15 Apr
22 Jul
Being able to deliver your best at work is a challenge for everyone therefore I was very interested to attend a workshop run by the Global Resilience Index group on July 16th
At this workshop Dr Simon Kinsella talked about burnout, depression and mental health issues costing Australian business billions annually. Dr Merle Friedman talked about dealing with stress both in and out of the work environment and Craig Taplin talked about how the body copes with stress, its physiological impact and what we can do to manage this better.
Three things I learned:
Everyone needs to have a plan.
Not just a plan to deal with stress but a plan to manage their work and their lives so that stress does not build up. It can be as simple as writing down all the things that you need to do and prioritise them every day. Having a plan or an approach for abnormal and difficult stressful situations helps you cope and keeps you in a rational state of mind. Dr Friedman shared her story about being abducted at gun point in South Africa and how she was able to deal with the situation using her plan.
We all need a switch.
People need to be able to turn off after work. We need to have our own time with family, friends and to do the things that help us recover and recharge or re-energize our lives. Not having a switch means increasing build-up of stress and progressive decrease in performance.
Control our breathing
When our stress levels are high we release chemicals in our body that eventually lead to disease and ultimately death. We cannot consciously control our stress level. Just telling ourselves to calm down is not going to work. We have to control our breathing. This forces the body to change its state from high stress to lower stress. Craig Taplin gave us a few simple breathing exercises to produce a more stable, balanced heart rhythm and a simple body exercise that took less than 5 minutes to complete.
It was a fascinating event and their work would benefit any organisation
Based on the latest thinking in neuroscience and through their engagement surveys, The Global Resilience Index empowers the employee to take control of building their own resilience via individual reports which offer insights, action planning tools and coaching tips so the participants feel engaged rather than disenfranchised . According to GRI the surest way to improved productivity which normally equates to a better company bottom line is to improved employee performance through improved employee resilience .. so both the employer and employee benefit greatly.
To find out more have a look at their website http://globalresilienceindex.com/