What the heck is a WAP?! (Wellness Action Plan)
Thoughts from Amanda, Studio Manager at Noble Studio
Illustration by Becky Smith capturing some of the team’s reflections on how we support each other to create a culture where we can thrive as individuals, as a team and creatively.
The culture of Workplace Wellbeing
I know from bitter experience that without good physical or mental health, nothing else really matters.
In the workplace, being part of a team that feels genuinely supported in those respects creates an invaluable working culture built on trust, fairness, and honesty.
I came to Noble following previous experience promoting mental wellbeing in workplaces. I would regularly be invited into offices to run creative mindful workshops as part of Wellbeing Week or Mental Health Awareness Day. And while those initiatives send a great message, the focus was often misplaced, because the wider company culture was what needed workshopping the most!
I remember one mindfulness session had been scheduled during a team’s lunch hour, so attendees were trying to find a space of calm but also shoving in a sandwich before they were expected back at their desks.
Team wellbeing isn’t shaped by a fleeting workshop, it’s a philosophy that carries throughout the working day and into the overall culture.
So what’s a WAP?
Being a small team of six, we are in the unique position to be able to regularly support our team both in a team sense but also as individuals too.
Part of my role at Noble Studio is supporting the team to create Wellness Action Plans, a tool advocated by Mind. I spend an hour with each team member, one to one, once a quarter - creating a listening space for sharing and reflection.
Mind shares “Wellness Action Plans are a personalised, practical tool we can all use – whether we have a mental health problem or not – to help us identify what keeps us well at work, what causes us to become unwell, and how to address a mental health problem at work should you be experiencing one. It also opens up a dialogue with your manager or supervisor, in order for them to better understand your needs and experiences and ultimately better support your mental health, which in turn leads to greater productivity, better performance and increased job satisfaction.”
After each discussion, notes are shared with individuals and revisited every quarter to reflect on areas for improvement, consideration and any items that might need to be shared with the wider team.
“My WAP sessions have helped me to discover some of my tendencies at work through shared discussion and reflection. After realising I’m sometimes struggling from toxic productivity, WAPs have helped me to be kinder to myself and accept the ebbs and flows of workload in the studio, and give myself permission to slow down at times.”
“Making a Wellness Action Plan gives me a space to slow down and really think about how i’m doing, instead of just running on autopilot”
The WAP structure like most tools, has its limitations but has proven to be a fantastic starting point for conversations around wellbeing. It allowed us to first get better at delving into those topics, removing the any taboo and now we have found that each quarter, we freestyle a little more - having less structured conversations as they begin to feel like more regular check-ins.
“WAPs create a culture of openness and safety amongst the team as well as celebrating diversity of minds. Not everyone operates in the same way. What might trigger stress or discomfort for one person may not affect another, so creating individualized plans helps create a culture where everyone can be authentically themselves at work.” says Lindsay, Noble’s founder who first came across the tool during a Mental Health First Aid Course.
Key Learnings
Having these chats has led to a number of key operational changes at Noble, some examples being :
Note-taking : We now always take and share notes during meetings as standard - an inclusive way to allow team members to process information at their own pace
Calendar Use : the team are encouraged to create calendar slots calling for no meetings/focus time /quiet time to reduce meeting overwhelm, and we only schedule calls outside of these times and each other's lunch and breaks.
Off Screen Days : for days when team members are going through personal difficulties. While they may feel able to work, they may wish to do so quietly without the pressure of on screen interaction
Duvet Days : an alternative to a sick day that covers any wellbeing needs, it requires no explanation and is given with no questions asked
Social Space : to help our team remain connected and able to socialise about non-work matters while based remotely we have created regular virtual tea breaks and a channel to share random chatter in Slack
Next steps
One of the key takeaways from our WAP discussions has been that it’s not always easy to notice you’re heading towards a mental health burnout or crisis until it’s too late and it’s taken hold. So next we plan to help team members create personal mental health maps, to help navigate challenges and signal early warning signs that might take them off course.
We look forward to sharing more about this soon!