PROVIDING THE BUILDING BLOCKS FOR
Flourishing at work. Positive change. Sustainable habits. Extraordinary performance.
Who we are.
We are a positive psychology focused consulting business based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Dedicated to sharing our knowledge and skills, our goal is to create thriving individuals and workplaces.
We specialise in improving knowledge and skills about creating thriving workplaces and how to personally thrive at work. We offer a unique set of workshops, webinars and presentations designed to optimise individual, team and organisational performance. We are renowned for our practical, evidence-based programmes that have real personal and business impact.
We believe that what we do matters. People tell us our work makes a significant difference to their lives, including their colleagues, families and communities. Leaders tell us that they get boosts to team and organisational outputs and performance when people apply the knowledge they gain from our workshops. We get huge satisfaction when we see the positive changes people make as a result of our workshops and presentations, and when they sustain these changes over time.
What we do.
We specialise in practical, evidence-based workshops and presentations to help people build the mental skills and knowledge required for thriving at work and leading thriving teams.
Our workshops are filled with simple, practical tools and techniques for participants to apply immediately. If these are practiced regularly, they make a significant difference to people’s lives.
Participants are encouraged to share their learnings with others, which provides a positive ripple effect into the communities they are part of.
We have been teaching the science of thriving and positive change for many years now. We have evolved our programmes based on feedback from thousands of participants and we focus the content on what we know has the biggest impact.
We design our content so individuals and organisations can see immediate benefits and measurable outcomes. The benefits of a thriving workforce and a positive culture are enormous. From higher engagement and retention, improved productivity, increases in health, safety and wellbeing, greater creativity and innovation to better bottom line results. The organisations we work with see the benefits of this investment every day.
Our offerings
Our workshops focus on applying evidence-based positive psychology techniques to help leaders, teams and individuals achieve sustainable wellbeing and deliver high performance.
Workshops for leaders
This two-part workshop is designed to help leaders develop change agility, resilience and inspire high performance in their teams. They will understand how to create a positive and safe environment for change. These skills are necessary to navigate the current environment of uncertainty and volatility and overcome any resistance to change. The workshop provides practical tools and ideas that leaders can apply immediately to create a positive and adaptive organisational culture.
PART 1: CREATING A STRONG FOUNDATION
This part focuses on two critical factors required to set a strong foundation for positive leadership:
- HIGH LEVEL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
This covers what psychological safety is, why it is required to set a strong foundation and evidence-based ways to boost it - HIGH LEVEL OF SELF CARE AND SUPPORT FOR EACH OTHER
This focuses on why the leader’s own wellbeing is important for creating a secure base to lead others in an effective way. It covers the best self-care practices to reduce the likelihood of burnout
PART 2: FOUR AREAS TO FOCUS ON FOR POSITIVE CHANGE LEADERSHIP
This part uses Professor Kim Cameron’s Positive Leadership Model as a foundation. It focuses on four critical leadership behaviours for creating mental flexibility and openness to change, while inspiring high performance.
These four areas are linked to exceptional business outcomes:
- CREATING A POSITIVE CLIMATE
- BUILDING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS
- ENGAGING IN POSITIVE COMMUNICATION
- CREATING POSITIVE MEANING
Leaders will explore the positive leadership principles and practices that best support the development of a change agile and resilient culture. They can expect to leave with a wide range of simple, practical ideas and tools to apply immediately in the workplace.
Creating a healthy high performance culture is essential for long-term success in any organisation. It involves nurturing both the business objectives and the wellbeing of employees in order to create a sustainable and thriving environment. Developing a healthy high performance culture requires commitment and continuous improvement. When achieved, it creates a culture that fosters productivity, innovation and overall employee satisfaction.
In this workshop, leaders will learn how to navigate the delicate balance between focusing on the delivery of high performance and supporting and investing in people’s mental health and wellbeing. They will understand how to create a culture which optimises wellbeing, growth and performance, where people can thrive by working in a sustainable way.
It covers the areas known to support building a healthy high performance culture including:
- CREATING A FOUNDATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
- OPEN COMMUNICATION AND TRUST
- FOSTERING A SENSE OF BELONGING
- CREATING A POSITIVE MINDSET
- PROVIDING CLEAR DIRECTION AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
- SETTING BOUNDARIES AND CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
- PRIORITISING BALANCE AND MANAGING WORKLOADS
- BEING A GREAT ROLE MODEL
This is a practical, evidence-based workshop, drawing from the latest research around healthy high performance cultures. It also covers some of the unique challenges of managing hybrid teams and how to overcome these. Participants will leave with a range of tools and techniques they can apply anytime, to help create healthy high performing teams and achieve great business outcomes.
- WHAT BURNOUT MEANS
- RECOGNISING THE WARNING SIGNS
- UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT LEVELS OF BURNOUT
- HIGHEST IMPACT SELF-CARE STRATEGIES
- WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO FOCUS ON CONTROLLABLES
- THE IMPORTANCE OF KINDNESS, COMPASSION AND SUPPORTING OTHERS
- TYPES AND PREVALENCE OF NEURODIVERSITY
- THE POSITIVE IMPACT NEURODIVERSITY HAS IN THE WORKPLACE
- AUTISM AND ADHD – COMMON BEHAVIOURS
- PRACTICAL ADVICE ON REASONABLE ADJUSTMENTS THAT HELP CREATE A PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE AND ACCOMMODATING NEUROTYPICAL ENVIRONMENT THAT ENABLES NEURODIVERSE PEOPLE TO SUCCEED
- HOW TO PREVENT AUTISM BURNOUT
Workshops for individuals
These workshops help people develop the core skills needed to thrive in organisations where uncertainty and change is the norm. They focus on developing the skills of resilience, flexible thinking, managing distraction and deepening connections and trust.
- BALANCING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
- Broad context regarding mental wellbeing
- The impact of living with uncertainty
- Understanding the role of the nervous system and how to keep it in balance
- How to practice rapid recovery (calm your nervous system quickly)
- HUNTING THE GOOD STUFF
- Understanding the impact of the negativity bias
- The importance of positive emotions and their impact on mental wellbeing
- The most important positive emotions to boost and techniques that work
- THE IMPACT OF LIVING WITH OPEN-ENDED UNCERTAINTY
- TECHNIQUES FOR DEALING WITH WORRY AND OVER THINKING
- HOW TO KEEP THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE
- HOW TO COPE WITH STRONG EMOTIONS
- HOW TO PRACTICE ACCEPTANCE
Content includes:
- THE IMPACT OF DISTRACTION AND INTERRUPTION ON PERFORMANCE
- THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISTRACTION AND TRACTION
- THE MOST USEFUL TOOL TO GET TRACTION ON THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK
- DEEP WORK VS SHALLOW WORK (WHY DEEP WORK IS IMPORTANT AND HOW TO GET IT DONE)
- HOW TO SINGLE TASK (VS MULTI-TASK) AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO DO SO
- HOW TO WORK WITH THE BODY’S NATURAL RHYTHMS
- HOW TO WORK IN INTERVALS
- HOW TO MANAGE INTERRUPTIONS
- WHY COMPLETE MIND REST IS IMPORTANT AND HOW TO PRACTICE IT
The workshop covers:
By the end of the workshop, participants should feel empowered with the knowledge and tools needed to proactively maintain positive relationships, combat feelings of isolation and thrive, even in remote work setting.
Guest Speaking
- THRIVING IN TIMES OF CHANGE
- DEVELOPING A POSITIVE MINDSET
- FOCUSING ATTENTION AND MANAGING DISTRACTIONS
- HEALTHY THINKING SKILLS
Meet our team
We asked some of our clients to describe us. They said we are passionate, knowledgeable, practical, down to earth and real. We make things simple and easy to apply in every-day life. We are positive, energising and supportive. We love what we do and this shows in our work.

Jane Davis
DIRECTOR
Jane is the Director of The Flourishing Institute and her professional training is in Organisational Psychology. She has been working in this field for over 30 years after starting her career as a Psychologist in the RNZAF. She has broad experience working with people across all levels, in NZ and overseas and in the private and public sectors. She has spent many years supporting people and teams in educational institutions as they have been impacted by significant change processes.
For the last 10 years, Jane has been a Positive Psychology Practitioner after being exposed to this field at the first conference of Positive Psychology in New Zealand in 2011. This experience lead Jane to develop her own programmes and workshops which draw on positive psychology research and practices. Jane enjoys research and reading and is constantly sourcing new material to add to her toolkit. Over the years she has developed an extensive toolkit of exercises, practices and techniques, all of which are available to her clients.
Jane is passionate about supporting people’s growth and development and most of her professional career has been focused on bringing out the best in people and teams. She is known for her calm, warm and empathetic manner which helps her easily connect to audiences, large and small. She is also down to earth and practical, enabling her to easily make the connection for people between what the research says and how to apply it in daily life. She is strongly focused on sustainable behavioural change and teaches participants how to embed any learning taken from her workshops.

Sara Philip
BUSINESS MANAGER
Sara is Business Manager for The Flourishing Institute and has a 25 year background in retail and food manufacturing. She is a Director of Baker Boys Ltd, a NZ-owned manufacturing bakery. Sara is passionate about being a mum to three children and being a supportive leader. She loves being fit and healthy, maintaining close connections with family and friends, cooking, gardening and running her dog – when she has time!
It has always been my dream to set up a business which has a goal of helping people to thrive, no matter what their circumstances. I love that we are able to make a positive difference to people’s lives. A great manager once said to me “Make sure you work somewhere where you run to work each day” and that’s me now.
– Jane Davis, Founder