Empresa Psychology Newsletter

April 2025

Our Inaugural Conference

We are so exciting to be exhibiting at our first ever conference in May - The Watercooler! We'll remind you again in the May newsletter, but we wanted to give you lots of time to get it into your diaries!

The Watercooler is a two-day experience at the ExCeL in London. Join over 6000 delegates in exploring effective ways to create workplaces that empower people to thrive! The whole event focuses on corporate wellbeing and there will be representation from the legal sector, HR, tech, financial services, construction, manufacturing and more. We'll be there both days at our stand (W428) - come and say hello to us!

On Day One, Natalie will be delivering an exclusive workshop, supporting a smaller group to learn 'How to create Psychological Safety through Compassionate Leadership'. Grab your place before it fills up!

Can't Wait Until May?

Do you want to know more about Psychological Safety and Compassionate Leadership before the conference? Make A Difference Media have published this article by Dr Natalie Isaia in the run up to the event: 'The Stress Vaccine: How Compassionate Leaders Thrive Under Pressure'. 

Spotlight On:

I was so excited to see one of my academic heroes - Professor Amy Edmonson - speaking live at the WorkHuman conference in March. Amy has led on decades of research into Psychological Safety, which underpins so much of what we do and teach at Empresa Psychology. This Spotlight highlights the concept and her work. 

The Books: This spring, become an expert in how to create psychological safety in your organisation by reading Amy Edmonson's work for yourself:

📗 Right Kind Of Wrong - won the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023.

📘 The Fearless Organisation - the original text and a must-read for any leader or HR professional. 

The Explainer: Psychological Safety refers to an environment where employees feel safe to express their thoughts, take risks, and admit mistakes without fear of ridicule or punishment. It can be cultivated through Compassionate Leadership. It does not mean that there is free reign to be disrespectful or disruptive, or that all ideas will be taken forward. It also does not mean that there won’t be consequences for mistakes - it goes hand-in-hand with accountability. 

Wellbeing In The News:

  "Mental Wealth" - the new corporate buzzword? 

I recently posted a LinkedIn post on this new phrase - 'mental wealth' that is kicking around the corporate wellbeing space. You can read my views on it in the post, but here are some (relatively) recent articles that explore this concept further:

 
💡 The University of Sydney Business School provides an overview of the concept and includes a helpful explainer video. In January 2024, they took this to the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, in an event entitled 'Building The Mental Wealth of Nations'. 
💡 Nature provides a more in-depth read of a study  introducing 'Mental Wealth' as a holistic measure of national prosperity (and if it's in Nature you know it's something to take seriously!).
💡 This article from a publication in Singapore discusses how the concept of 'mental wealth' applies to SMEs. It also cites the Oxford study that we highlighted in our January newsletter, showing that a hypothetical 'Wellbeing 100' stock has significantly outperformed major stock market indexes since 2021.

Straight From The Source:

Every month we highlight anonymised comments we received after delivering workshops, with participants' permission.

Don't just take our word for how great our content is! 

💬 "Dr Natalie was very easy to listen to. This was a really interesting topic."

💬 "Natalie provided such great tips and examples during her presentation; I would love to go through it all again and again."

💬 "The strategies to protect yourself in real life scenarios and techniques to keep your composure worked really well."

💬 "Dr Isaia was amazing and kind. Her advice was coupled with explanation and that is important."

💬 "The pace and presentation was very well done."

💬 "Really great content and practical tips."

Thank you so much to everyone who attended and took the time to provide feedback!

Supporting Fellow Founders:

Dr Donna Willis is a very experienced organisational psychologist who I have known for many years. It has been a pleasure to stay connected with Donna and see our career paths intersect. Donna founded HumanAble to support individuals and teams through coaching, facilitated workshops and therapy. Their evidence-based interventions foster healthy interpersonal relationships and enhance mental wellbeing in the workplace