What's Happening in the World of Wellbeing

This week, I had the opportunity to connect and grow at a wellness conference. The focus was ‘wellness at work’ and featured a plethora of presenters sharing their wellness journeys and tips. It was inspiring to hear of all that’s occurring around New Zealand workplaces and the implications this has for our future. It is also heartening to see a nation with strong desires to see it’s people be well. Here is a summary of ideas that appeared time and again across the different presentations:

Remove barriers so that we can talk about our wellbeing

This idea, focused primarily on our mental health. In essence, employers are aware that an individual needs to bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. This includes potential facets that people fear will deter their progression or highlight them in a negative way. Ensuring that people can talk freely and truly bring all of who they are will go a long way to improving our wellbeing.

The use of technology in supporting people to engage with wellbeing practices

There were several cases of organisations who have begun tapping into their technological resources in order to distribute (knowledge), track and improve wellbeing. There were some innovative ideas of how the masses can be reached and educated, as well as incentivised. If you’re looking for a small step: podcasts and webinars are great tools to share ideas that need to be widespread.

Having wellness first aiders, people who have skills and tools to address different facets of wellbeing 

This idea centred around equipping those in the workplace to support one another. A first aider volunteered for this role and was upskilled with the tools and knowledge needed to help those they work with. This took shape in different ways, such as a wellness window, a wellness first aid kit and a centralised place to share information about practices and events. Essentially, it is the next step after forming a wellness committee.

Ikigai: supporting people to find meaning and purpose in their work

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that looks at aligning the challenges and needs of the world, with passion, values, skillsets with remuneration. A quick google image search will display an organiser that shows the relationship between four aspects. If all of these aspects can be met, then purpose and meaning can be achieved, impacting positively on the wellbeing of an individual.

The tension of wellness being a tick box/another thing to do vs. being authentic

With wellbeing making a mainstream appearance, it can be difficult to purposefully and sincerely introduce practices and incentives in the workplace. It can quickly become another thing we need to do or appear as though boxes are trying to be ticked. A word to the wise suggested that weaving initiatives and ideas into the existing fabric and organisation of a company is the best way to ensure that practices are authentic.

Te Whare Tapa Wha: a model of holistic wellness

This model was mentioned several times and for good reason. The focus on ‘health’ and ‘wellness’ within workplaces has evolved throughout the past three decades, eventually settling on a holistic approach. This model captures the essence of holistic wellbeing, using the model of a whare (house) to describe how the different aspects of an individual relate to one another.

People drive, leadership supported

Like a double-edged sword, if wellbeing is to be achieved, there needs to be an alignment between leadership and its people. Effectively, ideas need to arise from within an organisation, validating the voices of those whose wellbeing we’re trying to improve. If leadership are able to support ideas that resonate with our schools, then we have a higher chance of success. 

Understanding the language people use to describe their challenges/pressures and responding appropriatelyThis one also focused primarily on mental health and suggested that the way in which we discuss this aspect of our lives doesn’t use words you may expect, given the connotations attached to them. To use the term ‘anxiety’ to describe your feelings towards elements of your job may not come naturally, but people will attempt to capture this idea using more work-friendly terms. Understanding what these phrases are and responding with care, concern and grace is essential.

Reframing stress and pressure in the workplace through language to improve the culture

The excellent presentation discussed the nuances between conscious and subconscious brains. He discussed how stress arises and how your body and mind respond to certain cues, as well as ways to reframe this. A memorable example suggested substituting the word frustrating for fascinating can do wonders for dealing with more challenging situations and people.

Data-driven and evidence based

This may seem rather obvious but centred primarily around the idea that it’s difficult to quantify something as complex as wellbeing. While no answers were reached, this is an excellent question to consider when trying to improve the wellness of your colleagues: how can we continue to measure success and know we’re doing better than previous years?

Don’t reinvent the wheel

There are a myriad of organisations, toolkits, ideas, initiatives, practices and resources available to us. It is easy to try and recreate the aforementioned, but where you can, use what’s already available.

Centralise our documentation and policies to ensure that wellness know-how is readily accessible and available

While this idea applied more so for larger organisations and corporations, it is still essential. The reality is, this is a call to the ministry of education to provide every school in our nation with what they need to improve the wellness of every person who serves our young people.

As you can see, we are well on our way to ensuring our lives have more purpose, more joy and more health. What do you think?

The Leadership Change: From What You Do to Who You Are

On Thursday, the 5th of September, many members of ACCoS met to engage in two presentations by John Peachey and Chris Bradbeer, respectively, who invited us to reflect on the way we perceive and apply leadership and collaboration in our roles. I believe it is fair to say on behalf of all who attended that we were left challenged to consider how we conduct ourselves as professionals and gained a deeper understanding of the sort of mentality we should strive for concerning these areas.

In the first lecture, titled “We Are Sherpa”, John Peachey took a narrative approach, describing the life and challenges faced by many climbers who have attempted Mount Everest (successfully and not). The ambitions and risk-taking mindsets of these people were inspiring in their own right, as they pushed their physical and psychological boundaries with the full understanding that there would be no help if the slightest mistake lead to their downfall. The success of NZ mountaineer, Edmund Hillary was also explored; not only was his work ethic discussed, but the effective way he used the platform his success placed him on. His leadership in the community parallels with the rules of climbing a mountain: just making it to the top doesn’t count as success. You make it as a team, and the climb doesn’t count unless you make it back down. 

         

Even with the schools he opened, the people he inspired, and other positive outcomes that form his legacy, the key point of Peachey’s message was none of these would have happened if not for his Sherpa, Tenzing. Sherpa are the spiritual keepers of the mountain. Their job is to put their lives on the line so that others can have a moment of glory on the summit. They know the mountains better than anyone else and use their knowledge and ability to lift others into places they can succeed without the spotlight that the hero gets. While there are different leadership styles, and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with having your moment on the summit, as leaders, John’s encouragement is that we seek to be like the Sherpa: humble. Asking ‘how can I help you get there rather than ‘let me show you how it’s done’. A trusted guide.     

 

In a similar vein, Chris Bradbeer discussed the meaning and application of collaboration in the context of education and its significance to leaders. When involving ourselves in projects and initiatives, there are many blockers to successful collaboration, from differing opinions as to what constitutes as progress to the risk of escalated tension. Collectively, we defined collaboration with ideas such as appreciation for others, sharing ownership of ideas, and taking part in discussions. In order for any of these descriptions to be successful in action, the driving component is building trust among those involved; among other ways of building this, they can be well summed up by ensuring there is consistent and effective communication from leaders. This promotes strengthened relationships, which leads to more honest feedback, which results in better decisions made. In order to carry out effective collaboration, it isn’t so much an imperative that everyone agrees; but by taking these measures, you progress in creating an environment where there is an active willingness to support the group’s direction.

While these two seminars were conducted in different styles and focused around different topics, there was a complimentary quality in the way Peachey and Bradbeer encouraged us to be the most effective kind of leader. People lead in different ways, but the tools they presented had a common emphasis on the importance of empowering those that you interact with. By doing so, leadership changes from what you do to who you are.  

By Tim Bartja, In-School Leader, ANI

Well, well, wellbeing

Whakatauki

On Thursday 7th March, the in-school leaders, across-school leaders and principals of the schools involved in the wellbeing initiative met with one another to make connections and discuss the ‘why’ around wellbeing. The meeting was a great success and the level of enthusiasm brought by those involved was great to see. As we worked through a few team building activities and discussions, we were able to identify several motivating reasons to explore wellbeing as well as establish an idea of what could be achieved by the end of the year.

Though the wellbeing initiative is the ‘new kid on the block’, we’re all very excited about what has already happened and what is in store this year for Auckland Normal Intermediate, Kohia Terrace School, Epsom Normal Primary, Meadowbank School, Maungawhau and Remuera Primary Schools. Across the six schools involved in this initiative, we have two focused on student wellbeing, one on staff wellbeing and three interested in both.

So far this year the across school leaders have surveyed the principals from the involved schools to ascertain focuses and current data on wellbeing, met with schools’ in-school leaders and senior leadership teams to discuss focus and data, and had our initial meeting with the schools involved in our initiative.

As we move forward this year we plan to identify what is currently being done in schools, and build upon these practises, while exploring how this could be achieved in the most effective and impactful way. Some ideas of how this might be done centres around investing in practices and environments that enhance learning outcomes as this will ensure that the experiences, voices and visions of those involved are realised.

We’re looking forward to sharing and discussing the wonderful work that’s been done to support our student and staff wellbeing.