Mental Health and Smarter Working

Mental health, organisational culture and good strategic outcomes go hand-in-hand

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be debilitating, both mentally and physically. The toll extends beyond the sufferer to those around them. It can also wreak havoc on your career. However, not only are there ways to overcome at least part of the condition, this blog aims to showcase how you can get better whilst also learning Agile ways of working, which might help you develop your professional skills as you work towards your recovery as well.

Agile is a way of working, whereby you do your work in small steps. You also monitor your progress as you go and adjust the way you work. If you see opportunities for improvement, give them a go. If something isn’t working, cut it out and move on to the next thing.

Much like the treatment for PTSD, Agile ways of working can be simple to write down and understand, but to truly master either requires time, patience and commitment – but you’ve got this!

PTSD

What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? How can it affect you, your loved ones and colleagues? How can we make it better?

Delivery

What does ‘Agile’ mean? What is the Scrum framework? Find out about the principles, values and concepts here.

About Me

I am one of millions of people who suffer from PTSD. I also happen to be a Scrum Master, helping people and organisations on their Agile journey.

Latest Posts

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  Minimise Threats and Double Down on Workplace Incentives
  Being a supportive manager gets more results and productivity from colleagues than a stressful, pressuring or micro-managing boss. The Smart Approach Business Agility leader Jonathan Smart points out that the human physiological response to threatening, disruptive or ‘nasty’ behaviour is twice as strong and lasts twice as long as the human response to incentive and reward. Your bodily response to an unpleasant email or sense of burdening pressure from your boss will be twice as much as your response to an equivalent positive experience like good feedback or a reward. Your body is basically better at producing cortisol (the stress… Read more: Minimise Threats and Double Down on Workplace Incentives
• 
  LPM: My Favourite Transformation Metric
  A gut-feel data point that has always served me well, even if you might accuse it of being a little “wooly”
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  Veterans Work Well
  If you’re an employer, veterans are a competitive advantage. If you’re a veteran, you’ve got so much to bring to the table, and a career change will be one of the best highlights of your CV/Resume. I’m not a veteran but I have several veterans in my family and I’ve worked with numerous veterans during my career. Hiring veterans is such a no-brainer to me, so it baffles me to think that misconceived perceptions around veterans can get in the way of their post-military career journey. These are people who have been trained in a high-performing, collaborative and dedicated culture,… Read more: Veterans Work Well
• 
  A Fisherman’s Metaphor for Scrum
  Memory can be a difficult thing to manage if you have PTSD or a variety of other conditions, so any hints and tips to help someone remember things are useful. Metaphors are powerful tools for teaching and remembering. A fishing net metaphor is a useful one I find for conveying the approach and value of the Scrum framework. Like a fishing net, the Scrum framework has many holes or gaps. This gives it flexibility and allows you or the fisherman to move and shape it according to the fish you are trying to catch or the value you are trying… Read more: A Fisherman’s Metaphor for Scrum
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  The Three Amigos
  This is a useful exercise for backlog refinement. It’s an opportunity for team members who can comment on testing, development and customer needs to get together, analyse product backlog items and work out things like dependencies, risks, assumptions and size estimates.