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You know how, as Maya Angelou said, when you know better you do better? Today I took my car for a long overdue service… Covid delayed. I told them about the window problem. I thought it was a fuse because I couldn’t lower the passenger windows. Well, instead, I learned about the child window lock. How did I not know that? Of course it was embarrassing. But it was a simple lesson to learn. I’m not sure it’s so simple when it comes to leadership and 2020. It’s in a league of its own. And that’s what me and my colleagues at the Psych Science Alliance will be talking about this week. It’s the final webinar in the Reimagining the Workforce series. We’ll be talking about the lessons learned for leadership and what’s next. If you’re interested and haven’t yet signed up, all the details are below. I’m a panellist along with fellow organisational psychologists Justin Bown and Dr Marcele de Sanctis, facilitated by Leanne Faraday-Brash. Leading in the ‘Next Normal’ World: Thursday 26 November, 10-11am AEST. Register at: https://bit.ly/3jXbRgf Hope to see you there!

I’m excited. It’s Allianz’s 2020 Workers Compensation Virtual Seminar next week: November 10 -12, and I’m presenting. It’s for their clients but they said I can invite people and so… if you’re interested you’re welcome to come along. I’m on Wednesday November 11 at 9:30am AEST (and there’ll be a recording). You can sign up for any or all sessions here. Here’s the agenda: Tuesday November 10: Adapt and Thrive – A story of survival in the face of adversity – Gill Hicks, 2005 London train bombing survivor Wednesday November 11: Anticipate and plan for organisation mental health beyond COVID-19 (this is me) The changing nature of online bullying and harassment – the unseen impact of remote working Thursday November 12: Leadership during change and chaos Panel session: Emerging risk in a post-COVID landscape: Family Dynamics & Working From Home Environments I’d love to see you there. Well, technically I won’t be able to see you, so let me know if you go and I hope you find it useful. On the ‘hoping to provide something useful’ note, as a reminder, I’m moderating the @PsychScienceAlliance webinar next Thursday November 12. Here are the details on that one. Building the Dream

It’s a great week here in Melbourne. We’re newly free(ish). We can begin to reimagine our life again… and our workforce. And how timely that the first in the webinar series is on just that, Reimagining the Workforce. It’s this Thursday. Thought I’d send a friendly reminder if you’re interested and haven’t yet signed up. All the details are below. It’s presented by the #PsychScienceAlliance, promoting the application of psychology at work, with panellists Keith Abbott, Andrew Beveridge, Colin Beames, Justin Bown, Dr Marcele De Sanctis, Gavin Didsbury, Leanne Faraday-Brash, Gina McCredie, and me 🙂 Sign up for one or all three using the links below: Reimagining the Workforce: Thursday 29 October, 10-11am AEST. Register at: https://bit.ly/3lEDhrm Building the Dream Team in a Virtual World: Thursday 12 November, 10-11am AEST. Register at: https://bit.ly/3751Z0a Leading in the ‘Next Normal’ World: Thursday 26 November, 10-11am AEST. Register at: https://bit.ly/3jXbRgf I’m facilitating Webinar #2 and a panellist on Webinar #3. Hope to see you there!

I know it’s been a while. I do hope you’ve been safe and well. Living in lockdown has been highly unusual, but, I’m happy to report, highly productive. Busy as a bee. I even discovered a real beehive in my street. No, they don’t sell honey. I asked. They only get enough for an occasional piece of toast. Not enough to share. But I’m happy to share this excellent webinar series with you. And being virtual, the more the merrier. You’re invited. It’s a series of free expert panel discussions on preparing people and organisations for the ‘next normal’. You’ll hear from a group of work and organisational psychology experts about the research and practice around some of the most challenging issues we’re facing in the world of work. It’s presented by the #PsychScienceAlliance, promoting the application of psychology at work, with panellists Keith Abbott, Andrew Beveridge, Colin Beames, Justin Bown, Dr Marcele De Sanctis, Gavin Didsbury, Leanne Faraday-Brash, Gina McCredie, and me 🙂 Sign up for one or all three using the links below: Reimagining the Workforce: Thursday 29 October, 10-11am AEST. Register at: https://bit.ly/3lEDhrm Building the Dream Team in a Virtual World: Thursday 12 November, 10-11am AEST. Register

Me and Eileen having some fun. I had fun recently interviewing Eileen McDargh about her new book: Burnout to Breakthrough: Building Resilience to Refuel, Recharge, and Reclaim What Matters It’s 30-minutes and you can watch it by clicking the image above.  Yes, work can be fun. In fact, right now there’s plenty of unfun things, especially here in Melbourne with Stage 4 restrictions starting this week. So finding fun and remembering to play is important. Important to prevent burnout and build resilience, which is what we talk about. I hope it helps.  And what about you? How’s the fun factor at your place these days, given that your place is most likely your workplace too?   Photo by Pixabay

Same bat time, same bat channel. This week, new Zoom link. I am pleased to announce two things. First, the webinar on how to prevent poor mental health and promote resilience is back on. Same day and time, this week and new Zoom link. Here are the new details:   WORKFORCE WELLBEING DURING COVID-19 Prevent poor mental health, promote resilience. THURSDAY, 16 JULY, 2020 10 AM / MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA TIME ZOOM LINK Call In Numbers As a reminder, I’ll be covering 3 actionable, urgent aspects of this more-important-than-ever issue: How COVID-19 impacting mental health and wellbeing. The research is in. The types of actions to take so that your people emerge from this psychologically strong. The value of not just bouncing back but becoming antifragile.   The second is that yes, I am COVID-19 free. Such a relief that it was only a short term virus. I found out yesterday and am feeling much better. Thank you to all of you for your understanding. And an extra thank you to those who also sent good wishes. It was much appreciated and made a difference. Imagine lying in bed with a fever, feeling wretched, only to discover your inbox is pinging

I’m so sorry for the last-minute change. I’ve woken with a fever, not feeling good and off to get the test. Pretty sure it’s not COVID-19, but need to be sure. It’ll be rescheduled. My plan is for next week. Stay tuned for details. My apologies for any inconvenience. I know you have busy schedules and set aside the time today. Things certainly change minute to minute in this new world, so I just wanted to send you a quick reminder that I’m hosting a webinar tomorrow morning on workplace wellbeing. Here are the three big items on the agenda: How COVID-19 is impacting mental health and wellbeing. The research is in. The types of actions to take so that your people emerge from this psychologically strong. The value of not just bouncing back but becoming antifragile.   If you’d like to join us, here’s how to log into the session.   WORKFORCE WELLBEING DURING COVID-19 Prevent poor mental health, promote resilience. THURSDAY, 9 JULY, 2020 10 AM / MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA TIME ZOOM LINK Call In Numbers   We’ve also received a few questions about who is welcome to attend. The short answer is: please feel free to invite others

I was just about to share this Forbes article with clients and thought to share it with you as well. If you haven’t had a chance to see this yet, one of the most valuable of the 10 eye-opening statistics on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health is Item 4: Only 50% of employees are comfortable discussing mental health issues. This is based on a recent poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in May 2020. As the APA suggest, “there is no doubt that the negative mental health effects of COVID‐19 will be serious and long‐lasting”. Workplaces need to ensure they reduce these risks for their employees. Item 4 suggests it’s worth reviewing how well you’re doing on psychological safety. That will help. But if you’re finding that despite your efforts, it’s not as good as you’d hoped, it might be because it’s just not that simple. Self-stigma is part of the problem too. Research of over 21,000 police and emergency services personnel by Beyond Blue here in Australia found that of those with mental health conditions: 33% felt shame about their mental health condition; 32% believed that they would be a burden on the team; and

With all the challenges we continue to face these days, I’ve been putting together a series of high-value, “just-in-time” resources to help support my clients. Next up is a complimentary, live virtual training that I’m hosting the week after next. It’s all about how to prevent poor mental health and promote resilience for your people. Whether we like it or not, the mental health surge is coming here. I’ll be covering 3 actionable, urgent aspects of this: How COVID-19 impacting mental health and wellbeing. The research is in. The types of actions to take so that your people emerge from this psychologically strong. The value of not just bouncing back but becoming antifragile. As a valued subscriber, I wanted to invite you along. There’s no prior registration required. Here’s how to join us. WORKFORCE WELLBEING DURING COVID-19 Prevent poor mental health, promote resilience. THURSDAY, 9 JULY, 2020 10 AM / MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA TIME ZOOM LINK Call In Numbers You are more than welcome to invite others from your organization, or even have your team join us. I know people are getting a little “Zoomed out.” But it’s how we need to roll. Plus, this is an immediate issue that is

I don’t know about you, but I can’t get that image of the knee on the neck out of my head. And worse, I’m pretty sure I don’t understand the issues. I’m way too privileged. Knowing something intellectually isn’t the same as really getting it. I had enough trouble with the female unconscious bias thing. For years I tried to kid myself that it wasn’t real, and if it was, it didn’t apply to me. You know, I’ve got a great job and my good work will speak for itself. Of course it’s real, and no, I wasn’t immune. Then there’s the friend or foe evaluation that we all make, whenever we first meet someone. Automatically. Unconsciously. It reminds me of Jane Elliott’s brown eyes blue eyes experiment. It’s shocking to see how easy it is to incite an ‘us and them’ situation. Again, not immune. It served us on the savannah. Not so well now. So, what to do? Accepting that I’m not immune is a starting point. It’s like the inconvenient truth. When you’re privileged (and sometimes even when you’re not), it’s convenient to not know. Educating myself on what it truly means to have past injustices become