Bill Carson - Safe conversations for work and life

Resilience Unravelled

Keywords

Resilience - Trauma - Mental Health - Fulfilment - Purpose - Self-awareness - Safe Conversations

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Bill Carson, a visionary leader in mental health, wellbeing, and resilience, shares his personal experience of childhood trauma and how he overcame it through therapy and understanding brain chemistry. Bill emphasises the importance of taking care of our mental health by focusing on both psychological and physical well-being and also discusses the significance of finding a sense of purpose in life and serving others as part of building resilience. The conversation highlights the need for a holistic approach to mental health that includes addressing biological, psychological, social, and existential factors.

Bill also discusses his experience as a volunteer crisis supporter and the fulfilment he receives from helping others. He emphasises the importance of not letting external factors overshadow one's own identity, relationships, and sense of connectedness and concept of finding purpose through the three levels of happiness: pleasure, passion, and purpose. He also touches on psychological safety in conversations at work and how it contributes to overall well-being.

Main topics

• The importance of managing automatic negative thoughts (ANTs).
• The process of negating harm from a childhood incident.
• Cognitive repair and the importance of positive thinking.
• The importance of purpose and learning to learn.
• The importance of self-awareness and identifying suitable resources.
• How safe conversations can still be robust and professional.
• The importance of creating a safe and healthy culture for conversations.

Timestamps

1: Introductions - 00:02 - 01:08

2: Impact of Childhood Trauma. Bill discusses the challenges of childhood trauma and how it can affect people's lives, often without their conscious memory of the original incident. He emphasises the importance of learning to manage and change perceptions of trauma - 01.08 - 04:23

3: Overcoming Childhood Trauma. Bill shares his personal experience of dealing with childhood trauma and how he discovered helpful approaches - 04:29 - 06:46

4: Finding Purpose. Bill explores the concept of finding purpose in life and how it relates to resilience. He highlights the importance of having a sense of belonging to a higher purpose and aligning personal actions with that purpose – 06:47 - 14:23

5: Discovering Personal Purpose. Bill discusses the process of uncovering one's purpose and offers an example of building a cathedral as a metaphor for finding purpose through meaningful work – 14:24 - 19:03

6: Psychological Safety and Safe Conversations. Russell raises the topic of psychological safety and safe conversations in the workplace and asks the guest, Bill, to share his insights. Bill explains the importance of creating a safe environment for open and honest conversations to support individual growth and performance - 19.04-25:03

7: Safe Conversations Skills for Managers. Bill introduces his book, "Safe Conversations for Work and Life," which focuses on developing safe conversation skills for managers to foster a culture of psychological safety in the workplace. He explains the process of helping team members become self-aware and identify suitable resources for support - 25.04 – 27.46

8: Emotional Fitness and Resilience. Russell briefly mentions a model of resilience and emotional fitness on Bill's website. They express interest in exploring this topic in more detail and provide information on how listeners can access the resources and contact Bill - 27:47 - 29:24

9: Conclusion: The host thanks Bill for the conversation and provides information on where listeners can find more about Bill's work and his book - 29:35 - 29:50

Action items

You can find out more about Bill at https://inspirelearning.au/skills-for-leaders-managers/

Bill's book is Safe Conversations for Work and Life.