So what? Reflections on stress and productivity

We hope you have enjoyed the material covered in course and that there have been some useful strategies that will be helpful to you and your organisation. We recognise that there is a complexity to stress responses across individuals, life course and environments. People change in their ability to manage stress and also change in how stress has an impact on performance. However, we do think that there are some clear key themes. First, care of yourself is important – for well-being and productivity. Also, as leaders and managers changes to our interactions and the environment can enhance stress management and of course productivity. Finally, because stress responses vary across individuals we have found in our work that personalised approaches to stress management in particular through psycho-educational approaches can prove effective.

So there is an individual approach to stress management as well as considering what may be helpful across an organisation. We hope some of what we have covered has been useful and to take the words of Bruce Lee (actor, director, martial artist) in relation to this course “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.”