For years, organisations have tackled psychosocial hazards like stress, burnout, and poor workplace culture using a traditional risk management model. It’s a familiar process: identify the problem, assess the risk, and implement a control. While well-intentioned and often required by regulators, this “find-and-fix” approach can feel like a compliance-driven game of whack-a-mole. It focuses entirely on what’s wrong, often creating a culture of blame-avoidance rather than genuine wellbeing.

That’s why we went looking for better ways to help organisations and people build psychologically and psychosocially safe workplaces.

We asked: “What if we flipped the script? What if, instead of hunting for hazards, we started searching for what gives our workplace life?” Here is what we came up with.

It is the power of combining Appreciative Inquiry (AI) with the PERMAH model of wellbeing. It’s a proactive, human-centric approach that doesn’t just prevent harm – it actively cultivates a thriving work environment.

The Old Model vs. The New Mindset

The traditional risk management model is inherently deficit-based. It asks questions like:

• “What’s causing stress?”
• “Why is communication failing?”
• “How do we stop bullying?”

This line of questioning puts teams on the defensive and focuses energy on problems.

In contrast, Appreciative Inquiry is a strengths-based methodology. It operates on the simple premise that organisations move in the direction of the questions they ask. AI seeks to understand and amplify the “positive core”—the best of what is and what has been.

This is where the PERMAH model provides the perfect framework. Based on the ground breaking wellbeing theory of Professor Martin Seligman, it sets out six core pillars of flourishing:

• Positive Emotion : Experiencing joy, hope, and optimism.
• Engagement : Being fully absorbed and in “flow” with your work.
• Relationships : Having strong, supportive connections with others.
• Meaning: Feeling connected to a purpose greater than oneself.
• Accomplishment: A sense of achievement and mastery.
• Health: Physical wellbeing through sleep, nutrition, and movement.

How the Partnership Works in Practice

Instead of using a checklist to find deficits, you use AI to explore moments of peak performance through the lens of PERMAH. The questions change dramatically:

This process doesn’t ignore problems. Instead, it uncovers the root causes of success and wellbeing. By discovering what works, teams can consciously design and create more of those conditions, embedding them into their culture. You identify the ingredients of a great day at work and find ways to make them happen more often.

Why This Approach Is More Effective

There are a host of reasons why adopting a strengths-based approach produces better outcomes because it:

1. Builds Psychological Safety: Focusing on strengths and successes creates a safe environment for open dialogue. People are more willing to contribute when the goal is to build on positives rather than assign blame for negatives.
2. Generates Ownership & Energy: AI is a deeply collaborative process. It invites everyone to co-create a better workplace, leading to greater buy-in and a genuine desire to implement change. The process itself is energising and builds morale because people are part of it.
3. Creates Proactive & Lasting Change: A traditional model reacts to problems. This approach proactively builds the foundations of a positive culture. A workplace rich in PERMAH is naturally more resilient to psychosocial hazards. It’s the difference between constantly patching a leaky boat and building a stronger, more buoyant one from the start.

By shifting from a deficit-based mindset to one of appreciation and potential, we move beyond mere compliance. We start building workplaces where people don’t just survive—they truly thrive.

If you would like to explore how we can help you to change the game in your workplace with your own BETTER Workplace Team or with any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

 There are lots of surveys and studies that are reporting very high levels of burnout among workers and most especially among leaders. Are people really overwhelmed or are they just stressed, perhaps a bit more than normally but really just stressed?   

The brilliant Brene Brown helps us to make the distinction in a meaningful way with her insightful article based on her celebrated book “Atlas of the Heart”. Here is the article: “Stressed and overwhelmed: 10 learnings that changed how I think about emotions.”

She uses a definition of overwhelm from Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American professor emeritus of medicine and mindfulness expert:

“Overwhelm is the all-too-common feeling that our lives are somehow unfolding faster than the human nervous system and psyche are able to manage well.”

We all have those struggles where our present moment is one in which we feel a bit overwhelmed. So what should we do when that happens. Here is what Brene says:

“Now, I’ve trained myself to couple the terms “overwhelm” and “do-nothing.” When I am actually feeling overwhelmed, I say, “I’m overwhelmed, and I need 10–15 minutes of non-doing.” I normally walk the parking lot at work or go outside at home.”

I have been doing that for years but never thought of it as “do-nothing time” – I go out into the garden or I go for a walk to the shops to get some groceries or I have a few swings with a golf club or I put a bit of music on and tune into it or I go and get myself a drink of water or coffee………” So, for me, “do nothing time” presents in lots of different ways.

What do you do for your “do nothing time”?

Why is it important for us to be able to name what we are feeling and take a break to rebalance?

As the article says, there is a growing body of research that tells us that, when we are overwhelmed, we don’t make good decisions. Additionally, as Renee says: “If I had the wherewithal to figure out what comes next and how we need to approach all of this, I wouldn’t be walking around in circles crying and talking to myself.”

So the next time you see one of your people appear frustrated or cross and they get up and go for a walk, maybe they are just taking necessary “do nothing time”. 

Perhaps you could share this blog (and Brene’s article) with your team and have a conversation about when people feel overwhelmed and what they do to get relief from that ie what does their “do nothing time” look like?

That will help to normalise “do nothing time” as a necessary part of managing our mental health at work.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Do you recall that old saying: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”? Are you having any difficulties retaining good people? Are you spending a lot of time and money on finding replacements? Perhaps you need to spend a bit more time and attention on the talent that you already have in your backyard – give them a reason to want to stay – it is much less expensive than having to replace them.

There have been 3 times in my career when, upon being advised of my resignation, my manager asked me: “Why are you leaving? We have great plans for you!”. My response in each case was: “Sorry but you forgot to tell me about them.”

I recently wrote about the SEEK’s Inaugural Australian Workplace Happiness Index Survey – see the blog here.

It found that the top three causal factors affecting Australian workers’ happiness were “purpose” and “their manager” and “day to day activities”.

New research undertaken by Gallup and Workhuman evaluated the relationship between recognition and turnover by tracking the career paths of nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024. They found that “well-recognised employees are 45% more likely to have changed organisations two years later”. Would that be true in your organisation?

The five pillars of “strategic recognition”

Through the research, Gallup and Workhuman identified 5 essential pillars of what they call “strategic recognition”. These are:

1. Fulfilling employees’ recognition expectations (the amount you receive makes sense)
2. Authentic (it isn’t just a checklist thing)
3. Personalised (one size doesn’t fit all)
4. Equitable (it’s given fairly without playing favourites)
5. Embedded in an organisation’s culture (its integrated into the day to day)

They claim that recognition practices that meet only one of these pillars delivers 2.9 times the level of employee engagement that no pillars would deliver and that, if 4 or 5 pillars are in play, the engagement level can be as high as 90%.

Inadequate reward and recognition is a prescribed psychosocial hazard

With the advent of the positive duty to eliminate or control psychosocial hazards, your reward and recognition practices are in the spotlight from compliance and risk management perspectives. That adds another layer to this question of why proper recognition of employees is important, doesn’t it?

The Model code for managing psychosocial hazards at work published by Safe Work Australia in 2022 describes “inadequate reward and recognition as:

• Jobs with low positive feedback or imbalances between effort and recognition.
• High level of unconstructive negative feedback from managers or customers.
• Low skills development opportunity or underused skills. 

The code and most of the research is focused on the feedback that people get in relation to the work that they perform and recognition of their skills and work contributions.

But is that all that there is to reward and recognition? I think it represents just the tip of the iceberg

Do you have the right approach?

When an employee comes to work with your organisation, they bring with them a lifetime of experiences, learnings and talents and their own cocktail of personal circumstances, needs and beliefs. That is simply because we are all human and all have our own individual journeys.

Most workplace’s formal reward and recognition programs don’t consider that – they just focus on technical job performance – ie the outputs. There are commonly  standard processes that people go through periodically without variation or recognition of diversity and often with subjective scoring systems that have little (if any) allowance for contextualisation to an employee’s particular circumstances.

As Gallup and Workhuman’s third essential pillar states “one size doesn’t fit all” yet most reward and recognition systems in our workplaces are “one size fits all”.

The fifth pillar is about it being integrated into the day to day. Performance reviews are just processes that happen periodically whereas the reality is that our emotional receptors are active all of the time and there are so many different ways in which we feel recognition for good or bad in our interactions with others every minute of every hour in every day.

Gallup has long advocated continuous coaching as the ideal model for employee engagement and high performance.

The “Engage for success” model of employee engagement from the UK similarly incorporates continuous coaching with weekly catchups as a key component of the “Engaging Management” pillar in that framework.

We agree and, what’s more, we think that is just the start.

My epiphany

One of the greatest learnings in my life was the incredible impact that a positive, personalised and multi-faceted approach to performance and development had on the development and wellbeing of one of my children.

The Big Picture Education program practised at Croydon Community School in Melbourne’s outer-east delivers curriculum through the lens of a child’s passions with learning aligned to the individual child’s strengths and capacities and life situation. It recognises the whole of the student – not just their ability to do the work set under the year’s curriculum. It helps children to find their true selves, get comfortable in their own skin and build confidence in using the personal assets they have ie to be themselves authentically. It should be in every Australian school.

That was one of the key inspirations for me to learn more about positive psychology and develop our whole suite of PosWork programs.

Our approach to recognition

It is embodied in our EngageMentality coaching model in a few ways.

Firstly, I identified the key components that make up an employment experience and set these as the lenses through which we address individual performance, development and recognition. These lenses are:

1. Roles  – the job that I do plus any of those other responsibilities that I might take on as a leader or an employee or safety representative or first aider, etc
2. Relationships – I rely on certain people for certain things and others rely on me for certain things
3. Values and behaviours – the behavioural attributes that we want to see practised in our organisation to make it respectful, inclusive and high performing
4. Strengths – using the VIA Character Strengths framework to use a strengths-based approach which optimises opportunities for me to use my signature strengths and to work on and be supported with my lesser strengths
5. Wellbeing – using the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey, build on my psychological safety, life balance and overall wellbeing.

We explore and address each of those items through a process of:

1. Positioning – doing a stocktake of where I sit in each of those areas
2. Planning – identifying the actions that I want to take for my performance and development, timelines for doing that and supports that I need and any people who are involved
3. Performing – implementing my plan and catching up with my manager each week for a coaching session
4. Presenting – providing me with the opportunity to showcase my achievements in performance and development and areas for further development

The coaching conversations simply involve asking and answering these 4 questions in the context of each of the 5 coaching lenses:

1. What has worked well (celebrate)?
2. What has been a struggle (recalibrate)?
3. What has changed (update)?
4. What are we going to do about all of that (activate)?

Conclusion

Recognition involves a lot more than just giving people occasional performance feedback as I have set out above.

It is essential that we recognise all of the individual and contextualise the way we do stuff to who they are.

We also need to ensure that day to day behaviours are consistent so that people feel safe to be themselves and can flourish by design.

If you would like to explore the ways that we might be able to help you to make yours a great workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Did you know that poor change management is one of the most common psychosocial hazards in Australia? And In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving world, change is a constant as we strive to find new and better ways to do all sorts of things in business and in life. One of the problems that we have is that traditional problem-solving approaches focus on identifying what’s wrong and fixing it, rather than working positively towards an optimal solution. However, there is another method that takes a more constructive and empowering perspective—Appreciative Inquiry (AI). This transformative approach centers on discovering strengths, amplifying successes, and fostering growth through positivity.

Appreciative Inquiry is built on five core principles that shape how individuals and organizations can create sustainable change. These principles promote collaboration, resilience, and innovation, helping people focus on what works rather than what’s broken. In this blog post, we’ll explore these principles and how they can be applied in practice.

What is Appreciative Inquiry?

Before diving into the principles, it’s essential to understand what Appreciative Inquiry is. Developed in the 1980s by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, AI is a change-management approach that emphasizes the power of positive thinking, focusing on what gives life to an organization or system when it is functioning at its best. It seeks to identify strengths and success stories, using them as a foundation for envisioning the future and making strategic decisions.

In contrast to traditional problem-solving methods, which typically focus on identifying deficiencies or weaknesses, AI involves asking questions like, “What’s working well?” and “How can we build on that?” It encourages optimism, engagement, and collaboration, making it a highly effective tool for driving long-term, positive transformation.

The 5 Core Principles of Appreciative Inquiry

At the heart of Appreciative Inquiry are five foundational principles: the Constructionist Principle, the Principle of Simultaneity, the Poetic Principle, the Anticipatory Principle, and the Positive Principle. These guide how AI practitioners approach change and improvement.

1. The Constructionist Principle

This principle is based on the idea that our realities are socially constructed through language and conversations. In other words, the way we talk about our experiences shapes the way we perceive and interact with the world. This means that positive change begins with the stories we tell ourselves and others.

For example, if a team continuously discusses challenges and failures, they are likely to reinforce those negative experiences. In contrast, if they focus on what’s going well and celebrate successes, they create a culture of positivity and possibility. The Constructionist Principle teaches us that by changing the narrative, we can change our reality.

This is why a lot of our work is around changing the narrative in organisations through our “Better Stories” suite of positive communications services.

2. The Principle of Simultaneity

This principle highlights the fact that inquiry and change happen simultaneously. The moment we ask a question, we begin to create change. This is why it’s important to ask questions that focus on the positive rather than the negative. By asking about strengths, opportunities, and successes, we start the change process on a constructive note.

For instance, if an organization asks, “What makes our customer service exceptional?” it shifts the focus from problem-solving to possibility-building. By exploring what’s working, they immediately begin to create a shared vision for continuing that success.

In our “Better Workplace Projects”, we look at an organisation’s culture through its people’s experiences and perspectives and narratives about what is working well as well as what could be improved. 

3. The Poetic Principle

The Poetic Principle suggests that organizations, like poems, are open to interpretation, and individuals have the ability to influence the stories they tell about them. In essence, this principle teaches that we can choose which aspects of our reality to focus on, just like a poet selects themes and verses to create meaning.

In an organization, this could mean emphasizing stories of innovation and teamwork over stories of struggle. By choosing to focus on the best parts of an organization’s past, people can inspire greater creativity and collaboration in the future. This principle encourages individuals and teams to look at every aspect of their experiences as an opportunity to discover what works.

In our EngageMentality coaching method, strengths is one of the 5 lenses through which we develop Personal Performance and Development Plans and another is relationships which encompasses teamwork.

4. The Anticipatory Principle

The Anticipatory Principle states that our vision of the future influences our current actions. What we believe about tomorrow shapes what we do today. In other words, when we hold a positive and inspiring vision of the future, we are more likely to take actions that align with that vision.

For example, an organization that envisions itself as a leader in sustainability is more likely to invest in eco-friendly initiatives today. This principle reminds us that focusing on a positive and hopeful future allows us to align our actions with our highest aspirations.

This is where having a strong strategic narrative which gives employees clarity of the purpose and future plans of an organisation is critical – that is one of the four pillars of employee engagement in the Engage for Success model that we use in our Better Workplace Projects.

5. The Positive Principle

The Positive Principle reinforces the power of positivity in driving change. Positive emotions and experiences inspire individuals to engage more fully and be more open to new ideas and possibilities. When people feel valued and appreciated, they are more likely to contribute creatively and work toward a shared vision.

Research shows that positive emotions lead to increased motivation, stronger relationships, and enhanced problem-solving abilities. Therefore, focusing on strengths and successes rather than problems and deficits creates an environment where people can thrive.

And that is the core ethos of PosWork – making better workplaces by applying g positive psychology so that people and businesses flourish by design.   

Applying Appreciative Inquiry in Practice

Now that we’ve covered the principles, let’s explore how Appreciative Inquiry can be applied in real-world settings. AI is often implemented through a process called the “4-D Cycle,” which includes the following stages:

1. Discovery: Identify what works well within the organization or system by asking questions focused on strengths and successes.
2. Dream: Envision the future by imagining what the organization would look like if it fully embodied its strengths.
3. Design: Plan how to achieve the envisioned future by leveraging existing resources and capabilities.
4. Destiny: Implement the plan and empower individuals and teams to bring the vision to life.

Whether used for organizational change, community building, or personal growth, Appreciative Inquiry encourages positive thinking, collaboration, and sustainable progress. By applying the core principles, leaders can create environments where people feel motivated and inspired to achieve their best.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to inspire growth and development in your personal or professional life, consider embracing the principles of Appreciative Inquiry and start focusing on what’s already working to unlock your full potential.

If you would like to explore how we can help you to implement Better Change using Appreciative Inquiry I your organisation, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

Gallup has released a “2024 Employee Engagement Strategy Checklist” in which it tells us that 44% of employees worldwide say they are stressed and proposes some things that organisations can do to get people more engaged and less stressed. 

Here is Gallup’s list:

1. Check in on your managers because they are more likely to be feeling burned out and stressed and you need them to feel supported and capable of leading their people effectively.
2. Prepare managers to have meaningful conversations with employees in which they recognise strengths and achievements, set and refine goals and priorities and support then in relationships and collaboration.
3. Prioritise promoting vision and purpose, especially among remote workers for whom Gallup’s research says that only 28% feel connected to their organisation’s mission and purpose.
4. Measure engagement to show employees that you care about their feedback and want to know how they are doing.
5. Take action on survey results – nothing builds positive momentum for an engagement initiative more than asking for feedback, doing something about it and sharing and celebrating positive results.

They say that their research shows that 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged, regardless of how many days they worked in the office.

When it comes to having meaningful conversations with employees, Gallup said that they should include:

1. Recognition or appreciation of recent work
2. Collaboration and relationships
3. Current goals and priorities at work
4. Employee strengths and the things that they do well

How long should these conversations be? If they are done regularly (ie weekly), they should take no longer than 15 to 30 minutes.

Our EngageMentality Model

This is a continuous coaching model which incorporates all of the features that Gallup recommends plus more.

We did our own research on the things that we believe impact on an employment experience and by extension employee engagement and wellbeing – these “coaching lenses” are:

1. Roles  – the job that I do plus any of those other responsibilities that I might take on as a leader or an employee or safety representative or first aider, etc
2. Relationships – I rely on certain people for certain things and others rely on me for certain things
3. Values and behaviours – the behavioural attributes that we want to see practised in our organisation to make it respectful, inclusive and high performing
4. Strengths – using the VIA Character Strengths framework to use a strengths-based approach which optimises opportunities for me to use my signature strengths and to work on and be supported with my lesser strengths
5. Wellbeing – using the PERMAH workplace wellbeing survey, build on my psychological safety, life balance and overall wellbeing. 

We explore and address each of those items through a process of:

1. Positioning – doing a stocktake of where I sit in each of those areas
2. Planning – identifying the actions that I want to take for my performance and development, timelines for doing that and supports that I need and any people who are involved
3. Performing – implementing my plan and catching up with my manager each week for a coaching session
4. Presenting – providing me with the opportunity to showcase my achievements in performance and development and areas for further development 

The coaching conversations simply involve asking and answering these 4 questions in the context of each of the 5 coaching lenses:

1. What has worked well (celebrate)?
2. What has been a struggle (recalibrate)?
3. What has changed (update)?
4. What are we going to do about all of that (activate)?

If you would like to explore our EngageMentality process or any other of our PosWork programs for your workplace, please call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.

We hear a lot about empathy being an essential quality for good leadership, right? It is a nice sentiment that a leader can put themselves in another’s shoes and see the world or an issue from their perspective, right? But is that enough?

Let’s start with the basics – what is empathy? Empathy is our feeling of awareness toward other people’s emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel.

It doesn’t mean that, even if you can put yourself in that other person’s shoes, you are going to do anything about it.

For example, I could see someone being humiliated by their boss and I could imagine how that might make them feel ie I might empathise with their situation. Is that where my responsibility ends or is there something more?

Of course, there is more if I am not just going to be another bystander – I need to want to help.

That is where compassion is a step up from empathy. Compassion is an emotional response to empathy or sympathy and creates a desire to help.  I empathise with the person and their situation and then I take action to help.

Compassionate leaders not only understand the emotions of their people but actively listen to them and seek solutions to support them and to  alleviate their struggles.

On the other hand, empathy alone may fall short in driving tangible change. Leaders who solely rely on empathy might find themselves navigating the emotional complexities of their team without necessarily addressing underlying issues.

While empathy creates a connection, compassion propels leaders to make a meaningful impact. Effective leadership requires a delicate balance between understanding the emotions of others and taking decisive actions to enhance the collective well-being. Leaders who blend empathy with compassion create an environment that values both emotional understanding and proactive problem-solving, both key components of psychologically safe workplaces.

Interested in learning more about how we can help you to learn about compassionate leadership? Call us on 0438 533 311 or email info@poswork.com.au.