January 4, 2012
I don’t want to dwell on the usual New Year’s resolutions of joining the gym, giving up smoking or eating more fruit. Instead I’d like to encourage readers to consider one that we can all do for our own benefit, and the benefit of those around us; getting to know ourselves a little better.
You might think you know yourself fairly well already! But actually, in lots of training sessions we ask reflective questions that many people struggle to respond to. Even ‘what makes you happy?’ – a seemingly easy question – can be difficult to genuinely answer. This is partly because it is easy for people to become ‘set in their ways’ and not challenge the way they think or behave, even if it’s unhelpful. It can also be because we’re so caught up in day-to-day activity, or focusing solely on making others happy, that we forget our own, personal ‘bigger picture’.
Similarly, there are many people who do not understand what triggers certain feelings within themselves. So we respond with irrational levels of, for example, fear, anger and guilt – making the situation seem worse than it truly is and moving us further away from a successful outcome.
The benefits of understanding our natural responses, as well as reconsidering our goals and values, are huge. It gives a starting point to work on strengths and address our weaknesses. That’s not to say that we all need change completely, indeed, personality is quite fixed. But the way we approach situations can be altered so that we get more out of them; whether it’s overcoming your fear of presentations or having an open conversation with your teenage daughter.
I don’t want this to become another item on the to-do list, and success does not mean digesting a self-help tomb! It’s just something to be aware of, and be open to working on when you get the opportunity. And if you already recognise things about yourself that you might like to change, they may be a burden that you’ve got used to carrying with you. Now’s the time to do things differently and whether the change is big or small, congratulate yourself for taking action.
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Posted by Cary Cooper
December 20, 2011
In light of changing demographics and rising retirement ages, BMW are taking steps to prepare their ageing workforce to cope with their roles in the years ahead. Currently the average employee age is 40, and 25% of staff are over 50 – these figures are predicted to rise to 46 and 50% within the next decade.
At the moment much of the focus is on the physical ability of staff working on production lines. As one of the physiotherapists says, “The work they do is repetitive. The muscles and bones are always used in the same way, so we try to have counter-movement to relax the muscles stressed during the work.” This is very valuable for both the company and the employee – but they mustn’t forget that this also applies to mental stimulation! In the same way that physical well-being is damaged by repetitive movement, psychological well-being is at risk when employees have to perform boring, monotonous tasks day after day.
Increasing the engagement, well-being and resilience of your employees is an important way of allowing them to perform at their best for the duration of their careers. But the preparation needs to start now if we want to make this as seamless as possible.
For the source BBC article, click here.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: ageing workforce, BMW, demographics, Engagement, physiotherapists, production lines, psychological well-being, resilience | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
December 14, 2011
Last week I gave a keynote speech at the Business Well-Being Network annual conference, alongside Jo Swinson. It was a great, day, with host of excellent speakers who raised some very interesting points about the well-being agenda – from both a practitioner and thinker perspective.
There was lots of talk during the day about the changing working landscape, covering both the nature of work itself and the way we do it. Although the economic climate is difficult, it was encouraging to hear that people are seeing this as a positive opportunity to introduce better ways of working, for the sake of individuals, organisations and UK plc. There does still seem to be a way to go with persuading senior leaders of the business case, but if we can harness the collective forces of political supporters, national groups and individual interest we should keep moving in the right direction.
This concept ties in closely with the content of this year’s Business Well-Being Network annual report – you can click here to access a free chapter which covers the subject in more detail.
A full summary of the event and presentation slides are available here.
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Posted by Cary Cooper
December 2, 2011
Yesterday saw the release of the first results from the well-being questions that have been included in the Integrated Household Survey and the headline news is that around three quarters of us are ‘satisfied’ with our lives. The four key questions asked are as follows:
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
Out of context these might not seem particularly informative. But what’s been less widely reported is the consideration that has gone into determining these particularly questions. As an example, there is a particular approach behind each. The first question takes an evaluative approach, ‘that asks individuals to step back and reflect on their life and make a cognitive assessment of how their life is going overall, or on certain aspects of their life’. The second takes an ‘eudemonic’ approach, ‘sometimes referred to as the psychological or functioning/flourishing approach which draws on self-determination theory and tends to measure such things as people’s sense of meaning and purpose in life, connections with family and friends, a sense of control and whether they feel part of something bigger than themselves’. The final two adopt an experience approach, ‘which seeks to measure people’s positive and negative experiences over a short timeframe to capture people’s well-being on a day-to-day basis’.
The idea is that the blend of these approaches will give a more accurate picture of a subjective subject. In addition, there are a number of sub-questions which sit beneath the headline four. The life satisfaction measures categories were particularly interesting for me, as work satisfaction scored second lowest – after finance – out of eight categories. I’ve mentioned before that further work questions need to be included – and this makes the case for them even stronger.
You can read more about the findings and evaluation here.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Anxious, control, eudemonic, evaluative, happy, Integrated Household Survey, meaning, ONS, purpose, satisfied, subjective, Well-being, worthwhile | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 28, 2011
The untimely death of Gary Speed was one of the most shocking news stories I’ve heard in years. The suicide of a charming, talented and ambitious family man – someone who had recently played in the Premier League before starting to make his mark as an international manager with his native Wales – is, on the surface of it, as unexpected as it gets. If this doesn’t teach us all something about the difference between the public image of our idols and the reality of their lives then nothing ever will. We don’t know the reasons that Gary chose to take his own life, maybe we never will, but it’s hard to believe that his mental state was not a factor.
Whether or not this was the case, it’s not that surprising that we’re hearing about more and more people in the public eye who are afflicted with mental health issues – after all, one in four in the UK now report experiencing depression. In recent years sufferers and non-sufferers alike have been given very personal insights into the conditions of well known figures such as Stephen Fry, the cricketer Marcus Trescothick and ex-footballer, Stan Collymore. All of these, and more, have thankfully helped the public to understand that dealing with mental illness is about much more than ‘pulling yourself together’.
Poignantly, the last of these three, Stan Collymore, is currently suffering from a severe bout of depression and has laudably chosen to be very open about his illness in the hope that it will help others. Last Saturday morning, wide awake at 4.48am, he was moved to write a very frank account of what happens to him when depression strikes. I can honestly say it was one of the most intense and moving things I’ve read for some time and I’d encourage anyone with an interest in mental health to read it at http://www.twitlonger.com/show/ecoqm1.
As I said, we just don’t know if Gary Speed was going through something similar or not, but I think it’s fair to say that anyone who takes their own life gets to a very lonely place mentally before making that decision – somewhere that thankfully most of us will never go. In his account Stan Collymore talks about this issue and strongly urges anyone who feels the way he does right now to talk to someone about it, to ask for help. Whatever was troubling Gary, it’s a dreadful shame that he was unable to do this – he will be sorely missed by all who knew him and millions more who admired him.
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Depression, Gary Speed, help, Marcus Trescothick, mental illness, Premier League, Stan Collymore, Stephen Fry | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 23, 2011
As we face widespread national strikes on 30 November many organisations – both public and private – will be wondering how they will be impacted. One of the biggest knock on effects will be on working parents who have to arrange alternative childcare when many schools will be closed.
Today, David Cameron has urged people to take their children to work to minimise disruption and encouraged private sector organisations to allow their staff to do so. Judging by the online response I’m far from alone in thinking that a workplace full of bored children is only going to increase disruption! Aside from the health and safety issues, the parents will be unable to get much done while watching their children anyway, and other employees are unlikely to welcome these ‘guests’ as they try to negotiate their own workload.
Admittedly there may be some work environments where the employees won’t mind this for one day. Indeed, there may be some benefits to this as colleagues get to see a more human side of each other. Similarly, it can be good for children to experience the working environment and understand where their parents go every day.
But what would make much more sense is allowing flexible working, where parents work from home if possible, or make up the time up elsewhere in the week. Better provision of flexible working is something I’ve been favour of for a long time (and not just for parents – in this example some employees may want to work from home to avoid the influx of children!). Organisations that get it right are able to cope better whatever adverse conditions their workforce may encounter –be it strikes, extreme weather or the Olympic Games.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: childcare, David Cameron, Flexible Working, Olympic games, parents, strikes, working from home | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 17, 2011
Blatter gives a lesson in how not to do brand alignment
Sepp Blatter’s latest gaff is all over the news and social media this week. His assertion that racist comments will happen on the football pitch and that they can be cleared up with a handshake at the end of the game has caused outrage the world over. This was felt nowhere more keenly than England, whose FA already has a fractious relationship with FIFA.
Of course, opinion is not divided about condemning his words – but some believe these are the musings of an incompetent old man, while others think Blatter is fiercely intelligent, political and, most of all, should know better. During the week I’ve heard footballers and ex-pros saying that this has set the game back 20 years or more – and who could disagree? But why is that?
At the heart of the issue is a complete lack of alignment between the FIFA brand and the man who so autocratically leads the organisation. How can anyone take campaigns like ‘FIFA against racism’ seriously when the head of the organisation says such things? Take a look at the pictures and the words on this page and think about what Blatter has said . The two are so contradictory it’s absurd! Beyond that there is the damage that this misalignment will do to local campaigns like ‘Kick racism out of football’. The response from those at whom the campaign is aimed will be ‘If Football’s world body doesn’t take it seriously, why should we?’.
There are lessons for all of us in business here – brands are crucial, they are the way you present your business to the world. But you have to be able to back it up with your corporate behaviour and that of your leaders. As we saw when Tiger Woods lost his lifestyle contracts after his infidelity was revealed, unsavoury views or behaviour can do enormous damage to trusted brands. This also extends to the world of well-being – if your external brand is bright, healthy and happy you better be able to back that up with the way things feel and the behaviours your leaders display internally. These are facts of modern working life: if you can’t back it up don’t claim it – because, like Mr Blatter, you will get caught out.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: brand, FA, FIFA, FIFA against racism, Kick racism out of football, racist, Sepp Blatter, Tiger Woods | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 16, 2011
I mentioned in my previous blog that the success of measuring the nation’s well-being depends on the ONS capturing the right data. Following a national debate they’ve proposed the headline measures and domains, and are inviting feedback until the end of January.
There is much to be commended about what has been done so far, but I still feel the importance of work is being somewhat neglected. This falls under the ‘What we do’ domain, and includes measures of employment, working hours, satisfaction with your job and amount of leisure time and the number of people volunteering. What we need are more psychometric measures, and a combination of subjective and objective data to build up a realistic picture of working life and its impacts. At the very least we need to be measuring how people feel about their working hours, what they think of their managers, uptake of flexible working practices and the amount of control they have over their role.
These measures will need to be recorded over the long term, and we’ll be able to take much more relevant action if we get them right at the start. The consultation is open until 23rd January, and you can click here to have your say.
Leave a Comment » | Well-being | Tagged: control, Flexible Working, managers, national well-being, objective, ONS, psychometric, subjective, What we do, working hours | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 11, 2011
Last month I was lucky enough to be able to attend a session of the ‘All-Party Parliamentary Group in Wellbeing Economics’. Led by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, and attended by senior MPs from all parties, it was promising to see the high level of attention being paid to the subject.
Sir Gus was wholly in support of the project to measure the nation’s well-being, and taking action on the results. We need to consider how to use this data to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and the elderly; people’s working lives and work life balance; health and welfare services and infrastructure.
Importantly, he highlighted that a holistic measure of the country’s success should include GDP, but not be restricted to it. I think this is something that’s often forgotten by those who claim the government should not be ‘wasting’ time an effort on ‘measuring happiness’. No-one in support of this activity is suggesting that economic stability or unemployment are any less important than they always were, just that there are other things that are important too. Good economics and well-being are not mutually exclusive – in fact, quite the opposite is true!
To get this right the ONS measures need to be recording the right data, something I’ll talk more about in my next blog.
Leave a Comment » | economy, Well-being | Tagged: Cabinet Secretary, economics, GDP, happiness, MPs, national well-being, ONS, Parliamentay group, Sir Gus O'Donnell, stability, unemployment, Wellbeing economics | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
November 2, 2011
Today is National Stress Awareness Day, and to coincide with this ComPsych have done some research which shows that two out of three employees are suffering from high levels of stress, and over 50% are missing work as a result. Of course there’s a difference between feeling a bit stressed and suffering from the clinical condition, but if it’s bad enough to take time of work that’s a worrying sign.
The demand to ‘do more with less’ is clearly taking its toll, which is why I’m so pleased that this year the themes of National Stress Awareness Day are well-being and resilience at work. Developing and maintaining positive levels of psychological well-being (PWB) and resilience can protect individuals and organisations from stress. Although it might seem a daunting task, the subjects can be broken into more manageable areas, and often included in existing programmes. Here are three key areas to tackle to make a real difference:
- Addressing the 6 Essentials of workplace well-being – the environmental factors which affect PWB – such as work relationships, balanced workload and control
- Leadership training so managers are able to provide their team members with the optimum balance of challenge and support
- Personal resilience training, to equip individuals with the necessary skills to perform at their best even during difficult times.
This proactive approach to stress is becoming more common, and because it addresses the root causes, improvements are much more sustainable than just treating symptoms. And happily, the nature of the relationships between PWB, well-being, resilience, engagement and productivity means a positive improvement in one area can have knock on effects for the others. Hopefully by next year’s National Stress Day we’ll see some improvements across the board.
You can start developing your personal resilience now using our free i-resilience tool, or use it as part of organisational well-being programmes.
For more details of the ComPsych survey, click here.
Leave a Comment » | Personal Resilience, Stress, Well-being | Tagged: 6 Essentials, balanced workload, ComPsych, Engagement, i-resilience, Leadership, National Stress Awareness Day, positive psychological well-being, Productivity, resilience, Stress, work relationships | Permalink
Posted by Cary Cooper
