In this article, we take a closer look at the Resilience-Building Leadership Program (RBLP) Competency Domain Framework, the model that defines how leaders build and lead resilient teams.
At its core, the RBLP framework identifies five interconnected domains that describe what resilient leadership looks like in action:
Each domain represents a set of leader tasks that can be observed, developed, and measured. Together, they provide managers at every level — from frontline managers (RBLP) to experienced managers (RBLP Coach) to senior managers (RBLP Trainer) — with a structured, evidence-based roadmap for strengthening their ability to build and lead resilient teams.
The RBLP Competency Domain Framework was developed through a rigorous Job Task Analysis (JTA) of what managers actually do to build and lead resilient teams.
The JTA identified the critical leader tasks — and the underlying knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) — required for effective performance. These leader tasks naturally group into five domains: Team Climate, Team Cohesion, Individual Purpose, Team Learning, and Organizational Learning.
This process grounds the framework in real-world practice rather than abstract theory. Resilience-building is observable, trainable, and measurable. It happens every day — in how managers communicate, make decisions, handle challenges, and foster trust and learning within their teams.
By practicing the leader tasks in each domain, managers create conditions where collaboration, shared purpose, and continuous improvement thrive — even under pressure.
Climate is the shared perceptions about attitudes and emotions that define a team. Climate can shift rapidly in response to the actions of leaders and team members. While culture reflects the deeper values and beliefs of an organization and changes only over time, climate is more immediate and directly felt. Supportive attitudes and constructive emotions characterize positive climates. Creating a positive climate enhances morale, fosters creativity, and encourages people to be more receptive to new ideas. Creating a positive climate strengthens problem-solving, adaptability, and resilience, even when the broader organizational culture may not be ideal.
When a team’s climate is positive, people feel respected, included, and heard. That sense of safety and shared understanding naturally leads to the next step — cohesion. It’s the bond that holds teams together when challenges arise.
Cohesion is the bond that keeps a team united and committed, even in the face of adversity. It develops through collaboration, mutual support, and the trust that comes from depending on one another. Cohesion has two dimensions: social cohesion, which reflects the strength of relationships and sense of solidarity among team members, and task cohesion, which reflects how effectively a team works together to achieve shared goals. Both evolve, strengthening teamwork and resilience. When teams are cohesive, they are more flexible, creative, and capable of solving problems and overcoming challenges together.
Strong cohesion gives team members confidence in each other and in their shared goals. The next element of resilience comes from within each person — a sense of purpose. When individuals connect their own motivation to the team’s mission, commitment deepens.
Purpose is the desire and determination that drives people to create a meaningful and fulfilling future, often through their work. In the workplace, providing purpose means enabling individuals to reach their full potential by supporting both personal and professional growth. Leaders play a crucial role by challenging individuals to develop the skills, knowledge, and experience that enrich their lives and careers, while also connecting their contributions to the organization’s broader objectives. When people feel a sense of purpose, they are more motivated, committed, and resilient — better able to solve problems, adapt to challenges, and embrace new ideas.
When people understand their purpose and feel connected to shared goals, they’re more open to learning. Purpose creates the curiosity and ownership that drive reflection, innovation, and growth — all central to team learning.
Work is a team sport. Team learning is a continuous cycle of experiencing, reflecting, deciding, and acting together to improve, innovate, and solve problems. Leaders coach their teams through this cycle of experiential learning. Every experience a team has can be learned from by reflecting on what happened and why. This critical examination then informs decision-making about what needs to change. Those decisions are followed by action, where teams put plans into motion. This cycle repeats as each action creates new experiences, ensuring that learning never stops. Team learning is the foundation of organizational learning.
As teams learn, they generate insights and improvements that shouldn’t stay isolated. The next domain, organizational learning, focuses on scaling those lessons across the enterprise so that every team benefits and resilience becomes a cultural norm.
Learning is how organizations gain and maintain a competitive advantage. Organizational learning enables teams and organizations to improve and innovate continually. Continuous improvement focuses on enhancing existing products, services, or processes, while innovation creates entirely new ones. Together, these practices enable organizations to adapt more quickly than their competitors, which is the most certain path to long-term success. Because meaningful organizational change requires the ability to learn, the process begins at the team level — where people build the skills, insights, and adaptability needed to move from the current state to a desired future state.
These five domains are not sequential steps but an interconnected system. Climate enables cohesion; cohesion strengthens purpose; purpose drives learning; and learning expands into organizational resilience. Together, they define what leaders actually do to build and lead resilient teams from the inside out.
Q1: What is the RBLP Competency Domain Framework?
It’s a leadership model developed through a Job Task Analysis (JTA) that identifies the leader tasks managers perform to build and lead resilient teams.
Q2: What are the five domains of the RBLP framework?
The five domains are Team Climate, Team Cohesion, Individual Purpose, Team Learning, and Organizational Learning.
Q3: Who benefits from RBLP certification?
Managers at all levels — frontline (RBLP), experienced (RBLP Coach), and senior (RBLP Trainer) — benefit by mastering the leader tasks that build and lead resilient teams.
Q4: How was the framework developed?
It was developed through a comprehensive Job Task Analysis (JTA) that identified the key tasks, knowledge, skills, and abilities used by managers to build and lead resilient teams.
Q5: Why are the leader tasks important?
Because they describe exactly what managers do each day to create the conditions for trust, learning, and collective resilience.
The RBLP Competency Domain Framework gives managers a practical, evidence-based model for developing the collective capacity to adapt and thrive.
Resilient teams don’t emerge by accident — they are intentionally built and led through consistent practice in the five domains: Team Climate, Team Cohesion, Individual Purpose, Team Learning, and Organizational Learning.
➡️ Learn more:
Read this article: Team Climate: Positive Climate Raises Morale.
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