Context and Challenge

There are a lot of challenges facing local authorities and Suffolk County Council is no different. There is a pressure to meet demands, reduce services and still invest in growth. The challenge is felt by staff and they are tasked with delivering great outcomes with less money and fewer resources. There is a huge requirement for employees to be resilient if they are to thrive in this demanding and uncertain environment.

The Solution

While we can’t often change our external environment, we can train ourselves to better manage our inner state and build our capacity to thrive in the most difficult circumstances and emerge healthier, happier and stronger. 

In order to do this, it was important to address not only the mental and emotional components of resilience but also physical resilience which aims to build capacity, manage energy and improve staff engagement. 

We worked with the learning and development team to develop a resilience programme that was made up of a series of 1 day and half day workshops that would fully embed the learning and build on the content each time.

The key themes were: 

• Anna to share her experiences and applicable learnings from the high pressure world of sport
• Building resilience
• Thriving under pressure
• Managing stress
• Maximising energy
• The workshops were delivered as part of an integrated learning development programme and was delivered across a variety of departments