Stress is contagious

Objective

Stress rarely stays with one person. In a team, tension jumps from one to the next, often faster than we realise. Under pressure, connection evaporates and everyone retreats to their own island. But a healthy culture is just as contagious as a tense atmosphere. In this keynote Elke Van Hoof shows how stress spreads through a group, what that does to the dynamics between people, and how a team can turn the tide together.

“We need to be able to connect in the good, in the bad and above all in the ugly.”

Inside the session

One person is on edge. A week later you feel it across the whole team: shorter answers, a meeting that turns tense over nothing, people seeking each other out a little less. We often say stress is something personal, but look closely and you’ll see that tension travels. You don’t catch a virus, you catch a state.

How is that possible? Elke Van Hoof explains that our nervous system is constantly scanning the room. Under pressure our attention shifts to our own suffering: empathy evaporates just when colleagues need it most. And under stress connection evaporates too, because we all shoot into survival mode, each on our own island. A tense nervous system puts the nervous systems around it on edge as well, often without a single word being exchanged.

In a group this takes a recognisable shape. Teams slide into the drama triangle, with a rescuer who takes things out of others’ hands, a victim who plays helpless and an accuser who pins the blame on others. On the surface you see it in gossip, sarcasm, agreements that no longer hold, information that’s no longer shared and ultimately in absenteeism. People then talk about each other instead of with each other.

The good news is that it works the other way too. A healthy culture is just as contagious. Elke shows how a team tips into a success triangle, where people take responsibility again, state their boundaries and support each other without taking over. She makes you feel how to consciously restore connection and why trust is the currency a group uses to absorb tension. Just as one tense person can charge a room, one calm and present person can settle it again.

You’ll leave with a different view of the dynamics in your own team and a framework to influence them, whatever your place in it.

What you’ll take away

• How tension and stress spread through a group, often faster than the content itself.

• Why connection evaporates precisely when a team is under the most pressure.

• Learning to recognise the drama triangle in gossip, sarcasm and absenteeism.

• How a team tips into a culture where people feel connected again.

• The realisation that a healthy culture is just as contagious as an unhealthy one.