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1st March 2016

Applying the latest research and theory in business psychology to our work

Here at Impact Consulting we take an evidence based approach to people and organisations. In January, some of the team attended the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology Conference to hear about the latest research and theory in business psychology and how we can apply current thinking to our client work.

Sarah Lavin attended ‘Weathering Frights – An empirical investigation into the outcomes and boundary conditions of organisational resilience’ by Rebecca Pieniazek

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The theme of this year’s conference was Resilience in a Changing World. Traditionally resilience has been defined as the ability to ‘bounce back’, however researchers are asking if this is really all resilience is. Definitions from the conference certainly reveal that resilience is far more than just being able to rebound after a setback. Offerings include dealing with uncertainty (Rebecca Pieniazek) and the ability to cope with day to day adversity (Prof. Ivan Robertston).

There are many products and courses available that aim to build personal and individual resilience. Less attention has been given to organisational resilience. Rebecca Pieniazek from Leeds University Business School, gave a talk at the conference about what organisational resilience is and how it is linked to organisational performance. She defined organisational resilience as the organisation’s ability to anticipate threats and to deal with them as they arise. She explained that the concept is about fluid resilience and dealing with uncertainty rather than rigid threats. Read the full article.

At Impact Consulting Psychologists, we are working with organisations to help them adapt to the ever changing environment. Find out more by visiting our services.

Chloe O’Keeffe attended ‘Optimising the performance of the human mind’ by Professor Steven Peters

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In his opening keynote, Prof Steven Peters highlighted how we can optimise the performance of the human mind using his famous ‘Chimp Model’.

Chloe met Peter after his talk and discussed similar research interests such as how the Chimp model has been used in Psychopathy and gender differences research. She even took a selfie with him and he signed her own copy of the Chimp Paradox.

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He describes how it is possible to improve the probability of success and to deal with setbacks on your pathway of success, by understanding how the mind operates, gaining insight into individual’s unique situations. With this understanding, we can acquire skills to improve functioning and enhance quality of life. Prof Peters took the audience through a series of steps of how to use his model of mind management and offered some practical suggestions for implementing these steps. Read the full article.

At Impact Consulting Psychologists, we help individuals, organisations and teams grow and work better by utilising the power of their minds. For information see our services.

Clare Middleton attended For individual and organisational health, resilience must have morals too’, by Julie Wacker and Laura Chard.

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In a presentation of her research, Julie Wacker, discussed the dark side of building resilience and the consequences that this can have.

Julie and her colleague designed a model which maps aspects of resilience on to a spectrum; at one end sits integrity, and the other psychopathy. They suggested that some of the behaviours encouraged in resilience can lead to psychopathic behaviours, rather than the equivalent integrity behaviours. Both types of behaviours often achieve similar results or have a similar goal in mind but the way in which they execute it is different. Read the full article.

Our consultants are qualified in the use of a range of personality assessment tools that can give you insight into how people behave and the dark side of personality at work. Contact us to find out how these can help your organisation.