Creating Mental Health Standards – Dr Ferron Gray

Connect with Dr Ferron Gray today: Dr Ferron Gray

Learn more about Dr Ferron Gray’s Work:  Grae Matta Foundation

This episode of Accessible Disruption features Dr. Ferron Gray, a highly specialized forensic psychologist and President of the Grae Matta Foundation. The non-profit organization helps businesses, institutions, and organizations develop mental health standards, policies, and campaigns that are specific to their industry. The foundation’s mission is to improve mental health in both the workplace and higher education. Dr. Gray was inspired to start the foundation after his goddaughter and her father both committed suicide following long waits for mental health services. He realized the core issue was a lack of sufficient policy, and sought to create industry-specific standards to ensure mental health services are fit for purpose.

Dr. Gray is currently working to create a mental health standard for the events industry, which he notes is one of the most stressful in the world. He explains that event professionals, often seen as “dream makers,” face unique stress due to a lack of boundaries with clients, who may not respect their off-hours. He believes a cultural shift is needed, and this can be achieved through policy and targeted public advertising, which would help clients understand and respect these boundaries. In addition to policy, Dr. Gray also discusses the importance of rest and sleep, suggesting that dedicated time off after an event should be built into the event plan to combat the habitual cycle of constantly moving from one project to the next.

When discussing how to create change, Dr. Gray advises that industries should not wait for governments, which are slow to act, but should instead take action themselves by creating their own policies and standards. He says that if enough businesses join a call to action, they can collectively create policies that will affect the entire industry. He also contrasts his work with academia and the events industry, noting that academia can be more daunting to work with because, despite being highly educated, they have mental health services that are “not fit for purpose” and staff who are severely stressed from helping students. He praises the IMEX group as an example of an organization doing well in supporting its staff and guests. For individuals and organizations looking to begin their mental health journey, he suggests small changes such as offering mental health days and encouraging structured breaks throughout the day. Dr. Gray’s final call to action is for organizations to “design resilience into their cultures” because the workforce of today and tomorrow demands it.

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Dr Ferron Gray: [00:00:00] If governments are proactively trying to change, change is a very, very slow process. We have understood that in order for to make real change, you have to influence policy.

Podcast Host: The world is changing. For most human beings. Change is uncomfortable and challenging to address whether you are a startup working on agile processes. Or a mature organization navigating change within existing complex structures, the mindset and skills to adapt has never been more vital. The team from the strategy table want to help the wider world understand the need and approach to meaningful and impactful change management, helping organizations navigate disruption and make change accessible to everyone.

This is Accessible Disruption.[00:01:00]

Anthony Vade: Welcome to Accessible Disruption, the podcast where we put a shining light on the concept of building resilient, adaptable, and collaborative teams. As usual, I'm gonna give you the spiel. Don't forget to follow, like, subscribe, and share this podcast. Wherever you have conversations like this, I'm pretty excited to jump into the content today 'cause it's something that I'm passionate about as all of these seem to be.

I don't know why we keep finding these amazing speakers that align to my way of thinking. It's almost like we're a little bit biased, but I think in a positive way because of what our end goals are, to hear. What are we talking about today and why does today's topic resonate with you?

Tahira Endean: Well, you know that I am like you.

I'm passionate about many things. But this one in particular, this is all about the state of the mental health of, we can start with the world, but we're gonna narrow it a little bit down to our beloved events [00:02:00] industry. And we have with us today, Dr. Faron Gray of the Gray Matter Foundation, and I just kept crossing paths with Faron at the beginning of the year and started, there's so much alignment in the work that needs to be done.

Anthony Vade: Such a great way to put it. And yes, you're right. This work does need to be done. Dr. Fair and Gray is the President of Gray Matter Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps institutions, organizations, and businesses develop mental health policies, standards, and campaigns which are specifically applicable to their industry.

Dr. Gray's a highly specialized forensic psychologist. He's a member of the Institute of Directors IOD, member of the Confederation of British Industries, CBIA, member of the B 20 Education and Employment Task Force representing the United Kingdom and the UK representative for the G 20 YE. A Young Entrepreneurs Alliance and some big projects coming, right.

Tahir,

Tahira Endean: he's working really specifically on a. [00:03:00] Really big project that I'm not gonna spoil. Welcome Dr. Gray to our podcast.

Dr Ferron Gray: Thank you for having me. And hello everybody.

Anthony Vade: Dr. Gray, can you shed a bit of light? How did you get involved in this movement and, and what drives you to, to keep this conversation around mental health in the workplace?

Uh, you know, top of mind for. People in all

Dr Ferron Gray: industries. The reason why I started this journey is because my, my goddaughter committed suicide at university, and then, and then a few months later, her father, he committed suicide. Both of them asked for help. So she asked the university for help and he asked his doctor for help.

The university said to her, there was an 18 month waiting list to see a talk therapist and gave her the choice of she can either wait or she can leave. And when her father, my friend, he asked his GP for help, the GP said there was a 15 month waiting list to see a [00:04:00] talk therapist. And yeah, they both couldn't wait that long.

Um, if anybody who has. Gone through Ill Mental health knows that when, if you are at the point when you're asking for help, you know you need help rather immediately. That was the reason for me. That sparked a interest in trying to understand what the problem was. And through using my contacts and government, I began to realize that the problem wasn't just sustainable services.

The problem was policy. And from that, I started my journey to. Create something that can do meaningful change. And then I started the Gray Matter Foundation.

Tahira Endean: So tell us a little bit about the Gray Matter Foundation. Let's start with that. Who you are, what it is.

Dr Ferron Gray: The Gray Matter Foundation is a mental health focus association with, uh, mandates, uh, and a mission to improve mental health in higher education in the workplace.

And we do this by creating industry specific mental health standards and policies. One of the things in [00:05:00] regards to why I started the foundation is because I realized that the problem with why mental health services would not necessarily fit for purpose was because insufficient policies were being created to point what services are supposed to look like.

And what I mean by sufficient, I basically mean there aren't, there weren't any. So, uh, for me, what I wanted to do was to make sure that. When services were being created, that the services were fit for purpose. And the way to do that was to create industry specific standards. And that is what we're doing.

And one of the industries we're focusing on this year is the event industries, because you guys are. Just amazing. And, um, there needs to be more done to help you guys because you have one of the most stressful jobs in the world. So

Anthony Vade: yeah, think gets talked about a lot, the whole most stressful jobs in the world.

In fact, Tahir and I were down in Austin recently, uh, speaking with a [00:06:00] bunch of event professionals and, and the topic came up. Uh, again, it's, it often gets said in the top five most stressful jobs. Uh, the others tend to be more towards first responders, uh, medical people dealing with, uh,

Tahira Endean: people actually saving lives.

Anthony Vade: Yeah. Literally saving lives. So it's really interesting. And you mentioned, uh, your work in higher education, uh, around mental health. I'm. I'm interested in your perspective on, on how do you think those different industries are different and, and does the role of an event professional belong in that sort of first responder category?

And, and, and what might be the differences? They are different

Dr Ferron Gray: to a point, but, um, when you get down to the core of things, um, they are all our workplace environments and workplace environment is basically, it's the same thing in regards to. The events industry, the events industry is, is a little bit different because you all are, again, what I like to call dream makers.

You, you have a very unique position where you are [00:07:00] creating events for people and for organizations. That, that need, um, someone who has a wider vision. And what is particularly difficult, and especially in regards to event planners or event professionals, is that because you are looking after an event and that event is particularly.

Special to whoever you are choosing to work with. The unfortunate problem that there is a stress that happens from event professional dealing with clients that do not understand the concept or boundaries. So for example, you are still going to be taking phone calls regarding a client after, well after maybe when work has finished.

So for example, I know with event professionals who are still taking calls. 9:10 PM when their official working hours finished at 5:00 PM because they're working with a client that is, um, that's important to them. For example, when you're looking at a, a wedding planner who is dealing with a wedding and they [00:08:00] are dealing with a bride who has questions about certain things that are happening, there are no boundaries there.

And if you're, if, if you've got a, uh, a professional who is, who is constantly working with client and there are no boundaries there, then it's going to affect their mental health eventually. And it's just something that. Unfortunately, it's become a cultural norm, and it shouldn't be because you wouldn't call your bank manager at 10:00 PM to talk to him about a mortgage, would you?

You'd have to. You have to stay within the boundaries of when the office is open, things need to be done, and in order to things to be done, there needs to be a cultural shift. And if that's the case, then we need to start looking at how we're going to address those change by policy.

Anthony Vade: Yeah, I think that's a, a classic example.

The Bridezilla adding the stress, 'cause to that bride, it's the most important day of their life, potentially. Mm-hmm. And so for them, their pressure and it's a short time in their life too, and I think they can forget. That for that event professional. It's just another event that they've put together. And, and I, I've seen similar [00:09:00] behavior even with subject matter experts, like doctors or academics as they're leading into a big, uh, international conference of some type.

Mm-hmm. And they've got the pressure to present their research and their findings and for them. That's a huge moment in their life to present that to that audience. So they're feeling the pressure and therefore pushing that pressure down onto the event professionals in the room on the day with that.

Mm-hmm. With all that anxiety, Tahir, I'm really interested in your perspective, uh, to this as well, and how do you respond to. To, to what Dr. Gray shared there.

Tahira Endean: I think that it's, it's all true and it, there is a lot of stress that is caused, uh, I'm actually really interested in the approach that you are taking and the next steps that you are considering in supporting the event industry as they look at how do we do a better job of managing and improving the mental health of an entire.

Industry, what are some of the next steps that we can start to think about?

Dr Ferron Gray: Well, [00:10:00] the next steps that we are doing is we are actively creating a, a scope of work. Is there a critical need in regards to a mental health service or a mental health? Policy for the events industry and, um, what that actively looks like.

Now. Uh, we have researchers that, that are actively doing that at the moment. Our plan is to have that document ready to be discussed in October. We're going to be, uh, talking about that document in IMX and imx, uh, America. The next step after that is to actively go about and do the work, build this standard.

Now, um, it's. The way how we want to do that is we are going to be asking the industry specific questions, uh, in regards to what a sustainable mental health service looks like for the industry, asking the industry in itself specific questions. I'm not entirely sure what it specific questions are because they will become from our research team, but they'll probably be framed along the lines of.

[00:11:00] What would the industry want in terms of, uh, answers to certain problems? Uh, maybe we'd be looking at framing and changing mindsets for our customers or for your customers shall, let's say, say for example, we were looking at some advertisement somewhere along the lines of. Event professionals are humans as well.

Meaning basically that we should respect event professional boundaries. You know, no calls after 6:00 PM That's that sort of thing. That's just part of the work that we wanna do because as well as obviously developing the standard that we want to do, we want to make sure that the public have a sense. Of the change that is happening.

So for example, if we're talking about things by doing some, doing some very nuanced advertising in regards to boundaries and event professionals, then when we release this piece of work to the event community, it won't just be something that will benefit the events community because of the advertising that we're doing as well.

That also will be in the background. So it'll be in the mindset of your clients. So when event professionals are start to adapt. And take on the work that we've [00:12:00] developed and they are really speaking to their clients in regards to the work, whatever the events that they're building and saying, no calls after 6:00 PM you know, it's a hard stop at 6:00 PM no calls will be answered, uh, after 6:00 PM or 5:00 PM or whatever, or whatever set time that they decide that there will be a hard stop.

So that's just something along the lines of what we, what we're gonna be doing. But I don't wanna talk too much about what we are gonna be doing because I want there to be somewhat of a bit of a surprise. Oh, we

Tahira Endean: love surprises. I think there's so much to unpack there, you know, with event professionals, um mm-hmm.

Which can cover, of course, corporate, corporate, brand, internal meeting and event professionals. It can cover all of the. Agencies that support many of those brands, it can cover the destination management companies that are on the ground, all of the production, all of the decor, like all of the suppliers that feed into the industry because it is actually impossible to work.

In a nine to [00:13:00] five framework, you know, we're gonna, no, of course we're doing overnight setups. We're doing early morning setups, we're doing late night strikes. We're doing events that start with your seven in the morning yoga, and then you end your midnight, your gala dance party for the events. And so when we're doing the work that.

Crafts that we're also quite often working globally, so now we're working across time zones. Mm-hmm. You know, even right now we're talking, I am eight hours behind Faron and five, three hours behind Anthony. Um, and that's a normal day for me. And lots and lots and lots of other event professionals. And so of course that plays into people's mental health as well because your mm-hmm.

Sleep and your rest can often be disrupted by just that basic fact of trying to talk to a client or a supplier that's in a different time zone. So whether we make this specific to the event industry or just actually a little bit bigger globally with some of the other work that you do and other clients that you work with, let's talk, can we talk a [00:14:00] little bit about rest and sleep and the.

Impact of that on productivity,

Dr Ferron Gray: rest, and sleep is very, very important. I will, I will hold my hands up and say that I do not get, I do not get enough rest or enough sleep for myself, and my staff will often tell me that, that I'm, I'm working too much. But, um. Hey, it is what it is. You know, things need to be driven forward.

And as much as I'm an advocate for, uh, everybody taking good care of their mental health, and I, I, I don't practice what I preach and I'm very much aware of that, but it is something that I am working on and it is a constant struggle. But, you know, there's lots to do, unfortunately. No, I think, you know, sleep is very important.

Rest is very important. One of the things that, that we will be implementing into the work we're doing is if an event professional is doing an event, one of the things we we're gonna be suggesting is there's going to be dedicated time off after the event. Built into the actual event build that way it just makes things a bit more structured [00:15:00] rather than just rolling straight into another event.

And I mean, and, and I know sometimes it's, that's not feasible based upon the workload that we have, but I think we have to, if we really want to make real change, we have to change not just mindsets, but we have to change. Things that are habitual, and I think it's very habitual. Rolling into another event.

Rolling into another event, rolling into another event. I think we have to try and do things that are hard and change is hard. Unfortunately. It is one of those things, but, and in, in the long run, I see it.

Anthony Vade: Okay, you're hitting on one of my hot topics here. I love talking about how hard change is for people, but before we do, we're gonna take this opportunity to take a short break where we can hear from some of our sponsors.

Now, of course, if the listeners want to experience this podcast ad free. And access extended versions of this and other podcasts, engage with additional resources and content that can help you explore these kinds of [00:16:00] conversations more deeply. Head over to strategy table.co strategy table.co, and sign up for your seat at the strategy table.

This will allow you to become one of our insider community members. Who are having these kinds of conversations and exploring the tools, the policies, the procedures, and the methods that will make wellness a priority within your organization. But for now, we're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back.

Tahira Endean: Change is hard. So this is Anthony's favorite subject. So Anthony, what would you like to ask about? Think about provoke about change.

Anthony Vade: First of all, I think it's interesting your point about rest because I travel a lot as well, and so I'm actually. A little bit, still a bit squirrely from my last trip 'cause I wasn't getting a full rest at night.

Even my sleep patterns, [00:17:00] I'd wake up every couple of hours in a different bed, in a different hotel and be a bit disoriented and, and so that, I don't think that rest was even proper deep rest that my brain needed for that, for that healthy, you know, neuroplasticity. Reprogramming of it. And, and then I like your idea as well of the time after the event 'cause, and I think there's even some benefit for event attendees.

Who have gone and had a sensory overload and received a lot of information during a 1, 2, 3, 5 week long event and experience to take some time to rest as well after that. And what we find often happens is, is reflection happens in that time as well. And some of the experience that they just had, cements a bit more in ideally positive behaviors heading forward.

But I, I'm, I'm interested as we look at. Change and we look at, at addressing mental health within workplaces in general. Zooming out a bit more, h how can industries and us included in the experience design world help [00:18:00] with that policy side of things? We can look at government and the change through government, as you know, really complex and, and given different regions, jurisdictions.

But what's a meaningful way that any industry professional that's interested in mental health can, can create an impact and work with organizations like yours to see that. Turn into real change, not just talking about change.

Dr Ferron Gray: You know, yes, you can reach out to your local government and talk to them. Um, and yes, they'll say that yes, that more needs to be done.

But to be honest with you, governments don't like change as much. As much as governments will say, we have to change. Governments don't like change. And if governments are proactively trying to change, change is a very, very slow process. So I think one of the reasons why we're going about the way to, to make the changes that we're doing is because.

We have understood that. In order for, to make real change, you have to influence policy. So in regards to us, so if someone wants to make mental health better in their [00:19:00] industries, not just their organizations, then um, one of the best ways how to do that is, uh, is. To create standards or start with an effective mental health policy for their organization so they can engage with us in regards to helping them build an effective mental health policy.

And then in the wider scope of things, uh, then start reaching out to who is responsible for policy for a particular industry, and then reach out to them and then have a conversation with them. I think talking to government. Won't help you create real change. What we have to do as businesses, if we want to create change, we have to do it ourselves.

It's the only way that change will happen if we're creating it from doing, from creating that change ourselves. And what will happen is that businesses will, will basically, effectively create a call to action. And if you have enough businesses that are joining in that call to action who are actually all saying the same thing, saying that same message, you can then start to create your own policies that will affect the industry.

So for example, [00:20:00] creating this international mental health standards for the events industry. Another standard we're looking at is, uh, an international mental health standard for the higher education sector. By doing that, we're also building in a framework of what a sustainable mental health service looks like.

Now, by doing that, you're doing two things. You are creating a policy that says that, right? This is the policy for the industry. And by creating a framework within the policy, you are basically saying to businesses, it's very clear this is what a mental health service looks like for the industry. Um, so if a business wants to.

Take on the standards, they can quite easily see the components that are necessary. For building the mental health services that they need.

Anthony Vade: We love frameworks at Strategy Table. It's one of our things we, you know, we like, we, we like, 'cause frameworks generally give you enough direction and enough constraint to really create impactful change, but enough freedom as well to be more agile for your specific community organization or [00:21:00] group.

And what, and what I heard there as an amazing potential that came to my mind is, it's. Similar to some of the environmental movement and sustainability, although, you know, there's some argument about how well that's progressing, but the idea of thinking global, but acting local, that, that, that, and so I, I love this idea of providing the tools, the frameworks, the standards.

Uh, the policy recommendations so that people can start to enact change within their smaller communities and through that cascade effect of all these different organizations working together to create that, that change, we can start to have that power of numbers. To help support that. Mm-hmm. And I think a lot of industries, whether it's in the events and meeting space or, uh, other, uh, other industry sectors that have associations and groups that support external to the business themselves.

So a representative industry associations have a great opportunity to help drive some of these conversations for entire industries, um, rather than as [00:22:00] some, uh, sit back a bit and let the industry settle all the stuff out, and then. Uh, sort of follow their lead rather than leading the charge, so to say.

Curious, the, what are the differences you see in, in the ways you might, might address this with academia versus, versus the events industry? Uh, I, I immediately think, well, we've got a bunch of educated people in academia that should be more aware of mental health, but, uh, does one seem more daunting to you than the other?

Dr Ferron Gray: Yes, it does actually. Academia is much more daunting than the events industry. Um, and it's, uh, because you would expect more from them and that's not the case. Yeah. With academia, we, there's a, there's a number of factors. You have to look at the student population and then as well as looking at the student population, you're looking at the staff as well.

And what we are finding is that there are. There are mental health services that are not fit for purpose that academia have in place. [00:23:00] And then you have staff who are severely stressed out because they are basically acting as defacto mental health counselors for their students because they're seeing how much their students are suffering.

And in doing so, the staff are having mental health breakdowns because they're helping the students. But then the organizations themselves. And not helping the staff, but in seeing this and also seeing how different cultures in different continents and we're seeing that there. There are trends there, but we're also seeing that, that you've got staff and students who want the change.

So by getting their feedback on the questions that we need answered, we're able to create real policy that fit for purpose and we can then. Create these documents and then give them to the institutions and say, this is basically what your services needs need to look like. And if an institution, for example, higher education turns around and says, oh, they're not gonna do [00:24:00] this, but they adopt the standards, well then questions will be asked, um, at the highest levels in regards to, if you are a global institution, why are you not adopting these standards and why you're not following these frameworks.

It will hold people accountable. And, um, it's, it's something that we're, we're, I'm very proud of that we're doing and we're making sure that we stick to it. And I think, um, in regards to, um, what everyone else is like, for example, other organizations or other industries, I think it's a lot easier to. To work with because everybody's very much aware of ill mental health.

And I think it's a case of what people are asking for now is, okay, we know that there is a mental health problem in various different industries. What do we do? You know, everybody right now is asking for guidance. How can we access services? You know, there are many, many, many, many great mental health services out there.

But unfortunately it is not clear on how those services should be accessed. And one of the things that we're doing in regards to the policies we're building is [00:25:00] that we're making it very, very clear in regards to how services will be accessed for Pacific Industries, and that's primarily one of the reasons why we're doing lockdown.

Tahira Endean: I'm just wondering if there's anybody that you see doing it well right now. If there's somebody that you would hold up as, here's an organization that are working to lead the way in how we can improve our mental health.

Dr Ferron Gray: In regards to the events industry is, um, one organization that, that I know of, that you know of actually Tahira that is doing very well in regards to how it takes care of its staff and how mental health should be addressed.

And that is the IMEX group doing very, very good things with it, with regards to, um, its people. And, uh, I think that more. People, more organizations should be following in its footsteps. So that's for the events industry. That's what I'll say.

Tahira Endean: Clearly. I do agree with that. Even though I don't work in the office.

I mean, we have five trained mental health first aider employees on staff and we have an [00:26:00] excellent people and talent organization and, and we really do try to bring a lot of things around. Supporting people who are coming to a show that is for sure a busy show that often people are traveling around the world to attend and find ways for them to have healthy food and lots of hydration and quiet spaces they can work and quiet spaces, they can just rest and, and all of those things.

So thank you. Um, thank you for recognizing that. Um, we really are trying, and of course, you know, you will be with us in America and talking to more industry members at imex. Um mm-hmm. About. How do you start to enable and enact some more standards for the industry, which I think is really important. What might be some tips that you could offer people as they, in some cases, are just beginning a journey of bringing mental health both into their organization in our industry, but you know, things that they could be doing to help [00:27:00] improve things and to start setting some standards?

Dr Ferron Gray: Well, in regards to. Little things they can do to, to implementing to the organizations. Um, something as small as like, um, if you, if they do have a physical, if you do work in a physical office, um, having people work from home because of the pandemic, you know, working from home became the norm. But I also think that working from home is something that people should be doing, but not.

I think having a break from working from home and working in the office, I think is a good balance because I think sometimes when you're working from home you can find that sometimes get tunnel vision and sometimes, uh, you need to make sure you take regular breaks to step outside. I also think mental health.

Days are a very good thing to implement. So for example, if again, if you are working in the office and you are feeling particularly stressed and taking a mental health day, then just gets you away from the office. Sometimes people. Taking a mental health day, they actually go home and they're, and they're working, but the difference is they're just working from home.

It's the [00:28:00] same with working from home, but if you don't have working from home as a normal thing in your setup, then maybe taking mental health days to do that will will effectively help that. Would

Tahira Endean: you suggest mental health moments? For example, I just saw something pop up in my IMEX calendar that said.

Meditation day. So if everybody could just take 10 minutes and go into the wellbeing room and just take a little quiet time, is that something that could help us? As an industry in general, if we encouraged people to just take some, take a little bit of quiet time while you're working to reset.

Dr Ferron Gray: Absolutely. I think any sort of break that you are able to take in your day is very beneficial. Often people, you work consecutively and you just move on to the next half, moving to the next task, moving to the next task, and I think it's really good to have breaks in your day. Structured breaks. Um. From 10 minutes to an hour.

You know, any of those things are really good. I mean, I've got a, got a friend that who works at Google [00:29:00] and um, they have naps and I think the whole concept of that, it was just crazy for me that would've worked. Could have a nap during the day. That's, it's a write off now. Einstein Naps,

Tahira Endean: right? It wasn.

Einstein was famous for napping. He had a little napping room beside his office. I personally. I do not actually know how Anthony feels about this, but I am a very good napper. I, um, you know, we learned that from a variety of sleep professionals that we've had speak over the years. One way of napping is to 20 minute power nap, so have a little espresso for those caffeine drinkers.

Mm-hmm. And then you lie down for 20 minutes, set your little alarm, and by the time that you have your 20 minutes, your caffeine has actually coarsed through your body and is now effective and poof, you feel better. And the alternative to that is the 90 minute nap, because actually 45 to 60 minutes doesn't give our body what it needs from a nap.

Podcast Host: Yeah.

Tahira Endean: So yeah. I [00:30:00] don't always have 90 minutes to nap in an afternoon. Let's be real. So I would definitely lean more towards the 20 minute refresh, but certainly I know if I am, even if I'm on vacation, like it's fun to go out and do things. But the biggest luxury sometimes is just that time to. Just lie down and shut the world out.

You know? It's, um, also something that we, I'm actually no longer allowed to plan vacations at my house because apparently they were mummy marathons. My, I'm not so good at leisure time. Anthony, how do you feel about napping? Uh,

Anthony Vade: the, the older I get, the more my propensity starts to head towards it. Uh, traditionally not at all.

Can't nap. Yeah. I'm wiped out for the rest of the day if I try to do it. Um, I, and I. Often find it hard. I think maybe a little bit of the A DHD brain go going on in me that I tend to be thinking about stuff anyway, and especially during the workday, but I have tried other things that I found very productive.

Luckily, I work from home [00:31:00] full-time or in our client's offices, so when I'm at home around the midday sort of mark, I, I try, if the weather's good, being in Toronto, try to go outside. And get a bit of biophilia time out in the garden, even pulling up weeds. I told a colleague that once and they're like, oh my God, I couldn't think of anything worse than pulling weeds in the garden and it's some of my best time.

I like your napping. And I thought of Salvador Dali. Who would hold a key in his hand over a plate so that he could get that almost asleep. 'cause he is let, he'd let the key go, the plate would clank and he'd wake up. And in that moment of the in-between rest, sleep, and awareness, he'd come up with surrealist ideas.

So I think making space for thinking and for creativity and, and innovative thought is, is, is a big part of my practice and should be for everybody, whether you're in a creative field or, or not, to really have. That almost white space, even though you may be thinking about work, uh, but away from your [00:32:00] desk and away from the screens and the ping pop, ping ping of emails and teams messages and all of that chaos can be really beneficial and I think will deliver results for business as well, not only for positive mental health, but some of the creativity and innovation that can come out of that We're starting to run out of.

Time on this episode, which is crazy 'cause I feel like we could talk all day on this, but we have a promise that we will never be a, uh, a podcast marathon. We want to give some nice, what I know, I won't name the ones, you know the ones that are out there. They also have a bold man on them. But. For the sake of our audience and to continue this focus on taking action.

Dr. Gray, what's the best way for, for our audience to connect with you and the foundation and, and how can they help to promote this movement and this and this cause that you are setting out for the world? Well, they can connect

Dr Ferron Gray: with me on LinkedIn. My name is Faron Gray. Za, [00:33:00] F-E-R-R-O-N-G-R-A-Y. Uh, the foundation is on LinkedIn as well.

Gray Mass Foundation. It can. The Foundation's website is gray mass foundation.org. We're visual. We're friendly. Please come say hello. In terms of how others can join our movement, they can. Reach out to us and, and talk to us about what mental health is like in, in their offices, regardless of industries.

Um, and, and talk to us about, uh, what they're doing and what they would like to be done or, or what they would like changing. Um, I think just come and say hello and then we'll take it from there. I think the journey of making change in mental health, there's no real, there's no real wrong answers. All ideas start somewhere.

Um, but I think one takeaway I probably will say is organizations must design. Resilience into their cultures, and if they don't, then well, they won't survive and the best people will go elsewhere. We're in a time right now where the, the workforce of today and tomorrow [00:34:00] demanding more and if you're not doing more won't survive.

Tahira Endean: That is sound advice building in re. Now people can also, if they are attending IMEX this year, you will be doing some work around the potential for the standards of the future and inviting some voices in. Mm-hmm. So they'll be able to sign up for that once the program launches at the end of August and be part of the solution.

Dr Ferron Gray: That's right. We're they're creating a solution and it's accessible for all. So please come join us.

Anthony Vade: What I love from all of this conversation and perhaps. My usual call to action as we put at the end of all of these, uh, is exactly that. It is a call to action, reach out, connect, engage in this conversation at whatever level as we've talked about from your small community group, from your family and friends, through your workforce, into your industry, and out to the wider world.

And, and through that shared action of conversation, we can, we can make some change happen. And with that, I think we'll wrap up this episode. We're gonna have to welcome you back for [00:35:00] another, uh, maybe post imex conversation about what you learned, what you've learned about the events industry at that event.

Uh, but for now, we've enjoyed talking at our audience. And we'll catch you on the next accessible disruption.

Podcast Host: Accessible Disruption is written and spoken by Tahira and Dean Ryan Hill and Anthony Vade. All content is developed in collaboration with the team at Strategy Table Podcast Production by Experience Design Change Inc.

An association with the change lead network. Find more [e-mail].