Most leaders know trauma-informed practice matters. What’s harder is knowing what it actually looks like on a Tuesday morning, in a real workplace, with real people.

Angela Crockwell has been blazing that trail for years. As Executive Director of Thrive in St. John’s, an organization supporting people navigating exploitation, addiction, homelessness, and complex trauma, she’s built one of the most thoughtful workplaces around. And what makes her approach so compelling is how practical it is.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman sits down with Angela to unpack what trauma-informed leadership actually looks like in practice, and why these skills matter far beyond social services.

In this episode: • The difference between being trauma-aware and truly trauma-informed • Why “leave your personal life at home” doesn’t work • How to balance accountability with psychological safety • Why boundaries at work protect everyone, including leaders • The 15-minute rule for difficult conversations • How curiosity changes the way we respond to people under stress

If you lead people, this conversation will change the way you think about communication, conflict, and support at work.

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts! https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com/

Join our Patreon Community! https://patreon.com/WiredtoWork?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&utm_content=copyLink

Most organisations pour money into wellbeing programmes and still end up with teams that are flat, disengaged, and just getting through the week. The problem isn't the programme. It's the target.

Behavioural neuroscientist Dr. Paul Zak has spent 30 years studying what actually makes people - and teams - thrive. His research shows the brain has a measurable mechanism for the value it gets from experiences, trackable second by second. And when you know what that data looks like across your organisation, the engagement survey starts to look like a very blunt instrument.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess sits down with Dr. Zak to dig into the neuroscience of thriving teams, and what leaders can actually do about it.

What's covered:

Why wellness is too low a bar, and what the thriving brain actually looks like The neuroscience of psychological safety, measured, not surveyed
What the data says about remote work, in-person, and where your team actually thrives
Why autonomy and communicating the "why" separate high-immersion workplaces from everyone else
"Train extensively, delegate generously" — and why most leaders only do one

If you're responsible for building a team that doesn't just perform, but actually thrives, this one is for you.

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts! https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com/

Join our Patreon Community! https://patreon.com/WiredtoWork?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&utm_content=copyLink

• (00:00:00) - How to Build a Well-Being Brain
• (00:00:40) - Wired to Work: Trust in the Workplace
• (00:01:41) - Immersion and the Way it Matters for Work
• (00:08:07) - Back to Work: The Case for Personal Time
• (00:09:46) - The Key Moments of Life
• (00:12:31) - Employee Wellbeing and Work
• (00:16:18) - The importance of meeting people in person
• (00:21:50) - The Future of Working From Home
• (00:23:20) - Key Moments on the Six app
• (00:27:51) - The Key Moments of the Workforce
• (00:28:54) - Have You Asked Your Boss About High Stress?
• (00:30:37) - High-Immersion Businesses: The Need for autonomy
• (00:36:39) - How to talk to an employee about their job
• (00:39:52) - What Do Organizations Need to Know About Employee Well-Being
• (00:45:06) - E3CA: Working In The World of Work

You’ve had the conversation.
You were clear. Direct. Professional.

…so why didn’t anything change?

Because feedback isn’t about what you say.
It’s about how the other person experiences it.

And most people get that wrong.

In Part 2 of this series, Jess Chapman breaks down the structure behind feedback that actually works, introducing the NISA framework.

A simple, practical way to:

• start conversations without triggering defensiveness
• show you understand the other person (so they actually listen)
• explain impact in a way that matters to them
• and move from conversation → behaviour change

This isn’t about being nicer.
It’s about being effective with real humans.

If your feedback isn’t landing, it’s not random.
There’s a reason. And a fix.

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen: https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com/
Join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wiredtowork

• (00:00:00) - How to Get a Bad Person to Change Their Behavior
• (00:00:50) - How to Make Feedback More Annoying
• (00:06:29) - "I hear your intention" in the following conversation
• (00:07:27) - How to Manage Time in a Meeting
• (00:10:28) - Lesson 6 on Validating Intent and Talking to People
• (00:16:07) - E3CA: Working In The World of Work

More than two thirds of people say they want more feedback. Fewer than a third feel they're actually getting it. What's getting in the way? Your brain (and your team's brain!) is wired to read feedback as a social threat. It can shake your sense of status, belonging, fairness, and certainty all at once. And if you walk in carrying the wrong energy, your body language transmits it before you open your mouth. Jess calls it "going in crispy" - and once you're crispy, you've already lost the room. In Part 1 of this Wired to Work series on feedback, Jess breaks down the neuroscience of why feedback is so hard to give and receive.. and how to set up the conditions that make it actually land.

What's covered: Why more than two thirds of people want more feedback but fewer than a third feel they're getting it The SCARF model: why the brain treats feedback as a social threat Why "I don't have time for feedback" is really a value-versus-complexity problem How to normalize feedback before you ever sit down for a hard conversation Why going in "crispy" puts your team on defense before you've said a word Warm and direct: why vague kindness makes feedback land worse, not better If you lead people and you've ever avoided a feedback conversation you knew you should have had - this one's for you.

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts! ⁠https://www.wiredtowork.castos.com/

• (00:00:00) - How to Have a Feedback Conversation
• (00:00:38) - Wired to Work: Feedback Episode 3
• (00:01:34) - The Need for More Feedback
• (00:03:57) - Why We Find Feedback So Difficult
• (00:07:16) - The New Normalization of Feedback
• (00:09:49) - As we normalize feedback conversations,
• (00:14:29) - How to Have a Good Feedback Conversation with Someone

• (00:00:00) - How to manage burnout effectively
• (00:00:41) - Wired to Work: How to Manage Stress and Burnout
• (00:02:01) - The signs of burnout
• (00:08:13) - What is burnout and how can we manage it?
• (00:10:20) - Understanding the need for resilience
• (00:14:33) - Have We Lost Our Values? Burnout
• (00:15:50) - What about work-life balance?
• (00:19:17) - Bradley on burnout and the culture of the business
• (00:27:43) - On Perimenopause and Leadership
• (00:34:18) - Understanding the Emotions of Coaches
• (00:39:13) - Self-Care and the Healthy Mind
• (00:46:37) - The Neuroscience of Burnout
• (00:49:04) - A Day in the Life With Sheri

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman sits down with strategic HR professional Meghan Morrison to unpack why workplace learning so often fails to create real change, and what it would take to make learning actually stick.

They explore why sending someone to a workshop is not the same as helping them grow, why application matters more than attendance, and why learning has to be built into the way work happens rather than added on after the fact.

You’ll hear:

• why classroom training alone rarely changes behaviour

• why application, reflection, and feedback matter more than binders and certificates

• how leaders can make learning part of everyday work without spending a fortune

• why mentorship, shadowing, and debriefing are often more powerful than formal courses

• what the 70-20-10 model looks like in real life

• how to help people take ownership of their growth instead of waiting to be “sent” to learn

• why teams need space to ask questions, make mistakes, and reflect in real time

This conversation is for leaders, HR teams, and anyone trying to build a workplace where people keep learning instead of just attending training.

If you’ve ever wondered why development plans go nowhere, why training gets forgotten, or how to make learning part of culture, this one is for you.

Wired to Work with Jess Chapman. Watch or listen whereever you get your podcasts! https://lnkd.in/ezzK9CVZ

Most workplace “relationship problems” aren’t personality problems. They’re pressure problems.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman sits down with leadership coach Kate Franklin to unpack why stress turns reasonable people into version-2.0 disasters.. and why “just be more resilient” is NOT the answer.

You’ll hear:

•Why chronic pressure makes behaviour worse (and normalizes it)

•The real reason your boss relationship shapes your work more than your job description does

•How to get useful feedback (up and down the hierarchy) without setting off a threat response

•Two simple tools that cut through drama fast: “turn the complaint into a request” and the 15-minute rule (let it go or talk about it)

•A practical check-in habit that lowers friction in five minutes

If you’ve ever thought, “Is it them… or is it me?” — this one’s for you.

✉️ Get in touch at: contact@ethree.ca

Follow us:

Instagram - @ethreeconsulting

LinkedIn - ethree-consulting | Neuroworks

Website: https://www.ethree.ca | https://neuroworks.ca/

HR Toolkit!: https://www.ethree.ca/hr-toolkit/

Fight. Flight. Freeze. Flock.

These are the four ways your brain responds to stress — and they show up at work more often than you think.

In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman breaks down what’s actually happening when you react instead of respond — and why stress makes it harder to think clearly in the moment.

This isn’t about personality or willpower. It’s about how the brain processes threat.

Jess explains:

• what’s happening in the brain when stress levels rise

• why the amygdala triggers fast, emotional reactions

• how the prefrontal cortex (“brain CEO”) gets disrupted

• the four stress responses: fight, flight, freeze, and flock

• why social threat at work feels as real as physical danger

• how chronic stress increases reactivity and reduces reasoning

She also shares four practical ways to handle these moments:

• how to identify what’s triggering the reaction

• how trust lowers emotional intensity

• what to do when someone is reacting in real time

• how to reduce uncertainty and create psychological safety

If you’ve ever thought “Why did that escalate so quickly?” — or found yourself reacting in ways you didn’t intend — this episode will give you a clearer way to understand and manage those moments at work.

Welcome to Wired to Work.

✉️ Get in touch at: contact@ethree.ca

Follow us:

Instagram - @ethreeconsulting

LinkedIn - ethree-consulting | Neuroworks

Website: https://www.ethree.ca | https://neuroworks.ca/

HR Toolkit!: https://www.ethree.ca/hr-toolkit/

Wired to Work is a Double Barrel Production