NHS Dorset CCG is the commissioning health organisation for Dorset. The Group’s mission is to lead continuous improvements in health and care services in the county, and to reflect a continually changing economy and society.

The Group’s values as an organisation include being courageous, collaborative, responsible and responsive. Living up to these values – making the right decisions, solving problems, and responding effectively and positively to challenges – requires staff to be resilient.

Solution

Working closely with the Group we developed and delivered resilience training across the organisation. We devised a high impact half-day workshop incorporating interactive sessions to embed the learning, get staff working together in new ways and make the process memorable.

Key themes included:

  • Staying calm and focused under pressure
  • Thinking clearly, making good decisions and being less reactive in the face of constant demands
  • Preventing stress before it happens by understanding the physiology of stress, resilience and performance, and then retraining the stress response.

The content is scientifically based and backed by biofeedback technology used in elite sport to demonstrate what happens to the mind and body under pressure. These simple tools can have a powerful impact on our physiology and brain function.

Outcome

The programme began with a pilot session. Following this initial success it was rolled out at management level and subsequently across the whole organisation with workshops open to all staff.

  • “Right from the start of our relationship, the team at Beyond the Barriers have been keen to understand what we wanted to achieve and how they could respond to our needs. They have delivered and evolved a workshop that exceeds our expectations, demonstrating a great amount of flexibility in their approach. Anna can engage people at all levels within the organisation and brings a totally fresh perspective on resilience, by relating what she’s learnt from high performance in sport to performing under pressure in the work environment.”

    Steve Alywin, Workforce Lead – Development

The impact

  • 1%
    of staff ‘more than satisfied’
  • star
    Content rated as excellent by staff
  • target
    Training delivered to
    1
    staff across the organisation