Molly and the Two Pigeons is a short story for upper primary and lower secondary school children to teach them about Coronavirus in a fun and light-hearted way, and records a significant period of time in history. It could also be used as a teaching tool for parents or teachers. A loveable puppy called Molly forms a friendship with two racing pigeons, Destiny and Grace, who live in a wooden hut in the adjacent garden. Grace is kind-hearted and takes a liking to Molly, Destiny is arrogant and is known as the fastest pigeon in the South, proven by his collection of medals. Their circle of friends expands to include Marv the wise Mandarin Duck, Flash Gordon the Goose, and Merlin the Mosquito. This strange group of friends become united through one cause, to find a cure for the Coronavirus and help the people. Their adventures take them far and wide. They travel to China and learn about the origins of Coronavirus. They explore the Yangtze River, where they learn about the legend of the mountain peaks. They head to South Korea, where they learn about "Track and Trace" to prevent the spread of the virus. They also visit Oxford, England, where they explore how a vaccine is made. Their trip to Oxford coincides with a visit from Prince William, who Molly takes a great liking to and manages to get a royal stroke from. Proceeds will be gifted to a charity to support the NHS and all those needing additional support from the impact of Coronavirus. Download the first chapter of the audiobook for free - click here Get your copies today, available in print and audiobook
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Throughout February we have been exploring ‘Psychologically Safe Management’. In this post we are offering further tips on how to create a ‘Psychologically Safe Workplace’ and position the wellbeing of staff at the heart of the organisation. We will share with you a further ten simple tips on how to support the wellbeing of staff during this pandemic.
We live busy lives and the pandemic has forced some of us to slow down. Although it is important to note that key workers, medical services and those working on the frontline are working harder than ever. For those of us working from home we have the challenge of separating work life to home life, and possibly juggling many responsibilities. Covid is a traumatic incident, it brings uncertainty and longevity, and therefore will increase our stress levels. When we feel activated into our stress response our concentration and memory go offline, and we can become either more withdrawn, or sensitive and irritated by those around us. We all need to find pause moments throughout the day. These moments are a time to reflect, take a deep breath and stop. In a psychologically safe working environment, we need to create space for reflection and learning to take place. Ten simple tips on how to support the wellbeing of staff during this pandemic.
Please contact FD Consultants for any management or staff training needs, or individual support sessions. We can offer our trademark ‘Stress Management & Resilience Building’, ‘Trauma & Vicarious Trauma Awareness’ or ‘Peer Support’ programmes. Additionally, we can offer any other training specifically tailored for your organisation. You can contact us at [email protected] If you are interested in learning more about this topic you can listen to FD Consultants webinar on ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ please click here For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. In our last blog we explored what is ‘Psychological Safe Management’ and why it is important particularly during the pandemic. This week we are exploring how managers can create a ‘Psychologically Safe Environment’ for their staff, which in turn promotes confidence, creativity, trust and productivity.
Simon Sinek talks about a ‘Golden Circle’ of communication. He proposes that organisations which communicate from the ‘inside out’ create better leaders and are more inspiring. What he means by this is that most organisations talk about ‘what’ they do, ‘how’ they do it, and some organisations add the ‘why’ they do it. This is ‘outside in’ thinking. Whereas ‘inside out’ thinking starts with the why, what does the organisation believe in, why do they do what they do. Inspiring leaders often speak from their purpose and their ‘gut intuition’. We connect to individuals when we see their vulnerability, their dream, what they believe in and the struggles they’ve taken to get there. We follow those who lead because we want to, not because we have to. These individuals communicate from ‘inside out’ thinking. Psychological Safety Works promote six components to a psychologically safe working environment. These include:
Additionally, Deepak Chopra shares a model of leadership, that aligns with the above psychologically safe components. His model refers to the acronym LEADERS:
Leadership is a relationship-intensive endeavour. To build psychologically safe management we need to create space for reflection & learning, develop psychologically informed managers, and connect with others from the core of our being (inside out thinking). Now, more than ever, there is a need for psychologically safe management and a need to build connection between staff and teams in organisations. “We all have the capacity to inspire and empower others. But we must first be willing to devote ourselves to our personal growth and development as leaders.” (Deloitte, 2020) If you would like further information about training managers to create psychologically safe working environments please contact FD Consultants at [email protected]. We offer various wellbeing workshops for all staff. Additionally, we create bespoke trainings to support organisations and individuals. If you are interested in learning more about this topic you can listen to FD Consultants webinar on ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ please click here. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. This month we are sharing FD Consultants experience and knowledge about ‘Psychologically Safe Management’. It is more important, now than ever, for organisations to invest in training their managers in ‘Psychologically Safe Management’. An unsafe working environment increases our stress levels and makes us feel defensive, reactive and more emotional. We are all impacted daily by what is happening directly in our life’s and through watching the news. Living and working through a pandemic is highly stressful. Managers, as much as staff, need to be taken care of during this time, and given the resources and knowledge in how best to support themselves and their staff.
So WHY do we need ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ and WHAT is it? Let’s start by looking at the why:
The above statistics clearly show that mental health at work is an issue for a large number of staff. This has significantly increased over the last 12 months due to the global pandemic. Research carried out by FD Consultants highlights several factors that add to an individual’s stress, such as an ‘always-on’ culture, being able to communicate through technology any time of the day and the challenge of remote home working. A study by Myers Briggs found that individuals who are ‘always on’ are usually more engaged at work but are also more at risk of suffering vicarious trauma, stress and anxiety leading to mental exhaustion. The impact of Covid on staff has been significant in a number of ways:
So WHAT is ‘Psychologically Safe Management’? Working in an environment that does not feel safe means it is harder to speak up about things, and can result in unequal treatment of staff, individuals being scapegoated, and a bullying culture. A person-centred organisation has people at its heart, both people it serves and people it employs. A Psychologically Safe Workplace creates a safe environment where people can speak up, share mistakes and learn from them. ‘If you want to improve the world, start by making people feel safer’ (Porges, 2001). Studies on psychological safety point to wide-ranging benefits, including increased confidence, creativity, trust and productivity. Managers need to learn and understand how to create a ‘psychologically safe environment’, which enables staff to:
‘Psychological safety is being able to show and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career. It can be defined as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected’ (Kahn 1990). In our workshops we offer a stepped approach to management training. This starts with ‘Personal Resilience’. How do managers role-model good self-care and recognise their own signs of stress? The more we recognise our own stress cycle, the more we are able to recognise the signs in others and appropriately support them. We start our training focusing on wellbeing at the heart, before moving onto management skills. We also train managers to become more confident talking about mental health and provide tools and techniques on how to do this well. This helps to create a common language to talk about mental health and change an organisational culture to promote wellbeing. Additionally, we offer coaching session to help managers when they are supporting staff with mental health issues. Managers learn how to manage healthy boundaries and identify destructive communication patterns. I often hear organisations state there is no resource or finance for wellbeing training. The risk of not investing in this training results in a much greater cost to organisations due to sick leave, reduction in productivity, and high turnover rate of staff. The research from Deloitte’s report ‘mental health and employers’ (2020) evidenced a strong case for investing in the wellbeing of employees, “every £1 spend on staff wellbeing results in a £5 return” (Deloitte, 2020). Over the next two weeks we will share techniques and tips on what managers can do to create a psychologically safe environment. If you would like further information about training managers to create psychologically safe working environments please contact FD Consultants at [email protected]. We offer various wellbeing workshops for all staff. Additionally, we create bespoke trainings to support organisations and individuals. If you are interested in learning more about this topic you can listen to FD Consultants webinar on ‘Psychologically Safe Management’ please click here. For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. We are currently living and working through a pandemic and this is impacting individuals in different ways. Some individuals are isolated and feeling lonely, others feel they have no space and have to juggle many family responsibilities. It is important as managers that we spend some time getting to know each of our staffs’ individual circumstances through this unprecedented time. During the pandemic everyone’s stress levels are heightened as we navigate uncertainty, we become disconnected from family and friends, and we have less access to many of our usual coping strategies.
Themes we have noticed from supporting staff over the last few months include, online fatigue, reduction in motivation and feeling disconnected and lonely. At FD Consultants we have been supporting organisations for several years and at this time of the year, we have noticed an increase in mental health struggles. We support the Samaritans and are aware that the numbers of suicides can increase during the December and January months. This year FD Consultants have seen an increase in the demand for regular supervision sessions for staff, to enable staff to focus on their wellbeing and remain resilient through this challenging time. We have been offering more individual mental health management coaching session to offer guidance to manager’s when supporting staff with mental health needs. Our ‘Stress Management and Resilience Building’ and ‘Trauma Awareness’ workshops have also been in great demand, as well as our ‘Psychological First Aid Peer Support Training’. Some organisations have been completing wellbeing plans with their staff, specifically during the Coronavirus period. We are aware of many versions of this plan and a great deal of inconsistency in how they are delivered to staff. We therefore decided to develop a simple ‘Wellness Action Plan’ for staff to complete and discuss further with their managers. We have been sharing this with our client organisations and we are happy to share it in this blog today. Some organisations complete this ‘Wellbeing Action Plan’ with all new staff, and it is reviewed every six months. Other organisations refer to the plan when a member of staff is in a mental health crisis. I would suggest completing this plan with all staff during this pandemic as we are all experiencing a crisis in one way or another and reviewing the plan every six months. The Wellness Action Plan is a useful tool to help identify what impacts our mental health and what keeps us resilient. It enables conversations to take place about mental health and challenge stigma in the workplace. Wishing you wellness and comfort throughout December. Best wishes, Fiona For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly. |
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