Wellbeing & Mental Health
The L&D playbook for building psychological safety into teams
Teams do not become safe to fail through slogans or good intentions alone. Dr Melisa Buie explains why leaders must model openness first, before teams can build stronger norms around challenge, experimentation and reflection. Melisa offers a practical two-stage approach L&D professionals can use to strengthen psychological safety at work. A senior engineer stays quiet in a design review, even though she spots a flaw, because the last person who flagged a problem was labelled “not a team player.” A…
Confidence is a business issue, not a personal weakness
Workplace self-belief affects who speaks up, progresses, takes risks and contributes ideas, making it far more than an individual concern. Penny Haslam argues that organisations should actively develop confidence through training, supportive managers and everyday conversations. This helps employees perform more effectively while strengthening inclusion, wellbeing, engagement and business performance. Most people see confidence as something you’re born with, or not, like brown eyes or curly hair. But I have seen over the last decade, as an executive coach and…
Mirror mindset meets the overthinking brain: Turning self-awareness into mental clarity
Referencing two Make Your Brain Work podcast episodes, Amy Brann explores why overthinking thrives when self-reflection becomes judgement. Learn how to spot rumination loops, use body-based awareness, ask grounding questions, and journal with purpose. With self-compassion and psychologically safe feedback, learners can turn noisy minds into useful insight and learning. Overthinking is one of the most common challenges raised in coaching sessions, classrooms and workplaces alike. People describe busy minds that replay conversations, second-guess decisions and spiral late at night.…
Learning that lasts: Belief is the first barrier to building skills
Upskilling spend is soaring, but the skills gap is still yawning. The missing piece is rarely the content… It’s what learners believe about themselves when it gets difficult that counts. When doubt turns challenge into threat, even brilliant design won’t land behaviour change. Amy Brann gets belief working for you. Organisations are investing heavily in upskilling, yet many still struggle to close capability gaps. According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, 93% of organisations are concerned about skills shortages, while…
From empathy to action: How L&D can build compassionate workplaces
Nicky McCrudden explores why compassion at work so often stops at good intentions and how L&D can help turn concern into action. Her research identifies skills gaps, workplace beliefs and social pressures as key barriers, pointing to practical, scenario-based ways to build confidence, strengthen connection and create more compassionate workplaces. Compassion deficits in the workplace, where colleagues’ suffering goes unnoticed or unaddressed and anti-compassionate behaviours, are driving costly outcomes that organisations know all too well. Productivity losses from poor mental health…
From unburdening the brain to bouncing back: Rethinking stress and resilience at work
Design behaviour, don’t demand willpower: this article draws on Make Your Brain Work episodes with Amy Brann to explain why change snaps back to old habits. Learn how biology drives ‘resistance’, why environments beat motivation, and how L&D can use cues, if–then plans, and identity language to make change stick. Stress and resilience are often discussed as separate challenges in the workplace: one to be reduced, the other to be strengthened. Yet neuroscience tells a more integrated story. A brain…
Striking the right balance between productivity and workplace wellbeing
Build sustainable productivity by redesigning work around focus, recovery and realistic capacity. Aleks Szymanski explains how leaders can reduce overload, encourage breaks, set clear expectations, use technology thoughtfully and model healthy boundaries, creating cultures where wellbeing strengthens performance, engagement, retention and resilience rather than competing with them at work daily. For years, productivity and wellbeing were framed as competing priorities. Push harder, the thinking went, and performance would rise, even if people paid the price. Today, that approach is proving…
From intention to action: Designing behaviour that makes change stick
Don’t demand just willpower! This article draws on two Make Your Brain Work podcast episodes with Amy Brann and Dr Jessie Gulsin to explain why change snaps back to old habits. Learn how biology drives ‘resistance’, why environments beat motivation, and how L&D can use cues to make change stick. Most organisational change programmes fail not because people are lazy or resistant, but because they are human. Despite good intentions, behaviour often snaps back to familiar patterns, leaving leaders frustrated…
Designing resilience training that supports people, not broken systems
Resilience training needs better design if it’s to help rather than harm. Stephan Lendi writes that L&D teams should stop treating resilience as an add-on. Instead, Stephan promotes that we build programmes that strengthen individual capability, expose structural pressures and feed honest organisational insight back to decision-makers for meaningful change. In many organisations, resilience has become the default extra module in leadership and learning programmes. New conflict‑management course? “Let’s add a short resilience session.” Change workshop? “Can you teach people…
TJ interviews: Mark Travis Rivera about braver workplaces starting with belonging
Belonging takes more than statements and symbolic support. Mark Travis Rivera shares why inclusion must be built through listening, honest conversations and everyday action. This interview explores how leaders can challenge performative allyship, create braver organisations cultures and help people feel recognised, respected and able to do their best work. Mark Travis Rivera is an award-winning creative entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of The Professional Storyteller, and a globally recognised advocate for inclusive workplace culture. Drawing on lived experience as a…
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