Christchurch Upcoming Programme – Institute of Organisational Psychology NZ

Contacts: John Eatwell, 0274 465 592 john.eatwell@strategichr.co.nz All sessions at Joes Garage Meeting Room Come To 7 Leslie Street Unless Otherwise Specified Please RSVP to John Eatwell before the day of the meeting.
Date 4:00pm Networking, 4:30pm start	Pre-Reading	Topic	Presenter
20 April		Self-care, Resilience and Coping: The Fine Art of Navigating Wellbeing in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.	Aleksandra Gosteva
17 May (Online), 4pm Register Here		Psychology Week – Panel Acts of kindness at work have been found to have benefits for both giver and receiver in both the short and long-term with regards to job satisfaction, reduction in feelings of depression, and sense of competence and autonomy. Those receiving kindness at work are highly likely to pay this forward creating a cumulative, ripple effect. Small acts, simply done have little cost and multiply over time to produce significant work climate benefit including increased collaboration, innovation, and higher productivity. Witnessing acts of kindness towards others, without even directly participating in the act, has benefit on other workers. Being part of a workplace where kindness is evident contributes to the release of Oxytocin and Serotonin that yield both physical (blood pressure and cardiac health) and psychological (feelings of calmness, trust, self esteem and safety) benefit. Being part of a giving culture that includes demonstrations of caring and prosocial behaviour, organsationally-enabled, improves employee affective commitment, just as that which promotes trust and high quality interpersonal relationships enhances learning and adaptability.	Katharina Näswall, Jonathan Black, Megan Jenkins
8 June		Over the last few decades, the field of positive psychology has introduced HR and OD practitioners to new interventions for lifting individual and organisational performance. One approach, while not new, has become increasingly important to building psychologically positive work environments – places where people feel they can perform at their best – is the use of strengths-based development. Strengths-based development assumes that we all have weaknesses but that focusing on what people do best, we have a far better chance of helping people make changes that they are enthusiastic about and that they stick to in the long-term. But what do we know about the effectiveness of this approach and what does it take to build a strengths-based development culture in an organisation? This talk will cover: · A short history of strengths-based development assertions (who’s idea was this?) · Building the business case for strengths-based development (what’s in it for me?) · Laying the foundations for a strengths-based development culture (where do I start?) · Considerations for future strengths-based design (is this the project I’ve been looking for?)	Michelle Shields, MS Organisational Development; PhD Psychology, is a strengths-based HRD/OD practitioner. As principal consultant with Fulcrum Associates Ltd., she uses strengths-based approaches to help teams with strategy formation and culture change. She is an international partner of the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leadership approach employing strengths-based development multi-rater feedback and coaching. She has over thirty-years’ experience as a practitioner in New Zealand and the US and is a Chartered Member of the Human Resource Institute of New Zealand.