About

Peter Berrisford - Healthy Working Life founder

My Background

To quote one of Robert A. Heinlein’s characters, “Specialization is for insects”. As you may guess, I regard myself to be something of a generalist. I have found this to be invaluable, as it enables a rich cross-fertilisation across domains, in terms of knowledge, skills and concepts. With this in mind, I’ll commence with a description of my background from an Information Technology (IT) perspective.

Qualified to honours degree level in Computing Science, I have over thirty years of experience working in a wide variety of IT roles, across an extensive range of organisational settings, including central and local government, educational and research communities, finance, motor sport, transport and logistics. In addition to the UK and New Zealand, my work has taken me to fascinating locations such as San Diego and CERN.

Prior to my current Social Entrepreneur 'identity', my roles have included Senior Analyst Programmer (I’ve programmed using over 30 languages), Trainer, Database Application Specialist, Director, Data Applications Manager, Learning Technology Consultant, Senior Support Analyst, Integration Consultant, Transition Manager, Solution Architect, Enterprise Architect.

My favourite role has been that of Consultant Architect – I love the mixture of people, technologies and business, plus the satisfaction of delivering solutions and capabilities that meet real business need. I have also noted over many years that it is predominantly the people and the decisions made that affect eventual project outcome, rather than the technology.

Over the course of my career(s), I’ve had great successes and great failures. To quote Albert Einstein, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” I have always endeavoured to understand the key factors that influenced my successes and my failures.

I am also a violinist and love playing in orchestras. I currently enjoy playing in a variety of orchestras in the Aylesbury (UK) vicinity, following a wonderful period leading the second violin section in the Kāpiti Concert Orchestra in New Zealand. I have also studied Qi Gong and Tai Chi for a number of years, which has influenced the holistic nature of my thinking, as well as providing health benefits.

Why Focus on The Healthy Workplace?

The eagle-eyed amongst you who have avidly read my LinkedIn profile, may have spotted a reference in the IA Systems Ltd entry to the provision of HR training relating to Sustainable Working Practices. This reflects that the first iteration of this work was delivered two decades ago. The following section elaborates upon the historical context for this work.

It is important to note that my considerable exposure to the sometimes-harsh realities of the business world enables me to genuinely understand whether the Healthy Working Life approach works in a real-life context. I’m driven by a need to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved in a real, pragmatic and sustainable way.

The final point I will cover in this section is that I was provisionally diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 2020, with a formal diagnosis in May 2022. This has been a relief in a way that only other late-diagnosed neurodivergent individuals can really appreciate. It has helped me to finally understand some of the challenges I have faced in my life, but also helped to explain some of my great achievements. I find it rather unfortunate that that being autistic can carry such negative connotations - it's even built into the medical terminology. Effective accommodations to enable and support healthy neurodiversity in the workplace can be highly challenging - one of my key business objectives is to transform the business environment to naturally accommodate the wide range of working styles that exist across a diverse workforce.

I now understand that I have my autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) attributes to thank for having been able to clearly see opportunities for improvement in how we work and for my determination to not accept the status quo, especially as it turns out that everyone wins from achieving truly healthy, diverse working practices.

My diagnosis has driven the creation of an additional ‘arm’ of my business, focusing on neurodiversity in the work context. Since the summer of 2020, I have discovered some wonderful published research relating to autism, ADHD, etc. (much of it by researchers with 'lived experience'), which is of major relevance to achieving neurodiverse equity in a work setting, but an astonishingly small amount of this has been applied to a meaningful degree. It would seem that my background, my range of experience and my capabilities place me in a unique position to be able to translate the implications of this research into a real-world work setting. Some great collaborative projects are already in the pipeline to make this a reality.

Healthy Working Practices for All

Neurodiversity at Work

The Evolution of The Healthy Working Life Approach

In the mid-to-late 1990s, I invested significant time into the study and practice of Chinese health systems, in the form of Qi Gong and Wu-style Tai Chi. I had previously studied and briefly taught Yang-style Tai Chi, but realised that I had no real insight into how genuine health benefits could be achieved. I had therefore sought out and commenced studying with a new teacher, who very quickly disabused me of the notion that I was anything other than a beginner (in a manner worthy of a film).

I travelled into the City of London three nights a week to attend three-hour training sessions covering Qi Gong, Tai Chi and Ba Gua. I was incredibly lucky to be trained by a highly skilled and dedicated instructor, who has trained with the lineage holder of Wu-style Tai Chi and other world-class masters. When I discussed the idea of taking some of this high-quality health work into the workplace in the City, I met surprising resistance from my fellow students, with one stating that he did not wish to ‘contaminate’ his relaxing health practices with the dire day-to-day reality of his work.

It was at this point that I realised that achieving any real form of healthy working had to holistically consider the whole work context – no one aspect of the working experience can be considered in isolation. It is necessary to iteratively identify and handle key work stressors in order to attain any meaningful form of relaxed, productive and rewarding work. I therefore formed a company at the end of 1998 that allowed me to commence the development of a new "Healthy, Sustainable Working" framework and method that would enable healthy working for anyone in any role.

In 2001, I rolled out some initial “Sustainable Working” training courses based upon a prototype framework. These were delivered to local businesses and at a series of Kenyan diaspora events. Interest was also building in the corporate space, but then 9/11 happened, which transformed the business context and killed the evolving business overnight.

Based upon initial course feedback, I decided that the Healthy Working Framework and the underpinning theory required further research and development. Following the completion of a set of studies, which I’ll write about separately as they were highly informative, my core focus returned to my IT career and the Healthy Working R&D continued as a background task.

The core theory and the framework continued to evolve for the next seventeen years, with comprehensive input from various sources in the UK and New Zealand and feedback from a network of reviewers. I also undertook a wide-ranging study of published research from a number of fields (the Harvard Business School has consistently been an invaluable source of input on the HR and Management front). At a certain point, the framework and method stabilised – the Healthy Working Framework V1.0 had been realised.

This is where I’ll highlight one of my core skills, which has proved to be invaluable. Albert Einstein stated that, “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether they are the garbage man or the president of the university.”. This reflects my natural approach – I’ll happily talk very openly to anyone, at any level, and they tend to respond in kind.

This does place significant responsibility upon me, as some senior people in a range of organisations have told me in confidence about a reality in their organisation which didn’t necessarily align with the official story. This was important from a research perspective, as the application of the framework carries a predictive capability – given set ‘x’ of working practices, you will typically see ‘y’ outcome(s). Without an accurate picture of the actual outcomes, it is challenging to validate a predictive model.

So, at long last, the Healthy Working Framework and method have matured to the point where they are ready for a proper rollout. This website is the beginning of that journey.

Got a Question?

If you have any questions about my training courses, resources, or anything else, please get in touch.

Get in Touch

Subscribe Now