Ep. 1 - Getting a Team on Board: Coaching, Confidence and Psychological Safety

🎙 Episode 1 - Getting a Team on Board: Coaching, Confidence and Psychological Safety

In this 20 minute episode we speak with Amanda Cummins and Karen Nelson from South London NHS  Mental Health Trust,  about how a team with lived experience of mental health commissioned and co-designed a wellbeing- and communication focused coaching and workshop programme.

This conversation offers a personal look at how collaborative commissioning, psychological safety and staff involvement came together to create a programme that really engaged staff. It met people where they were — acknowledging the realities of lived experience, imposter syndrome and identity — and worked because it followed an emergent, adaptive approach rather than a rigidly fixed plan.

There’s a lovely humour and warmth running through this episode. It’s filled with ideas on how to commission collaboratively, insights into whether one coach working with people from the same team can be effective, and tips for those wanting greater return on investment from coaching by partnering closely with their coach.

You’ll hear how the Trust’s challenge was to help staff build the confidence to speak up, reflect on their wellbeing and identity, and invest in learning that was both personal and systemic — connecting individual growth to wider organisational change.

 

Tight L&D budgets, big ambitions, constant pressure? 1AM talks shares what really works in L&D.

 

⏱ Episode guide

00:00 – Introduction: meet hosts Andry McFarlane and Rachael Palmer; how 1AM Talks brings 360° views from L&D commissioners, facilitators and participants.

01:05 – Imposter syndrome & confidence: Amanda Cummins and Karen Nelson share how coaching supported promotion and wellbeing.

04:50 – The commissioning challenge: designing L&D for staff with mental health and carer lived experience.

07:20 – Designing for emergence: how the programme evolved through reflection and feedback.

10:40 – Creating psychological safety: linking lived experience and anti-racism objectives to Trust strategy.

14:05 – Systemic and relational coaching: building learning that extends from individual to organisation.