Money or Your Life
Do you dare to choose balance as a life priority? According to Clive Lewis of Illumine Training more honesty can get people what they really want.
Are we fooling ourselves, do we really want work-life balance? Are we really prepared to give up financial rewards for a healthier lifestyle?
This is an important question for organisations and staff. The costs of work-life imbalance are real. Exhausted people can’t concentrate, don’t have creative ideas and communicate poorly. But even in organisations where there are flexible working solutions on offer people seem reluctant to change. So how can employers encourage staff to take more care of their health?
…Exhausted people can’t concentrate, don’t have creative ideas and communicate poorly…
The Common Services Agency (CSA) is an organisation that plays an active role in NHS Scotland by providing support and care for Scotland’s health and patient care and has been delivering a one day course designed by Illumine Training called Fit for Life to help people address their work-life priorities.
According to Lisa King, Organisational Development Manager for the CSA: “Work-life balance is a key issue for our staff who work extremely hard in a long hour’s culture. We contracted Illumine to train up our internal trainers so that we could then cascade the programme through the organisation. They showed us how to get people to look at what is and isn’t working for them and how to get them thinking about what they can do differently.”
…ensure that the change you want is compelling and determine when to take the first step…
Designed by specialist work-life trainer Helen Whitten, Fit for Life looks at the following themes:
- Yourself first. What matters most to you? What and who do you really want to put first?
- Dreams. How can you get out of programmed behaviour? What are the habits that drive you and how does your current life compare to the best life you could imagine?
- Simplicity. What pressures drive your time? What are you saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to?
- Stepping stones. Set priorities, ensure that the change you want is compelling and determine when to take the first step
- Organisation. Get control of your life. It’s not difficult but organisation requires you to be disciplined, practical and decisive
- Team. Other people are essential. We can help ourselves tremendously by knowing how and when to delegate and by building up our network
- In the moment. Finally, we always have choice. We can always choose our attitudes and our state
This programme also includes a range of practical techniques and one which participants have found extremely useful is a problem solving method drawn from Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy. In brief participants are helped to:
- Identify an activating event e.g. an impossible deadline
- Identify the beliefs they hold that underlie the problem e.g. “I have to meet this deadline or I’ll be a failure”
- Look at the consequences of this belief e.g. fear
- Dispute this emotion by looking at how helpful it is to have such a belief and by constructing a more empowering alternative
“…sometimes people need to dare to tell their colleagues what they care about and, in so doing, challenge corporate norms…”
In essence this programme encourages people to see that they have more choice than they previously acknowledged. And it also helps people to see that personal imbalance is generated when they don’t stand up for what is important to them. It may not be easy to challenge existing habits or working cultures but when people see that they are compromising their personal values then this can motivate them to make real change.
As Helen Whitten says: “Sometimes people need to dare to tell their colleagues what they care about and, in so doing, challenge corporate norms. This may sound risky but organisations do in fact want to support people who bring their full vitality to home and work. They know it makes sense in terms of someone’s organisational performance and they are aware it’s good practice in terms of individual health.”
Concluded Lisa King: “We don’t pretend a one day programme will provide all the solutions but a course like this is essential. It may be hard for people to break their patterns but by giving them sound business reasons for change and powerful techniques we believe that they will be better able to make decisions that are right for themselves and the organisation.
Tags: Work-life Balance