What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

http://www.greatminds.training/

Great Minds, London (2026)

27/02/2026

Day one: "I'll keep an eye on it."
Day thirty: "They've gone off sick."

That's how fast it happens.

Most managers I work with are good people. Empathetic. Observant. They notice when someone on their team isn't right.

The quiet withdrawal. The change in energy. The person who used to contribute in every meeting and now says nothing.

They see it. But seeing it and knowing what to do about it are completely different skills.

And here's what makes it harder — the longer you wait, the bigger the gap feels.

Day one, you think: "I'll keep an eye on it."
Day five: "It's probably nothing."
Day ten: "I should say something but I don't know how."
Day twenty: "It's been too long now. It'd be weird to bring it up."
Day thirty: "They've gone off sick."

The Keep Britain Working review found that employees off sick for months often receive little or no contact from their employer. Not because nobody cares — but because of what the report calls "mutual risk aversion." Everyone's too afraid of saying the wrong thing, so nobody says anything at all.

One employee quoted in the report said:

"My employer didn't know what to do. I didn't hear from them for six months while I was off sick."

Six months No contact! Not because the organisation was heartless. Because nobody had the skills or confidence to pick up the phone.

And here's the data that should stop every HR leader in their tracks:

→ When someone is supported within 4-6 weeks of going off sick, they have a 96% chance of returning to work
→ After more than a year, that drops to less than 50%
→ Someone out of work for less than a year is 8 times more likely to return than someone out for more than two years

Every day of silence isn't neutral. It's a countdown.

I've lived this. As a manager. As a colleague. As someone who struggled himself and watched people around me do exactly this — notice, hesitate, wait, regret.

The instinct is almost always right. The gap is in the response.

And that gap is smaller than you think. You don't need to be a therapist. You don't need the perfect words. You just need to be willing to say:

"I've noticed you've seemed a bit different recently. I just wanted to check in — is everything OK?"

That's it. That's the start. Not a diagnosis. Not a solution. Just a door being opened.

So here's my question for you this Friday:

What's one sign you wish you'd acted on sooner — in someone else, or in yourself?

You don't have to share details. But I think there's something powerful in admitting that most of us have been there.

26/02/2026

Most organisations tackle workplace wellbeing the same way.

Something goes wrong. Absence rises. A complaint comes in. Someone leaves.

Response? Book some training!

It can feel decisive It can look proactive, and gives you something to report to the board.

But the question is does it work?

Not just noting attendance numbers. Not the "really useful" feedback. Does anything actually change?

For example

→ Absence drop?
→ Manager confidence up?
→ People feel supported 6 months later?
→ Culture shift?

Most can't answer. You're not alone.

The government's Keep Britain Working review (2025) found this pattern. Most invest without measuring impact. It called for "systematic change, not piecemeal fixes" and a "people-focused, needs-led system."

It identified a culture of fear as a root cause of the UK's workplace health crisis:

→ Managers fear saying wrong thing
→ Employees fear disclosing
→ HR fears grievances
→ Everyone fears making it worse

Like a mechanic afraid to open the bonnet. The car runs — until it doesn't.

The B.R.I.D.G.E fixes this. I designed it after seeing training change rooms but not corridors.

Starts with baseline assessment — data, policies, manager capability, culture, real gaps.

Everything follows: strategy, infrastructure, training, measurement. Evidence-based.

Client Lindsay:

"𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙨𝙚𝙩, 𝙔𝙤𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙜𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 — 𝙝𝙚'𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡 𝙞𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙛𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚."

That shift came from diagnosis + replacing fear with capability.

And it happened because we replaced fear with capability. Which is exactly what the government is now calling for.

If you're curious about how this approach works — and whether it's right for your organisation — I've put together a page that walks through the full methodology.
https://info.greatminds.training/thebridge

25/02/2026

The government just published a number that should be on every HR Director's desk.

£85 billion.

That's the annual cost of poor workplace health to UK employers. Not to the NHS. Not to the economy as a whole. To employers specifically.

That figure comes from the 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 review — a major government-commissioned report published this year by Sir Charlie Mayfield. And when you break it down, it gets harder to ignore:

→ £120 in profit lost for every single day an employee is absent
→ 150 million working days lost to sickness absence annually
→ Sickness absence is at its highest rate for 15 years — 50% higher than in 2019
→ Replacing an employee lost to ill-health costs over £11,000 per person

But here's what concerns me even more than the absence figures.

Presenteeism.

People showing up to work but operating at a fraction of their capacity. The Keep Britain Working report found that presenteeism costs employers the equivalent of 4 to 9 lost productive days per person, per year — through poor decision-making, extended recovery times, and reduced output.

That's £21 billion annually. And most organisations don't track it. Don't measure it. Don't even acknowledge it exists.

That's like a car dashboard that only shows your fuel level. It ignores the engine temperature. The brake wear. The oil pressure. The tyre condition. You're driving blind. And you don't even know it.

The report was blunt about why this keeps happening. It described most organisations' wellbeing initiatives as — and I'm quoting directly — "a random set of explosions" with no clarity on what actually works.

Random explosions. That's the government's assessment. Not mine.

So let me ask you five questions:

→ Can you quantify what presenteeism costs your organisation right now?
→ Do you know which teams are most affected — and why?
→ Are your managers confident enough to spot it?
→ Do your policies address it — or just absence?
→ When was the last time you measured anything beyond headcount and sick days?

If you can't answer most of those — you're not alone. But you are exposed.

I've built a free 2-minute assessment that shows you exactly where your organisation stands right now. No guesswork. No assumptions. Just a clear picture of what's working, what's not, and where the gaps are.

Because the warning lights are on. The question is whether your dashboard is showing them.

The assessment takes 2 minutes and gives you a clear picture of where your organisation stands. Link here: https://wellbeingstrategyreadiness.scoreapp.com/

24/02/2026

I need to tell you about someone I failed.

I was a manager. A decent one, I thought. I hit my targets. I looked after my team. I showed up every day.

But there was someone on my team who was changing.

Not dramatically. Not obviously. Just gradually.

They went quiet in meetings. Stopped joining us for lunch. Their work was still fine — but the energy behind it had gone.

I noticed.

And I did nothing.

Not because I didn't care. I cared deeply. But I didn't know what to say. I was terrified of making it worse. Of saying the wrong thing. Of overstepping.

So I told myself it was probably just a bad week. That it would pass. That it wasn't my place.

Weeks became months.

By the time someone else stepped in, things had got significantly worse. And I remember sitting there thinking — the signs were right in front of me. Every single day. I watched them and hoped they'd resolve themselves.

They didn't.

That experience changed me. Not immediately. But permanently.

Because I realised something uncomfortable:

I wasn't a bad manager. I was an untrained one.

Nobody had ever taught me how to have that conversation. Nobody had shown me what the words sound like. Nobody had given me a framework to lean on when my instinct said "something's wrong" but my brain said "you'll make it worse."

And here's what I've come to understand — I wasn't alone.

Most managers feel exactly this way. They care. They notice. They want to help. But they freeze. Because the gap between wanting to support someone and knowing how to support someone is enormous.

And that gap doesn't close with awareness training. It doesn't close with a poster on the wall. It doesn't close with good intentions.

It closes with practice. With structure. With someone showing you what the words actually sound like.

That's what I've spent the last decade building.

Because nobody should have to learn this lesson the way I did.

23/02/2026

Your car gets an MOT every year.

A trained mechanic puts it on a ramp. Checks the brakes. Tests the lights. Inspects the suspension. Looks underneath for rust, leaks, damage you can't see from the driver's seat.

If something fails — you fix it before you're allowed back on the road.

Now let me ask you something.

When was the last time your organisation had a proper check-up?

Not a staff survey with a 30% response rate. Not a Mental Health Awareness Week poster campaign. Not a one-off training day that everyone forgot about by Friday.

A real inspection. Under the bonnet. Looking at the parts nobody sees.

→ What does your absence data actually tell you — beyond the headline number?
→ What's presenteeism costing you that never shows up in a spreadsheet?
→ How confident are your managers — genuinely — in having mental health conversations?
→ Are your policies fit for purpose or were they written five years ago and never reviewed?
→ Where are the early warning signs — and who's trained to spot them?

Most organisations can't answer these questions.

Not because they don't care. But because they've never actually looked.

They've invested in training. Launched initiatives. Ticked boxes. From the outside, everything looks fine. The paintwork is clean. The tyres look full.

But nobody's checked underneath.

Here's what I've learned over the past decade:

The organisations that struggle most aren't the ones doing nothing. They're the ones doing lots of things — without ever diagnosing the actual problem.

Activity isn't progress. Busyness isn't strategy. And a shiny exterior doesn't mean the engine is sound.

Cars don't break down suddenly. They deteriorate gradually. A noise you ignore. A light you dismiss. A vibration you get used to.

People are the same.

That's exactly why the B.R.I.D.G.E methodology starts with a baseline assessment. Before any training. Before any workshops. Before any strategy is designed.

Because you can't fix what you haven't inspected.

If your organisation had an MOT today — would it pass?

20/02/2026

One conversation is a start. But let's be honest — it's not enough.

Yesterday I shared the S.A.F.E. framework and the response has been brilliant.

(If you missed it — DM me and I'll send it to you.)

But here's what I keep coming back to:

Individual conversations don't change culture. Systems do.

This week I've shared data from the Westfield Health Wellbeing Trends 2026 report:

→ £85 billion lost to long-term sickness
→ 1 in 3 employees want to leave their jobs
→ 54% staying put out of fear, not loyalty
→ 37% turning to AI because humans at work aren't meeting the need

These aren't isolated problems. They're symptoms of the same thing:

Organisations treating wellbeing as an add-on instead of an operating system.

What actually shifts culture:

→ Managers who feel confident AND supported to have conversations regularly
→ Leadership that models openness, not just mandates it
→ Systems that embed wellbeing into how the organisation operates
→ Data and feedback that shape benefits to reflect actual employee needs

That last point comes directly from the report. And it's the one most organisations miss.

That's exactly what BRIDGE was built to solve.

Not a one-off training session. A 12-week programme that moves organisations from reactive firefighting to proactive culture-building. Strategy, training, infrastructure, and ongoing support — all connected.

If you've been thinking about how to move beyond tick-box approaches but aren't sure where to start, I've built a free assessment that takes just 2 minutes.

It'll show you exactly where your organisation stands right now — and where the gaps are.
try it below:
https://wellbeingstrategyreadiness.scoreapp.com/

19/02/2026

Yesterday I talked about why tick-box training fails — and introduced BRIDGE as the system that fixes it.

Today, I want to give you something you can use right now.

Over the past few years, I've trained thousands of managers. And I kept noticing the same thing:

They understood WHY mental health conversations matter.

They just didn't know HOW to start one.

So I built a framework. Simple enough to remember in the moment. Structured enough to actually work.

It's called S.A.F.E.

S — Set Up the Environment
Private space. Enough time. No rushing. Your energy matters as much as your words.

A — Ask Open Questions
"How" and "what" — not "why." Let them share at their own pace. Acknowledge before solving.

F — Focus on Listening
Listen to understand, not respond. Reflect back what they've said. Be comfortable with silence.

E — Empathise and Encourage
Show you understand. Don't try to fix everything. Signpost support. And most importantly — follow up later.

This isn't about being a therapist.

It's about being a human who cares — with the structure to show it.

The Wellbeing Trends 2026 report found that what people want is support that's "emotionally available, without being critical."

37% are currently getting that from ChatGPT. Because humans at work aren't offering it.

S.A.F.E. changes that. One conversation at a time.

I've put together a free guide with the full framework, example phrases, and conversation starters.

Comment "SAFE" below or DM me and I'll send it to you.

18/02/2026

I need to say something that might be uncomfortable.

Most workplace mental health training doesn't work.

Not because the content is bad. Not because the trainers don't care.

It doesn't work because it stops at awareness.

A half-day workshop. A certificate. A follow-up email with resources nobody opens. Then everyone goes back to their desks and nothing changes.

The Westfield Health Wellbeing Trends 2026 report puts it plainly: it requires more than a tick-box approach.

Organisations need to move beyond reactive measures. Embed wellbeing into company culture. Provide early intervention.

But here's what's actually happening:

37% of employees have started turning to ChatGPT for mental health support.

Why? Because AI doesn't judge. It doesn't panic. It doesn't change the subject.

One Reddit user put it like this:

"They don't project their problems onto me. They don't abuse their authority. They're open to talking to me at 11pm."

That's not a quote about technology. That's an indictment of workplace culture.

Training without follow-through is just an expensive way to feel like you've done something.

Real change requires:

→ Practice, not just theory
→ Ongoing support, not a one-off session
→ Systems that embed wellbeing into how the organisation operates

Over the past decade, I've built exactly that kind of system.

It's called BRIDGE — a 12-week programme that transforms how managers show up, how they're supported, and how wellbeing gets embedded into your organisation.

Not a one-off session. Not a toolkit that sits unused. A system that works.

If you're tired of tick-box approaches that don't move the dial — DM me.

17/02/2026

Let's talk about the number that should be keeping every leadership team awake at night.

£85 billion.

That's the estimated economic cost of the UK's long-term sickness crisis. Right now. Every year.

Over 9 million working-age adults are economically inactive. Almost 3 million of them cite long-term sickness as the reason.

And here's what makes that number even harder to swallow:

Most organisations 𝘼𝙍𝙀 spending money on wellbeing. They're buying apps. Running awareness weeks. Offering EAPs.

But the 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 report shows something uncomfortable:

Employees with high wellbeing report half as much absence and two-thirds less presenteeism.

Which means the gap between organisations that invest properly and those that tick boxes isn't just a wellbeing gap.

- It's a performance gap.
- A retention gap.
- A competitive advantage gap.

And it gets worse.

1 in 3 employees want to leave their jobs. But 54% are staying put — not out of loyalty, but out of fear of losing their benefits or stability.

Your people aren't engaged. They're trapped.

I speak to HR leaders regularly who tell me:

"I know we need to do more. But I can't get the budget signed off."

This is your ammunition.

When leadership asks "what's the ROI of investing in mental health?" — this is the answer:

→ Half the absence
→ Two-thirds less presenteeism
→ Reduced turnover
→ A workforce that actually shows up — mentally, not just physically

The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in wellbeing properly.

It's whether you can afford not to.

If you're building a business case right now — save this post. Share it with your leadership team. Use the data.

That's what it's there for.

16/02/2026

The Westfield Health Wellbeing Trends 2026 report landed recently.

I've been through it.

And there are three findings I think every HR leader, people manager, and business owner needs to sit with.

👉Finding 1: The business case is now undeniable.

Employees with high wellbeing report half as much absence and two-thirds less presenteeism than those with low wellbeing.

That's not opinion. That's data.

And when you consider the UK's long-term sickness crisis is costing the economy an estimated £85 billion — this isn't a "nice to have" conversation anymore.

👉Finding 2: Tick-box wellbeing doesn't work.

The report is clear: organisations need to move beyond reactive, tick-box approaches. Awareness campaigns and one-off training aren't shifting the dial.

If your wellbeing strategy starts and ends with an annual webinar and an EAP nobody uses — the evidence says you're wasting money.

👉Finding 3: Managers are now the front line — and they're not equipped.

7.4 million people on the NHS hospital waiting list. 2.89 million waiting over 18 weeks. 523,000 people left the country for healthcare last year — a 50% rise in just two years.

And here's the stat that stopped me:

37% of employees are now using AI tools like ChatGPT for mental health support. In the 25-34 age group, that rises to 64%.

Read that again. Nearly two-thirds of your youngest workforce would rather talk to a chatbot than a human at work.

Not because AI is better. But because — in their words — it's "emotionally available, without being critical."

That tells us everything we need to know about the gap managers are failing to fill.

I'll be diving deeper into each of these over the coming days.

But for now — which of these three hits closest to home for you?

10/02/2026

If you want to know how to do 'sales' the right way, this is your man!

Delighted to meet Richard Palmer again last week having attended the sales course he ran, through the Berkshire Growth Hub - his book The Ethical Sales Handbook is all about having conversations with business, to help them make their own buying decisions.

I would definitely recommend taking a look!

Great Minds

27/02/2026

26/02/2026

25/02/2026

24/02/2026

23/02/2026

20/02/2026

19/02/2026

18/02/2026

17/02/2026

16/02/2026

10/02/2026

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm