Insights
Written by the people doing it. What actually holds a problem in place inside an organisation, and what moves it, drawn from live engagements rather than from a framework.
36 of 36 articles
The written contract is the smaller half of the deal. How to surface and negotiate the unwritten psychological contract that decides whether staff stay.
Retaining staff
Social identity theory explains why staff stay: self-esteem, uniqueness, continuity and self-efficacy. Practical moves for interviews, induction and career pathing.
Retaining staff
The 1939 K2 expedition as a warning about task-based job specs. Designing roles around mission, visible value, belonging and personal values.
Retaining staff
Group coaching is intimidating and more powerful than 1:1 for exactly the same reason - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Coaching & growth
Psychological growth does not stop in adulthood - it gets replaced by coping. A primer on insight, leaning in and reflection for restarting genuine growth.
Coaching & growth
Eight leadership actions for holding on to exhausted public sector staff - identity, a visible future, safety, compassion, role variety, autonomy, humour and cohesion.
Retaining staff
Onboarding thousands of coaches for the NHS exposed how inconsistent the UK's 45+ coaching bodies are. The excellence and key-skills framework built in response.
Coaching & growth
When a team finally feels safe, it often turns self-critical - and leaders fear it is falling apart. Seven ways to lead through the paradox towards empathy and resilience.
Teams & culture
A five-minute check-in at the start of a meeting does five hidden things for a team: state transition, normalising, accepting difference, containment and connection.
Teams & culture
Teams over-index on problems. A four-step appreciative inquiry exercise for surfacing what already works and deliberately doing more of it.
Teams & culture
Leaders often confuse agreements with commitments. A psychologist's exercise for auditing what you are really committed to, at work and at home.
Leadership
Compassionate leaders listen, empathise and act for their teams - and rarely for themselves. Four self-compassion needs that keep compassionate leadership sustainable.
Leadership
Saying yes to everything dilutes your role and your team's. A three-step method for declining with empathy that builds cohesion rather than damaging it.
Leadership
How often and how long should team building run? Two hours a month for teams of 5-15, with a sample agenda drawn from therapy and coaching session design.
Teams & culture
"We don't have enough time" is usually a symptom, not a cause. Why ringfencing two hours a month for team cohesion gives time back rather than taking it.
Teams & culture
A short prescription of wellbeing fundamentals for overloaded leaders: diet, movement, breaks, sleep and fun, with small commitments to review each week.
Burnout & wellbeing
43% of UK adults live with chronic pain, and many of them lead organisations in silence. Why the question is not where is the cure but how do I succeed today.
Burnout & wellbeing
Every team has unspoken rules about what can be said. A seven-point conversations audit to find the conversations your team is missing.
Teams & culture
Public sector mergers fail culturally for the same reasons blended families struggle. Seven free tools for partnership boards that need to build trust.
Leadership
Our tribal wiring never planned for the modern working day. A seven-step debrief ritual for psychologically separating work from home.
Burnout & wellbeing
Against the flood of How To guides promising certainty: uncertainty is the new normal, it is not inherently unsafe, and curiosity beats control.
Change & uncertainty
A ready-to-run 65-minute workshop using Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey to turn a team's hardest period into named strengths and new commitments.
Teams & culture
Why leaders answer pressure with more doing - and how threat psychology, false certainty and confirmation bias drain them. Part 2 of the Re-energising series.
Leadership
Lessons from supporting over 1,000 NHS staff: how lockdown drained team energy, and the leadership behaviours that rebuild it. Part 1 of the Re-energising series.
Teams & culture
A clinical psychologist's own burnout story, and the case for NHS staff being permitted to be a little self-ish rather than cast as tireless heroes.
Burnout & wellbeing
Five practical techniques for healthcare staff carrying crisis and distress home: decompression practice, dressing for the role, worry logs, worry slots and self-compassion.
Burnout & wellbeing
Practice managers lead clinicians they hold no formal authority over. Dr Cordet Smart on why existing leadership theory does not fit, and a call for research participants.
Primary care
The origin story of Project5: how a volunteer-staffed, evidence-based wellbeing service for NHS staff was designed and scaled at speed during COVID-19.
Burnout & wellbeing
Treat mandated online consultation as an 18-24 month PDSA learning project rather than a pass/fail rollout, and the change capability you gain is the guaranteed win.
Change & uncertainty
Calling it "just admin" undersells a skilled, clinically significant role - and explains the pay and retention problem. The case for a professional clinical admin identity.
Primary care
GP practice managers are essential, self-taught and rarely valued. A four-step roadmap: recognise your value, reflect, move from management to leadership, audit your conversations.
Primary care
PCN mergers face the same culture problem as corporate ones. Seven free tools for partners who need to build trust, not just process.
Primary care
Five recurring problems in Primary Care and PCNs - partner conflict, undervalued managers, retention, difficult patient conversations and exhausted leaders - with practical fixes.
Primary care
Pressure is not pace. Why COVID-19 alone will not make primary care adopt online consultation, and what system leaders must invest in instead of blame.
Change & uncertainty
Burnout, exodus and public hostility in the post-COVID NHS - and why the answer is systemic change and legitimised recovery time, not more individual resilience.
Burnout & wellbeing
Why reception and admin staff absorb more patient anger than ever, and seven team-level supports - from reframing to scripts - that protect them and improve retention.
Primary care
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