As we reported in December's newsletter we have been recently delivering a new course on Personal Change Management for staff of a couple of National Organisations who are experiencing high levels of stress in the workplace.

The course has been extremely well received by all of the staff and managers who have attended and below is an extract of some of the feedback that we have been receiving. If, having read this you would like to consider running courses for your staff, or interested in attending an open-workshop, drop us an e-mail.

"Using the HSE survey results for before and after there is a discernible shift in the results as a group. For all bar one of the stress management categories the results improved. Also perhaps more importantly, before the course 4 of the standards were in the red "urgent action" zone whereas after only 2 were in the red zone.

One other interesting factor is that the tool identifies those reporting that they are subjected to bullying 'always, often or sometimes' and before the course 6 responses were flagged as being in this category whereas again after the course only 3 were still indicating they were in this category."

Director of Health and Safety

Introduction

7 courses have so far been provided attended by 76 managers.

The course was monitored by an end of course evaluation sheet which showed extremely positive feedback from those attending.

It was also decided to use the HSE stress management standards survey questionnaire as a way of monitoring the impact of the training on the delegate's perceptions of personal stress levels.

The HSE survey questionnaire consists of 35 questions that gauge stress levels against the HSE stress management standard areas.

Delegates were required to complete the survey questionnaire before the course and again at the end of the course. The results were analysed using the HSE analysis tool and the results are presented in table 3

Table 3 HSE stress management standard results for delegates

The results showed a discernable improvement in the delegates feeling of stress with levels improving in all but one of the categories and in 2 categories the combined rating moved from red to amber status.

In addition the tool identified that before the course 16 delegates felt they were bullied sometimes, always or often, where as after the course only half this number 8, continued to feel they were being bullied sometimes, always or often.

Head of Health and Safety

31/3/08

Here are a few comments I have personally received in response to the training either directly or via the Organisation.  

"I attended the above course yesterday and I wanted to let you know that it was one of the best courses I've been on and I for one will definitely benefit from it.  I do think though that it should be mandatory for all staff. The principle of the course was to show that we are all responsible for our own thoughts and feelings and to blame outside "forces" e.g the Service for being in a stressed out state means we're not managing ourselves -  rather simplistic way of putting it but you get the drift!! Anyway,  as we only completed the questionnaire provided by the company who is running the Course (rather than the Service's in-house one), I thought it important to contact you and share my views.   I know the rest of my colleagues on yesterday's group also felt it would benefit alot of staff at all levels if this course was made mandatory. I just wanted to let you know that C has been singing the praises of the training yesterday . If you know C you will know that in itself is an achievement ! Both her and H are of the opinion that this is the best training the service has ever put on , and that everyone should attend. I have already given the course rave reviews to all and sundry at the Blackpool office. My main comment being that I can't believe the service shelled out the cash for such a worthwhile course and professional consultant!!"

"First of all - a big "Thanks" for the Personal Change Management course I attended yesterday.  At the end of the session I was chatting to Mark Dawes the trainer ...  I found Mark as a person and a trainer was extremely interesting, helpful, inspiring and the material that he presented was so motivational."

"Hi Mark

Just a quick email to thank you again for a fantastic day yesterday - like I said, I know I'm a bit of an enthusiast and was ready for finding out about NLP anyway, but even if I hadn't been it would have been a great day and quite inspiring. I bounced home, cuddled my youngest (tactile and emotional), talked to my middle son (verbal and analytical), and showed my daughter the diagrams I'd sketched on your handouts (visual). I tried to convey my excitement about what we'd discussed during the day, but they need to experience it for themselves, so it'll be in the practice of it in daily life that we'll see any changes. Me changing some of my language will make a difference and I just have to make sure I slow down enough to allow my awareness of situations to catch up and give me the space to choose words - does that make sense? Thanks too for speaking to me about the children, especially xxx who is so passionate about things and finds life harder than his brother and sister. The hugging is helping, tho he's looking at me a bit wierd cos it's out of character. I also enthused to one of the rugby coaches who thinks that some kind of motivational NLP style session would be really interesting, and I plan to get in touch with the secretary of the club to see if anything could be arranged. Thanks so much for considering it as a possibility in the future. I'll let you know if other people are as enthusiastic about it as I am."

"Hiya Mark

 
Just to fill you in - I was one of the women you worked with after the Personal Change Management Course (Probation Service) on 24th October in Preston.  I haven't yet done a presentation but I had to feedback to our Chief Officer, Board Members and some of our senior management team on some research I had undertaken.  I just wanted you to know that I didn't feel one bit nervous!!  A massive development for me!  I have also since passed on the course information to my dad, who can be a very negative thinker and he has started to look at things more positively and said "its been like a breath of fresh air". Thanks for all your advice - definitely a life changing course which I would love to do again."

"After Monday's really excellent, thought-provoking course, I just wanted to give you some feedback now that all the information has had time to sink in. The positive effects already for me are that I have changed three long-ingrained personal habits (in fact one was virtually an OCD issue).    I've been regularly doing the breathing exercise at various intervals each day.   I've taken my bucket-emptying breaks, and I have done my utmost to only speak in an appreciative and positive manner. That said, when I outlined my initial feedback to my team about the things I'd learned, the immediate reaction from all of them was to snigger unbelievingly and generally dismiss it all as 'rubbish'.   However, I still managed to maintain my cheerful demeanour throughout and told them their reactions were only to be expected given that it is much easier for humans to react in a negative way than in a positive way.    In the end, though, I did get them all laughing so, positivity (albeit a word I have previously loathed) can definitely be contagious. In terms of my own learning, the key things were the Breathing Exercise; the effects of words on water ie on us (largely being made of water); telling people what they can do not what they can't do; that happiness has a positive effect on our biology; visualisation, re-framing bad memories etc. I also found the discussions about the brain fascinating, particularly the pharmaceutical production centre (hippothalmus) and how we become addicted to our emotions. Having just completed the Post-Graduate Diploma in Change Management, I have to say that this was the perfect sort of course for me. Many thanks."

 
2nd June - FREE 1 Day NLP & Quantum Thinking Course

We will be running a FREE one-day course at GunWharf Quay in Portsmouth similar to what we have been delivering above. All we ask is that you make a donation on the day to our nominated charity - Combat Stress as all proceeds from this event will be going to Combat Stress. So, if you would like to attend, and take possibly the first step in changing your life whilst helping a worthwhile charity, then click here to find out more.

To download the information and booking slip in pdf format - click here.

Also, if you know of anyone whom you think could benefit why not forward this article to them, bring them with you, or download the pdf file and e-mail it to them.

If you are an organisation and you would like to run a trial course in-house then contact us by clicking on the e-mail link below.