Stage 1: Relieve — Stabilizing in Survival Mode

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Lauren explores how relief, not productivity, is the key to calming stressed teams and creating lasting organizational change.

In this episode, Lauren explores why many organizations try to build sustainability while running on empty and how real change begins with creating relief. She shares how survival mode shows up through reactivity and disconnection and offers practical ways for leaders and teams to calm their systems, rebuild trust, and create the foundation for lasting change.

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Transcript:

Lauren Spigelmyer: All right, last episode, last two episodes, we introduced a new series and it's about how to create some more sustainable systems with turnover and retention and burnout prevention. We work a lot with organizations that are medical, law enforcement, family court, behavior health, education, nonprofits, all kinds of different organizations that are quite high burnout. And to be honest, That's really almost every organization anymore. Like, we are so stretched thin globally, especially nationally, that every organization really needs staff sustainability programs at this point. So, Jessica and I have this amazing program called the Staff Sustainability Program or the Staff Sustainability System but it is program. There are basically phases that we move organizations through and it's an 18 month long program. And I introduced that by kind of explaining the first or two episodes ago, really about how and why this is a problem and how it's showing up at the leadership level. And in the last episode we did was on micromanagement, how females tend to micromanage a little more, but really where that's coming from and what it means, because there's a lot underneath that. So, for the next three episodes, what I want to do is walk you through our system. And our system is this three Rs system where we talk about in the first three months how to kind of relieve the pressure. And as you saw in some of the episodes that we just did, if you've listened to them, we talk about relief, like what can you do as a leader, female or not, to relieve some of the pressure because you can't make sustainable change until you relieve the pressure. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. And then the next two episodes to follow, we'll talk about the next two hours, which are reset. So, months four to nine are reset. And phase three, months 10 to 18, are and is more about reinforcement. So, you're relieving the pressure where there's actually space to make some changes. And then when the space becomes available to make some changes, you're going to kind of reset what's not working. And then you need to take what you have reset and you've got to reinforce it because if you want to make it sustainable, it has to last. So, all three of those are relieve, reset, reinforce, we'll all work together to get to the long-term outcome, which is, don't be shocked here. So there’s another R, retention. And that is one of the biggest problems we are facing in just about any organization or business today. People are just turning over, like crazy. So, the goal is with the relief first phase, first 90 days is to help not only just leaders, because it's not just leaders, it's frontline staff and leaders and all staff help leaders and staff understand why immediate stress relief is the first critical step. It has to be. And that's why a lot of programs fail. So, you'll see different consulting, business consulting organizations, or people come in and they'll work with leadership. Some people will come and work some of the pressures of the frontline staff. But until you've got something that affects the organization as a whole and addresses and works with the organization as a whole, there will be misunderstandings between the two parts or multiple parts, because it could be lots of different layers of leadership and tiers of people. So, this is the first and most critical step, if you cannot get to relief first, you are going to be trying to build sustainability out of an unstable foundation.

Lauren Spigelmyer: So, we're gonna talk about some practical ways to create some breathing room for the team to be able to access this deeper systemic change, the sustainable change. Think about this, like just imagine for a second, your entire team, whether it's a sub team in the organization or it's a larger team, they're exhausted. and you're your leader, your inbox is up or flowing. And it feels like everybody in the entire organization or at least in your subsector is constantly on edge. Everyone's tense and defensive and kind of getting a little snippy and tones are changing. And you can feel that people are overburdened. You can feel that they're burning out. And you try some different initiatives, some wellness things, some self-care things to try and kind of help alleviate some of that. But if the system itself is on fire, none of those things are going to stick because before you can kind of reset and then recover from when you have had to reset and then rebuild from it, you have to relieve the pressure. You have to start with that. Even biologically. We will get into this a little bit today, but when people are in a state of survival or an organization is in a state of survival, they're acting from the parts of their emotional brain and their emotional parts of the brain are not radical, radical, rational or logical, do that all the time. They are not rational. They are not logical. That's your thinking brain. That's your prefrontal cortex. So, they're acting out of a place of kind of emotion and safety. And that's a very biological response, very normal, but we have to relieve. Relieve will get people back into their thinking brain and then people can communicate better and they can solve problems and they can use creative energy and they can think freely and things go a lot better. when we do some relief work to be able to access a thinking brain. If not, you are just trying to work out of that emotional brain. It's not a great place to work out of.

Lauren Spigelmyer: So, number one, we must first step into awareness that we need to relieve something. Most organizations are not even aware that they are in survival mode. And a lot of them are maybe like high functioning survival, still survival mode. So, we have to recognize where we are at on a scale. That's why Jessica and I built out the Five Ives continuum to help individuals and organizations determine where they are on the scale of the different Ives and are you in Survival? Okay, so one of ways to do this is to look for system red flags. Some of these are, you're gonna be like, oh, I feel called out or like, that is my organization. Don't look to anyone around you, just focus on what I'm saying. If you're at work listening to this, definitely don't like look around at certain people. Short tempers, snappy communication. It's one of the first things I noticed. Someone could be having a bad day. That could absolutely be true. But if multiple people seem to have snappy communication or their tone is really heightened, that's something I will take note of. That would be like, that's a little bit of a sign of survival state of the organization. Reactive decisions. So, that just means abruptly shifting things. And depending on what field you're in, like I worked in ed tech for a while and that shifts, I feel like every moment, but that's a very nervous system, just regulating job. So, we have to mitigate the effects of being in a field where things just do change rapidly. Otherwise, everyone will always be stuck in survival. And that's probably a part of a little bit of working in the tech businesses. Like you just sign up for being in survival state more often than not. It could also be when you are shifting things or making this or even just changing things that you've already put in place, it really creates a lot of confusion and that puts people in survival state. Disengagement, people are withdrawing, they're avoiding meetings, they're not showing up, they're not attending, they seem to not care, absenteeism, all those things. Conflict really starts to spike and that goes back to the conversation we just had about if you're in your emotional brain, not in your thinking brain because you're so worn down because you're in survival state. Of course conflict is gonna spike because you're acting from an emotional plane. So small irritations blow up everyone because their bandwidth is so small or so low or so thin. That's a given. That one's pretty obvious. Shows pretty quickly. I would say even like tunnel vision like problem solving. So, when teams get stuck on immediate fires and they can't see long-term potentials, because that makes sense. Like you're again, you're stuck in the emotional brain. You need your prefrontal cortex to think long-term. You're not able to think long-term because you're so stuck in the fire that you're in right now. So, the solutions aren't necessarily good or long lasting. Micromanagement creeping in. We just had a whole episode on that. An out of fear, leaders tighten the grasp, and that really just amplifies tension. Way worse. just, oh man, that one's... I see that one everywhere. Even in a healthy organization, I see that one. Inconsistent follow through. I mean, there are time constraints here, of course, but if your culture and your organization is running from a place that's not in survival, then the time constraints aren't as much of a problem. You're able to consistently follow through or you find microsystems or micro practices or ways to be able to consistently follow through. Heightened sensitivity to feedback. This is for you, leaders. Also, mean, it's definitely, we give feedback to people that we are serving and we give people that are working for and with us, but we have to, as leaders, be inviting of feedback as well and be inviting in a way that we're not going to get defensive or we can't handle the criticism. Some of it may be true, some of it may not be, and some of it, all of it could be true, but when you... are very sensitive to the feedback, it feels like an unsafe place to come to share the feedback. But the feedback could be non-threatening and someone, it could be like a small gentle suggestion, but if the individual or the organization is in survival state, that little tiny suggestion could feel like a massive threat or could feel very personal, even if it's not meant to be. It's just screaming dysregulation. You'll see a reduction in creativity. and initiative as well. Like staff will stop throwing out new ideas. They won't have the capacity to come up with new ideas. They definitely won't volunteer to take things on. In fact, you have to like volun-told, volun-tell, volun-tell people. Because everyone's just trying to conserve their energy because they have very little of it. You'll see more signs of like physical stress too, like on individuals as an organization as well, like, individuals might complain that they're sick more often or take off work more often because they're sick or people will complain about headaches or migraines or you'll just see the physical exhaustion on teams. Again, we all have things going on in our personal lives that could definitely impact this. So, people could be exhausted from their own lives, but if it's across an organization, you're seeing lots of people, it's maybe more of an organizational problem. Silence in meetings. If you haven't allowed feedback without becoming defensive, people are going to stop contributing and they're... not going to freely share their opinion because they feel unsafe or they just don't have the energy to speak up and challenge. And we want that in organizations. The best things I feel come from creative problem solving, from a little bit of debate and just collaborative efforts. We will also over-rely on more immediate quick fixes and they aren't necessarily the fixes that are long lasting. We’re just looking for something immediate and fast. So, we use these band-aid solutions instead of really taking the time to thoughtfully plan out a longer-term solution that will be more sustainable and long lasting. So, the impact of something, and this is not an encompassing list, but those are the ones I feel like I do see that most often when I'm walking into an organization and I'm noticing the dysfunction. The impact is the team doesn't collaborate. There's no cohesion and people start to turn against each other. And that means mistakes increase and creativity drops and problem-solving plummets, and the nervous system becomes stuck or even the organizational nervous system becomes stuck in that fight flight stage, the survival stage. And people begin to lose access to reasoning, to problem solving, to empathy, to compassion, to grace. So, you can understand how when those things go away or become limited, things don't usually go as well. I think about like a good example of this is like a classroom, maybe like a classroom assistant is reacting really defensively or a teacher even when a child really pushes the boundaries. Like I think about like a teen snapping back or talking back in like a middle or high school classroom. And it doesn't necessarily mean that someone is bad at their job if they're snapping back. Yes, it's not the most, uh, appropriate response, but because their nervous system is overloaded and they are responding from a place in their brain that is not rational and logical and emotionally regulated and the team is in constant crisis mode, the response is not good. And again, it's not necessarily the person's not a good person or not a good employee or not a good, in this situation, like teacher or assistant. It's not even that they may not have the tools, but it might not even be that they don't have the tools. It's just that they are so drained that the response is reactionary instead of a more rational, thought out, intentional response. Okay, so those are some of the ways that we can recognize that we are in survival mode.

Lauren Spigelmyer: Number two is just talking about when leadership is in crisis. Because if the organization as a whole is in survival, it's probably pretty likely that it's not just the frontline staff that are in crisis mode and it's probably leadership are too. And the thing is when you as a leader begin to recognize this and you begin to do things to regulate yourself more and regulate the leadership level more, that regulation co-regulates down to frontline staff. So, think about that, like children in a home. Like if you have a crazy chaotic family system, of course the kids are gonna be crazy and chaotic because the leadership in the home, the people that are... being looked up to, the guides, the gurus, they're chaos. So, the kids are going to mirror their chaos. It's the same in all tiers of organizational wellness. If the leadership level is in chaos, even on a subconscious level, even if the frontline staff doesn't even know that, they feel it subconsciously. The subconscious brain can read through all that BS trying to hide it. So, we need to, as leaders, model compresence, communicate explicitly clearly with not over explaining because that's another form of micromanaging and prioritizing safety in all forms, not just physical, psychological too, over productivity. So, what are some things that a leader could do if there is some dysregulation and dysfunction at that level? Model compresence. That's the first one. So, your tone matters. Your body language matters. And those two little nuanced things alone can either escalate the situation or begin to bring it back down into equilibrium. I mean, I think about admitting mistakes or like admitting something is challenging. Like I might say something like, wow, this is a really hard moment and we're going to, we're going to talk through it together. So, let's sit down, let's have a conversation. And that immediately is like, this is not good, but I'm on your team. And it immediately sends a cue of safety. So that's a way of modeling calm presence. Communicating clearly, keeping it really simple, keeping the tone neutral, but being clear. I feel like there's so much lack of clarity and there's so much over explaining that it becomes really muddled and unclear. So… confusion feels really stressful. Keep it to as few words as possible. The less words that you use, the less someone has to process. Every word you use is a word somebody has to process. It's all those words together to form the thought. And then the thought has to be dissected uh in the brain and kind of unwrapped and then understood. And then action has to go into place. It's how the brain functions and how information comes in. So, we should keep it extremely short so there's less to process, less to unwrap. And then if there's anything that's really like a key... detail or feels really necessary, repeat it. And maybe ask them to, if they are clear and if not, don't leave them feeling unclear. Prioritize safety cues over productivity. Meaning before worrying about data points or deadlines or anything that's like productivity based, we must first send the message that your wellbeing matters most and more than how much we output today. And that may seem like, well, we gotta get the job done. Like, what are you saying Lauren? Like, this doesn't even make sense. People have to work. Yes, but when people have to work in their own dysregulated state and we don't recognize them as a human first, they're trying to work against their humanness. And it's just exhausting all resources versus if we see them and we say it and we kind of co-regulate with them, their body can come back down to equilibrium. They can begin to access their thinking brain and they're gonna be a lot more productive anyhow. Or we can just power through it and take a lot longer to get to a crappy result. Just say it really bluntly. Being the stress that's going on without amplifying it. So, we ignore the elephant in the room or we don't even acknowledge the tension that's going on. Like, I might start a meeting or start something with like, well, I'm certainly feeling stressed, stretched or stressed today. Or, you know, I can sense that we're all feeling really stressed today or I can sense that we're all feeling really stretched today. Then we pivot to reassurance or next steps, whatever is needed. Naming the thing that's uncomfortable is what reduces its power. If we don't and we just continue to hide from it, it just gains more power until it becomes a huge beast. So just name it, get it out. Also, set goals that are realistic and short-term achievable targets. There's one thing to have a big lofty goal. But if we don't have like short-term little practices to get there, one, we're probably not going to achieve it because we need to be broken down. But two, those short-term, like highly achievable little goals give us a little boost of dopamine that we need to keep going to get to the larger target. And when we break things into little tiny actionable steps, not only does it feel good to accomplish them, but they're more doable. And your team will feel this sense of satisfaction and gratification and control and all of those things are really good for the nervous system. Also, do this often, invite shared problem solving. I don't know why leaders feel like all the time they have to come up with their own solutions. Like, you have a team full of beautiful minds. You hired these people, maybe you didn't, but if you did hire them, you hired them. Invite them to help you solve the problem. Like, I love utilizing people, AI to solve problems because I don't, I recognize, I don't have all the answers and I might have an answer, but I'm gonna have the best answer. So collaboratively, probably likely, I'm gonna come up with a much better answer. Even asking people about organizational things, like how to improve. Again, even as a leader, I don't have all the answers. Sometimes people just have this natural nagrability or they see things differently. That's one of the things I'm really good at. As an individual, my human design type is a reflector. I am really good at reflecting back to people things, not even consciously, it's just a gift and a curse. But I can reflect back to people, reflect. back to people things they're doing. And part of that reflection is being able to really easily see where things are breaking down. Like I have, again, gifts and curse, but I can look at systems, can look at like areas, like physical spaces, places of living, cities, all these things. I can look at it I can see the problems and I can like start to see solutions. Again, it's just like, I can reflect where the weaknesses are. And because of that, I'm really good at problem solving. And for most of my career, my leadership has never taken advantage of that because they have never invited problem solving. They've always wanted to look like they were in power and control. And it wasn't even that they wanted to look powerful. They cared about power. They just didn't want to look like they couldn't handle it themselves. Like it's a leadership thing. It's a… no, it's an everyone thing because if you don't solve the problem well, it impacts everyone. So, you could ask something like What's one thing we could drop or simplify this week? Do you have any ideas for things that we might be able to drop or simplify this week? Giving staff a voice and an option to join the problem-solving party tells them that you're in partnership with them and they care about them and you want to hear what they have to say. I feel like that is a huge one. Also, model healthy boundaries. This is harder for women than it is for men. And that goes back to the same reasons that micromanagement is more common for women than men. So, if you didn't listen to the last episode, probably a good one to go back to. But healthy boundaries. Demonstrate that it's okay to take a step back. Demonstrate that sometimes it's okay to change a deadline. It's okay to log off. It's okay to take breaks. It's okay to do these different things and encouraging others to do the same. mean, I remember the last organization I worked with, there was a woman I really loved and she was in a leadership position and she was struggling with some health issues. And there was another one that was struggling with some family system issues. And these were big issues that people like around death and personal things that could result in life lost. And these people just kept coming back to work and showing up to work. And I don't think that was applaudable. I don’t think that's a word, but when your family system needs you, when your health needs you, when something tragic has happened. We need to have systems in place where people can step in and support those positions so those people can fully step away. Like you're doing no one justice, not even yourself, when you're like half here, half there. When things happen in our personal lives, we need to demonstrate and show that we have boundaries around things that are not okay, things that are happening that we need to go take care of. Like, I really feel strongly about that. Okay, so if I were going to take all of that and it in like an actionable step, I would say... Maybe where there's tension in the organization, like before a meeting or before giving feedback or in high stress moment, just take a 60 second pause. Like, literally put a sticky note where you know this is going to happen so you see it, you remind yourself to do it because you'll forget to do it. Your brain isn't trained to do it. It's not a normal habit for you. Before you respond to react to an email, before you respond to react to feedback, before you respond to react to a fire, take 60 seconds and just pause and breathe. That way you respond from a place of regulation and not reaction.

Lauren Spigelmyer: Okay, let's talk real quickly about some revive. ah Well, let's go first with relive, or relive, not relive. I need more coffee. Relive, let's go with some strategies that help us to Revive by relieving the pressure. Just a few micro things that will make massive differences. Number one. Do tiny little nervous system resets. What's a nervous system reset? It's something that tell your nervous system to like come out of that heightened state or come out of that dissociative state and back into equilibrium. So, like 30 seconds of just big, calm, deep breaths. I know it sounds really simple, but it is that simple. You can go outside and take a big dose of fresh air. Let the sun hit your face. Let the cold hit your face, depending on what time of year it is and where you live. Even humor of any sense could, you know... really regulate you. Humor, laughter really, it discharges the stress hormones. Like, a lot of the nervous system works in opposite. So if you're like tense and really tight, really defensive, what's going to bring you out of that? Slowing down, feeling the sun, breath work. Yes. Something funny. Yes. Even something that kind of shocks you in a healthy way, like cold, cold water on your face or cold water on your hands. Also, try to reduce low value tasks, at least just temporarily. Like, is there anything that's on someone's plate that can wait a day, a couple days, a week? Like, I have a to-do list. I have it right in front of me. I look at it all the time. I'm like, okay, I gotta get this done. I gotta get this done. Like, actually, it's Sunday. Like, that can wait until Wednesday. Like, just chill, Lauren. Just reduce this amount of tasks that you think you need to get done and just take a break. Just pause. Pause right now and create a permission slip for yourself, for your staff, or for me, for myself to delay non-critical tasks. Not everything needs to be done right now. But I feel like when I'm sensing the need for control, it all has to be done right now, which tells me my nervous system is dysregulated. Also, creating micro rituals, micro routines that stabilize connection. So like a 30 to 60 to 90 to 120 second check in at the beginning of T models. Gratitude rounds. I think some of these things, and you have to explain kind of why you're doing this because people will be like, oh my gosh, this is so stupid. Why are we doing this? As long as it's brief, would say like a minute, max two, do not go over two minutes, because then it is wasting people's time. Keep it super, super, super short, but something that just kind of changes the emotional state before the meeting starts. Gratitude, emotional check-in, breath work, song, funny meme, uplifting story, mood shift of any sort, just anything at all to reset the emotional state. Also, just... more safety gestures, like psychological safety gestures, and ones that are more visible. This goes into like similar to the one I shared a little bit ago where leaders acknowledge like the tension or the stress in the room. Leaders could also acknowledge the mistakes they've made. I've had to get really good at this and it was hard to do because I was always embarrassed by my mistakes. I didn't want to admit them not because I was too proud or because my ego because I was just so mortified. But I could say like, wow, I missed that. and I own missing it or wow, I missed that deadline and I own, you know, that was on me. So just being really honest and showing them that like, it's okay to make mistakes and I give myself grace for making those mistakes. I might even start a meeting or start a day or start a week or whatever it is where I as a leader am saying like, I'm feeling really stretched or stressed this week and I'm gonna ask you all for a little bit of extra patience. I'm just letting you know, like there's some stuff going on and I just need a little bit of extra patience this week. And then also just publicly affirming accolades, honoring staff as who they are and human things that they're doing and like ways of showing up that they have showed up, not just the outcomes they have produced. So, I really struggle with some organizations that use metrics to show how staff are doing, like rating scales or feedback surveys. That can be one form that really shouldn't be the only form because it's all outcome based. You produced, produced, produced, produced, produced. Here's the outcome of your production. But what about you as a human being? What about all the nuanced things that you do that make you so good at your job? Like, don't forget those things because the outcomes, no one necessarily even gets very excited about that. It just doesn't feel good to always be applauded for my outcomes. I feel as good to be applauded for my habits and the way I show up in the world. It would be really helpful too, I think, to create some pressure release space, maybe a meditation room, maybe not. But just a break room or a calming space in the room where there's like calming visuals or sensory things that people can use or reduce sensory. You lot of co-working spaces right now are creating these little meditation rooms where they're just like, the lights are calmer or there's like sensory items they can access or like massage tools, like a massage gun or like a massage chair. Like those things all help to just alleviate a little bit of the pressure that's going on. I would say encouraging micro breaks as well, like scheduling them, whether it's a whole organization or having people schedule them, like 60 seconds, just a quick little stretch, walk around the room, whatever it is, just something to discharge the stressful energy. Like I have this, I do this all the time when I'm speaking, I try and do it like every 30 minutes, definitely every hour. Like whether it's in person or online, I'm like, get up, move away from your computer, walk around, go outside, jump up and down, touch your toes, doesn't matter, spin around, but move, move your body. Just quick break- 30 seconds, 60 seconds max. Think about too, like is there anything else that you could keep at the desk or keep, you know, again, in like a calming space or just like normalize around like sensory or grounding tools that aren't necessarily contained in one space, but just like throughout the office or encouraged to be used at home or even gifted to people to use at home. So, it could be something to some of like a calming playlist, stress balls, diffusers with, with, be mindful of sense, like some sense will really irritate people and make sure they're really clean sense, because artificial ones are really going to irritate people. Maybe that's not the best one, but it's one. Just something that will help people, like they'll see it and they'll be like, oh, I'm going to use that. Like I keep my yoga mat out. I don't practice a lot of yoga, but I do just do a couple of stretches on it. And then when I see it on the floor, I'm like, oh, I got to use that. So, I created the visual to remind me to take a little bit of a break and ground down a bit. You could even, this one maybe applies to some settings, not to others, and you'd have to adapt it for certain types of settings, but sometimes like check-in system. Like in school, they do like the stoplight, like I'm in the green or I'm in the yellow, I'm in the red. Like, green means I'm good to go. Yellow means I'm like feeling a little stretched thin. Red means I'm like at my limit. Like, is there a way to normalize that type of check-in that's not so like visual in front of the group auditory, I mean, it's visual cause I'm stating this, but like, is there a way to do that? That's less. where others don't see each other's states or how they can share this information without like saying it directly, it normalizes it like we might need help and kind of gives leaders a quick pulse check. Like, you can scan and see or learn or you know, whatever it is, however you decide to use a check-in system to gauge where everyone's at. And it's really good to reset everyone or get the emotional state right if you want people to be productive and stay on task and do the things you want them to do. So, pick one tool, try it the next 24 hours. Just notice if anything different happens for you, you're probably gonna need to put a sticky note up. Like one of the habits I'm implementing is I really wanted to adopt more prayer. I'm a religious person and I wanna do it every time I touch my steering wheel. For months I've been trying to do this. I'm like, oh, I forgot again. Oh, I keep forgetting. Like friends are reminding me, you pray and touch your steering wheel? No, I'm failing, I'm utterly failing. I know that I'm here telling you to do the thing that I didn't even do. I put a sticky note up about a week ago and I'm like, oh, hey, I'm remembering to pray every single time I touch my steering wheel because there's a giant sticky note right off to the right of my steering wheel that has the giant letters P-R-A-Y put on it. If you want to set a new habit, you're going to forget to do it. So, definitely put a reminder in your place.

Lauren Spigelmyer: Okay. let's talk about transitions to the next stage because now we have gone through like recognize it awareness, some things we can do as leaders, some micro things that we can put in place across the organization. So we started to, we started to begin to relieve the pressure. And now we're going to go into the next phase, not today, but the next episode-Reset. So, you've alleviated some of the pressure, the emotional energy is coming down, the tone is changing, the energetic feeling is changing. can feel it's less tense more often. But relieving that pressure is not the end. Some us are like, oh, I'm satisfied with that. I've done it. We feel good. This is great. This is enough. It's the pause. Relieving the pressure is the pause. It is not the end goal. It's the pause that then allows us to reset and reinforce for rebuilding. uh Relieving the pressure is not the fix. It creates the breathing room necessary to get to the root cause of what put us there in the first place or what keeps putting us there and to make sustainable change. We can like that there until we relieve the pressure and relieving the pressure is not the final step. It's just the beginning. Once the system is downshifted into more of a neutralized state, then we can work on systemic stressors. We can introduce preventative skill building, boundaries, culture change, all the things we're gonna talk about in the Reset stage. You should also know that sometimes when you do the Relieve work, you might have to keep going back to it. It might need to be repeated before rest, rest. You will be resting during that state before resetting really takes hold. Like you might go into reset and be like, we're not ready for this. We gotta go back to relief. Okay. Back into reset. We got a little bit further along this time, but no, we got to go back and relieve until you get the relieve foundation stabilized and then you'll know when you're in the reset that you're like, okay, there's space not to do this. Like we are for sure in reset. We have the space to do it. We can create this sustainable change. actionable takeaway from today's session. I really love the prompt What moment, because Jessica and I talk a lot about moments, moments and how they make meaning and how that impacts a lot of things in the organizational whole. What was a moment this week that made you feel supported or overwhelmed? It could be like a little survey. It could be just open question. could be like a literally put the sticky note on the door as you walk out at the end of the day or end of the week. That is one my favorite things to ask people, like moments. Give me a little moment. Give me a little happening from this week. Good, bad. Good, bad, or ugly. Put in the energy and the work and the time to stabilize now so you can reset with clarity later. That's your mantra. Because what happens is everyone tries to go right into stabilization and you cannot go into stabilization until you get the nervous system culture of the organization addressed first. All right, that takes me to just a brief mention here of our Staff Sustainability System that we built works for really any single organization that ever would possibly exist. But we definitely are trying to target and work with people who organizations that have higher turnover burnout, they want to prevent burnout, they want to retain staff. So, if you want to learn more about the Staff Sustainability System that we have created. and how it might support the work that you're doing, hop onto fiveives.com, F-I-V-E-I-V-E-S, and on our services page, it's the very first link at the top of the services page that says, staff sustainability system. And if you're looking for more support, like if you're in education, we got a course one, in particular, not courses. We do have courses, but there's one that really works on kind of getting you the root of what's burning teachers out and behavior supports for students and teaching teachers how to respond to their own nervous systems and how to reset themselves and how to work with and around big behaviors of students. Even if those behaviors are more like normalized things like anxiety and depression. So, you can learn more about that on our website as well. And that is in partnership with University of Pennsylvania. So, you can get 4.5 graduate level credits by moving through that course with us during a semester. Next one is coming up in January. Until next episode, I'm Lauren Spigelmyer and thank you for joining me.


Categories: : Regulation Strategies

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