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1. Before reading this article, at work, I will prioritise meeting colleagues for in depth discussion over a project / matter and marking books over taking care of my own physical and mental well being. I end up skipping my meals just so that I can squeeze in a meeting with a parent or colleague during. Once I’m in school, I would expect endless WhatsApp messages, endless discipline cases to manage and many meetings coming up.

2. After reading the article, I realised that whatever I am practising in point 1 is significantly depleting my energy level. While reading the article, I asked myself a few questions.
a) Do the systems in the school that needs improvement? Colleagues are frustrated because of the lack of information and the last minute information. Something I learnt in other organisaions is to disseminate information at least 3 to 5 days in advance. Allow others the time to digest the information at their own time.

b) Quick buzzes around the staffroom sums up that the attitudes and behaviors of students are the number one energy sappers in teachers. I believe that discipline starts from home at a young age. When the home does not teach, the school takes over the baton. Do all teachers sing the same tune? Or do some teachers leave the discipline solely to others? What are each of our perspective towards discipline?

Recently, I have been practising mindfulness with my students. I also practise together with them. The soothing audio and imagery reduces my anxiety and also helps my students refocus their energy levels. It ends with deep guided breathing exercises.

3. How can we help teachers to cope with the rising demands of workload?
My two cents worth: Listen to their voices and suggestions and act on them. As far as I know, many are receptive to suggestions. Some teachers give very good suggestions that help to improve the school's systems. Recently, Mr Tan just sent an email about what a colleague wrote. It was about the FTGP period. As a fellow FT who is an acting AYH, I feel the crunch. Searching for emails and always having to ask around what is supposed to be done for the next FTGP lesson depletes energy. Fortunately, my level has a very responsible and competent FTGP IC who spells out everything very clearly and explicitly to us every Thursday before the week of the FTGP lesson. That's how she helps us to manage our FTGP lessons.

Lastly, in order to manage the teachers' workload, perhaps within the KP team, we might need to work out some systems and procedures first before instructions go down to the teachers.

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Before reading this article, I maximize productivity at school by prioritizing what needs to done first. I used to keep it all in my head. But now I create to do list on the desktop to keep track of what I've completed and what more do I need to do. This has helped me to feel lighter on the head as I don't have to remember so many things that I have to do.
When I read this article, I can relate to some of the rituals that were mentioned. Before the covid pandemic started, I used to take a 20 min break to leave my desk and go out of school to buy pastries. Getting out of school for some fresh air made me feel rejuvenated compared to sitting in an air conditioned room which makes me feel cold on the inside and outside.

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I agree with the fact that many people have failed to pay attention to their body, mental and spiritual health as they are running the rat race. It is not worth cutting corners when it comes to leading a calm ad peaceful life. That is the natural way of living. Not living under a lot of pressure and stress and not being able to speak to your loved ones wholeheartedly.
Sadly, many have been leading their lives following a ritual that depletes their energy. So what can they do to put as stop to practices that drains your energy? This is the question I asked myself. Believe it or not but when you ask a question to yourself genuinely with good intentions, you will always get the answer from the 'inside'. Nothing beats this! I'm still working on it and have always been guided from the inside to take take one step at a time. There were challenging moments but I trust that it comes with a silver lining to mould me.

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Why do people continue with the same old habit even though they find those methods depleting their energy?
I often hear some of our colleagues using the same words continuously during conversations or whenever we meet on the lift landing etc. Eg. " Aiyah It's so hot!", " Aiyoh why must it rain now?" "These group of students are a big headache!" , " I tell them so many times and they never listen". I feel these are perspectives of people. How we perceive things change how we feel. So why then continue to give way to thinking negatively?

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Explore - What would be interesting to explore

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Explore - What would be interesting to explore

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People must stop exploring the outside and start exploring themselves on the inside. Observe the kind of words you use; the decisions you make at different points in your life; how you react or respond to certain situations; most importantly how do you feel due the actions taken by you. :)

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Reflection on "How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation" 

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Reflection on "How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation" 

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1. Think: My thoughts about what I have read are people's motives in working actually affects their work performance which in turn affects the culture of a company as well. There are 3 good motives - Play, Purpose and Potential, while there are 3 bad motives - Emotional Pressure, Economic Pressure and Inertia. Thus, it is important to ensure that employees have the right motives in doing their work, and even if their motives belong to the "3 bad motives" category, the company should still try in one way or another to motivate or steer them into the "3 right motives" category. However, I feel that sometimes it is difficult to do so because not many people enter the profession because they really like the job alot or really think that the job is going to give them a sense of satisfaction. I am just thinking aloud, if MOE takes away the ranking and PB from the education system, how many teachers will still stay in the profession and continue to teach according to their "calling"?

2. Puzzle: The question that I have is "How do you help those with the "3 bad motives" to move towards the "3 right motives"?

3. How can we make use of the 6 motives to identify our people so that we can know our people belong to which motive, from there we can also learn to build up the culture of our school.

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How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

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How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

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Reflection and questions after reading the article:- We all agree that "company culture" affects " staff motivation". But i think it is important to let staff / everyone to understand the "why" . Everyone wants to know that their efforts are driving towards something. Everyone will know what needs to be done, but there's this need to explain further; the need to communicate the ‘why’ of each task. The why is the company’s overall mission. If everyone knows how their individual actions can personally add to the overall goal of the company, it brings much-needed motivation to even the most simple task.

The next ultimate question is just how does one measure and maintain staff motivation?Annual surveys are too infrequent, too hard to measure and too long. By the time you ask for feedback in an annual survey, staff may have been living with those problems for up to a year and they may be having detrimental effects on the organisation. How about a confidential pulse survey tool?It'll let you conduct short, frequent surveys, and make it easier for relevant personnel to quickly gather and act on vital feedback about what makes staff tick. Most often than not, staff may find it difficult to be honest in face-to-face interviews, so confidential questions are a great way to get a full picture of the organisation.

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For this reflection, I will be trying to manage energy not time as my KP change project that Mr Tan has created for the KPs. These are my thoughts that I shared during my reflection with Mr Tan:

Pinpointing some of the changes that I would like to make is easy. The difficult question is “What does it take for me to really change? Or how can I ensure that the change is REAL and LASTING.” In an article by Knight (2022) “To change, start where you (really) are”, it stated, “If we want to make changes that make a difference and last, we must start by getting a clear picture of reality.” By having a clear picture i.e. our strengths and shortcomings, one is able to see a gap between where they are and where they want to be.

I shared with my change buddy, Shai, that one of my strengths is also my weakness. One thing I take pride in is that I am a workaholic. Sometimes I get caught up with doing work that I can forget about everything else for example eating or sleeping. I often feel guilty when I do not do any work for example during the weekends. This is a real problem because working longer hours causes/have caused me to suffer from poor physical and mental health. As a result, instead of being productive, I will eventually suffer from burn out and this would lead to declining levels of engagement in the work that I do. Hence, managing my physical and mental well-being is something that I want to work on or at least make small changes in my behaviour.

What is my game plan and how can my change buddy ensure that the change is real and lasting? To manage my physical and mental well-being, I have told my change buddy that I am working on managing energy levels. In order to do that I need to develop behaviours or change in habits to better manage my energy.  To improve my physical well-being, these are three things that I am going to do (1) eat regular meals instead of skipping meals (2) maintain a healthy weight by exercising at least 3 times a week or ensuring that I clock at least 10,000 steps on weekdays (3) get at least 6 hours of sleep. To improve my mental well-being, these are three things that I am going to do (1) make learning a priority by reading at least one article a week or reading a book for a term (2) put 30 minutes aside for twice week to practice the cello (3) put distractions aside (i.e. handphone) to spend quality time with my loved ones.

Hopefully, I will feel energised and fall sick less often cause I really really really hate falling ill and missing school.......

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Interesting read: How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

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Interesting read: How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

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https://hbr.org/2015/11/how-company-culture-shapes-employee-motivation

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How Company Culture Shapes Employee Motivation

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Our school has a Staff Welfare committee that looks after the welfare of our teachers. I also think that the SLs does a lot to look after our staff's well being. Despite this, we will always have certain individuals who will give negative feedback on why their well being is not being taken into consideration. They will inevitably start comparing what our school's SWC has done to their previous school or their friend's school.

I think gathering these feedback and asking staff what they want and would like to see being done in a survey was a good idea as it makes us aware of the staff's wants and needs. Even if not all may be done or acceded to, we are able to get new ideas on what we can do to ensure our staff's happiness.

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The article I chose to read was Educator Well Being as it ties in with Staff Welfare. As I read the article, I was struck by the similarities to what thoughts I've had since the start of the Covid pandemic. As educators, we had to relook at our teaching strategies. Along with this, came a certain level of stress. As staff welfare members, we ask ourselves. Is the stress experienced by our educators being taken seriously? How to we help our colleagues overcome their fears? Do we have policies in place which can help our colleagues who are feeling overwhelmed?

The article also emphasizes on work culture. When educators have meaningful relationships with colleagues at work, it provides them with an outlet to talk and discuss of the problems they face. This will make them feel less lonely. School leaders too play an important role. Do they encourage and promote mental well being among the staff? How can they provide support?

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Read: https://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time
1. What were your thoughts about maximising productivity at work/managing workload before reading this article?
2. After reading the article, what are some of your thoughts?
3. How can we do to help teachers to cope with the rising demands of workload?

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Steve Wanner is a highly respected 37-year-old partner at Ernst & Young, married with four young children. When we met him a year ago, he was working 12- to 14-hour days, felt perpetually exhausted, and found it difficult to fully engage with his family in the evenings, which left him feeling guilty and dissatisfied. He slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals, instead grabbing a bite to eat on the run or while working at his desk.

Wanner's experience is not uncommon. Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees. We at the Energy Project have worked with thousands of leaders and managers in the course of doing consulting and coaching at large organizations during the past five years. With remarkable consistency, these executives tell us they're pushing themselves harder than ever to keep up and increasingly feel they are at a breaking point.

The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals-behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.

To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivated-and able-to bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they're facing.

The rituals and behaviors Wanner established to better manage his energy transformed his life. He set an earlier bedtime and gave up drinking, which had disrupted his sleep. As a consequence, when he woke up he felt more rested and more motivated to exercise, which he now does almost every morning. In less than two months he lost 15 pounds. After working out he now sits down with his family for breakfast. Wanner still puts in long hours on the job, but he renews himself regularly along the way. He leaves his desk for lunch and usually takes a morning and an afternoon walk outside. When he arrives at home in the evening, he's more relaxed and better able to connect with his wife and children.

Establishing simple rituals like these can lead to striking results across organizations. At Wachovia Bank, we took a group of employees through a pilot energy management program and then measured their performance against that of a control group. The participants outperformed the controls on a series of financial metrics, such as the value of loans they generated. They also reported substantial improvements in their customer relationships, their engagement with work, and their personal satisfaction. In this article, we'll describe the Wachovia study in a little more detail. Then we'll explain what executives and managers can do to increase and regularly renew work capacity-the approach used by the Energy Project, which builds on, deepens, and extends several core concepts developed by Tony's former partner Jim Loehr in his seminal work with athletes.

Linking Capacity and Performance at Wachovia

Most large organizations invest in developing employees' skills, knowledge, and competence. Very few help build and sustain their capacity-their energy-which is typically taken for granted. In fact, greater capacity makes it possible to get more done in less time at a higher level of engagement and with more sustainability. Our experience at Wachovia bore this out.

In early 2006 we took 106 employees at 12 regional banks in southern New Jersey through a curriculum of four modules, each of which focused on specific strategies for strengthening one of the four main dimensions of energy. We delivered it at one-month intervals to groups of approximately 20 to 25, ranging from senior leaders to lower-level managers. We also assigned each attendee a fellow employee as a source of support between sessions. Using Wachovia's own key performance metrics, we evaluated how the participant group performed compared with a group of employees at similar levels at a nearby set of Wachovia banks who did not go through the training. To create a credible basis for comparison, we looked at year-over-year percentage changes in performance across several metrics.

On a measure called the "Big 3"-revenues from three kinds of loans-the participants showed a year-over-year increase that was 13 percentage points greater than the control group's in the first three months of our study. On revenues from deposits, the participants exceeded the control group's year-over-year gain by 20 percentage points during that same period. The precise gains varied month by month, but with only a handful of exceptions, the participants continued to significantly outperform the control group for a full year after completing the program. Although other variables undoubtedly influenced these outcomes, the participants' superior performance was notable in its consistency. (See the exhibit "How Energy Renewal Programs Boosted Productivity at Wachovia.")

At Wachovia Bank, employees participating in an energy renewal program outperformed a control group of employees, demonstrating significantly greater improvements in year-over-year performance during the first quarter of 2006.

We also asked participants how the program influenced them personally. Sixty-eight percent reported that it had a positive impact on their relationships with clients and customers. Seventy-one percent said that it had a noticeable or substantial positive impact on their productivity and performance. These findings corroborated a raft of anecdotal evidence we've gathered about the effectiveness of this approach among leaders at other large companies such as Ernst & Young, Sony, Deutsche Bank, Nokia, ING Direct, Ford, and MasterCard.

The Body: Physical Energy

Our program begins by focusing on physical energy. It is scarcely news that inadequate nutrition, exercise, sleep, and rest diminish people's basic energy levels, as well as their ability to manage their emotions and focus their attention. Nonetheless, many executives don't find ways to practice consistently healthy behaviors, given all the other demands in their lives.

Before participants in our program begin to explore ways to increase their physical energy, they take an energy audit, which includes four questions in each energy dimension-body, emotions, mind, and spirit. (See the exhibit "Are You Headed for an Energy Crisis?") On average, participants get eight to ten of those 16 questions "wrong," meaning they're doing things such as skipping breakfast, failing to express appreciation to others, struggling to focus on one thing at a time, or spending too little time on activities that give them a sense of purpose. While most participants aren't surprised to learn these behaviors are counterproductive, having them all listed in one place is often uncomfortable, sobering, and galvanizing. The audit highlights employees' greatest energy deficits. Participants also fill out charts designed to raise their awareness about how their exercise, diet, and sleep practices influence their energy levels.

Please check the statements below that are true for you.

Body

__ I don't regularly get at least seven to eight hours of sleep, and I often wake up feeling tired.

__ I frequently skip breakfast, or I settle for something that isn't nutritious.

__ I don't work out enough (meaning cardiovascular training at least three times a week and strength training at least once a week).

__ I don't take regular breaks during the day to truly renew and recharge, or I often eat lunch at my desk, if I eat it at all.

Emotions

__ I frequently find myself feeling irritable, impatient, or anxious at work, especially when work is demanding.

__ I don't have enough time with my family and loved ones, and when I'm with them, I'm not always really with them.

__ I have too little time for the activities that I most deeply enjoy.

__ I don't stop frequently enough to express my appreciation to others or to savor my accomplishments and blessings.

Mind

__ I have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, and I am easily distracted during the day, especially by e-mail.

__ I spend much of my day reacting to immediate crises and demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value and high leverage.

__ I don't take enough time for reflection, strategizing, and creative thinking.

__ I work in the evenings or on weekends, and I almost never take an e-mail-free vacation.

Spirit

__ I don't spend enough time at work doing what I do best and enjoy most.

__ There are significant gaps between what I say is most important to me in my life and how I actually allocate my time and energy.

__ My decisions at work are more often influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of my own purpose.

__ I don't invest enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others or to the world.* * *
How is your overall energy?
Total number of statements checked: __
Guide to scores
0-3: Excellent energy management skills

4-6: Reasonable energy management skills

7-10: Significant energy management deficits

11-16: A full-fledged energy management crisis
What do you need to work on?
Number of checks in each category:

Body __

Mind __

Emotions __

Spirit __
Guide to category scores
0: Excellent energy management skills

1: Strong energy management skills

2: Significant deficits

3: Poor energy management skills

4: A full-fledged energy crisis

The next step is to identify rituals for building and renewing physical energy. When Gary Faro, a vice president at Wachovia, began the program, he was significantly overweight, ate poorly, lacked a regular exercise routine, worked long hours, and typically slept no more than five or six hours a night. That is not an unusual profile among the leaders and managers we see. Over the course of the program, Faro began regular cardiovascular and strength training. He started going to bed at a designated time and sleeping longer. He changed his eating habits from two big meals a day ("Where I usually gorged myself," he says) to smaller meals and light snacks every three hours. The aim was to help him stabilize his glucose levels over the course of the day, avoiding peaks and valleys. He lost 50 pounds in the process, and his energy levels soared. "I used to schedule tough projects for the morning, when I knew that I would be more focused," Faro says. "I don't have to do that anymore because I find that I'm just as focused now at 5 pm as I am at 8 am."

Another key ritual Faro adopted was to take brief but regular breaks at specific intervals throughout the workday-always leaving his desk. The value of such breaks is grounded in our physiology. "Ultradian rhythms" refer to 90- to 120-minute cycles during which our bodies slowly move from a high-energy state into a physiological trough. Toward the end of each cycle, the body begins to crave a period of recovery. The signals include physical restlessness, yawning, hunger, and difficulty concentrating, but many of us ignore them and keep working. The consequence is that our energy reservoir-our remaining capacity-burns down as the day wears on.

Intermittent breaks for renewal, we have found, result in higher and more sustainable performance. The length of renewal is less important than the quality. It is possible to get a great deal of recovery in a short time-as little as several minutes-if it involves a ritual that allows you to disengage from work and truly change channels. That could range from getting up to talk to a colleague about something other than work, to listening to music on an iPod, to walking up and down stairs in an office building. While breaks are countercultural in most organizations and counterintuitive for many high achievers, their value is multifaceted.

Matthew Lang is a managing director for Sony in South Africa. He adopted some of the same rituals that Faro did, including a 20-minute walk in the afternoons. Lang's walk not only gives him a mental and emotional breather and some exercise but also has become the time when he gets his best creative ideas. That's because when he walks he is not actively thinking, which allows the dominant left hemisphere of his brain to give way to the right hemisphere with its greater capacity to see the big picture and make imaginative leaps.

The Emotions: Quality of Energy

When people are able to take more control of their emotions, they can improve the quality of their energy, regardless of the external pressures they're facing. To do this, they first must become more aware of how they feel at various points during the workday and of the impact these emotions have on their effectiveness. Most people realize that they tend to perform best when they're feeling positive energy. What they find surprising is that they're not able to perform well or to lead effectively when they're feeling any other way.

Unfortunately, without intermittent recovery, we're not physiologically capable of sustaining highly positive emotions for long periods. Confronted with relentless demands and unexpected challenges, people tend to slip into negative emotions-the fight-or-flight mode-often multiple times in a day. They become irritable and impatient, or anxious and insecure. Such states of mind drain people's energy and cause friction in their relationships. Fight-or-flight emotions also make it impossible to think clearly, logically, and reflectively. When executives learn to recognize what kinds of events trigger their negative emotions, they gain greater capacity to take control of their reactions.

Essential Background

You probably spend far more time dealing with your employees' problems than you realize.

One simple but powerful ritual for defusing negative emotions is what we call "buying time." Deep abdominal breathing is one way to do that. Exhaling slowly for five or six seconds induces relaxation and recovery, and turns off the fight-or-flight response. When we began working with Fujio Nishida, president of Sony Europe, he had a habit of lighting up a cigarette each time something especially stressful occurred-at least two or three times a day. Otherwise, he didn't smoke. We taught him the breathing exercise as an alternative, and it worked immediately: Nishida found he no longer had the desire for a cigarette. It wasn't the smoking that had given him relief from the stress, we concluded, but the relaxation prompted by the deep inhalation and exhalation.

A powerful ritual that fuels positive emotions is expressing appreciation to others, a practice that seems to be as beneficial to the giver as to the receiver. It can take the form of a handwritten note, an e-mail, a call, or a conversation-and the more detailed and specific, the higher the impact. As with all rituals, setting aside a particular time to do it vastly increases the chances of success. Ben Jenkins, vice chairman and president of the General Bank at Wachovia in Charlotte, North Carolina, built his appreciation ritual into time set aside for mentoring. He began scheduling lunches or dinners regularly with people who worked for him. Previously, the only sit-downs he'd had with his direct reports were to hear monthly reports on their numbers or to give them yearly performance reviews. Now, over meals, he makes it a priority to recognize their accomplishments and also to talk with them about their lives and their aspirations rather than their immediate work responsibilities.

Finally, people can cultivate positive emotions by learning to change thestories they tell themselves about the events in their lives. Often, people in conflict cast themselves in the role of victim, blaming others or external circumstances for their problems. Becoming aware of the difference between the facts in a given situation and the way we interpret those facts can be powerful in itself. It's been a revelation for many of the people we work with to discover they have a choice about how to view a given event and to recognize how powerfully the story they tell influences the emotions they feel. We teach them to tell the most hopeful and personally empowering story possible in any given situation, without denying or minimizing the facts.

The most effective way people can change a story is to view it through any of three new lenses, which are all alternatives to seeing the world from the victim perspective. With the reverse lens, for example, people ask themselves, "What would the other person in this conflict say and in what ways might that be true?" With the long lens they ask, "How will I most likely view this situation in six months?" With the wide lens they ask themselves, "Regardless of the outcome of this issue, how can I grow and learn from it?" Each of these lenses can help people intentionally cultivate more positive emotions.

Nicolas Babin, director of corporate communications for Sony Europe, was the point person for calls from reporters when Sony went through several recalls of its batteries in 2006. Over time he found his work increasingly exhausting and dispiriting. After practicing the lens exercises, he began finding ways to tell himself a more positive and empowering story about his role. "I realized," he explains, "that this was an opportunity for me to build stronger relationships with journalists by being accessible to them and to increase Sony's credibility by being straightforward and honest."

The Mind: Focus of Energy

Many executives view multitasking as a necessity in the face of all the demands they juggle, but it actually undermines productivity. Distractions are costly: A temporary shift in attention from one task to another-stopping to answer an e-mail or take a phone call, for instance-increases the amount of time necessary to finish the primary task by as much as 25%, a phenomenon known as "switching time." It's far more efficient to fully focus for 90 to 120 minutes, take a true break, and then fully focus on the next activity. We refer to these work periods as "ultradian sprints."

Once people see how much they struggle to concentrate, they can create rituals to reduce the relentless interruptions that technology has introduced in their lives. We start out with an exercise that forces them to face the impact of daily distractions. They attempt to complete a complex task and are regularly interrupted-an experience that, people report, ends up feeling much like everyday life.

Further Reading

A full 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities.

Dan Cluna, a vice president at Wachovia, designed two rituals to better focus his attention. The first one is to leave his desk and go into a conference room, away from phones and e-mail, whenever he has a task that requires concentration. He now finishes reports in a third of the time they used to require. Cluna built his second ritual around meetings at branches with the financial specialists who report to him. Previously, he would answer his phone whenever it rang during these meetings. As a consequence, the meetings he scheduled for an hour often stretched to two, and he rarely gave anyone his full attention. Now Cluna lets his phone go to voice mail, so that he can focus completely on the person in front of him. He now answers the accumulated voice-mail messages when he has downtime between meetings.

E&Y's hard-charging Wanner used to answer e-mail constantly throughout the day-whenever he heard a "ping." Then he created a ritual of checking his e-mail just twice a day-at 10:15 am and 2:30 pm. Whereas previously he couldn't keep up with all his messages, he discovered he could clear his in-box each time he opened it-the reward of fully focusing his attention on e-mail for 45 minutes at a time. Wanner has also reset the expectations of all the people he regularly communicates with by e-mail. "I've told them if it's an emergency and they need an instant response, they can call me and I'll always pick up," he says. Nine months later he has yet to receive such a call.

Michael Henke, a senior manager at E&Y, sat his team down at the start of the busy season last winter and told them that at certain points during the day he was going to turn off his Sametime (an in-house instant-message system). The result, he said, was that he would be less available to them for questions. Like Wanner, he told his team to call him if any emergency arose, but they rarely did. He also encouraged the group to take regular breaks throughout the day and to eat more regularly. They finished the busy season under budget and more profitable than other teams that hadn't followed the energy renewal program. "We got the same amount of work done in less time," says Henke. "It made for a win-win."

Another way to mobilize mental energy is to focus systematically on activities that have the most long-term leverage. Unless people intentionally schedule time for more challenging work, they tend not to get to it at all or rush through it at the last minute. Perhaps the most effective focus ritual the executives we work with have adopted is to identify each night the most important challenge for the next day and make it their very first priority when they arrive in the morning. Jean Luc Duquesne, a vice president for Sony Europe in Paris, used to answer his e-mail as soon as he got to the office, just as many people do. He now tries to concentrate the first hour of every day on the most important topic. He finds that he often emerges at 10 am feeling as if he's already had a productive day.

The Human Spirit: Energy of Meaning and Purpose

People tap into the energy of the human spirit when their everyday work and activities are consistent with what they value most and with what gives them a sense of meaning and purpose. If the work they're doing really matters to them, they typically feel more positive energy, focus better, and demonstrate greater perseverance. Regrettably, the high demands and fast pace of corporate life don't leave much time to pay attention to these issues, and many people don't even recognize meaning and purpose as potential sources of energy. Indeed, if we tried to begin our program by focusing on the human spirit, it would likely have minimal impact. Only when participants have experienced the value of the rituals they establish in the other dimensions do they start to see that being attentive to their own deeper needs dramatically influences their effectiveness and satisfaction at work.

In Practice

Time Management Feature

A few deceptively simple changes can make an executive team more efficient and effective.

For E&Y partner Jonathan Anspacher, simply having the opportunity to ask himself a series of questions about what really mattered to him was both illuminating and energizing. "I think it's important to be a little introspective and say, 'What do you want to be remembered for?'" he told us. "You don't want to be remembered as the crazy partner who worked these long hours and had his people be miserable. When my kids call me and ask, 'Can you come to my band concert?' I want to say, 'Yes, I'll be there and I'll be in the front row.' I don't want to be the father that comes in and sits in the back and is on his Blackberry and has to step out to take a phone call."

To access the energy of the human spirit, people need to clarify priorities and establish accompanying rituals in three categories: doing what they do best and enjoy most at work; consciously allocating time and energy to the areas of their lives-work, family, health, service to others-they deem most important; and living their core values in their daily behaviors.

When you're attempting to discover what you do best and what you enjoy most, it's important to realize that these two things aren't necessarily mutually inclusive. You may get lots of positive feedback about something you're very good at but not truly enjoy it. Conversely, you can love doing something but have no gift for it, so that achieving success requires much more energy than it makes sense to invest.

To help program participants discover their areas of strength, we ask them to recall at least two work experiences in the past several months during which they found themselves in their "sweet spot"-feeling effective, effortlessly absorbed, inspired, and fulfilled. Then we have them deconstruct those experiences to understand precisely what energized them so positively and what specific talents they were drawing on. If leading strategy feels like a sweet spot, for example, is it being in charge that's most invigorating or participating in a creative endeavor? Or is it using a skill that comes to you easily and so feels good to exercise? Finally, we have people establish a ritual that will encourage them to do more of exactly that kind of activity at work.

A senior leader we worked with realized that one of the activities he least liked was reading and summarizing detailed sales reports, whereas one of his favorites was brainstorming new strategies. The leader found a direct report who loved immersing himself in numbers and delegated the sales report task to him-happily settling for brief oral summaries from him each day. The leader also began scheduling a free-form 90-minute strategy session every other week with the most creative people in his group.

In the second category, devoting time and energy to what's important to you, there is often a similar divide between what people say is important and what they actually do. Rituals can help close this gap. When Jean Luc Duquesne, the Sony Europe vice president, thought hard about his personal priorities, he realized that spending time with his family was what mattered most to him, but it often got squeezed out of his day. So he instituted a ritual in which he switches off for at least three hours every evening when he gets home, so he can focus on his family. "I'm still not an expert on PlayStation," he told us, "but according to my youngest son, I'm learning and I'm a good student." Steve Wanner, who used to talk on the cell phone all the way to his front door on his commute home, has chosen a specific spot 20 minutes from his house where he ends whatever call he's on and puts away the phone. He spends the rest of his commute relaxing so that when he does arrive home, he's less preoccupied with work and more available to his wife and children.

The third category, practicing your core values in your everyday behavior, is a challenge for many as well. Most people are living at such a furious pace that they rarely stop to ask themselves what they stand for and who they want to be. As a consequence, they let external demands dictate their actions.

We don't suggest that people explicitly define their values, because the results are usually too predictable. Instead, we seek to uncover them, in part by asking questions that are inadvertently revealing, such as, "What are the qualities that you find most off-putting when you see them in others?" By describing what they can't stand, people unintentionally divulge what they stand for. If you are very offended by stinginess, for example, generosity is probably one of your key values. If you are especially put off by rudeness in others, it's likely that consideration is a high value for you. As in the other categories, establishing rituals can help bridge the gap between the values you aspire to and how you currently behave. If you discover that consideration is a key value, but you are perpetually late for meetings, the ritual might be to end the meetings you run five minutes earlier than usual and intentionally show up five minutes early for the meeting that follows.

Addressing these three categories helps people go a long way toward achieving a greater sense of alignment, satisfaction, and well-being in their lives on and off the job. Those feelings are a source of positive energy in their own right and reinforce people's desire to persist at rituals in other energy dimensions as well.

This new way of working takes hold only to the degree that organizations support their people in adopting new behaviors. We have learned, sometimes painfully, that not all executives and companies are prepared to embrace the notion that personal renewal for employees will lead to better and more sustainable performance. To succeed, renewal efforts need solid support and commitment from senior management, beginning with the key decision maker.

At Wachovia, Susanne Svizeny, the president of the region in which we conducted our study, was the primary cheerleader for the program. She embraced the principles in her own life and made a series of personal changes, including a visible commitment to building more regular renewal rituals into her work life. Next, she took it upon herself to foster the excitement and commitment of her leadership team. Finally, she regularly reached out by e-mail to all participants in the project to encourage them in their rituals and seek their feedback. It was clear to everyone that she took the work seriously. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the results spoke for themselves.

At Sony Europe, several hundred leaders have embraced the principles of energy management. Over the next year, more than 2,000 of their direct reports will go through the energy renewal program. From Fujio Nishida on down, it has become increasingly culturally acceptable at Sony to take intermittent breaks, work out at midday, answer e-mail only at designated times, and even ask colleagues who seem irritable or impatient what stories they're telling themselves.

Organizational support also entails shifts in policies, practices, and cultural messages. A number of firms we worked with have built "renewal rooms" where people can regularly go to relax and refuel. Others offer subsidized gym memberships. In some cases, leaders themselves gather groups of employees for midday workouts. One company instituted a no-meeting zone between 8 and 9 am to ensure that people had at least one hour absolutely free of meetings. At several companies, including Sony, senior leaders collectively agreed to stop checking e-mail during meetings as a way to make the meetings more focused and efficient.

One factor that can get in the way of success is a crisis mentality. The optimal candidates for energy renewal programs are organizations that are feeling enough pain to be eager for new solutions but not so much that they're completely overwhelmed. At one organization where we had the active support of the CEO, the company was under intense pressure to grow rapidly, and the senior team couldn't tear themselves away from their focus on immediate survival-even though taking time out for renewal might have allowed them to be more productive at a more sustainable level.

By contrast, the group at Ernst & Young successfully went through the process at the height of tax season. With the permission of their leaders, they practiced defusing negative emotions by breathing or telling themselves different stories, and alternated highly focused periods of work with renewal breaks. Most people in the group reported that this busy season was the least stressful they'd ever experienced.

The implicit contract between organizations and their employees today is that each will try to get as much from the other as they can, as quickly as possible, and then move on without looking back. We believe that is mutually self-defeating. Both individuals and the organizations they work for end up depleted rather than enriched. Employees feel increasingly beleaguered and burned out. Organizations are forced to settle for employees who are less than fully engaged and to constantly hire and train new people to replace those who choose to leave. We envision a new and explicit contract that benefits all parties: Organizations invest in their people across all dimensions of their lives to help them build and sustain their value. Individuals respond by bringing all their multidimensional energy wholeheartedly to work every day. Both grow in value as a result.

A version of this article appeared in the October 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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Reprint: R0710B As the demands of the workplace keep rising, many people respond by putting in ever longer hours, which inevitably leads to burnout that costs both the organization and the employee. Meanwhile, people take for granted what fuels their capacity to work-their energy.

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I read the article on Educator Well Being, looking at the historical background. This article resonated with me as it had similar threads of thought to another article that I had read, The Teachers Series by S'pore Counselling Centre. In the article we are supposed to read, it is evident that teachers have been affected immensely by the pandemic. Main fears: 1. fear of self-care vs fulfilling the role they are called to do is a big worry for teachers, 2. burnout as a result of double hatting and 3. insufficient help resources for teachers suffering from mental health. The article talks about change being needed at policy making level to look into the mental health of teachers. The article also questions the holistic approach schools take into looking emotional well-being of students. However, when it comes to teachers, this isn't the case.  In our school, it is good that we have the staff welfare comm that looks into the well-being of trs. They take time to hear trs voices on their interests and plan activities to bring trs together to do meaningful activities that are de-stressors. These are all good. However, we need to be more open in having conversations about mental health and not be shy to say that yes, I am going through an issue and I need help. Perhaps, our own Asian culture and historical background should be broken down first to pave way to addressing mental health issues. 

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I read the article on Educator Well Being, looking at the historical background. This article resonated with me as it had similar threads of thought to another article that I had read, The Teachers Series by S'pore Counselling Centre. In the article we are supposed to read, it is evident that teachers have been affected immensely by the pandemic. Main fears: 1. fear of self-care vs fulfilling the role they are called to do is a big worry for teachers, 2. burnout as a result of double hatting and 3. insufficient help resources for teachers suffering from mental health. The article talks about change being needed at policy making level to look into the mental health of teachers. The article also questions the holistic approach schools take into looking emotional well-being of students. However, when it comes to teachers, this isn't the case.  In our school, it is good that we have the staff welfare comm that looks into the well-being of trs. They take time to hear trs voices on their interests and plan activities to bring trs together to do meaningful activities that are de-stressors. These are all good. However, we need to be more open in having conversations about mental health and not be shy to say that yes, I am going through an issue and I need help. Perhaps, our own Asian culture and historical background should be broken down first to pave way to addressing mental health issues. 

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THINK (Article: How to Promote Well Being)

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THINK (Article: How to Promote Well Being)

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The article focuses a lot on how to promote employee and manager wellbeing and how being open about mental health helps more than half of the employees feel motivated and highly likely to recommend their workplaces to other colleagues. While reading the article, I think about how our school has also practiced the strategies stated by the article.

1.     We dedicate a group of teachers to look into the well being of teachers. Surveys are administered to find out the likes and dislikes of the teachers and also to give them a voice in deciding the activities the school should implement to promote well being

2.     Our Principal sends regular emails on positive thinking and strategies that we can adopt to help us relax ourselves. In the emails, he includes a link for teachers to share their thoughts with him. He also invites us to his office for chats on issues he raised in his emails.

3.     During pre covid times, we have a group of teachers who advocate weekly exercise programmes which include group games such as basketball, badminton, soccer, etc.

4.     Our school has a programme called Odyssey @ Riverside where a mentor is matched to a mentee/

5.     Our newest addition by the SWC committee is cup noodles / drinks at the staff lounge to encourage teachers to take lunch break

The actions taken by our school is very much in line with what the article advices.

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Despite the school taking steps to promote wellbeing and activities to enhance staff welfare, we will still have grouses such as the activities do not suit the individual, some staff taking advantage of the ‘free food’ at the staff lounge, rendering the food running out of stock very quickly, staff still do not feel at ease in sharing their thoughts about the school systems.

Why do these group of staff think this way? There are two train of thoughts:
One is the mindset - Staff carry the preconceived idea from their former school to this school and it is a natural reaction to think that all organisations work the same way.

Two is the personality of people – Self entitlement and resistance to change

In my opinion, the initial stage of gathering the buy in from staff to be open, share ideas, get involved in staff bonding activities may seem challenging, but gradually, we will see staff opening up in terms of communication and being more tolerant and understanding to one another as misunderstanding clear up.

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Think (Article: Nef: Well-being at Work)

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Think (Article: Nef: Well-being at Work)

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As I was reading the article, I was thinking about what does it mean by well-being. In our school, staff-well being looks at these aspects 1. Staff Health and Safety, 2. Staff Bonding 3. Staff Welfare 4. Staff Recognition. The article I read provides a literature of well-being at work, what it entails and the benefits of well being.
Well-being at work presents a valuable opportunity to benefit societies by helping individuals feel happy, competent, valued and satisfied in their roles. Evidence shows that in good standards of well-being, employee are more likely to be creative, loyal, productive and provide better customer satisfaction. Since well-being considers people's feeling and function how then can well-being be evaluated. The article shares 3 aspects: hedonic (feelings), endaimonic (sense of purpose and meaning) and evaluative (job satisfaction). Improving well-being at work takes a rounded approach which is more than just engaging employees. This includes maximising personal resource (work-life harmony), organisational structure and providing a positive overall experience at work.

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Bearing those aspects in mind, some things I find puzzling are organisational system and work functions that I didn't previously connect it with staff well-being.
Under organisational systems there are some things that it is beyond the school's control such as job design (fair pay, job security-->Under MOE's perview). However things like management system, providing quality feedback, manager's behaviour providing a safe work evironment are probably things that we can control.

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Interesting ideas that our SWB peer leadership could probably look into would be looking into the management system. Management system is critical to the success of any oraganisation. Some areas would be feedback (are there regular check ins with teacher's and ROs, can teachers give feedback of their ROs like a 360 feedback), managers behaviour (transcational vs transformational managements styles), work functions (i.e. working relations with others).

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Choose one article to read and reflect on the following questions:
1. Think - What are your thoughts about what you have read?

2. Puzzle - What questions do you have? OR Based on the thoughts shared (Qn 1), what are some ideas you find puzzling?

3. Explore - Based on "think" or "puzzles" what would be interesting to explore?

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MUST HAVES
1. Click on (+) to add a post under your name
2. Copy and paste the question stems into the title ' Subject', one question per post. So you should have three posts under your name.
3. Add in your sharing for each question in the space below

AMAZING
1. Read through what others have posted.
2. (Add comment) to respond to an existing post with any similarities and/or differences from your post to theirs.

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Something to explore is why would some staff think in certain ways. This is where time has to make way for one-to-one interaction with staff. For work to be meaningful, staff must feel valued and recognised. Rewards is one way. In order to tackle the root of the problem, the culture of the school has to be set right. From the article, a culture of openness is the key. The part on communication and having a forum for teachers to voice out keep surfacing in the article too. We could explore a designated time during CT for staff to have a structured one to one interaction with KPs/SLs on a decided topic (just like how we think of questions and engage our students in our semestral one to one interaction) and a forum where staff spend some time together penning down our thoughts and then during the following CT, these issues can be further discussed. The purpose of this is to hear from the teachers on the ground as some of them have really good ideas on how to improve some systems.