Joy in Work Curiosity Collective: The Comfort Zone vs The Anxiety Zone
Feeling very safe but there’s no challenge in your team? Overwhelmed by high pressure? Explore how balancing comfort and anxiety can unlock joy, learning and high performance.
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About this event
Are your team members feeling too comfortable to innovate, or too anxious to speak up?
Psychological safety doesn’t mean creating a challenge-free environment – nor does it mean pushing people into burnout. It lives in the sweet spot between the two, where people feel secure enough to take risks and engaged enough to grow.
In this interactive 45-minute session, we’ll explore how these two zones directly impact your team’s psychological safety, culture, and capacity for joy in work.
If your team members are feeling too comfortable to be innovative, or too stressed to speak up then this session is for you.
What you’ll learn
Through discussion and exploration, you’ll come away with fresh insight and help your team step out of passive comfort and away from anxiety and thrive.
Expect fresh insights from your peers, and practical strategies to help you navigate away from anxiety, step out of passivity and into The Learning Zone.
Who should attend?
This event is open to all, and will be particularly helpful for those navigating team performance, change, or staff retention.
This may include:
- Team leaders, managers and senior leaders.
- Quality Improvement (QI) and transformation specialists.
- HR, culture and wellbeing leads.
- Frontline staff and community advocates.
Whether you are leading large-scale change, supporting peer wellbeing, or simply curious about creating a healthier work culture, you will gain practical insights to help your team step out of passive comfort, avoid burnout, and thrive together.
Overview of the event
The format of the event will include breakout rooms and networking.
Facilitators
Julia is on a mission to help NHS staff reduce stress and overwhelm and be happier at work. She has supported NHS teams and organisations with quality improvement at a national, regional, and local level for over 25 years. During this time she has seen the tension between staff wanting to do a great job and the challenges of working in difficult environments with too few staff. This has made her both sad and determined that things need to change. She was a member of the first cohort to complete the IHI training on Improving Joy in Work and has been training staff in this approach, along with others, within NHS teams ever since. In 2018 she set up the Q Community Improving Joy in Work Special Interest Group which now has nearly 400 members. She also regularly presents at NHS conferences and events on the subject of happiness at work and is an avid reader of anything related to this topic. Julia is Board Member for NESCHA (North East Social Care and Health Advisors) which aims to help influence and shape the quality of NHS services by ensuring the patient voice is heard. She is also educated to MBA level.
The Joy in Work Curiosity Collective
Do you find implementing Joy in Work a challenge? Are you unsure where to start? Or, have you implemented Joy in Work for your team already and want to share your experiences? If so, the Joy in Work Curiosity Collective is for you!
Join Julia Wood and John Rouse for monthly virtual 45 minute discussions aimed at navigating the challenges of implementing and sustaining Joy in Work.
During each session we’ll leverage our collective brain power to tackle complex issues and questions surrounding Joy in Work. These discussions could make all the difference between implementing and sustaining a successful Joy in Work project and one which leaves you wondering where things went wrong.
About the Improving Joy in Work online group
The Joy in Work Curiosity Collective sessions are part of the Improving Joy in Work online group.
The purpose of this group is to provide a learning forum to bring together those interested in Joy in Work.
Experts, complete novices, and everyone in between, is welcome to join this group so we can increase joy in our working environments.
Accessibility
We provide captions for all our online events. If you need any other adjustments to help you to participate please let us know using the form when you register or contact Q’s Events Programme Manager, Adriana Thursby-Pelham.
More events in this series
The Joy in Work Curiosity Collective meets monthly. Check out our events listing for more dates.
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Discover more
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Exploring what it means to work with a sense of joy
Case study 30 April 2025 4 minute readThe Joy in Work project aimed to enhance the fulfilment of health care staff through virtual sessions on quality improvement, collaboration, and work-life balance. -
Using QI to improve joy in work
Opinion piece 31 August 2023 6 minute readJulia Wood reflects on the Joy in Work Special Interest Group which looks at how to use QI tools to bring more enjoyment to the work day.