Bite-Sized ACT for School Wellbeing Masterclass

Ross: [00:00:00] Hi there, and a very warm welcome to Season six, episode 36 of People Soup. It's Ross McIntosh. Here Be Supers. Today it's something a bit different. I'm sharing a behind the scenes masterclass on how I designed and delivered the large scale wellbeing intervention for school staff. During the pandemic, I'll be talking about the thinking behind the approach, the key design principles.

The tools we used, the impact we saw, and how organizations can adapt this model for their own people. It's work I'm hugely proud of and I'm excited to take you through it.

Thanks for tuning in folks. People Soup is a podcast that mixes stories, science, and a sprinkle of daftness to explore what helps people thrive at work and beyond. Our mission is to give you the ingredients for a better work life through insights and stories grounded in [00:01:00] behavioral science, especially acceptance and commitment therapy, and other evidence-based approaches.

Before we go on, let's take a quick scoot over to the news desk First something personal. As many of you know, my dear dad died in October and his funeral was on the 20th of November. It was a fitting tribute filled with poetry, music, and the sharing of memories. The day itself was bright with a beautiful layer of snow, and it all came together in a way that felt very him.

Thank you so much to those who've sent kind messages, they've meant a great deal. Next up, I'm delighted to share that we're looking for impact partners. We're on the lookout for organizations, teams, or practitioners who want to join us in extending the reach of acceptance and commitment therapy in the workplace.

Through collaboration with Paul Flaxman and me. The aim [00:02:00] is to move from research practice. Into real world impact.

This is a chance to be part of something measured, meaningful, and growing in reach. If you've already got act based work happening or want to build it, we'd love to explore together. Read more via the link in the show notes or on my website at rossmcintosh.co.uk. And drum roll please. I'm also launching the next cohort of small group supervision for ACT in the Workplace.

It's especially for practitioners who want a supportive space to deepen their skills, share challenges, and explore act based facilitation and organizational impact. Once again, all the details are in the show notes. Finally, I do have space for a couple of coaching clients as we head into the new year.

So if you are thinking about how to land well in 2026, or you'd simply like to explore coaching with me, just drop me a line or book a free chat via [00:03:00] my website. So let's dive in. My reflections on designing and delivering a wellbeing program during one of the most challenging periods we've ever faced in the workplace, and my hope is that.

Peace supers. By the end of this episode, you'll be thinking, Hmm, I'd like to explore how Ross could bring this to our organization. So get a brew on, get Comfy, and let's dive in.

Ross: So peace supers Picture the scene. It's early 2021. We're in the thick of the pandemic. Schools are stretched to say the least. They're in uncharted territory. Staff are exhausted. Many are feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, anxious, and unsure how to sustain themselves. Bristol City Council approached me with a challenge. could we create a wellbeing [00:04:00] program that was accessible, evidence-based, and genuinely supportive, yet light enough for staff to attend after a long school day. As you know, my specialty is in applying acceptance and commitment therapy to the workplace

so I thought, what if we take the Core ACT processes and the training protocol I developed with Paul and break them down into bite-sized sessions, deliver them in one hour webinars. And give people practical tools they can apply immediately. I wanted to reach all adults, working in school environments, making it inclusive and hopefully of interest to secretaries. My mom was a school secretary, caretakers, dinner, ladies, librarians, and anyone who was curious. That's how the six part Wellbeing Series was born. With titles that I hoped might elicit some curiosity and entice people to find out more.

Those titles were getting perspective, anxiety, [00:05:00] purpose, rest, care, and notice

and woven through all of the design and the workshops was a set of deceptively. Simple, yet powerful ingredients. Including live polls, which I'll say a bit more about shortly. so let's explore those design principles. Let me take you through the key ingredients that made the program so impactful. Number one, short, practical, bite-sized sessions. These were one hour live sessions delivered after the school day. No cameras, no pressure. Just watching the speaker, me, the slides, and a lively chat.

Two live anonymous polls. This was an important design decision. At several points in each session, I included anonymous live polls asking questions like, which emotions have been showing up for you today? How [00:06:00] connected or disconnected are you feeling right now? What's been the toughest challenge this week?

The results would appear instantly on the screen or in our bar chart, and every single time there was this beautiful moment of a collective exhale. People saw that their experience, whether exhaustion, anxiety, numbness, motivation, hope or overwhelm was shared across the whole group.

The polls normalized the full spectrum of human emotion. They created connection and they helped people feel less alone during the incredibly isolating period. Number three, focus on immediately usable skills. Each session included a simple, practical tool. We practiced together with an example from my life.

The tool was called the ACT Matrix and is something we've adapted to illustrate immediate utility for everyday life. number four, accessibility and consistency. Staff could attend as many sessions [00:07:00] as they wished in any order and choose from multiple date options. Each session also had structural consistency using the ACT matrix, which I called the life lens to focus on its perspective taking qualities.

Number five, connection and community. The chat box became a vibrant space of shared reflection, encouragement, and honesty. Number six, evidence-based content rooted in act. Each session translated act principles and skills into everyday language and practice. Seven tone matters. I tried to build in safety, kindness, and calmness in my facilitation of the delivery of these sessions. So So let's have a quick tour of those six sessions. I'll walk you through each one and the intention behind it. Number one, getting perspective. This was the anchor session. Introducing the life lens. The life lens, or the ACT matrix is a [00:08:00] perspective taking tool that helps people step back from overwhelming thoughts and emotions and identify small steps towards what matters.

The live polar at the Star test, how full people's minds felt. Seeing scores across the board from calm to chaotic helps normalize the whole range. Number two, anxiety relating to anxiety in a different way. Here we validated anxiety as a human experience and briefly explained why the polls highlighted how differently the anxiety showed up for people.

And how common it was. I went on to show that there were different ways to relate to anxiety without getting completely tangled up with the thoughts. Number three was purpose reconnecting with why we do this work. A poll asking which values have felt more distant lately revealed shared struggles as well as shared aspirations. The chat also [00:09:00] revealed reasons why people had been attracted by their profession in the first place, and they began to explore those qualities in relation to the current extraordinary context.

Number four was rest, disconnecting and recharging. We looked at the psychology of rest and the boundaries. The polls helped people recognize the collective difficulty of switching off and some of the approaches they could try to support their recovery.

Number five was care. Self-compassion for humans doing difficult work. We explored myths about compassion and the science behind it, and the poll responses. Highlight that how often people treated themselves more harshly than they realized And how people generally speak to themselves in a way that's harsher than they would speak to people in their lives that they love.

And number six was called notice connecting to the present moment. We explored how to break free from autopilot and [00:10:00] reconnect with the present, recognizing that whilst autopilot could be useful in our lives, we can sometimes spend too much of our lives locked into mental time travel and missing out on the here and now.

so let's take a look at the impact across the six topics. There were 1,258 live attendances. 320 replays. Feedback showed that 90% were likely or very likely to recommend the sessions to a colleague. 89% were likely or very likely to use the tools used in the future.

describe the sessions as fabulous, relatable, calming, encouraging, and practical. one comment that has stayed with me was I felt calmer just listening about anxiety and hearing about helpful strategies. another said, using the life lens tool to break down something overwhelming was really useful and practical. These comments capture exactly what we [00:11:00] hoped to achieve. And before I go further, I want to pause and offer a heartfelt thank you. This program simply would not have happened without the people who commissioned me and supported the design and the delivery.

And these people include Duncan Gillard, Mary Stanley Duke, Tommy Jarvis, Emily Marquez Vega, and Jessica Panek Thomas. Your trust, collaboration, and commitment to supporting school staff wellbeing made all the difference. It was a privilege to work with you and I remain deeply grateful. So folks, what makes this model work?

If I had to distill it down, I would say a clear, psychologically grounded spine act offers a flexible evidence-based framework. Short sessions that respect people's bandwidth, tools, not theory Community in the chat and in the polls. safety and human [00:12:00] warmth and scalability. This model works for one team, a department, an entire organization, or a regionwide rollout, and it's effective online or in person. so how can you use this in your organization if you're listening and thinking, oh, people could do with this right now. You're probably right. I can work with organizations to create a bespoke series tailored to your context, a standalone webinars, live workshops, leadership focused sessions, or a full wellbeing program to roll out internally.

The beauty of this model is its flexibility and its proven impact. The impact was so great for the school staff that I was commissioned to deliver similar sessions for parents.

Ross: That's it. Peace Supers. That's my little masterclass on [00:13:00] Bite-Size Act. In the bag, you'll find the show notes for this episode at People Soup Captivate fm or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do get in touch if you'd like to discuss how I could support you and your team now more than ever. You can help me reach more people with the special people soup ingredients.

Stuff that could be really useful for them. So please do share, subscribe, rate, and review

your support matters. Thanks to Andy Glenn for his spoon magic and Alex Engelberg for his vocals. But most of all, thanks to you dear listener, look after yourselves, peace supers and bye for now.