Laura Claire Aiken

In a sea of doom, this positive take on AI from Steve Nelson came at such an important time last year.

I was so focused on the risks that AI would pose to connectedness in teams, that I was underestimating the upsides it could bring to the way we communicate.

What effect have you noticed AI having on your team - good and bad?

While I’m off on mat leave, I’ve decided to re-share some snippets of past pieces in the hope they might provoke a moment of self-reflection or thought.

This felt like a particularly appropriate one to start with as I take my own pause.

What did you achieve recently and do you think you allowed yourself the time to enjoy the success?

Hypnosis… magic, mind control, or something we’ve misunderstood?

What’s more interesting to me is how it can help in change.

Most people don’t struggle with awareness – they know what’s wrong – what they struggle with is shifting patterns that don’t change through “logic” alone.

Brain imaging studies show that in a hypnotic state:

– activity in the prefrontal cortex (linked to self-monitoring) reduces
– the anterior cingulate cortex (attention) becomes more active
– and thinking and feeling systems become more closely aligned

In other words, less resistance, more focus, and greater impact.

So perhaps there’s more to these brain states than most of us understand…

References:

Faymonville, M.E., Laureys, S., Degueldre, C., DelFiore, G., Luxen, A., Franck, G., Lamy, M. & Maquet, P. (2000) Neural mechanisms of antinociceptive effects of hypnosis. Anesthesiology, 92(5), 1257–1267.

Rainville, P., Hofbauer, R.K., Bushnell, M.C., Duncan, G.H. & Price, D.D. (1999) Hypnosis modulates activity in brain structures involved in the regulation of consciousness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11(1), 110–125.

Egner, T., Jamieson, G. & Gruzelier, J. (2005) Hypnosis decouples cognitive control from conflict monitoring processes of the frontal lobe. NeuroImage, 27(4), 969–978.

This question was top of my list in my chat with Fenella Hemus NLP & Hypnotherapy

And turns out, if you’re always on the go, on high alert, or just don’t have the language to describe what you’re going through👋, this might be the tool (or the “magic”) you’re looking for.

Have you tried hypnosis or hypnotherapy?

Fenella Hemus - Master NLP practitioner and coach, teaching coaches and changemakers tools for behaviour change through NLP, Time Line Therapy™ and hypnosis.

Is all the talk around mindset and behaviour change too serious?

What happens when we have a little fun with it?

In this part of my conversation with Fenella, we talk about why change can get easier when we’re having fun.

What helps you access a state where change feels easier?

Fenella Hemus NLP & Hypnotherapy - Master NLP practitioner and coach, teaches coaches and changemakers tools for behaviour change through NLP, Time Line Therapy™ and hypnosis.

“I’m not a morning person.”
“I’m terrible at switching off.”
“I’m just someone who pushes through.”

These sound like small observations - but our language shapes what feels possible.

There’s a strong body of social psychology research showing that we’re more likely to persist with behaviours that align with how we see ourselves.

Most change efforts focus on outcomes… or at best, process.

But behaviour really sticks when it aligns with identity.

So if something isn’t changing, it’s worth asking:

What have I decided is “just who I am”… that might be keeping me there?

References;

Oyserman, D. (2009) Identity-based motivation: Implications for action-readiness, procedural-readiness, and consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(3), 250–260.

Shavitt, S., Torelli, C.J. & Wong, J. (2009) Identity-based motivation: The dynamic construction of identity. In: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 41, pp. 1–65.

Why do we resist change, even when it’s good for us?

This is the first question I had for Fenella Hemus NLP & Hypnotherapy, Master NLP trainer and coach – and my trainer in NLP and Hypnosis training last year.

Most of us know what we’d like to change, but we struggle to shift patterns that feel familiar, automatic, or safe – even if we know they’re causing us harm.

Where do you notice that tension most in your own life or work?

We’ve talked a lot about what’s not working.

But the more interesting question is: what actually needs to change?

Our take: create the conditions for people to work at their best.

…simple, right?

Julie Clow - Organisational psychologist, facilitator, advisor and author working with CEOs and leadership teams to diagnose challenges and co-create solutions, while building team capability. PhD in behavioural psychology; author of The Work Revolution.

Danielle Santori - Senior Consultant at Kintla with 20 years’ experience in leadership coaching and organisational development, helping leaders and complex teams build alignment, resilience and organisational effectiveness.

We talk a lot about burnout, but we don’t talk enough about what happens next.

Because more often than not, people come back to the same conditions that caused the problem in the first place.

According to one study by KU Leuven and wellbeing organisation IDEWE, around 28% of employees relapse within a year of returning to work after burnout. Other research suggests that 41% of people experience burnout again even after taking time off.

We know (from HSE Management Standards and CIPD guidance) what drives workplace stress and how to support return to work, but most organisations still try to solve it at the individual level.

And – how you bring one person back to work quietly teaches your entire team what happens when they struggle.

So the real question is:

When someone comes back… what’s actually changed?

Resources:

IDEWE & KU Leuven (2021) Study on burnout relapse rates among employees returning to work, reported in: The Brussels Times (2021) Nearly 30% of people with burnout relapse within a year of returning to work.

Robinson, B. (2024) 41% Of Americans Experiencing Burnout After Taking Time Off, National Study Shows. Forbes

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (n.d.) Management Standards for Work-Related Stress

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) (2023) Managing and supporting employee mental health at work

It started by moving desks, and ended in a completely different way of working.

One where communication, ideas and inspiration flowed more freely.

This is the power of “micro-cultures”, and often it doesn’t need much to get them going.

A bit more flexibility, a bit more trust, and space for teams to optimise how they work best.

And business get to reap the benefits – in productivity, retention and wellbeing.

Where have you seen small changes make a big difference in how a team works?

Julie Clow - Organisational psychologist, facilitator, advisor and author working with CEOs and leadership teams to diagnose challenges and co-create solutions, while building team capability. PhD in behavioural psychology; author of The Work Revolution.

Danielle Santori - Senior Consultant at Kintla with 20 years’ experience in leadership coaching and organisational development, helping leaders and complex teams build alignment, resilience and organisational effectiveness.