Blog entries from Neil Thompson

Managing conflict in teams

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:02:16 +0100

A common view of conflict is that it is something out of the ordinary, a breakdown of normality. But, in reality, if we look more closely, conflict is part and parcel of normality. This is an important point for teams to recognise. A good marital (or marital-type) relationship is not one that is conflict free (as that would not be possible), but rather one in which conflicts are successfully managed. Similarly, a good team is not one in which there is no conflict (as that too would not bRead More...

Deaths in the workplace

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:34:28 +0100

The Health and Safety Executive have recently released figures that show that workplace deaths are at an all-time low. Between April 2009 and March 2010, 151 people were killed in UK workplaces, down from 178 the previous year. While this improvement is good to see, it leaves me wondering about how well equipped most organisations are in terms of dealing with the challenges involved in supporting employees through bereavement and loss situations. When I was researching my Loss, Grief and Trauma Read More...

Happiness and productivity

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:00:25 +0100

Research can sometimes be counterintuitive. That is, the findings go against what we would have expected - they challnege so-called common sense. Helping us to realise that some of the things we take for granted have no basis in truth is therefore an important role that research plays for society. However, sometimes the value of research comes from confirming what has been taken for granted for a long time - reaffirming that it does have a basis in fact. An example of the latter was recentRead More...

Alcohol problems in the workplace

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:31:53 +0100

From time to time I am asked to offer advice to organisations about problems relating to alcohol problems in the workplace. The issues involved are very complex, but there are usually ways in which the challenges involved can be addressed reasonably effectively. However, whenever I deal with such matters I am left wondering just how many of the problems associated with alcohol are simply left untouched, swept under the carpet because of the sensitivities involved. So, I suspect that what actuallRead More...

Silent bullying?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:55:38 +0100

At the time fo writing no one has posted a comment in relation to my previous blog post about subtle bullying. And yet, in recent weeks quite a few people have agreed with me about the significance of subtle bullying when I have raised it with them (for example on training courses I have been running). Do we have a culture of silence around bullying? Is it too painful or threatening a subject to be discussed or is it just that nobody has got anyting to say about the matter?

Subtle bullying

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Mon, 03 May 2010 10:18:49 +0100

From time to time people talk to me about problems they are having in their workplace. Sometimes what they talk to me about is bullying, pure and simple, and they realise this and talk about it in openly these terms. However, it is often the case (and this has happened to me a couple of times recently) that people talk to me about their problems but they have not thought about them as being the result of bullying. This is because the bullying has been very subtle, and so the person on the recRead More...

Who is responsible for well-being?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:41:24 +0100

Much of what is written about workplace well-being has a very strong indivdiualistic focus. The implicit (and sometimes explicit) assumption appears to be that each of us is totally responsible for our own well-being. This approach to stress has proven disastrous over the years. The common assumption that stress is the sign of a weak individual has haunted us for decades, often creating a vicious circle where someone who is experiencing stress then feels even greater pressure because of thRead More...

Alcohol in the workplace

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:09:16 +0100

Alcohol-related problems are a major headache for so many people in families and in communities, but of course the workplace is not immune from the harm that alcohol misuse can bring, not only to the person concerned, but also to a wide range of other people - and, of course, to the organisation itself. Some organisation have a carefully worked out policy for dealing with such problems if or when they arise, and may have specially trained staff who are reasonably well equipped to respond to the Read More...

Leading for well-being

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:06:22 +0100

A key part of leadership is the shaping of workplace cultures to make them conducive to effectiveness for the organisation in meeting its goals and for staff and managers in achieving their own objectives, personally and professionally. The basic idea is that leadership creates win-win situations. Good leaders help their staff (their 'followers') to fulfil their potential while helping the organisation to do what it needs to do. This has significant implications for workplace well-being. An effeRead More...

Bullying? Or just wimps?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:27:51 +0100

The furore over allegations that Gordon Brown had bullied his staff has generated a lot of column inches in the press, including many letters from members of the public. The general tenor has been one of condemnation of bullying, but it has been worrying that some people seem to have little or no understanding of what is involved or how devastating it can be to people's lives. I was particularly concerned by one letter to the Guardian newspaper that claimed that people complaining about beiRead More...

Well-being or wellness?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:12:30 +0100

Many people use the terms well-being and wellness interchangeably, but my concern is that this is likley to cause confusion. Wellness has a close relationship with health, as does well-being, of course. However, I believe it is important to distinguish between health and well-being (while not forgetting that they influence each other in significant ways). It is quite possible to be in good health but with very poor well-being (for example, a perfectly healthy person who is deeply distresRead More...

Can we afford workplace well-being?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:58:10 +0100

I have had many discussions with people in different settings about the costs of workplace well-being. How much does it cost an organisation to support their staff appropriately? Is it realistic to expect organisations to spend money on such measures when the economy is in such a poor state? These are the sort of questions a lot of people seem to be wrestling with.

For me, there are two sets of issues. First, there are many things that support well-being in the workplace that do not cosRead More...

Stress and well-being

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:38:56 +0100

I have recently been involved in developing some new education and training DVDs about stress. This has reminded me about how it was my interest in stress (and related workplace problems) that spawned my interest in well-being, specifically in the workplace but also more broadly. In one of the DVDs I make the point that stress isn't necessarily a sign of a 'weak' indidvidual. The reality is much more complex than that, of course. Stress is telling us that there is something wrong somewhere, someRead More...

All publicity is good publicity?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:32:55 +0100

It was good to see that Well-being Zone was featured in the latest issue of the quarterly journal of the Royal Society for the Arts. The more people who know about what the community has to offer, the better it will be for everyone. However, it was a pity that the news item appeared under the heading of 'Pursuit of Happiness'. Of course, happiness is part of well-being but to equate the two is to oversimplify some very complex issues. But, this fits in with what this community is about, to Read More...

Not so simple ...

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:48:19 +0100

Catherine Bennett writing in The Observer is critical of simplistic approaches to well-being, claiming that you cannot measure happiness. Of course, it is a significant mistake to equate well-being with happiness - the relationship between the two is very complex - but she is right to have doubts about the value of simplistic, uncritical notions of well-being. So, well-being as a concept is not a problem; it is the tendency to oversimplify it that is the real cause of concern. But, that is Read More...

Christmas pressures

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:59:32 +0100

At this time of year many people will be looking forward to a break from work, but of course there are also additional pressures to contend with for so many, both at work and at home, pressures that can be really testing, especially in terms of work-life balance. So, it will not be a Merry Christmas for everyone who celebrates Christmas. For example, many people with mental health problems feel decidedly worse at this time of year. We should therefore be careful not to assume that this is Read More...

Promoting Workplace Well-being

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:25:28 +0100

It has been gratifying to receive a lot of positive feedback about the book I co-edited, Promoting Workplace Well-being which has recently been published by Palgrave Macmillan. Unfortunately it is only available in hardback, so not likely to be an individual purchase for many people, but we are hoping it will be bought by libraries and other interested organisations, so that the important messages of the book's contributors can be heard. Workplace well-being is such an important topic theseRead More...

Stress and mental well-being

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:59:19 +0100

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently published a report on 'Preventing Mental Wellbeing through Productive and Healthy Working Conditions'. While I welcome the report and its emphasis on the role of good employment practices in preventing stress and promoting mental well-being, I think it is very significant that we still need to keep plugging this message. Despite the weight of evidence to support this report's conclusions, I fear that a higRead More...

What's happening to the world of work?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:20:44 +0100

My job as a trainer, consultant and conference speaker involves meeting a large number of people. I have lots of interesting discussions and certain themes tend to recur. One of them is: what is happening to the world of work? So many people seem to be complaining of work overload and a lack of work-life balance. Organisations’ expectations of their employees seem to have gone from high to very high if not actually Read More...

What is an online community?

neil@avenueconsulting.co.uk — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:18:58 +0100

Some people have asked me to say more about what is meant by an online community. I have already done this on our sister site, Social Work Focus so if you are interested in knowing more about this, click ‘Social Work Focus’ on the top menu and then when you arrive at the Social Work Focus site click ‘Blogs’ on the top menu there.