Our client aimed to address mental health globally for leaders and employees by creating a comprehensive, long-term plan to support and promote mental well-being in their workplace. They sought to identify the root causes of mental health issues and learn how to foster an environment that encourages openness, honesty, and connection. Their goal was to raise awareness and educate employees on mental health, including recognizing symptoms and providing guidance.

An in-depth Discovery process revealed several learning outcomes, such as equipping leaders and employees with the tools to enable them to approach conversations with greater confidence to support each other’s mental wellbeing. Our client also wanted to explore the boundaries of responsibility and confidentiality and how to work within them, emphasizing the importance of self-care, recovery, and personal wellbeing. Additionally, they wanted to ensure that all employees were aware of the mental health benefits and services available and knew how to access them.

CLIENT
A global company with offices across EMEA, Asia, India, and the USA.

THE SOLUTION
Feel Good was tasked with creating a leadership training program that would enable the client to achieve these objectives, resulting in the development of Brilliant Minds: Mental Health Training for Leaders. 

Discovery
Feel Good implemented a discovery process, a data-driven strategy, to gain a comprehensive understanding of our client’s culture and broader mental health landscape. This process was critical for understanding individual employee experiences, organisational culture, and the mental health environment within the company. This information shaped the Brilliant Minds program and provided customized content, ensuring our client got the greatest return on their investment.

Our discovery process included the following steps:

  • Data collection & analysis of HR data.

  • Scoping & delivery with stakeholders.

  • Conducting interviews with a diverse range of employees to gather insights and nuances.

  • Organizing focus groups to test content and collect feedback.

Through this process, we discovered that the business has a unique culture characterized by a shared commitment to goals that positively contribute to mental health and high levels of connectivity. Employees reported a shared identity of being highly resilient and mentally strong and were eager to learn practical ways to support their own and each others’ mental health. However, there was still a stigma around mental health and concerns about career implications for those who struggled to cope. We realised that addressing these key barriers was crucial to normalizing the conversation around mental health within the firm.

Brilliant Minds: a multi-modal mental health program 
Feel Good created a mental health training program, Brilliant Minds to be rolled out globally over 5 years. 

The multi-modal learning program focused on three key areas: 

  • Gaining leadership & key stakeholder buy-in 

  • Live training for managers, employees, and influencers

  • Providing additional resources including a series of toolkits for all employees

We collaborated with senior leaders and wellbeing boards to help them understand the program’s impact and promote the sessions. Key leaders were engaged as champions who further endorsed the program.

All managers received a series of live interactive training modules on reducing stigma, supporting themselves, having supportive conversations about mental health, and taking workplace actions to address the causes of work-related stress and mental health issues.

Talent, HR teams, and Influencers were trained on how to take effective action. The success of Brilliant Minds has resulted in the program being rolled out to all employees globally.

We shared essential resources and toolkits with all employees to ensure consistent messaging, foster a common language, reduce stigma, and encourage positive action. Additionally, panel discussions were curated to role-model the new behaviours.

The solution was effective because:

  • Credibility first approach with a hand-picked team of global facilitators, mental health specialists qualified in Organisational and Clinical Psychology equipped to deliver the sessions whilst providing a platform and safe space for peer-to-peer discussion and answering managers’ tricky questions.

  • Facilitators graduated through the Feel Good Academy, a rigorous training program to ensure our elite facilitators create the most engaging and interactive experience for our delegates run by leading War Horse theatre director, Katie Henry.

  • Supercharging internal communications to promote the program has been critical to its success and wide reach with Feel Good supporting engagement with leadership briefings, a curated launch panel, email communications, internal social media, and video snacks to promote the program and maximize the reach of Brilliant Minds.

  • A commitment to excellence by measuring success with monthly monitoring of feedback and NPS scores providing ongoing training and feedback sessions with the facilitation team to continue to maximize engagement and NPS scores.  

The Impact
The global rollout of Brilliant Minds from July 2023 included the UK, Americas, EMEA India, and Asia, and results were consistently high across the board. Almost 4,000 MDs, VP/EDs, and Directors from various units completed the program and reported impressive increases to their level of confidence in discussing mental health with their colleagues. 

  • The learners also reported very positive results on their experience during the training, from the delivery to the information presented.
  • Total number of participants globally through Brilliant Minds: 3853 people reached in total.
  • Average NPS scores for the whole program increased from NPS33 (2023) to NPS 44 & 50 (2024).

See the Measurement of Success charts results below for the most recent quarter:

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Quotes

“It was an important reminder to think about not only my own mental health but also that of my teams and that when things are doing well for me they might not be going well for my teams. This can impact them. I need to encourage open conversations about mental health with my teams.”

“The workshop has made me more aware that it’s ok even for us as leaders to talk about it. To also struggle with this and to know its ok to ask for help ourselves”.