PM Society Training: Managing pressure & building resilience

About the course

These two sessions, which will be delivered via Zoom on consecutive days, are rooted in the science of how the body and brain react to pressure and stress and offer a practical and non-fluffy guide to maintaining and building your resilience.  It’s a relevant subject for most people in business today but the need for support in this area has increased given how COVID-19 and working from home is affecting people’s focus and resilience.

The contents of each session are as follows:-

Session 1 (2:15 hours)

Thursday 1st July 10:00 am – 12:15 pm

• How the body and brain respond to pressure and the effect of the stress reaction. How the brain’s survival mechanism produces ‘lower order’ emotional reactions that can be unhelpful in the workplace. The balance between good v unhelpful stress.
• Reframing your thinking. Understanding the ‘thinking traps’ we sometimes fall into and how you can step back, strip out the emotion and re-assess and handle pressurised challenges. A group exercise where delegates analyse a previous situation.

Session 2 (1:45 hours)

Friday 2nd July 10:00 am – 11:45 am

• The science behind, and benefits of mindfulness and breathing techniques, including scientific evidence of how they impact the brain and the stress reaction.  A review of the apps and other tools available.
• Keeping your focus and limiting distraction. Why technology makes us butterfly between tasks and keeps us in a state of ‘continuous partial attention’.  Practical ideas on how you can change the way you work to stay focused and be more productive.
• Exercise, relaxation, sleep and diet. How other aspects of your lifestyle impact the way the body responds to pressure and can help build resilience.