrepresented groups. For example, the OBC team collaborated with the Bureau of Global Talent Man- agement and the Disability Action Group, an employee resource group, to create a survey on accessibility options available within host nations. Elsewhere, OBC revamped the questions on its general survey to be more accommodating of singles. In a time of pandemic when post realities are changing by the day, Post Info To Go’s digital platform lends itself well to continually updating content to be timely, relevant and inclusive. Investing in Institutional Resilience A more recent addition to the FSI/TC family is the Center of Excellence in Foreign Affairs Resilience. CEFAR leads on- demand resilience programming for domestic offices and posts around the world. During the pandemic, CEFAR has reached more than 20,000 members of the international affairs com- munity with webinars and customized trainings for offices and bureaus seeking to strengthen teams and boost performance. I took part in CEFAR’s four-part listening series on resilience cus- tomized for singles earlier this year. Resilience itself is a loaded term, so I approached the workshops with a bit of skepticism. As a woman of color, I’m often told to be more resilient in the face of institutional shortcomings and systemic failures. These sessions were different. They focused on framing resilience (which includes cultivating a growth mindset, as well as fostering well-being) in both the institutional and individual contexts. After mining more than 1,000 comments from partici- pants, CEFAR integrated the data into user-friendly infograph- ics customized for the foreign affairs community. This included actionable tips for managers and the broader community to build a more singles-inclusive environment, as well as resilience resources for singles themselves. Follow-up also included a (Above) The Transition Center, located in Building E at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center campus in Arlington, Virginia, is a vital part of the Foreign Service Institute. (Left) Laura Miller, the Transition Center’s division director of training, teleworking. (Below) Overseas Briefing Center Resource Specialist Maureen Johnston and Haris Kalajdzic, then a program assistant at the Transition Center. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/VEDRANANDONOVSKI U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/LAURAMILLER U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE/​FSI/PA