I had the opportunity to present our latest King’s College London six-month study on how to create thriving, high-performing teams at the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology conference in Helsinki, Finland.
This timing feels especially relevant as ‘World Wellbeing Week’ comes to an end this week.
And it feels increasingly important when Gallup’s latest report shows that nearly one in four people worldwide felt very or fairly lonely. That was reported in 2023, so I imagine the picture is unlikely to have improved.
A clear message from my own research is that leaders and teams need to become more intentional social designers. By that, I don’t mean adding more team socials, more away days, or another “quick check-in” to an already busy diary.
I mean designing the everyday conditions that help people feel safe to speak up, connected to each other, clear on how they work together, and able to do impactful work without being constantly interrupted.
Because one of the paradoxes we see in the hybrid team research is that people often report being more connected than ever in terms of meetings, messages and digital touchpoints, but not feeling more connected in the ways that matter.
They can be in contact all day, yet still feel unseen, unsupported or slightly outside of the real rhythm of the team.
Across our research and work with teams every week, psychological safety consistently emerges as a key differentiator of team performance over time.
By contrast, ‘feeling disconnected’ and experiencing ‘connection overload’ are clear inhibitors, not only of performance, but also of wellbeing.
Connection overload turns the typical working day into “time confetti”: lots of tiny pieces of attention scattered everywhere. And, as we all know, confetti is only fun when there’s actually a party.
This was reinforced in Professor Jari Hakanen’s brilliant keynote, where he spoke about work loneliness as a growing concern, and the need for more hope and social courage in our workplaces.
That really resonated. Because wellbeing is not the soft side of performance.
It is one of the conditions that makes performance possible.
So as World Wellbeing Week comes to an end, perhaps the more personal question is:
What is one small act of social courage you could take in the next week to help someone feel safer, more connected, or more hopeful at work?
By Cass Coulston