RAVENSDOWN AND MCNAUGHTON & WILLS

THE RESILIENCE GENIE

Ravensdown – New Zealand Agricultural Co-operative | McNaughton & Wills – Supporting people and organisations to grow from times of challenge

The world is shifting and changing at a pace that is faster than ever before. Workplaces are realising that their people need tools and strategies to cope, adapt and thrive in an increasingly complex and uncertain environment.

Ravensdown could see that the pressure on their customerfacing staff was increasing, largely as a result of the changing world of agriculture and the need to help farmers with the strain of shifting weather patterns, legislation and public perception.

Ravensdown weren’t looking for best practice, they were looking for ‘next practice’ for strengthening resilience, wellbeing and performance - something that would help set their teams up for the current and future challenges in the industry. They looked at several providers, but the innovative Resilience Genie really struck a chord for them. The Resilience Genie is a set of methods that supports wellbeing and resilience in the workforce. The Resilience Genie is designed by a cognitive psychologist and disaster practitioners at McNaughton & Wills who bring together global research and years of experience supporting the wellbeing of teams working in the toughest circumstances. The methods have been tested under the ultimate conditions of prolonged stress and uncertainty.

Ravensdown commissioned McNaughton & Wills to co-design resilience and wellbeing training for their people – the Resilience Genie is a really popular part of the training when advice gets real and practical. It has really helped their teams put practices in place for themselves so that they’re in a good space to be effective in their role and effective in their life as at Ravensdown – there is an appreciation that life doesn’t revolve purely around work.

 The Results

Ravensdown have rolled the Resilience Genie program across their 160 frontline staff. There’s now the desire to widen the program across the business, tailoring to those employee needs. The results have been very positive so far. The summary of feedback has highlighted learning in how to approach difficult conversations, the ability to openly share frustrations and ideas and a greater understanding of how to proactively manage wellbeing and support teammates. There is a sense of relief that everyone has the permission to talk openly about these things with one another.

With so many application-based support options in the wellbeing space, the uniqueness of the Resilience Genie being a physical tool has been positively received. Especially with digital overload being so common, employees can choose to switch off digitally and have the Resilience Genie deck of 100 cards with them as a useful tool – something they can physically share with others to initiate conversations, and something they can take away with them and come back to. It creates a consistent message throughout the entire field team, including managers, and enables good conversations when someone is showing signs of stress or being under pressure.

The Resilience Genie and the training fit well with Ravensdown’s commitment to a positive employee experience. Ravensdown recognise their employees have pressures beyond the job and they don’t want to add to that. Working at Ravensdown is often likened to being part of a family. They want work to be part of their employee’s life, not to overtake it!