The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester
Established to develop the cultural and social ties between the Muslim and Jewish communities of Greater Manchester
Fourth Business Networking Event: Psychology Goes to Work
19 February 2013
At our fourth Business Networking Event on Sunday 17 February, the attendees were treated to an evening of expert advice relating to psychology in the workplace and business. The presenters were:
Dr Sandi Mann is Senior Lecturer in Business Psychology at the University of Central Lancashire and Director of Advantage Psychology. She also has a phobia and panic attack clinic in Whitefield, The MindTraining Clinic. Sandi is author of more than ten popular psychology books, including "Managing Your Boss" (Hodder and Stoughton) and "Anger Management at Work" (Hodder and Stoughton). She has been invited to speak at a range of academic and practitioner conferences including the Association of Business Psychologists and will be addressing the Annual Health and Well-Being at Work Conference at the NEC in Birmingham in March. Sandi also contributes widely to various media outlets as an expert in workplace emotions. Wholly unrelated to her professional role, Sandi is married to the MJF’s Co-chair, Jonny Wineberg.
Anita Nayyar is a Social Psychologist who likes nothing more than to analyse human behaviour and get to the bottom of what makes people tick ‘en masse'. Anita uses research, conflict resolution and co-creation skills to get people from different worlds to innovate and make decisions together, both in the commercial world and the public realm. Her clients have included News International’s ‘Times and Sunday Times Online’ newspaper where her analytic skills got to work deducing how to make their paid-content strategy attractive to readers by facilitating online co-creation between Times readers and News of the World executives .She has also worked with government bodies where she has aided decision making on government policy regarding integration and counter-terrorism with cross-party and civic advisors. She currently works with the telecommunications company Orange to innovate and market new technologies by uniting consumers, product managers and marketers in the co-creation process.
In her presentation, Dr. Mann stated that her main research related to emotions in the workplace. She stated that boredom at work could in fact lead to creativity. She also emphasised the importance of being humorous at workplace and how this could alleviate both stress and boredom there. Dr. Mann also informed the audience about the main signs to look for when people are being untruthful.
Anita Nayyar gave an example of how she uses counselling techniques and group co-creation to get enterprises and the people they serve (who can hold very different world views) to collaborate, innovate new products together and help make decisions at the top that matter to the end user. She gave an example of “The Times Online” challenge – where executives at “The Times Online” were brought together with their core readership to develop an online newspaper worthy of a subscription fee!
Yasmin Bukhari from the Greater Manchester Fire Service and an MJF Executive Committee Member stated "The Fire Service were very happy to have hosted the event and we consider creating partnerships as a top priority, especially with the Muslim and Jewish communities. The event was very enjoyable and the speakers were inspirational"
Dr. Jackie Lewis, our Membership Secretary stated "The participants listened to the eminent psychologists Dr. Sandi Mann and Anita Nayyar and from their presentations they were made aware of how businesses might thrive by using psychological techniques, how to get the most out of their workforces and how to have a better understanding of their clients".
Below is a photo of some of the audience showing the rapt attention they gave the speakers.
The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester
Established to develop the cultural and social ties between the Muslim and Jewish Communities of Greater Manchester