Get beyond bullying. With respectful resolution.

Bullying harms everyone

If you've ever been on the receiving end of it, you'll agree with the studies on the effects of bullying on the target:

  • 50% suffer depression, loss of affect and flashbacks
  • 60% experience heart palpitations, raised blood pressure and insomnia
  • 75% have loss of concentration, memory and overwhelming anxiety
  • And over 80% of people constantly suffer from ‘anticipation of next negative event’. They are constantly walking on eggshells.


People who experience bullying at work are twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts.

And that means your organisation loses.

Lost time – 7 days more sickness absence

Lost motivation – 48% deliberately reduce effort

Lost productivity – down by 50 – 70%

Lost resources – up to 72% left their job as a result

Lost quality too. Targets of bullying perform 50% worse on cognitive tests.

In the most safety-conscious sectors, such as healthcare, evidence shows that poor behaviour harms quality. A 2015 study of NICU clinicians showed that even ‘mild incivility’ in causes significantly more errors of diagnosis and mistakes in execution of clinical procedures. If it’s true for healthcare, imagine the impact in your organisation.

How much more productive, more engaged, more fun to work at would your organisation be with less poor behaviour, less bullying, less harassment?

Yet whatever people do, it doesn’t seem to be going away. Policy driven approaches don’t seem to be working. 

So we have co-created a new approach, with leaders, managers, frontline staff, clinicians, educators and unions around the world. The Respectful Resolution pathway is a complete solution for a new way to create kinder, safer organisations.

Respectful Resolution introduces 5 simple steps to encourage a kinder culture and tackle poor behaviour

  1. Team discussions: to grow awareness of bullying, its causes and impacts, and make it easier for teams to talk about it, and create a safer, kinder culture
  2. Reflection tools to get beyond just ‘bullying’ into the actual behaviours taking place, understand what is and what is not bullying, so people can have better discussions 
  3. Speaking Up with April’s effective BUILD model – the kindest, safest most effective way to give and receive feedback
  4. Supported resolution tools and 5. Formal policy in plain English

Discuss, defuse, de-escalate. Respectful Resolution acknowledges the underlying drivers of poor behaviour and supports anyone who may be involved to a successful resolution.

Together we can reach a Respectful Resolution to bullying, to create a kinder, safer culture.

What our clients say about Respectful Resolution

Respectful Resolution has been transformational

Debbie Eyitayo, Director of People, Epsom and St Helier University NHS Trust

Since introducing the Respectful Resolution pathway we have seen a significant reduction in cases of bullying by managers and by colleagues. It's part of the Respect culture programme that April have supported us to implement, to create a kinder, safer culture for our staff and patients.

Really helpful for our staff

Mark Maynard, Unison Branch Secretary and Staff Side Chair, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

We’ve found the Respectful Resolution pathway to be incredibly useful. It gives people tools to talk about what’s happening, and find ways to resolve things before they get too difficult. Introducing this reduced my bullying caseload by 1/3 almost instantly.

We encourage people to have a conversation

Ashley Judd, Deputy Director of Workforce, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS FT

We are so pleased we worked with April on tackling poor behaviour. Together, and in partnership with our trade unions, we tailored the Respectful Resolution pathway to our PRIDE values. We no longer have a Dignity at Work policy. What we call ‘Communicating with PRIDE’ has completely replaced it. When people have a dispute now, we encourage them simply to have a conversation. The word ‘bully’ is discouraged. Rather, we want colleagues to have the confidence to talk about the behaviour. At the same time as introducing Communicating with PRIDE, we brought in a new Misconduct Policy, applying many of the principles associated with Communicating with PRIDE. We have reduced the number of formal investigations by two-thirds with better outcomes for our staff, managers and trade unions. There’s more to do, but this has been a great platform to build upon.
  • Full suite of PDF guides
  • Interactive online guides
  • e-learning modules

Course curriculum

  • 1

    OVERVIEW - the Respectful Resolution pathway

    • What's in this course?

    • Download your guide

    • Introducing Respectful Resolution

    • The Respectful Resolution pathway

    • Summary
  • 2

    STEP 1 - A safe culture in your TEAM

    • STEP 1 - Introduction and download

    • Seven discussions your team can have

    • Summary
  • 3

    1A - The TARGET of Bullying

    • Target of bullying. Introduction

    • Stepping into their shoes. Briefing.

    • Exercise. What's it like to be bullied?

    • The impacts of bullying

    • The impact of bullying - a recap

    • Target of bullying. Summary

    • Quiz. Test your learning
  • 4

    1B - ACCUSED of bullying

    • Accused of Bullying. Introduction

    • Stepping into their shoes. Briefing.

    • Exercise. What's going on for the bully?

    • What creates bullying behaviour?

    • Could it be you?

    • The accused. Summary

    • Quiz. Test your learning
  • 5

    1C - The WITNESS to bullying

    • Witness to bullying. Introduction

    • Into their shoes, one last time

    • Exercise. What's it like to witness bullying?

    • Quiz. Test your learning

    • The witness. Summary
  • 6

    STEP 2 - Time to REFLECT

    • Introduction and download

    • Introducing STEP 2 - reflect

    • Describe the behaviours

    • Decide if it's bullying

    • Dictionary of behaviours

    • Develop a deeper understanding

    • Summary
  • 7

    STEP 3. Giving kinder FEEDBACK

    • Kinder feedback. Introduction

    • The power of appreciation

    • Why feedback is essential

    • Introducing the BUILD feedback model

    • Quiz. Test your learning

    • Kinder feedback. Summary
  • 8

    PRACTICE using the pathway

    • Practice. Introduction

    • Practice A. Quick guides (downloads)

    • Practice A. Quick guides (video introduction)

    • Practice A. Quick guides (instructions)

    • Practice B. Reflect (download)

    • Practice B. Reflect (video introduction)

    • Practice B. Reflect (instructions)

    • Practice C. Your options (download)

    • Practice C. Your options (video introduction)

    • Practice C. Your options (instructions)

    • Quiz. Test your learning

    • Full set of guides to download or browse
  • 9

    Getting into ACTION

    • Your next steps to tackle bullying

Solutions for any size of organisation

Get in touch for a demo, to talk about solutions for your whole organisation, or hosting on your LMS. We can also co-create a tailored Respectful Resolution approach to integrate with your existing policies, processes and tools.

A range of options for any size of organisation

  • INDIVIDUAL. Build your confidence and expertise

    Single-user license | Complete e-learning curriculum | Full suite of Beyond Bullying Guides | Join the Beyond Bullying community | 3 month's access

  • TEAM.Transform team culture together

    Up to 25 users | Complete e-learning curriculum | Full suite of Beyond Bullying Guides | Join the Beyond Bullying community | Web-based interactive guides | 3 year license

  • BUSINESS. Integrate your policies and solutions

    Up to 250 users | Complete e-learning curriculum | Full suite of Beyond Bullying Guides | Join the Beyond Bullying community | Web-based interactive guides | 3 year license | Integrate your policies and tools into the PDF and web guides

  • CORPORATE. Co-create a tailored solutionlutions

    Packages for up to and beyond 10,000 users | Complete e-learning curriculum | Full suite of Beyond Bullying Guides | Join the Beyond Bullying community | Web-based interactive guides | 3 year license | Integrate your policies and tools into the PDF and web guides | Co-create tailored solution with your in-house team | Blended online and face-to-face learning | Host on your LMS

About your guide...

Mission: Kindness

Tim Keogh

Tim’s mission is simply to spread kindness. Creating cultures where people, communities and organisations can flourish. He’s helped tens of thousands of people to reinvent their relationships at work, transform their teams, liberate leadership and take it home into flourishing families and friendships. Tim developed our tools and approaches after recovering from his own breakdown. In over 500 workshops he has honed and perfected them. You’ll love the way Tim weaves together the latest thinking in neuroscience, organizational psychology and behavioural economics into easy-to-apply, practical personal tools, and organisational change. People say learning with Tim is consistently enlightening, motivating, evidence-led, practical, fun. And most importantly, it works.

Find out more about Tim here...