Conference Facilitation & Team Building Blogs

When NASA gives feedback

A little while ago we received an unexpected email, from NASA! As you’d expect our first thought was to delete it, assuming it was spam. Surprisingly it was genuine.

…

Sleep through Mental Health Awareness Week

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week running 18-24 May is sleep. A subject we’ve been especially engaged in for the past 15 years. During which time tremendous advances in the science of sleep have been achieved.

We now know better than ever before, why we sleep, how we sleep and most importantly the life-limiting effects of not getting sufficient sleep. One notable fact is that disrupted sleep is always a precursor to depression and many other psychological conditions. So it could be said that good sleep is a vaccine for mental illness.

A lack of sleep affects how you operate at work and it really impacts your ability to perform your job safely. Some of the negatives include increased risk-taking behaviour which can lead to an increase in work-related incidents. All this comes under the umbrella of serious mental health issues which can also arise from a lack of sleep.

Whilst a number of excellent books have been published on the subject in recent years, new discoveries are being made monthly and so publications go out of date faster than prawns in the sun. Instead, we’d recommend you reserve one of our Sleep Briefings during Mental Health Awareness Week, they last less than an hour and can be delivered in your workplace.

Write to us at mail@freshtracks.co.uk to check availability.

Our Shed is on TV

Here at Fresh we have a shed, it’s quite a special shed, originally built in the 16th Century from reclaimed ships’ timbers.

More recently we’ve brushed away the cobwebs and breathed new life into this ancient building. Now known as Wellbeing Barn it has become a multi-use space for team away days and small group retreats. Late last year it caught the eye of the BBC and has also become the set for a series of children’s nature shows.

If you’re looking for a private and unique space we’d love to hear from you.

There is a vaccine for mental illness

Whilst mental health is highly complex, numerous studies have proven that in virtually every case of mental illness, there is pre-existing sleep disruption.

Poor sleep is, therefore, a reliable early indicator that our mental health is at risk. Whilst it is quite normal to lose some sleep during periods of stress, the danger is that the fact we are not sleeping well can further increase the threat to the health of our minds.

…

Salesforce Fiasco – Pride before a salesfall

Along with many of their customers worldwide, I have been having some trouble with Salesforce recently.

My issue began prior to the worldwide outage last Friday. It was a familiar case of arrogance from a Goliath-like supplier toward a small, though loyal customer.

…

Why Great Leaders Say No

We seem to be living through a time when elected leaders at least, have succeeded by telling people what they want to hear.

Is this really leadership? We’d say it’s not. True leadership requires the courage and wisdom to say out loud, the truths that people don’t want to hear. It’s not fun, it upsets people and makes the leader unpopular. In the short term for sure and often, for much longer.

…

2 Steps to Overcoming the Time Poor Trap

More than ever it seems that increasing numbers of us are overwhelmed by an ever-growing and never-ending to-do list.

Just as we seem to get some time to catch up, urgent requests pings into our inbox and yet another well-intentioned day is high-jacked. For many of us, this has become our normal state, thereby creating more urgent requests as critical tasks slip through, only to pop up again a few days later as urgent priorities.

…

An Unlikely Leadership Truth

Way back in March 2016 we wrote about the appeal of maverick leaders. At that time Barak Obama was US president, David Cameron was UK Prime Minister and the Zika virus was striking fear into travellers.

…

Space for Adventure

Ranulph Fiennes, Ben Fogle and Dervla Murphy live lives filled with adventure. Whilst the closest many of us get is a visit to Cotswold Outdoors, during our lunch hour.

We have every intention of adding another adventure to our existence, yet we rarely seem to find the time, weather and suitable location to wear the Goretex we bought during that optimistic lunch break. Acquiring the kit is the easy bit, the greater challenge is finding a few days to escape to the wild.

…

Don’t just slow down this bank holiday, stop.

A Bank Holiday with the chance of having a 3 or 4 day weekend to recharge is something that every looks forward to. These enforced Bank Holidays should result in a more rested and energised work force but it seems most of us are using these long weekends to keep working and catch up on the backlog.

…