Work in Progress Lab

Notice the one that makes you pause. 👀

Before strategy, targets, or team values… there’s the feeling in the room. And it shapes everything. We talk a lot about performance, communication, and culture, but not enough about something much simpler: how a space makes people FEEL. Subtle things shape the emotional climate of a team: the tone of a voice the light in a room how people greet each other the pace of a meeting the way a conversation lands in someone’s body None of this is fluff. It’s basic human science. Our nervous system is constantly scanning for cues of safety or threat. And those cues come from the environment as much as from people. When a space feels supportive, when the energy in a team feels steady, people think more clearly, collaborate more openly, and recover faster from stress. Creating healthier workplaces often starts with noticing these tiny, almost invisible signals and how they influence behaviour long before strategy does. What’s one small environmental cue you could shift this week to support steadier thinking and connection in your team? #WorkInProgressLab #Leadership #FutureOfWork #PsychologicalSafety #HumanPerformance #OrganisationalWellbeing #CultureChange #SelfLeadership

PASS IT ON. Someone in your team might need one of these reminders today.

If your engagement, absenteeism, or retention rates are slipping… Then we have the workshops for you. Not because you need another wellbeing initiative. Not to tick a box. But because the work we do at Work in Progress Lab goes far deeper than that. We focus on what we call The Human Science of Performance. The neuroscience and nervous system patterns that sit underneath behaviour, communication, leadership, and culture. Performance doesn’t fall apart overnight. It unravels quietly: – tired teams – rising emotional reactivity – creativity shrinking – high performers burning out – people leaving without saying why Your metrics eventually show it. But your people’s nervous systems feel it first. Our workshops bring teams back to steadiness, using trauma-informed education and behavioural insight to help people regulate, relate, and perform with clarity, not strain. And the impact is clear: 📉 up to 30% fewer stress-related absences 📈 35% higher performance in teams with strong psychological safety on average 🧠 Reduced presenteeism 🔄 Improved retention and lower turnover If your metrics, or your instincts, are telling you something needs attention, DM us, Claudia Martinho or comment “TASTER” and we’ll send you information for a free taster workshop. #WorkInProgressLab #HumanScienceOfPerformance #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #TraumaInformedLeadership #CultureChange

Which reminder(s) will you bring into your week?

Emotional intelligence is important. But it’s not enough. In most workplaces, we praise emotional intelligence, empathy, awareness, communication, the ability to “read the room.” But what happens when you can read the room… and your body still goes into overdrive? That’s where emotional regulation comes in. Because under pressure, it’s not your intelligence that leads, it’s your nervous system. When your body senses threat, your capacity to listen, connect, and lead narrows. You might look calm, but inside, your biology is preparing for survival. Emotional intelligence helps you understand what’s happening. Emotional regulation helps you stay present through it, grounded enough to respond rather than react. This is what we teach at Work in Progress Lab: 👉 How to recognise your stress responses in real time. 👉 How to reset the body before resolving the issue. 👉 How leaders can use regulation to create physiological safety, the foundation of real psychological safety. Because sustainable performance doesn’t come from managing emotion. It comes from understanding it and staying steady enough to lead through it. Regulation before reaction. Presence before performance. We help leaders, teams and organisations embed these principles through: - Trauma-informed leadership workshops - Mental health and wellbeing training - Coaching and psychological safety programmes 📩 Get in touch to explore how we can help your team move from stress to steadiness.

Most people look calm. Fewer FEEL calm. Our work helps leaders and teams close that gap, so they can think, relate, and perform from steadiness, not survival. Explore our workshops to see how we bring this to life inside organisations, through nervous-system-aware leadership, communication, and team performance.

Which one will you FOCUS on this week?

ENERGY is the real performance superpower. The question is: do you know what fuels yours and what drains it? We spend so much time managing our calendars, but not enough time managing what actually sustains us. Most teams don’t burn out because they’re doing too much. They burn out because their energy isn’t in balance, the tasks that drain them far outweigh the ones that restore them. When pressure stays high and safety stays low, the nervous system shifts into survival mode. Focus narrows. Collaboration fades. Even talented people start to feel stuck. The opposite of burnout isn’t rest... it’s awareness. Awareness of what brings you up, what triggers you, and how to rebalance that energy throughout the day, the week, the project. At Work in Progress Lab, we help organisations bring that awareness to life, where managers lead with empathy, teams recover after pressure, and performance becomes something sustainable again. Driving growth for brands and teams through human insight and behavioural science. #WorkInProgressLab #HumanPerformance #LeadershipDevelopment #WorkplaceWellbeing #EnergyIsData #PsychologicalSafety #ConsciousLeadership #TheHumanSideOfWork