Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience

by Paula Davis

Overview

A first-of-its-kind, science-backed toolkit takes a holistic approach to burnout prevention by helping individuals, teams, and leaders build resilience and thrive at work.

Burnout has become one of the most talked about workplace topics, and its impact is far-reaching. The 24/7 pace of work, constant demands, and scant resources can easily put busy professionals on a path to burnout, a cycle that has only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout affects the health and well-being of the entire organization, yet most attempts to help focus on quick-fix strategies aimed at individuals. Something is missing.

In Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience, Paula Davis, founder of the Stress & Resilience Institute, provides a new framework to help organizations prevent employee burnout.

Davis's research-driven, fast-reading, and actionable book is the first of its kind to explore a new solution to the burnout problem at work: a comprehensive approach focused on building the resilience of teams of all sizes. Davis argues that teams, and their leaders, are uniquely positioned to create the type of cultures that are needed to prevent burnout.

In Beating Burnout at Work, Davis shares stories from her work coaching, teaching, and training leaders and teams of all sizes, and she explores:How she navigated her own burnout as a lawyer, and how that led her to study burnout and launch a business with the aim of helping organizations and their employees become more resilient; How teams and leaders can utilize simple, science-backed strategies to create cultures that promote resilience and well-being and reduce burnout; How the Mayo Clinic, one of the most renowned medical centers in the world, has developed a powerful model to reduce burnout in its organization; How organizations dealing with high-stress challenges, including the US Army, work to increase resilience in a systemic way; andHow the German company trivago is piloting a new approach to work amid COVID-19 in order to increase team connection and resilience.Solving the burnout puzzle requires a systemic approach. In Beating Burnout at Work, Davis offers an actionable method to help leaders create cultures of well-being and resilience in their organizations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613631126
Publisher:	University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication date:	03/16/2021
Pages:	140
Sales rank:	1,114,519
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Paula Davis JD, MAPP, is the Founder and CEO of the Stress and Resilience Institute, a training and consulting firm that partners with organizations to help them reduce burnout and build resilience at the team, leader, and organizational level. Paula left her law practice after seven years and earned a master's degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. As part of her post-graduate training, Paula was selected to be part of the University of Pennsylvania faculty teaching and training resilience skills to soldiers as part of the Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program. The Penn team trained resilience skills to more than 40,000 soldiers and their family members. Paula is the author of Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience (Wharton School Press), which is about burnout prevention using a teams-based approach. Her expertise has been featured in The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Paula is also a contributor to Forbes, Fast Company, and Psychology Today. Paula is a two-time recipient of the distinguished teaching award from the Medical College of Wisconsin. Paula's website is www.stressandresilience.com, and you can reach her directly at [e-mail].

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Understanding the Problem

Chapter 1 Stress and Work in the Twenty-First Century: The Burnout Epidemic 3

Chapter 2 Taking a Holistic Approach to Burnout Prevention and Well-Being at Work 13

Chapter 3 The Power of Teams to Help Your Organization Prevent Burnout 23

Part II PRIMED for Team Success

Chapter 4 Psychological Safety and Psychological Needs: The Foundation 33

Chapter 5 Relationships: The Importance of Building Connection 43

Chapter 6 Impact: Why Do You Do What You Do? 53

Chapter 7 Mental Strength: Or, Your Mind on Milkshakes 61

Chapter 8 Energy: Addressing Sources of Stress 71

Chapter 9 Design: How to Create Positive Change 81

Conclusion 91

Acknowledgments 93

Notes 97

Index 115

About the Author 119

About Wharton School Press 121

About the Wharton School 122

Editorial Reviews

"Not only was Beating Burnout at Work informative, but reading it was delightful. Davis nailed the art of delivering complex, evidence-based information using accessible language, a smooth cadence and such a relatable voice. Best of all is the way she animated key points with anecdotes and storytelling. Here is how engaged I was: If the book were a person I would take it to lunch immediately just to swap stories with a smart friend."

Alyssa Brennan

"The unique team and systems approach in Beating Burnout at Work is practical and goes beyond treating the symptoms of individual burnout to identifying and treating root causes that impact everyone in the work environment. This sets the stage for lasting change."

Beth Hammer

"Understanding how to avoid burnout and build resilience in yourself and in your team is, more than ever, a foundational and essential skill. No one understands this topic more deeply than Paula Davis, and in Beating Burnout at Work she outlines a powerful data-driven and research-based framework for countering burnout."

Jack Newton

"Timely lessons, in mercifully compact form."

Financial Times

"Timely lessons, in mercifully compact form."

—Financial Times"Searching, empathetic, and timely . . . . Davis describes the burnout process as more complicated than simply being tired from working too hard; she views it as a manifestation of chronic workplace stress, and as a 'gateway process' to more serious health problems, such as depression and panic attacks. She asserts that the key to getting through burnout is to avoid trying to do so alone. The silver bullet, she says, is teamwork."

—Kirkus

"Building resilience is a team sport, not an individual trait. In this groundbreaking book, Paula Davis gives us a roadmap for creating stronger teams and sustainable well-being. Beating Burnout at Work is loaded with practical strategies and steeped in great research."

—Tom Rath, author of Life's Great Question and StrengthsFinder 2.0

"In Beating Burnout at Work, Paula Davis provides a critical field guide for explaining burnout in your organization as well as some practical steps that organizations and teams can use to avoid it. This book is a must for anyone who's feeling overwhelmed and looking to find ways to get back into balance."

—Dr. Laurie Santos, Professor of Psychology at Yale, Host of the Happiness Lab Podcast, and Creator of Yale's Most Popular Course, "Psychology & the Good Life"

"The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated a trend that has permeated throughout the workplace: We're all feeling more stretched, more exhausted, and more overwhelmed. Beating Burnout at Work highlights how we can diagnose burnout, and how leaders can change work practices to ensure their employees are able to bounce back stronger and more resilient than before."

—Dr. Jon M. Jachimowicz, Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior Unit, Harvard Business School

"Not only was Beating Burnout at Work informative, but reading it was delightful. Davis nailed the art of delivering complex, evidence-based information using accessible language, a smooth cadence and such a relatable voice. Best of all is the way she animated key points with anecdotes and storytelling. Here is how engaged I was: If the book were a person I would take it to lunch immediately just to swap stories with a smart friend."

—Alyssa Brennan, Director, Strategic Projects, Global Security & Resilience Services at Google

"The unique team and systems approach in Beating Burnout at Work is practical and goes beyond treating the symptoms of individual burnout to identifying and treating root causes that impact everyone in the work environment. This sets the stage for lasting change."

—Beth Hammer, MSN, RN, ANP-BC

"I don't remember being a part of a team that enjoys getting together and talking through issues as much as the group I'm working with now, and I can credit much of that to the tools Paula gave us and shares in her book, Beating Burnout at Work."

—Lauren A. Shure, Maj, USAF, Deputy Chief, Special Victims' Counsel"Understanding how to avoid burnout and build resilience in yourself and in your team is, more than ever, a foundational and essential skill. No one understands this topic more deeply than Paula Davis, and in Beating Burnout at Work she outlines a powerful data-driven and research-based framework for countering burnout."

—Jack Newton, CEO and Founder, Clio, and author of The Client-Centered Law Firm"Paula is a thought leader in the application of the science of resilience to teams, and I'm excited that she has translated her incredible work into such a user-friendly guide for leaders and organizations. As questions about the future of work increase, her book opens the door for a much-needed conversation about burnout and how to create positive cultures at work."

—Mary Shen O'Carroll, Director of Operations, Technology & Strategy, Google

From the Publisher

2021-03-08
A business-world book that outlines keys to overcoming work-related stress.

Davis, the founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute consultancy, opens her debut book by citing several things that have contributed to “burnout” in 2021, which many readers will find familiar. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, unemployment spiked and, due to many workers working remotely, “boundaries blurred, and always being at home made it nearly impossible to fully detach from work.” In addition, she notes, “underrepresented groups have exhausted themselves trying to fit into organizations that continue to undersupport them.” Factors such as these—and she could easily have listed half a dozen more in today’s work environment—have combined to create a “tsunami of stress,” and this book presents a number of insights and strategies designed to help one understand and combat the burnout that can result from it. Readers will nod in agreement as they read this searching, empathetic, and timely work. In it, Davis describes the burnout process as more complicated than simply being tired from working too hard; she views it as a manifestation of chronic workplace stress and as a “gateway process” to more serious health problems, such as depression and panic attacks. She asserts that the key to getting through burnout is to avoid trying to do so alone. The silver bullet, she says, is teamwork: “Resilient teams,” she writes, “anticipate challenges, are aware of each other’s capacity level, provide ongoing status updates to team members during a crisis, know when to go outside the team for help, debrief regularly, and communicate appreciation.” Davis grounds her contentions with copious, well-documented research, all presented in crisp, clear prose. She also bolsters her central notion of fostering “belonging and motivation” with graphs and other well-designed visuals that help to put forward a holistic vision.

An indispensable study of the challenges of the new work world.

Kirkus Reviews

"In Beating Burnout at Work, Paula Davis provides a critical field guide for explaining burnout in your organization as well as some practical steps that organizations and teams can use to avoid it. This book is a must for anyone who's feeling overwhelmed and looking to find ways to get back into balance."

Dr. Laurie Santos

"Building resilience is a team sport, not an individual trait. In this groundbreaking book, Paula Davis gives us a roadmap for creating stronger teams and sustainable well-being. Beating Burnout at Work is loaded with practical strategies and steeped in great research."

author of Life's Great Question and StrengthsFind Tom Rath

"The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated a trend that has permeated throughout the workplace: We're all feeling more stretched, more exhausted, and more overwhelmed. Beating Burnout at Work highlights how we can diagnose burnout, and how leaders can change work practices to ensure their employees are able to bounce back stronger and more resilient than before."

Dr. Jon M. Jachimowicz

"I don't remember being a part of a team that enjoys getting together and talking through issues as much as the group I'm working with now, and I can credit much of that to the tools Paula gave us and shares in her book, Beating Burnout at Work."

Lauren A. Shure

"Paula is a thought leader in the application of the science of resilience to teams, and I'm excited that she has translated her incredible work into such a user-friendly guide for leaders and organizations. As questions about the future of work increase, her book opens the door for a much-needed conversation about burnout and how to create positive cultures at work."

Mary Shen O'Carroll