WUP®

Across the world, the vast majority of employees at all levels of business are not fully engaged in their work.  Employee wellbeing is a concern, with increasing rates of stress, absenteeism and time off work. Yet well-being and engagement are fundamental to long-term human performance in the workplace, as much as, or even more important than, markets, financial fluctuations and technological transformation. So what can organizations do to encourage well-being, engagement and sustainable performance in the workplace, in order to give meaning to work? And thus build a culture of resilience and innovation to ensure that work is an integral part of growing development?

WUP® is an essential, easy-to-use toolbox of practical strategies that individuals, teams and organizations can easily implement on a daily basis. Based on new and established theories of optimal workplace functioning and grounded in research findings and real-world case studies, it suggests multiple ways how to improve experiences in the work environment. You can use the WUP® tool as a problem-solving guide, book, reminder set, teaching tool, consultation resource, or interactive game. 

WUP consists of 62 Question Cards (red) that describe common difficult situations encountered at work. This category includes two joker cards which allow you to talk about your own problem.  

To respond to these problems, the WUP® offers 3 types of answers based on the three types of resources of the POP scientific model to develop well-being, commitment and sustainable performance:

• 62 Green cards: RESOURCES FROM THE ROLE TO WORK which refer to the essential characteristics of one's job to meet basic psychological needs leading to a positive work experience. They are divided into six subcategories: autonomy, mastery, diversity, clarity & structure, relationships and meaning at work.
• 62 Blue Cards: ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES which are the large-scale characteristics of the work context that contribute to a positive workplace culture. They are divided into six subcategories: salaries & benefits, climate of trust, management, leadership, working conditions and company mission. 
• 62 Yellow Cards: PERSONAL RESOURCES or SELF which refer to the unique strengths, positive attributes and potential of the individual employee which impact their functioning at work and which can be developed in the workplace.  They are divided into six subcategories: vitality, positive mindset, cognitive flexibility, emotional agility, time management and meaning of life. 

HEX

HEX consists of 200 cards:

* 105 images
* 78 words (of which 24 come from VIA character strengths)
* 17 symbols

As well as a 60-page guide which includes:

* The science behind HEX, including an introduction to positive psychology and the use of stories in positive psychology.
* The Hands On Thinking™ (HOT) method
* The guide to using HEX with checklists and a preparation guide
* Eight detailed step-by-step session guides

The cards illustrated help participants form metaphors. The images are chosen with care and are very different in their expression and aesthetics. Word cards help participants put complex thoughts into words. They are clearly positive, negative or neutral. Symbol cards represent something between words and pictures. There are recognizable icons that help participants share ideas in a simple, easy-to-understand way.

Using metaphors, stories and symbols, HEX provides insight into areas associated with doing well and doing well. The hexagonal shape of the cards encourages participants to examine the connections between their own card and other participants. In this way, the tool helps secure learning communities.

WUP® is a professional facilitation tool to strengthen well-being, engagement and sustainable performance. WUP® is a treasure chest for any coach, work psychologists or consultants. It can also be useful to all managers to improve their own positive functioning and that of their team in the workplace.

HEX® is a professional facilitation tool. Coaches, trainers, psychologists, therapists, youth workers, teachers, guidance counselors, managers, human resources specialists and curious people from all over the world use it and discover new ways to apply it every day.

We present some examples of exercises to use WUP® to develop well-being, engagement and sustainable performance.

Exercise: Tender

This is an interactive and fun exercise that is always carried out in a group of five to ten people. If your group is larger, we recommend dividing it into subgroups. In this case, several sets of WUP® are required.

One person in the group is the client, who is facing various difficulties in his business and would like to find a consultant to help him. The other people are consultants who are trying to convince him to sign the contract.

The objective of the game for the consultants is to collect as many question cards as possible from the client.

All the resource cards are shuffled and distributed among the consultants, seven cards per person. The remaining cards are placed face down on the table, forming a pile. All question cards are also placed on the table in a separate pile, face down.

The customer begins the game by drawing the top card from the pile of question cards. If the customer doesn't like the card he drew, he can put it back and choose another instead. Only one additional card is allowed in each round.

Once he has taken his card, the client presents his problem to the consultants. To do this, he can stick to the description of the card or add additional details to contextualize the problem. The red joker card allows the customer to formulate their own problem.

The auction begins. Each consultant selects the best possible solution from the resource cards available to them and tries to "sell" it to the client, pleading their case.

Green, blue and yellow joker cards allow consultants to propose their own solutions. After listening to all the possible solutions, the client selects the one he prefers by giving his question card to the chosen consultant.

Each consultant discards the resource card used for this round and draws a new card from the resource pile. The customer takes a new question card from the pile and the process repeats. Play can continue for five to seven rounds or until a consultant acquires three question cards (and therefore three contracts). This person is the winner.

A variation of this game involves changing the customer each round. In this case, all players start with seven resource cards, although these cannot be used as a solution for the person taking the role of the client (i.e. the client cannot choose themselves as a consultant).

Another variation is to encourage the client to provide feedback on all proposals, in addition to choosing the winner. Feedback on what the client thinks about the proposals does not need to be long (one or two sentences) and works best in a small group.

As the game progresses, the solutions tend to become more and more creative, drawing inspiration from the resource cards, but often going further than what the card suggests.

WUP® training

It is about a structured and thoughtful exercise that can be done in a group or alone. It requires a good understanding of the current situation of your organization and a good knowledge of the subcategories of the resource cards. You do not need to use the question cards for this exercise.

You cannot adapt and refine your workplace interventions if you do not know what is working and what is not working in your company and what its strengths and weaknesses are.

First, read the descriptions of each category of resource cards (pages 18, 25 and 32). Guided by the descriptions of these (see section 4), assess which resources are well developed and which ones should be given more attention. You can give a rating from 1 to 10 to simplify your conclusions.

Based on your diagnosis, select the subcategories of resources you want to work on (either from a development or improvement perspective) and review the suggested practices. Sort relevant practices into three piles:

• Not appropriate or irrelevant;

• Already in place;

• Could be implemented

Discard the first “Not appropriate or irrelevant” pile and examine the second in detail (Already in place). Are these practices working as well as expected? Are they appreciated by employees? Are there strategies that are no longer effective? If so, should they be replaced with another strategy or adjusted?

Next, go through the “Could be implemented” pile and select the strategies that you find particularly relevant and appropriate for your organization. How would you go about implementing them? Are there any changes or adjustments that need to be made to ensure successful implementation? Do these practices make you think of other strategies you would like to try?

Finish by writing an action plan that you are excited about and can't wait to implement.

Exercise: My Best Possible Organization

This exercise is best done alone, with a coach, or with a very small group of people who know each other well. There is no need to use question cards for this exercise.

Spread your hands out in front of you and imagine the following scenario: with one hand, you hold your organization as it currently is, and with the other, you hold your organization as you would like it to be, the best possible version. What are the differences between these two visions? What are the relational relationships between people? What new structures are in place, and what old ones have disappeared? What is the work culture like at your company and what makes it different? Note some key themes and concepts that illustrate these differences. These are the building blocks of your vision.

Now, look through the 18 resources (see section 4) and see if any of them match the important themes that have presented themselves to you and therefore can help you achieve your best organizational vision. Feel free to only review resources that directly connect you to your vision. Select the relevant categories and read through them, setting aside those that don't pique your interest.

In reviewing the most interesting practices, select five to ten that you think would most help you achieve your vision. You could use them as is or modify them somewhat to better suit your situation. It is important to be both creative and pragmatic – you should be able to implement these practices without asking permission and you should be enthusiastic about doing them. When will you start?

Exercise: Problems

The issues session is a short, focused activity that allows a team member to share a current problem or challenge with the team and get a set of ideas, solutions, comments and thoughts from the entire group. It allows one person to present a challenge and others to understand it, then generate an unlimited number of ideas for the person to consider.

By using question cards or a question joker, the problem holder shares it with the group and the group helps them define the category, or preferably, categories to which the problem belongs. Then, the group selects all the practices (approximately 20 to 40 cards) corresponding to these categories and places them on the table.

The cards will serve here as support for the production of ideas. They can provide an impetus on which the group can then build. The goal is to leave with at least five actionable ideas that the problem owner is committed to implementing.

Did you know? 20% speak 80% of the time

Use HEX to neutralize the unfortunate 80/20 dynamic, so that the minority does NOT define the majority.

Using HEX should never be an end in itself. HEX is a tool that allows participants to reach a higher level of understanding regarding the topic they are exploring. By combining the practice cards with the Hands on Thinking™ method (described in the guide included with HEX), you can expect the tool to help you as a facilitator in your work to secure learning communities.

Example exercise guide:

A good start:

1. Distribute the HEX cards on an appropriate table.
2. Let participants find one or two cards that say something about themselves that the other participants probably don't know.
For example, you can say: "Now I ask you to choose two cards, they could be pictures, words, symbols or a mix. The cards you choose should tell you something that most of the other participants probably don't know."
3. Participants should now pair up and share their stories behind the cards with each other.
After two or three minutes, tell people to find a new partner.
Repeat the exercise five to six times.