Tiny Delights not Big Bright Lights
CEO Thought of the Week
I hope you've had a positive week and have managed to stay warm in this chilly weather.
I had the privilege this week of meeting with Staff Champions from each of our Infinity schools. If you don't know who they are or what they do I'm hoping you soon will as I have asked them to introduce themselves to their colleagues over the coming weeks. Our Staff Champions are there to help build and support the relationship between schools and the Trust as a whole. They will be sharing updates with you, seeking your views around important issues and relaying that information in regular meetings with me so that we can continue to improve all that we do for the benefit of our 400 strong team. This week we discussed their role, the staff survey data and our growing focus on Well-Being. And it's this Well-Being element that I want to talk about today....
"Tiny Delights or Big Bright Lights"- is a phrase that I heard for the first time this week. Essentially, in the context of well-being it's asking the question are we supporting well-being through small, consistent actions or waiting for big one off show-stopping events. Historically, well-being has been seen as the latter-a selection of bolt on one-off activities such as the headline grabbing "duvet days" or dress-down Fridays! Research shows clearly that these one-off big ticket items actually do very little to support well-being in the long term. They are effectively distracting BIG BRIGHT LIGHTS! We want well-being in our Trust to be taking seriously and to matter every day. Therefore we want to aim for TINY DELIGHTS- small consistent actions over time that collectively make a difference. As a Church Trust we can also express this a different way- its the Tiny Delights that allow us to FLOURISH- that give us a sense of belonging, an inner confidence and a willingness to take a risk. To FLOURISH is to have our internal central heating switched on that means we feel all of those things and are just as importantly able to provide them to others.
We are working on a new Well-being strategy for the Trust led by David Nicholson HT at Long Bennington that focuses on these little things that do make a difference to how people feel in the long term. David introduced me to the NHS approach through their "5 ways to Well-Being". It actually comes as no surprise that what has been proven to improve our well-being is our interactions with others, feeling valued for what we do, having the feeling that we're moving forwards and making a difference and actually physically moving around! It is our intention to build the Infinity Well-Being Strategy on these 5 approaches. Watch this space as we begin to create this with input from you and our staff champions over the year. So what can you do right now?
Well, take charge of your own Well-Being. Your Well-Being is first and foremost your responsibility. So to begin with be realistic..... no-one can take away many of the challenges of life or the work we do nor can school leaders wave a magic wand to suddenly provide a perfect work-life balance. We have to collectively work within the parameters of the world (and the profession) we live in. That doesn't however mean we can't strive together to make it better!
Secondly, think about others. Our tendency when we feel vulnerable, under the weather and fed up is to withdraw into ourselves or lash out at the world and the people in it. This leaves them feeling a bit perplexed as to why the usually mild-mannered you is acting out of character and it leaves you ultimately feeling guilty. If we think of others, do right by them, build them up then it will actually make us feel better too. So when you feel at your worst do something positive for someone else- it will have a positive effect on you!
And finally begin to look at the five ways to well being below. How many of them can you fit into a lesson, a lunchtime or a day at work? Are you positively trying to CONNECT, to GIVE, to LEARN, to TAKE NOTICE and to BE ACTIVE. Our shared well-being will depend on the compound effect of everyone doing the little things well each and every day. Go on smile at someone, it will change their day......and yours!
Have a great weekend!
Gavin