Clearly, understanding how personal, professional and structural loss, change and unfinished or anticipated grieving impact an employee’s role-relationship-team performance is mission critical for corporations and organizations. An effective manager must be able to demonstrate basic understanding and also communicate, coordinate and collaborate creatively to achieve optimal workplace “health and productivity.” This employee-management-organizational connection is especially vital in economically uncertain, rapidly changing, “doing more with less,” bottom-line conscious and burnout-vulnerable times.

Workplace Wellness

While many corporate wellness experts focus on factors like exercise and diet, grief and grieving are vital concerns that are often overlooked. Grief issues and stressors – past, present and even future – all too easily and often get acted out at work, e.g., from death of a loved one and relationship breakup to job loss/relocation and even the stress of caring for an infirmed or elderly family member.

And key losses may not be faced or sufficiently-effectively grieved for years, quietly draining energy or spawning secondary stress symptoms. In addition, research reveals that when confronted by a cluster of significant life changes within two years, even positive changes, e.g., a promotion, there’s often an adverse impact on stress and wellness.

Wholeness & Wisdom as Well

However, engaging with grief and learning to “let go” transcends “Wellness"; it encompasses “Wholeness and Wisdom” as well. The powerful psychological dynamic of “letting go” helps disarm self-defeating power struggles while igniting new personal and group energy; a capacity for “Retreat and Renewal” (the other “R & R” – taking an “incubation vacation”) generates imaginative and insightful problem-solving possibilities-pathways and may well inspire others.

And the key to “letting go” is a willingness to risk. Have no fear (well, maybe a little)…acclaimed speaker Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, the “Stress Doc” ™ is here with dynamic and inspiring presentation along with thought-provoking and FUN group exercises to help you better understand the connection between grief, “letting go” and “Workplace Wellness, Wholeness & Wisdom.” Let the Doc help you bring “The Three ‘W’s” into your workplace!

Objectives

*  Understand the Critical Importance of Grief in the Wellness GED

*  Master and Apply the Six “F”s of Personal-Organizational Grief, Loss and Change

*   Learn to Recognize and Control Grief/Emotional – Authority, Sibling, etc. – Hot Buttons

*  Use “Good Questions” and Courageous Listening to Defuse Power Struggles and Build Trust

*  Discover “Three Keys to Wisdom” and the Doc’s Holistic Model, “The Four ‘P’s of Passion Power”

*   Learn to “Jump In,” “Fail Faster & Better”, Modulate Anxious “B.S.” – “Be Safe” – Messages

*  Recognize the Link between “Letting Go” and Risk-Taking, Creativity and Inspiring Leadership

*  Learn to Laugh At and Share Stories About Your Own Flaws and Foibles

*  Discover and Develop a Plan to Integrate Workplace Wellness, Wholeness & Wisdom

Remember, perhaps the greatest gift leaders/or those more experienced can leave the younger generations is an ability to confront wisely “The Intimate FOE: Fear of Exposure.” The grief process is a rite of passage that reminds us all of our mutual humanity and capacity to explore, to change and to grow. As the Stress Doc says: Grieve, Let Go and Inspire Flow.

Seek the higher power of Stress Doc humor: May the Farce Be with You!

Don’t miss your appointment with the Stress Doc.

(P.S. Mark’s dad died this past Father’s Day and this program is a tribute to his legacy and their conflicted-connected still ever evolving relationship.)

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Program Outline, Opportunities & Outcomes

A. The Workplace Wellness GED and "Loss, Grief, and Change" Connection

1. Don't Forget the "G" in The Wellness GED: Grief, Exercise & Diet
2. Understand the Connection Between Personal and Organizational Loss, Grief and Change
3. Understand and Master the Six "F"s of Loss, Grief and Change

B. Unfinished Memories/Grief & Rapid Change: Dynamics for Group Conflict

1. Learn How Unresolved Emotional Memories, Grief and Conflicts Are Acted Out in the Workplace
2. Understand How Authority and Sibling Rivalry Dynamics Are Related to Unfinished Grief
3. Defuse Power Struggles and Critical Attacks while Affirming Self and Building Trust

C. The Power of Letting Go: Transforming Grief, Defusing Dysfunction & Inspiring Self-Others

1. Discover the Link Between Grief, Productive Risk-Taking and the Three Workplace "W"s
2. Discover and Appropriately Inspire by Linking the Mind and Mood, the Painful and Playful
3. Discover the Link Between Change and Grief and Potential for Applied Innovation

D. Integrating a Wellness GED Program in Your Workplace

1. Increasingly Utilize Grief Resources Such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
2. Discover the Power of Writing/Story Telling for Reshaping Memories and Resolving Grief
3. Appreciate the Power of Sharing (Immigration) Memories with Diverse Groups/Generations

Seek the higher power of Stress Doc humor: May the Farce Be with You!

Don't miss your appointment with the Stress Doc.

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is an acclaimed keynote and kickoff speaker as well as "Motivational Humorist & Team Communication Catalyst" known for his interactive, inspiring and FUN programs for both government agencies and major corporations. In addition, the "Doc" is a team building and organizational development consultant. He is providing "Stress and Communication, as well as Managing Change, Leadership and Team Building" programs for the 1st Cavalry Division and 13th Expeditionary Support Command, Ft. Hood, Texas and for Army Community Services and Family Advocacy Programs at Ft. Meade, MD and Ft. Belvoir, VA as well as Andrews Air Force Base/Behavioral Medicine Services. Mark has also rotated as a Military & Family Life Consultant (MFLC) at Ft. Campbell, KY. A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, The Stress Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress and of The Four Faces of Anger. See his award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" -- www.stressdoc.com -- called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info on the Doc's "Practice Safe Stress" programs or to receive his free e-newsletter, email stressdoc@aol.com or call 301-875-2567.