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Legal & General Construction Wellbeing Programme · Talk 1 of 10

Flexible Thinking

Toolbox Talk: Mental Resilience on Site

At a Glance

Our thoughts shape how we feel and act. When we're under pressure on site, tight deadlines, difficult clients, long hours away from family, it's easy to fall into negative thought patterns that make everything feel worse. Flexible thinking is the ability to step back, challenge unhelpful thoughts, and choose a more balanced response. It's a skill you can build.

In the Ownminder App · Flexible Mind

The Flexible Mind section helps you rewire negative thought patterns using techniques rooted in cognitive behavioural therapy.

  • Think Different: Four-step process to identify a stress-causing thought, challenge it against the facts, find an alternative perspective, and choose a more rational response.
  • Thought Traps: Identifies the nine most common negative thought traps, including Black & White Thinking, Catastrophising, Mind Reading and Fortune Telling, with worked examples for each and a 'Build it in My Week' nudge.
  • Worry Thoughts: Helps you distinguish between 'imagined' worries (things not in your control) and 'real' worries you can problem-solve, reducing overthinking and anxiety.
  • Do Different: Prompts you to break habitual patterns of behaviour to build brain flexibility, even small changes rewire neural pathways.

Discussion Questions

  1. How does the DEASC conversation model, Describe, Express, Acknowledge, Specify, Consequence, help you open a conversation with someone who seems stuck in negative thinking?
  2. What thought patterns do you notice in yourself when things get tough at work?
  3. Have you ever talked yourself into, or out of, something that turned out not to be true?
  4. How could flexible thinking help your team when pressure increases on site?
  5. What would help you or a colleague challenge unhelpful thinking before it escalates?
  6. What one commitment will you make to think more flexibly this week?

Recognising the Signs

Rigid thinking shows up as all-or-nothing beliefs: 'This job is a disaster,' 'I can never get anything right.' It also appears as catastrophising, assuming the worst is certain, or mind-reading, assuming you know what others think. On site, these patterns increase stress, reduce communication, and raise safety risk. Recognising your own thought traps is the first step to breaking them. The Men's Health Strategy for England (2025) identifies construction as a priority setting. Flexible thinking is one of the five L&G Resilience Model elements, and the most evidence-based tool for reducing the psychological risk behind the sector's 3.7x suicide rate.

Things to Try

Scan the site QR code to open Ownminder and go to the Flexible Mind section. It uses evidence-based CBT techniques to help you spot and shift unhelpful thought patterns. Techniques to practise:

  • Thought challenging, ask: is this thought based on facts or feelings?
  • The best friend test, what would you say to a mate who thought this?
  • Find the grey, most situations are not all-good or all-bad
  • Behavioural experiment, test your assumption instead of assuming it's true

Reduced Stress

Challenging negative thoughts lowers cortisol and physical stress responses.

Better Decisions

Clear, balanced thinking leads to better judgements on and off site.

Improved Relationships

Less reactive, more considered responses strengthen team communication.

Support

MHFA on site · Samaritans 116 123 · Ownminder app (QR code) · EAP (free, confidential) · Lighthouse 0345 605 1956

Attendance Declaration

I have attended this toolbox talk, heard the content, and know where to access Ownminder, MHFA, EAP and crisis support if I need it.

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Standard 11 (Culture) · Standard 7 (Working Conditions) · Standard 9 (Health Promotion)

NEF: Keep Learning

Lever 5: Challenges masculine norms that block help-seeking and cognitive flexibility