How do strengths related to creating an abundant organisation? When people are using their strengths they are more engaged in their work, their quality of performance increases, and they feel greater levels of happiness and vitality.

This course will start by introducing the theory and practice of strengths and positive psychology through a range of presentations, discussions, and experiential exercises. It will enable individuals and organisations to identify, understand and harness their strengths, whilst managing their weaknesses.

Drawing on case studies, occupational psychology, and organisational development, the workshop will consider a diverse range of strengths and positive psychology applications to: recruitment & selection, performance management, individual & team development, leadership & manager development, and coaching.

Learning outcomes and objectives

• Understand the theory and practice of strengths;
• Differentiate between realised and unrealised strengths, learned behaviours, and weaknesses;
• Learn and use the new strengths language, enabling them to incorporate it into future conversations about the strengths approach in an Organisational, Developmental and Coaching context;
• Gain a tangible ability to identify strengths in themselves and others;
• Understand the applications of strengths and positive psychology to create flourishing individuals, teams, and organisations;
• Explore a number of tools and methodologies that will enable them to work towards realising strengths and managing weaknesses in themselves and others;
• Identify the practical steps involved in building a strengths-based approach to their own practice and/or workplace.

Psychological theory underpinning the course
We might think of strengths as ‘things that we are good at’, and certainly that is an important part of what we mean by strengths. However, there is much more to understanding strengths than this.

There are five fundamentals of the strengths approach:

• The strengths approach focuses on what is right, what is working, and what is strong;
• Strengths are part of our basic human nature, therefore every person in the world has strengths and deserves respect for their strengths;
• Our areas of greatest potential are in the areas of our greatest strengths;
• We succeed by fixing our weaknesses only when we are also making the most of our strengths;
• Using our strengths is the smallest thing we can do to make the biggest difference.

What is the evidence that focusing on strengths is a good thing for organisations to do? In a study of 19,187 employees, drawn from 34 organisations across seven industries and 29 countries, the Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) found that an emphasis on performance strengths was linked to a 36.4% improvement in performance, while an emphasis on personality strengths was linked to a 21.3% improvement in performance. In contrast, an emphasis on performance weaknesses was linked to a 26.8% decline in performance, and an emphasis on personality weaknesses was linked to a 5.5% decline in performance.

Facilitator: Emma Trenier
Emma Trenier is a Consulting Psychologist at CAPP, who specialises in the area of individual and team development. She also leads CAPP’s outplacement work. Emma is passionate about enabling individuals and teams to understand their strengths and how they can use them more. She holds a BSc in Applied Psychology from Cardiff University, an MSc from London Metropolitan University, and Level A and B Certificates in Psychometric Testing. Emma is currently working towards Chartered Membership as an Occupational Psychologist and is a member of the BPS and the BPS Special Group in Coaching Psychology.

Emma has designed and delivered a range of outplacement, management and team development, diversity awareness and employee development programmes. She has worked as a coach, facilitator, assessor and researcher with both public and private sector clients, including Transport for London, Greater London Authority, London Development Agency, Cisco Systems, NHS, BT, and Johnson and Johnson.

Co-facilitator: Nicky Page CPsychol
Nicky is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and Consulting Director of CAPP. Her particular areas of expertise include strengths-based selection and recruitment, leadership development and performance management. Nicky is involved in taking a whole system approach to business issues, working with the CAPP team to develop approaches to a variety of projects including strengths-based role profiling, assessment centre design, and manager and leadership development. Nicky has over 8 years experience in working across many client sectors and has delivered training in many regions, including Africa, Europe and South America. She has most recently supported Ernst & Young in developing a Strengths-based Graduate Recruitment Process. Other clients include Aviva, Foreign and Common Wealth Office, Loughborough University, Royal Mail and Boehringer Ingelheim. Along with Alex Linley and Sue Harrington, Nicky edited the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2009.

More details and booking information on the BPS Learning Centre website.