The Mental Toughness Development Programme

In late 2014, The Open Fort was engaged by the World Skills NZ organisation to develop a mental toughness training programme for their team of competitors and skill managers. The competitors were preparing for the August 2015 Sao Paulo World Skills competition and this was to be the first time their preparations were to include mental toughness training. Running parallel to the competitor's regular training and preparations, the online programme we developed was focused on ensuring each competitor performed at their peak during the stressful environment leading up to, and during, the competition.

In August 2015, after 32 weeks of mental toughness training, the competitors (most of whom had never been out of the country) performed exceptionally over the four days of competition, in front of crowds of over 30,000 spectators.

'I am more convinced than ever that our mental toughness training worked. Five (competitors) got Medallions of Excellence and two of those were within a couple of marks of bronze medals. Another five were less than seven marks away from medallions. There were many illustrations during the week when there was concrete evidence the training worked.'
- Bruce Howat, Chief Executive, World Skills NZ

The outcomes of the mental toughness training included (but was not limited to):

A strong sense of self-purpose, helping to define goals and develop motivation
A deeper self-awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses
Awareness and understanding of emotional states and how to take control of adverse situations
Stronger personal willpower and ability to persevere through adversity
The ability to make swifter, better and more meaningful decisions
Greater flexibility in problem solving and the development of lateral thinking techniques

MENTAL TOUGHNESS FOR BUSINESS AND IN THE WORKPLACE

Working with the World Skills NZ team allowed us to develop and test training material ultimately intended for use when working with individuals and teams to increase productivity, motivation and performance in the workplace. We are now now running both bite-sized and full-length training programmes.

The modern workplace can be a busy, stressful, fast-paced and demanding environment that many people are not prepared for. This is further compounded by the fact that staff development and mental training to help thrive in these environments is not always a priority.

The training we provide is centered around our ethos of integrating Creativity, Wellbeing and Play into everything we do. As such, our intention is to create truly engaging, immersive methods of behaviour change. In terms of our mental toughness training, this means a strong focus on practical wellbeing to help individuals develop:

Greater coping effectiveness
Greater perceptions of control over stressful events
Higher levels of grit, resilience, hope, optimism and flow
Lower depressive symptoms and negative emotions
Enhanced ability to focus on current tasks at hand
Better ability to bounce back from adversity

Though our training is focused on individuals, the resulting outcomes for a business include:

Increased staff motivation
More resilient and pro-active staff
More cohesion and less conflict in the workplace
Reduction of staff turnover/sickness
A positive impact on the bottom line

The scientific model that forms the core of our training focuses on five behaviours inherent in mentally tough individuals:

OUR ONLINE PROGRAMME

Our online programme is designed to gradually build behaviour change & habits through regular developmental steps - a long term process to ensure deeper, more meaningful changes. Short one-off workshops aren't the solution to long-term change - our programme is built around longer training through regular online habit-forming activities. Though we recommend the benefits of the full programme, shorter training modules based on each of the five mental toughness behaviours are also available to fit specific business needs.

Half an hour a week of practical, engaging web-based activities (missions) backed up by research and insights for further reading form the core of our training. Each mission can be completed by an individual in their own time, or integrated into part of their working day and is supplemented by visualisation (to help focus) and reflection exercises. As an online programme, our training is easily scaleable and participants will have constant, secure access to their materials at any time.

Designed for teams in the workplace, our goal is to help people feel more connected to their work, be able to focus better, more easily deal with challenges and find greater satisfaction in their work life.

MEET THE TEAM

The Open Fort team are professional creative individuals with diverse, complimentary backgrounds. We also work with a network of specialists from which to draw specific expertise and bespoke solutions