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Hi there, welcome back to Slice of Pie with me, Pete Jackson, the podcast dedicated to understanding the psychologically informed environment. Ahead of season two, which will be out in the next week or so, I've decided to look back at season one and attempt to bring together some of the key themes. I'm also releasing a blog post alongside this episode, so if you are interested, head over to medium.com forward slash at Pete Jackson if you want to check that out as well. So, season one. A global pandemic consigns you to your tiny flat for five months. How do you spend your time in confinement? Is it puzzles, pub quizzes, praying that you are safe and healthy? Do you run? Drink? Do you run then drink? Like me, you may have done all of the above. And like me, you may have been one of the gazillions of people worldwide who thought it would be a good time to start a podcast. Sidebar, I've been really enjoying the Sport Psychology podcasts through Lockdown, The Sports Psych Show with Dan Abrahams, The Sport Psych Network with Matthew Draper, The D Set Northern Hub, Demystifying Mental Toughness with David Charlton, Supporting Champions with Steve Ingham, The Focus Mind podcast with Stuart Holiday. There are so many great ones out there. For a psychologist in training, that is an Aladdin's cave of great content out there to prompt learning around well-being and performance. So big hand to all of you putting content out there. It is much appreciated. But back to this podcast. Now, this episode is an attempt to summarise and interrogate some of the key themes that came through in the first season. And specifically the one question the majority of guests on the show have been asked: what does a psychologically informed environment look like to you, or what does it mean to you? In analysing the patterns, I've tried to take as scientific approach as possible. However, the qualitative researchers amongst you, I'm sure, will poke a few holes in the following process. I transcribed every answer to the question, then I pulled out the common patterns, coded them into themes, and then threw out what I deemed to be obvious or uninteresting for a bit of purposeful researcher bias. The result was eight key themes, which I'll run through now. So the pie. Where do you start? Well, summarising the pie is hard. It is complex. As Professor Mark Jones pointed out in episode 5, in 30 years' time or 50 years' time, there will still be podcasts about psychologically informed environments because it is complex. And because it's complex and context-specific and changing and subjective to every person within that environment, another thing that guests were passionate about stressing was that Pies should be person-centred. Or as Switch the Play CEO Leon Lloyd told me in episode 3, that is a tough question. My interpretation of it is linked to our Switch the Play core values, being person-centred. It's around the individual and about how to help them thrive in that environment. Leon also followed up over email recently to add the following I feel I have a responsibility to try and create an environment catered to the individual, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach. Now, Dr. Mustafa Saka had a similar definition of the pie, which he shared with us in episode one. He said, creating an environment that takes into account the psychological makeup of individuals, and whether that's people's emotions, people's personalities, their past experiences, their cultures, their values. It's understanding that the environment needs to take into account people. For me, that's simply speaking what a psychologically informed environment looks like. Understanding how you as a coach or a manager can shape the environment that brings the best out of people. At the heart of this person-centred approach, many of the guests were very passionate about creating environments that prioritised a well-being focus. In episode 4, Dr. Josephine Perry articulated it in the following way. She said, I would say a pie would be where well-being is put ahead of performance. And when you do that, it usually improves performance. I tend to notice that when you put performance first, it usually harms well-being. You get burnouts, you have a short career, and you don't perform particularly well. Dr. Jonathan Katz, in the final episode of the season, also shared some thoughts along a similar line. He said, I guess in summary, at the centre of a pie there needs to be what I would call, in quotes, a human language, which promotes the emotional and personal appreciation within the performance setting, rather than treating the performance setting that is separate from the athlete in quotes rest of their lives, and dispenses with the view that the athlete must put their sport first at all costs. Jonathan followed up over email recently to add the following. He said, I strongly enforce the notion that an athlete's performance is both driven by and a reflection of who they are as a person, thus nurturing personal psychological well-being underpins and supports their athletic performance. And who are we talking about when we say things like person-centred and well-being focused? In this context, we might assume it is an athlete or a performer, but many were keen to stress that supporting the support staff is just as important. Hannah Stoyle in episode 11 mentioned that I think the psychologically informed environment is one that supports an athlete, no matter if it's inconvenient, or a coach for that matter. Coaches need that support as well. So, we're halfway through the eight themes. We've acknowledged that the pie is complex and therefore it should be person-centred, as well as looking at it through the lens of a well-being focus, and that this scope also includes support staff as well as the performers. Sounds neat and tidy, right? Well, the tough thing with pies is that they are constantly changing, therefore, you have to be proactive in how you attend to them as they evolve over time. This was beautifully articulated by Helen Davis in episode 6. She said, I very much believe it is a collective process, that it takes time and investment and effort, and it's an ongoing process. Because it's an ongoing process, you then have chances to reflect, and I believe that reflection allows all those involved in the environment to evolve as they work and move forwards together, which hopefully then develops a consistency of approach, possibly through sufficient guidance from effective leadership that can promote that. This is something I call a proactive culture. As Helen mentions, keeping tabs on this constantly changing and evolving pie requires effort and investment, but it can also benefit from ongoing evaluation, assessment, and feedback. National Research Lead for TAS, Dr. Emma Vickers, brought a refreshing research perspective to the Pi. She said, For me, it's an environment that really absorbs and implements research and theory. So it's about saying, okay, I want to do something to improve this environment, so I'll look at what information is out there in order for me to do that. It needs someone to drive it, and you need to assess what you're inputting into that system is having an impact. There's no point testing out a new thing and not finding out whether it's actually had an impact on the athletes or the performance or the well-being of that population. It constantly needs to be tested. Right, we're reaching the final stretch, which is where we get to the benefits of a psychologically informed environment. The so what bit. What are we all doing this for? When I started the podcast, it was started with a broad aim to discover how performance and well-being might be supported across different types of pies, but through the podcast journey, I'm starting to uncover subcomponents of these two broad elements. One of these is meaning or meaning and purpose, which was mentioned by Professor Mark Jones. He said, One thing that I think is interesting, we talk about sometimes being able to learn from different environments. I was always struck by the Ugov survey around meaning in occupations, and that 37% of people work in jobs that they don't think has any meaningful contribution to the world. And I think that's really interesting. I know meaning has been explored a lot in psychology, and so I think that's interesting. Purpose and meaning matter. The other component was growth and development, and this was mentioned many times and passionately advocated for by the Tennis Scotland consultant and LTA performance tutor Chris Souter. He said, The development of them as a person alongside them as a tennis player, that would be the first thought that would come to me. If you were doing it as an educational piece, I would be saying to a coach or player that I don't care what ranking you get to, I care that you are happy, you are healthy, you are learning, and you are developing. Everything, my core philosophy in terms of player development, is around those four pillars. So, there you have it. The Pi. It's a complex thing that benefits from a person-centered approach and one that underpins with a well-being focus, which not only covers performers but encompasses support staff as well. It requires an ongoing, proactive and evaluative feedback loop which requires time and investment, but it's worth it when helping to give performers and support staff a sense of meaning and purpose as well as that growth and development. A big big thanks to all the guests that contributed to this evolving model, this conceptualization of the pie. As always, I'll pop their social links into the description so you can keep up to date with all the great things that they are doing in sport, psychology, stress, coaching, transitions, dual careers, resilience, eating disorders, and many, many other interesting areas of inquiry. If you have any thoughts, comments, or reflections on this end-of-season episode, feel free to reach out via email, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever digital network suits you. I look forward to seeing you again for the second season of Slicer Pie very soon. Lots of exciting conversations with Dr. Jamie Barker, Elliot Newell from the English Institute of Sports, there'll be a fellow trainee Sykes perspective from Louise Byrne, the second half of the Social Identity episode with Matt Slater and Chris Hartley, and many more guests besides. So I hope you'll join for an episode or two. In the meantime, if you have time to leave a review on iTunes or Apple Podcasts, that would be fantastic. But otherwise, thanks again for listening. Take care and catch you soon.