Managers Managing Pressure
Most UK organisations are now aware of their responsibilities in relation to pressure and stress at work, and have in place related policies and standards. However, what is often overlooked is:
• that writing policies or guidance is not enough; to make a real impact, people’s behaviour has to change.
• that the behaviour of line managers has a strong influence on employee psychological health at work.
This understanding was key to shaping BG Group’s recent efforts to proactively improve the management of pressure and stress at work throughout their global energy business. BG Group’s guidance clearly states that managers need to ensure that stress risk assessments take place in their teams. As an organisation, BG Group was aware of the need to support managers in putting the guidance into action, and recognised the importance of helping them understand the role of pressure and stress in influencing individuals’ performance and health. This approach would show managers the value of positively managing pressure as well as assist them in putting the guidance into practice.
BG Group required all managers based at their headquarters in Reading, UK to attend a tailored training day, developed in partnership with The Keil Centre. During these evidence-based interactive sessions, strong links were made between pressure and performance, people management practices and management of psychological health, and the role of individual differences. Despite some initial scepticism about the topic from a few managers, feedback has been consistently positive, with 96% of those attending saying they would recommend the course to a colleague.
What comes next?
To date, over 250 managers have attended and it is expected that all managers based in Reading will have attended the training by the end of 2008. Already, stress risk assessments are happening and training is being rolled out to BG’s assets around the globe.
For more information, contact Johnny Mitchell.
Human Factors for Decommissioning
The nuclear industry has long had a mature approach to the integration of human factors into the design and operation of nuclear power stations. Accidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl historically served as dominant examples to the industry and demonstrated the importance of getting this right, and dramatically highlighted the consequences of getting it wrong.
Many nuclear power stations in the UK are now either being decommissioned, or will begin decommissioning in the next few years. Historically, the amount of effort expended to address human factors aspects of decommissioning has been significantly smaller than the efforts expended to ensure that power stations are designed and operated safely and effectively. Decommissioning represents a major change in site activity, from generating power to safely treating, removing and disposing of waste. Issues such as an increased use of contractors, organisational changes, reductions in staffing, changes to equipment and maintaining a strong
safety culture become very important. There is also the risk that with the nuclear fuel removed, those with little experience of the nuclear industry will perceive decommission as a much less hazardous activity.
The Keil Centre were recently commissioned by Magnox Electric Limited (MEL) to conduct a human factors gap analysis of the decommissioning process. The aim was to identify the human factors tools and techniques that would be required to help ensure that human factors issues are adequately covered during decommissioning. To achieve this we used our extensive knowledge of human factors approaches from a range of industries to define best practice, and to compare this to the human factors tools, techniques
and methods employed within MEL. The results of our gap analysis were then used to develop a comprehensive set of human factors guidance material, in the form of short briefing notes on a wide range of human factors tools, methods and techniques.
The Keil Centre’s key areas of expertise focus on capable, safe and healthy people, drawing on our knowledge of organisational change and development, human factors in safety and clinical and counselling psychology. The guidance that we developed as part of this project drew on each area of expertise, and included guidance on change management, dealing with stress, ergonomic design and safety culture, to name but a few. The human factors guidance notes were linked to a model of the decommissioning lifecycle, to allow non-specialists to understand how human factors techniques apply to decommissioning, and in each case to help staff at power
stations plan for, and apply such techniques at the right point in the process. The guidance material is currently being evaluated by site personnel, and so far the response has been extremely positive. Our client has also had some positive comments on the guidance material from colleagues outside of the nuclear industry.
Although this work focused on the UK nuclear industry, the principles discussed are equally applicable to the decommissioning of facilities in other industries, such as oil and gas and chemical processing.
Developing a Coaching Culture
As the public body responsible for evaluating the quality of the Scottish education system, HMIe is acutely aware of the need to ‘walk the talk’ and ensure its own staff are operating to the highest standards and continually developing their skills.
An important element in monitoring the quality of HMIe’s own work comes from feedback from the organisations they work with. Whilst, generally, this feedback is very positive, HMIe’s Ken Muir, Chief Inspector with responsibility for Human Resources, felt there was scope for improvement. He asked The Keil Centre to help create some developmental tools that would be of value to all their staff, but would also help to ensure a more consistent approach to inspections.
‘We wanted the experience of being on the receiving end of an inspection and review to be a uniformly constructive and enabling experience and although this was the case in most instances, it was patchy.’ The first stage was to articulate what the very best inspection and review looked like. Louise Clarkson and her team worked with a cross section of HMIe staff, Head Teachers and College Principals to analyse the behaviours that underpinned a successful process. This analysis resulted in the PRAISE framework being adopted across the service as the guide to good practice. Welcomed by experienced as well as new staff, it is being used in induction and development workshops as well as providing a practical tool for self-reflection or team feedback.
The framework was followed up with a series of workshops on coaching skills to help to embed an understanding of how a coaching style can be a powerful means of resolving problems and generating commitment to action. ‘Originally this was intended primarily to help HMIe staff to learn from and with each other, and feedback shows it is doing that. But as we are developing a new model of
inspection with a much greater focus on professional dialogue, we are finding that applying a coaching style in many parts of the inspection/review itself is really helping us to engage in a more positive way with staff.’ Adopting more of a coaching style can, in itself, contribute to the organisation’s confidence and motivation in working towards an improvement agenda.
For more information on coaching and organisation development, contact Louise Clarkson.
Positive Steps - moving on after trauma with EMDR therapy
If a distressing event is not processed effectively, the memory gets ‘locked’ in the nervous system and continues to trigger the kind of emotional and physical responses experienced at the time of the actual incident, possibly leading to a diagnosis of anxiety, depression, or post traumatic stress disorder.
How can EMDR help?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychological treatment that is based on the idea that any distressing event needs to be effectively processed through the consideration of rational information relating to the original memory and the emotions experienced at the time of the trauma.
The process is a natural way of coming to terms with, and learning from, disturbing events. For example, if we have an argument with somebody at work our body reacts, our mind races, and we feel upset. We then talk about the event, think about it, and maybe dream about it. Time passes and eventually the incident does not bother us anymore. We understand what happened and the event has been effectively resolved. When this process does not occur naturally and we continue to experience distress in relation to an event, EMDR can help us to access the information we need in order to learn from the event and no longer be psychologically affected by it. This process enables us to work through the traumatic material – images, physical reactions and emotions - effectively, and the memory loses its emotional charge and no longer has a negative impact on our present emotional wellbeing.
How does EMDR work?
During treatment a client will be asked to directly focus on all the aspects of the disturbing memory (imagery, cognition, emotions, and physical sensations), while at the same time engaging in a dual attention task: eye movements. It has been shown that eye movements decrease the vividness and emotionality of memories. This appears to allow access to other information, leading to links being created between the memory and adaptive information, which in turn allows the memory to be processed effectively. One of the benefits of using EMDR over other forms of treatment is that it is known for being time effective and most clients would be treated within 6 to 8 sessions.
For more information on EMDR or our other clinical services, contact Jenny Foley.