Hi there
I've been asked to deliver an event for 40 people to help enourage engagement and productivity. The areas I'd like to focus on are:
- employee well being
- value of happiness
- positive relationships (both within and outwith the workplace)
- resilience
These aren't areas I've focussed on before TBH and I'm a little stuck for ideas on what to include. I'd like the event to be interactive, fun, thought-provoking and to encourage change in behaviour/attitude if required. I'd also like them to go away with something tangible (as a team) on how to move forward. This is an already happy team who generally have no relationship issues within the team. Additionally, new corporate objectives have been created which highlight positive behaviours and I'd like to tie these in, if possible.
I have a good icebreaker which highlights self-limiting behaviour and beliefs. I think perhaps having an exercise which then gets participants to reflect on their own behaviours/attitudes/beliefs etc and to consider ways in which they can change it to result in a more positive approach would be really useful.
I have around 5 hours available.
Any help and suggestions on how to address the above points would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
SB
8 Responses
EDIT – For anyone who comes
EDIT – For anyone who comes across my post looking for similar, I've just found this lovely exercise that will fit part of the bill!
http://www.thiagi.com/archived-games/2015/1/12/five-ful-envelopes?rq=well%20being
Mindfulness…
Hi SB, I would thoroughly recommend bringing in someone to talk to your people about Mindfulness. I first came across it at an event like you are planning and it worked really well. It was a very interactive session and it had more impact on me than anything else I had experienced. I used it to improve concentration on to stay more focussed on priorities. The other uses are to reduce anxiety and stress etc.
I can put you in touch with someone if you want to pursue this. Just PM me please.
does the organisation….
…currently collect any data on employee engagement
Mindfulness and more….
Hi SB – I couldn't agree more with Clive's suggestion about doing something interactive on mindfulness – has huge impact on engagement and wellbeing. Perhaps you could help take them through a simple mindfulness exercise to help highlight this. I also have some free materials on my site http://www.unimenta.com that might be suitable. All of them focus on experiential methodologies.
Anything that you do should be experiential and help them to reflect on their behaviour and ways they might change or shift. So it has to be something that will challenge them in the moment. You say they work well as a team – well, challenge that – get them to do something seemingly "impossible" and see what happens. You can create an exercise out of nothing – set them a task or challenge and let them figure out a solution. Then facilitate deep insightful reflection into the process of what happened, how they responded, what they were doing, what skills they were using, where the weaknesses were and what they could have done differently. Perhaps the "something impossible" could relate to what is coming ahead so that they can go away with something tangible.
Happy to correspond further on this to help come up with ideas.
Emma Sue
Thank you for your
Thank you for your suggestions and ideas.
Clive and Emma, I especially like the idea of mindfulness. I've tried to access your site Emma Sue, and have registered, however am having problems logging in. I assume there's a time delay in the site recognising that I'm now a member.
I'll PM you for more info.
Thanks to all for taking the time to reply. It's very much appreciated.
Positive Psychology
Hi there,
I like all the comments above so am only adding in another idea. Have you thought about introducing some of the concepts from Positive Psychology? A bit of background, Martin Seligman's PERMA model, Strengths etc. This fits nicely into your bullets above and how the team are currently performing, but can help them identify what they need to do to stretch their strengths to be even higher performers.
There is a lot of research now that you could use to support this, and even play some sort of higher /lower game e.g. the CLC (2002) found that emphasising strengths in performance reviews increased performance by 36.4 %. Gallup reported a 12.5% increase in productivity of teams whose managers received strengths interventions. (e.g. you could have a number of stats on laminated cards and play higher / lower).
You could introduce the PERMA model by having each word on a flip chart, and asking them as groups to think of what each word means, write it on post it note, stick it on… then give one word to each group and they review the words and identify key things they can do to bring to life…
One of the key contributions of positive psychology is a focus on strengths and being able to identify them and use them for engagement, performance and potential. By strengths we mean those things that really energise us…. one simple exercise you could do is:
Start individually- think of a time when you were truly energised at work, what did that feel, look like?
Then in pairs – share stories, then get in 4's and discuss and so on and so forth…. you could then collect some key words about what was discussed, the energy in the room really comes alive… you could then look at this from a team perspective and have a discussion about the impact of knowing and playing to strengths.
Hope this makes sense…. happy to chat more if you want too,
Good luck!
Maria
ideas for training session on well being & resilience
Hi sb123, I have designed and delivered training around both PERMA and Resilience so happy to share if you still need further ideas re applied content. In the meantime, if you haven't seen this already, checkout this TED Talk by Shawn Achor on Happiness at Work. http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en
Perhaps Too Late
This is almost certainly too late but I came across this YouTube video this week and it contains what I think is some really powerful and positive advice which relates directly to this subject enquiry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLJsdqxnZb0