Can one approach really impact all areas of business performance and wellbeing?

This is a question we've been asking ourselves, and testing out for the last few years - if you're reading this you may well have been part of a programme testing just that.

Because we believe that when people get an understanding of the human operating system and the brilliant capacities built into it, all aspects of their personal and professional life flourish - creating a direct line between wellbeing and performance.

We're delighted to know that the judges at the Business Culture Awards agreed with us. We've borrowed some of their words that encapsulate why they awarded Navigator Tissue the Wellbeing Business Culture Award 2024.

"This is a really interesting and clever concept of focussing on how the human mind works and empowering employees with that knowledge to improve wellbeing, resilience, organisational culture and performance. A different approach that’s showing impressive results and one that I found genuinely innovative and forward thinking."

" It is particularly striking to see the positive impact this entry has had on linking employee potential to business performance; ”in service of what” is sometimes a difficult question to answer for well-being initiatives but Navigator Tissue UK have deftly overcome this challenge and have demonstrated clear value in getting to know themselves better to look after themselves better to drive better business performance."

For the last 3 years we have been working with Navigator Tissue (formerly Accrol) on a company-wide people and culture change and performance enhancing programme. The Powering Our Potential (POP) programme was headed up by HR Director Kathryn Robinson and co-developed by Navigator, Naturally High Performance and Mark Dewhurst (who moved from COO into his own business, Simply Culture, during the project).

The programme had an understanding of the mind at its heart, and created an ecosytem around that understanding in order to keep it alive and relevant for people in every aspect of organisational life, through training, processes, drop-ins and other initiatives.

The effects were surprising, widespread and delightful. On an individual level people reported improvements in their home lives and family relationships, higher wellbeing, lower stress and more confidence.

On the business side; increased turnover and market share, increased productivity, reduced absences, increased compliance, a rise in approval rating with customers were just some of the benefits attributed to the programme*. And beyond this they saw staff initiatives take off and grow, delivering impact and benefit across the board.

It worked by cascading a 'grounding' programme based on our 8-week, 101 programme through the organisation, starting with the senior leadership team, who then became a steering committee for the programme. The process was one of co-creation, allowing POP to emerge in a way that made sense for Navigator, taking on its own language and culture. As it grew we trained a cohort of coaches to help spread the impact and ownership more widely.

We see this award as testament to the way that Kathryn, the Senior Leadership Team, the coaches and the wider team embraced their understanding and helped use it in service of their colleagues and the business.

We love that whole approach was using these principles by everyone, at every stage - in the conception, roll out and day to day living of it and we can't wait to see how it grows and evolves.

*this is a much reduced list of the impact and benefits for this blog post - more to come