Psychology at Work,
Empowering Performance

Successful organisations recognise the need to make the most of their best asset, their people. Psychology is increasingly being used in the workplace to develop resilient staff who can adapt easily to change, and to help boost productivity through increased motivation and engagement.

Challenge of Change

Psychobabble - Derek's Blog

Flexible Working, Inflexible Attitudes

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

A page in the Business section of recent edition of the Christchurch Press made interesting reading. The lead article was a report on the implications of the new Flexible Work Arrangements Act, which will allow those employees who care …

Management: People, not procedures

Monday, May 12th, 2008

The Challenge of Change offers a unique perspective on resilience training: that resilience is not about keeping your head above water for longer, which would still mean paddling furiously to keep afloat.  Instead, it says that there is no …

Dream Teams

Friday, April 25th, 2008

What is a team?   The usual response runs along the lines of a group of people who work together for a common goal, but teams are often far more nebulous and subtle than this simple definition would suggest. 
Think …

Happiness of New Zealand Survey - Lies, damn lies and statistics?

Monday, March 31st, 2008

In a quote variously attributed to Mark Twain or Benjamin Disraeli, lies are described as lies, damn lies and statistics.  In fact, statistics are just numerical ways of expressing things and have no particular valence, but they can certainly …

Work-life balance?

Monday, March 17th, 2008

To me, the phrase ‘work-life balance’ means that at work you don’t have a life.  Unfortunately this is a widely-held view - work is something you have to do to earn money, but while you’re there you have to …

Defining Stress

Friday, February 15th, 2008

How often do we hear someone say they’re stressed because they’re moving house or getting a new job? They must be stressed, because moving house is ‘way up there on the list’. The list will be one of the …