‘Hard-wired for hard times’

‘Stress At Work – the organisation, the person and the legal requirements’

CIPD Conference, Peterborough 24th November 2011

Guy Longshaw

Guy LongshawWellbeing and Performance ConsultingCareer and Business CoachingWorkplace Mediation

Agenda

● Introductions – who are we?

● Think about stress management in your organisation and get an

idea what others are doing

● How and Why are we ‘Hard-wired for hard times’ and how do our

hearts and brains interact? (and ‘So what?’…)

● Share some simple tools and techniques for you personally and

perhaps for your colleagues

Proactive wellbeing in organisations…

● Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP’s)

● Leadership and Management training programmes – stress management / resilience / energy management / mindfulness (workshops, 1:1, on-line)

● Awareness sessions, intranet information, internal comms initiatives

● ‘Healthy eating’ options

● Fruit and ‘low GI’ snacks in meetings

● Gym membership discounts / free gyms on site

● Walking clubs / competitions

● Sponsored team active events

● Sports / social clubs

● Leaders leading by example

● Work-life balance champions

● A real commitment to excellence in people management(!)

● And..? What else?

A model of Resilience

Personality(strengths and vulnerabilities)

Proactive coping Sources of pressure

Resilience

Stress

Pressure, coping, resilience, energy…

● A simple model of resilience

● Four dimensions of personal energy

● Three common ways of dealing with pressure:

1: Overindulgence (aka avoidance)

2: Self-care (exercise, diet, relaxation, sleep, me-time, WLB etc)

3: Changing our:

- Attitude

- Perspective

- Point of view

- Focus of attention

How we ‘perceive’ things

What we choose to ‘attend to’

‘Hard-wired for hard times…’

Thalamus

BehaviourPhysiology

Immunology

Cortex

Amygdala

The stress response: ‘false alarm’?

Thalamus

BehaviourPhysiology

Immunology

Cortex

Amygdala

What are your ‘false alarms’?

Personal energy audit

● Mark Twain quote on trauma

● Our mind translates our experience of the world into happiness or suffering

● It can be our best friend or our worst enemy

● My energy audit exercise

● Take 5 mins to complete, then a few mins discussion…

The Heart Brain Relationship● The heart has its own complex nervous

system – the “Heart Brain”.

● The heart sends far more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.

● The heart signals especially affect the brain centers involved in decision- making, creativity and emotional experience.

● The heart ‘communicates’ through nerves and physically and through hormones and electromagnetically

● It is the ‘clock with the biggest pendulum’

The role of the heart…

Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

0.859 sec. 0.793 sec. 0.726 sec.

70 BPM 76 BPM 83 BPM

The role of the heart…

HEA

RT R

ATE

(BPM

)

Seconds

HRV = The Heart Rhythm

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24

FRUSTRATION

HEA

RT R

ATE

HEA

RT R

ATE

TIME (SECONDS)

Heart Rhythms

100 –

90 –

80 –

70 –

60 –

50 –

100 –

90 –

80 –

70 –

60 –

50 –

1 50 100 150 200

APPRECIATION

Why bright people do stupid things…

Cortical inhibition: Cortical facilitation:

Increased amygdalaactivity

Decreased amygdalaactivity

Decreased cortexactivity

Increased cortexactivity

[c.HeartMath and The Authentic Organisation]

DHEAcortisolPositiveEmotion

NegativeEmotion

Submission/despair

Vicious Cycle

The Chemistry of Resilience

Virtuous Cycle

Success/well being

High Cortisol vs Low DHEA correlations

● Accelerated aging (Kerr et al., 1991; Namiki, 1994)● Brain cell death (Kerr et al., 1991; Sapolsky, 1992)● Impaired memory and learning (Kerr et al., 1991; Sapolsky, 1992)● Decreased bone density; increased osteoporosis (Manolagas, 1979)● Reduced muscle mass (Beme, 1993)● Reduced skin growth and regeneration (Beme, 1993)● Impaired immune function (Hiemke, 1994)● Increased blood sugar (DeFeo, 1989)● Increased fat accumulation around waist and hips (Marin, 1992)● Obesity (Marin 1992)● Diabetes (Nestler 1992)● Hypertension (Shafagoj 1992)● Heart Disease (Barrett-Connor 1986)● Cancer (Bhatavdekar 1994)● Alzheimer’s (Nasman 1995)

[HeartMath]

16©HeartMath 2009

Less this and more this!

SympatheticHigh Heart Rate / Challenge

Stress Resilience

Low Heart Rate / RelaxationParasympathetic

Neg

ativ

e E

mo

tio

n Po

sitive Em

otio

n

LOW

PE

RF

OR

MA

NC

E

cortisol DHEA

©HeartMath 2009 & The Authentic Organisation 2010

FrustratedAngryPanickedTenseDefensiveFearfulAnxious

FrustratedAngryPanickedTenseDefensiveFearfulAnxious

Loss of interestCynicalDepressedExhaustedDefeatedHopelessSad

Loss of interestCynicalDepressedExhaustedDefeatedHopelessSad

DynamicPassionateEngagedConnectedHopefulAlignedEnergised

DynamicPassionateEngagedConnectedHopefulAlignedEnergised

Cool under pressureIn “flow”ContentedRelievedMellowRelaxedPeaceful

Cool under pressureIn “flow”ContentedRelievedMellowRelaxedPeaceful

The emotional landscape

Emotional landscape audit…

● AT WORK what percentages of your time do you spend in each quadrant?

● AT HOME what percentages of your time do you spend in each quadrant?

● So what? What’s behind these differences? Which things do you have some control over?

● Discuss…

Back to your energy audit (bucket)…

● NOW – revisit your personal energy audit:

- On the PLUS (+) side: what could you do more of / more effectively and what else could you do in addition on this side?

- On the MINUS (-) side: which small holes can you ‘fix’ completely? What can you do to ‘slow the flow’ out of the bigger holes

- [HINTS: 1. less overindulging? 2. more self-care? 3. change how you ‘look at’ things / what you choose to ‘look at’?]

● FEEDBACK…

● Tip: Awareness is key for energy management. How’s my energy level? Why? Which dimension?

Example content for stress management / personal resilience programmes

● This stuff and…

● Breathing

● Creative visualisation

● Mindfulness

● Aligning values – personal / corporate

● Positive psychology…eg strengths, PERMA, ABC, optimism etc etc

● Energy management – awareness and tools in all four dimensions; physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. 1:1 coaching…

● Overall – ‘ASTARS’:

- Awareness

- Simple Tools

- Actions

- Resolve

- Sustainability

Thanks

Guy Longshaw- Wellbeing and Performance Consulting- Career and Business Coaching- Workplace Mediationguylongshaw@gmail.com - 07525 021878 - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/guylongshaw