Preventing Burnout
Building Resilient Cultures at Work
Burnout is no longer a marginal issue — it is one of the biggest risks facing organisations today. The impact is costly: reduced productivity, increased absence, higher turnover, and significant harm to people’s wellbeing.
The problem is particularly acute in today’s world of work. Traditional boundaries have dissolved:
- Hybrid and global collaboration means many staff are working across time zones.
- Digital technology has created an “always on” culture, with blurred lines between home and work.
- High-performing, conscientious professionals often find deep meaning in their work — but without limits, purpose becomes over-identification and drives exhaustion.
Awareness alone is not enough. Lasting change requires cultural and systemic shifts — in leadership behaviours, in how work is contracted, and in the way organisations define urgency and manage expectations.
Our burnout prevention programmes tackle your culture.
We combine awareness sessions, manager training, and practical tools such as, Transactional Analysis, and work contracting. These give employees and leaders not just the knowledge, but the language, skills, and confidence to move from patterns that fuel burnout into sustainable, resilient ways of working.
These programmes can all be tailored, conducted in person or online, delivered globally and include a certification. There is also a self-paced CPD-certified eLearning option now available.
Start with our self awareness questionnaire to understand your own blockers when it comes to risk of burnout.
Our cultural programme for avoiding overwhelm and burnout consists of the following options:
Awareness Sessions: Understanding and Preventing Burnout
Online or in-person
90 minutes online
2 hours face-to-face
These interactive sessions, using the latest research, help staff recognise the signs of burnout and understand why it’s such a risk in today’s high-conscientious, always-on culture. Participants explore how global working, perfectionism, purpose, and blurred boundaries contribute to stress and learn simple tools for boundary-setting – including the importance of self awareness.
Sessions can be delivered online (90 minutes), face-to-face (2 hours), or as a blended programme. The face-to-face option includes group discussion and the use of archetype cards—a practical, engaging way to explore how different patterns (such as the Hero or People-Pleaser) show up at work.
All participants complete a short self-awareness questionnaire, with anonymised organisational insights shared back, and receive a practical PDF handout on dealing with overwhelm and burnout.
To discuss this first phase of the programme
Manager Workshop: Leading for Wellbeing and Preventing Burnout
One-day workshop
This practical, one-day workshop leads on from the awareness sessions, and helps managers understand how their leadership style and day-to-day decisions can either reduce or unintentionally drive burnout. It builds confidence in creating balance while maintaining performance.
Through interactive discussions, self-reflection, and optional forum theatre, managers explore common traps such as perfectionism, over-checking, and last-minute requests. Using archetype cards, they identify their own patterns (e.g. the Hero, the Firefighter) and learn strategies for shifting into healthier, more sustainable behaviours.
Participants gain tools for prioritisation, delegation, and work contracting —making expectations explicit and defining what’s truly urgent. They also learn to develope more constructive Adult–Adult conversations with their teams and senior leaders.
Managers leave with a clear framework, practical tools, and increased self-awareness to create a culture that supports wellbeing as well as results.
To discuss delivering this workshop for your managers which is phase 2 of the programme
Embedding change
One-to-one coaching
Following awareness and manager training, this phase supports leaders and teams to turn insight into lasting change.
Through one-to-one coaching, delivered in partnership with Anna Keen, managers and senior leaders explore personal triggers, boundary-setting, and confidence in managing upwards. Coaching provides a confidential space to apply learning, strengthen resilience, and embed healthier leadership habits.
In parallel, a Work Efficiency Review with Tim Sismey helps identify where time and energy are lost. Using data, conversation, and observation, Tim works with teams to uncover “sticky” processes, clarify priorities, and simplify systems — improving both wellbeing and business performance.
Together, these interventions ensure that wellbeing is not a standalone initiative but part of how work gets done: more focused, more efficient, and more sustainable.
To explore Phase 3 - coaching or a work efficiency review for your organisation.
Work Contracting: Making the Implicit Explicit
Online or in-person
Work contracting is about creating clarity — turning unspoken expectations into shared agreements about how work gets done. In today’s world of blurred boundaries, hybrid working, and constant connectivity, it’s easy for “always on” behaviour to become the norm. Work contracting helps teams redefine what’s realistic, what’s urgent, and how best to communicate.
Managers learn to hold open conversations with their teams about workload, priorities, and response times. Together, they agree clear norms — for example, what truly counts as urgent, when to use email versus phone, and how to protect recovery time.
The result is a healthier balance between autonomy and accountability. Teams feel empowered, leaders gain trust and transparency, and the organisation benefits from improved focus and sustainability.
This approach supports Adult–Adult communication and helps move away from reactive, stress-driven patterns that contribute to burnout.
Work contracting is discussed in awareness sessions but in depth in manager workshop
Healthy Work Academy eLearning
A digital self-serve training option which is a flexible, easy-to-use and global solution for Manager Wellbeing Conversations.
The Healthy Work Academy platform uses real-life examples and our Forum Theatre team to bring training to life with highly engaging videos, case studies, flashcards, quizzes, images and text to help keep participants’ attention and encourage deeper learning.
Ideal for
- Global and distributed teams helping train across different time zones
- A sustainable training solution for new starters and promotions
Can be used as part of a blended option in-person and online training.
What is Forum Theatre
We recommend using Forum Theatre as the best way of creating a safe space for managers to practise these conversations.
This approach uses actors to enable the audience to see powerfully for themselves the difference between a situation handled badly and a situation handled well.
Use our model
Learn to hold conversations with someone struggling, without fear of making it worse, being intrusive, getting it wrong or landing up in a tribunal – using our simple ABCD mnemonic.
Why manager wellbeing conversations matter
Line managers are key to reducing stress and fostering a positive workplace culture. Yet, many managers avoid having wellbeing conversations, hoping the problem will disappear on its own. This course provides practical solutions for addressing these issues head-on.
Why is this course crucial for managers?
- Greatly improves knowledge and self awareness around mental health, stress, and the impact on their team.
- For those who need a little more convincing, it will make the business case for prioritising wellbeing: why it matters for engagement and performance.
- It teaches them how to have more empathetic conversations and create all the important psychological safety within teams, which is a game changer.
- It removes the fear of making things worse; managers gain confidence in holding wellbeing conversations with struggling people using a simple ABCD mnemonic.
- They explore boundary setting, signposting to organisational support, and the importance of role-modelling resilience as a leader.
We are happy to chat about your needs and help you decide whether a half or full day is better for your organisation.