The Psychology of Resilience: People Leaders Lab
Facilitated by Jodie Hughes, OE Cam. Hosted by Pure Resourcing Solutions & Birketts LLP, February 2025
With stress and burnout reaching record levels, resilience has never been more critical. Recent research by Gallup shows that stress, anxiety, and worry are at their highest recorded levels – even surpassing the pandemic (1). And ‘burnout’ is on the rise, with 9 in 10 UK workers experiencing high or extreme stress in the past year (2). The economic landscape, rising cost of living, and workplace pressures are making resilience an essential skill – not just for individuals but for entire organisations.
Recognising this, I teamed up with Pure and Birketts LLP to deliver a short, interactive, and engaging session for HR leaders in Cambridge. The session was designed to move beyond theory and provide practical tools and techniques to help HR professionals strengthen resilience in themselves, their teams, and their organisations.
We explored the ‘Psychology of Resilience‘, drawing on neuroscience, cognitive strategies, and the OE Cam model to break resilience into actionable dimensions: Flexing, Empowering, Striving, and Connecting.
Through interactive discussions, HR leaders reflected on their role in building resilience-friendly cultures, from managing stress and thinking traps to developing goal-setting strategies and emotional intelligence.
… HR leaders reflected on their role in building resilience-friendly cultures, from managing stress and thinking traps to developing goal-setting strategies and emotional intelligence
One particularly useful activity was exploring the Control, Influence, Accept (CIA) model (3), which helped HR leaders distinguish between what they can directly control, what they can influence, and what they need to accept. This really helped HR leaders understand how to manage workplace challenges more effectively, shift their focus to actionable areas, and support their teams in developing a healthier, more resilient mindset.
Our session reinforced that resilience isn’t just about ‘bouncing back’ – it’s about creating environments where people can thrive despite uncertainty. As HR leaders, the challenge is not only to develop resilience for themselves as an individual, but also to embed it into their organisations, ensuring teams can navigate change with confidence.
If you are interested to learn more about OE Cam’s resilience workshops, please contact Jodie Hughes at jodie.hughes@oecam.com.
References
- “State of the Global Workplace“, Annual Report 2024, Gallup – https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
- “Burnout Report 2025“, Mental Health UK – https://mentalhealth-uk.org/blog/burnout-report-2025-reveals-generational-divide-in-levels-of-stress-and-work-absence/
- “The Critically Reflective Practitioner“, Sue Thompson & Neil Thompson (2008) – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Critically-Reflective-Practitioner-Sue-Thompson/dp/0230573185