The background

The construction industry is known to have one of the highest rates of mental health injury in Australia and this client wanted to do something about it! With staff facing threats and abuse on a daily basis, it was critical that they had adequate skills and a feeling of support to protect themselves from psychological harm at work.

The challenges

Because of the nature of the learnings, the training was to be done in small group settings with a mix of participants who had different levels of experience, skill and openness to change.

What we did

We co-developed an immersive training experience in which participants could iteratively learn and practice new skills. The 1 day program incorporated customised segments tailored to each unique cohort and focused on educating staff about conflict management and self-care for both immediate and longer term support.

Why it worked

In dealing with highly emotive content, we adopted a simulated learning experience in which participants could 'pre-experience’ challenging situations in a safe, consequence-free environment. This invited participants to better understand their natural strategies, experiment with new ones and build their confidence so that they are better placed to navigate conflict when next faced with it in the workplace.