🔥Firey Insights from the 2024 Colloquium to Reduce Burnout and Build Resilience ⚒️

The University of Pennsylvania’s Association of Alumnae Colloquia bring together Penn’s most distinguished professors, staff, and alum to talk about important and pressing topics of the times. On Tuesday, November 12, more than 60 participants gathered virtually to get answers to their most pressing questions around the topic: Women Shaping a Better Tomorrow: Increasing Productivity, Reducing Burnout, and Improving Resilience. Moderated by Dr. Halcyon Francis, the panel included Dr. Kandi Wiens, Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, Jane Muir, PhD, Professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing, and The Lenserf Group’s Founder and President, Farnia Fresnel. The panelists had depth of experience in conducting research and initiating programs through academia, healthcare, and corporate settings respectively.

The summary below highlights key takeaways from the discussion and The Lenserf Group (TLG) contributions.

Resilience

Resilience was defined technically to be about recovery, however, the term “resilience” may have negative connotations. Often the onus is on the individual to recover in a highly stressful work environment rather than on fixing the root causes of the stresses in the environment.

Across industries, investment in experiential education and support for decision makers is important and tends to be effective. It can lead to policy changes which can create better work environments. Better environments lead to better employee performance and retention and, ultimately lead to better outcomes, particularly in corporate settings. When discussed in the context of the healthcare industry, better outcomes could translate to not only saving money, but even to saving lives, for caregivers as well as patients.

Furthermore, when individuals are equipped with tactical strategies and techniques to better handle stress, they become more resilient. When coupled with top-down changes, organizations see better outcomes overall.

Lastly, the panel discussed learned resilience. From a corporate perspective, learning from reflection, as well as reframing perspectives on situations, can create opportunities for adapting and moving forward with more resolve and clarity.

Microbreaks

Key strategies focused around taking breaks, and in particular the novel concept of a “microbreak”. Participants reframed their thinking that a break needs to be “earned” after a long period of productivity.

Microbreaks only take a few seconds and they can happen during natural transitions in your day, and, over time, taking the break reduces the feeling of burnout. This was reinforced with a discussion about the healthcare setting where the effective microbreak could be as simple as applying hand sanitizer for a number of seconds between patients to reset.  In addition, we shared that the concept of a microbreak can be most effective “in the moment”, in the midst of stress, and that leaders learning to apply this approach cumulatively during the day can see better outcomes than “crashing at the end of the day.”

The panel also discussed the Pomodoro technique – which focuses on taking strategic breaks after shorter periods of productivity. Researched and tested at length, this is a technique which can dramatically increase productivity over longer periods of time. A powerful analogy was made to pulling back the bow string in archery – where the pulling back can be conceptualized as “re-filling” and it’s that process of re-filling or re-fueling that propels the arrow forward. A lively chat erupted and a participant shared that their company has an unlimited vacation policy. In the years where they took the most vacation, they were the most productive.  This was an interesting “concept in action” moment!

Burnout

The audience was encouraged to take the concept of burnout seriously, as it can be life threatening and often appears suddenly. A key first step is awareness of your own burnout triggers.

Self-care was discussed as an overused term that tends to be limited to “things we do for ourselves”. Attendees were encouraged to expand self-care to include saying “no” as well as the addition of less tangible, but effective techniques like positive self-talk to reinforce our overall wellbeing.

Time Management and Priorities

Individual conflicts with time are often cleared by saying no. The panel also challenged the audience to consider how their priorities align with their actual allocation of time. Does your calendar match what you say is important to you?

By the end of the one hour, there were still unanswered questions. If you are reading this, you, too may have questions. If so, we look forward to discussing strategies for building resilience and working through big changes with you.

Schedule time to talk here: www.calendly.com/lenserfgroup