High performance without the burnout: My reflections from the Festival of Happiness 2025

On 6th November, I had the privilege of spending a full day at Google’s London offices for the Festival of Happiness, a day designed for agency leaders who want to scale their business without sacrificing their people, their wellbeing or their creativity.

The theme High Performance has been following me around a lot this year. At LOOP we’re moving fast, growing, evolving, stretching, adapting. But the question remains: How do we continue to perform at a high level without exhausting our people? How do we build a place where creativity thrives, engagement is high, and our teams feel comfortable and supported enough to do their best work?

The event didn’t give a single “magic formula,” but it gave me something more valuable: a set of anchoring ideas and practical actions that I want us to remember, discuss and embed into how we work at LOOP.

Here are the highlights that stood out to me and will guide our People strategy in the months ahead.

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place… but nothing ever grows there.”

A perfect opener for a day about high performance.

1. High-performance culture Is a feeling, not a framework

Speaker: Professor Damian Hughes

Damian Hughes reminded us that culture isn’t what’s written on walls or intranets; it’s:

“How your employees’ hearts and stomachs feel about Monday morning on Sunday night.”

He broke high performance culture into three behavioural norms:

• A shared sense of purpose
• A clear sense of belonging
• Psychological safety.

If any of these are shaky, high performance becomes impossible.

He also spoke about the Pygmalion Effect. the idea that people rise (or fall) to the expectations set for them. When we see and communicate someone’s potential, we help shape how they see themselves. A powerful reminder to coach for potential, not just performance.

2. Happiness fuels energy. Engagement fuels effort. We need both.

Speaker: Tony Latter, The Happiness Index

Tony made a point that hit home: traditional surveys tell us what people think about work, not how they feel about work. And feelings drive behaviour.

He shared insights from their latest Cultural Assessment data, gathered from tens of thousands of employees globally over the past two years (June ’23 – May ’24 vs. June ’24 – May ’25). Notably, there was a 22-point drop in eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), alongside declines in happiness and engagement scores. Many organisations are experiencing similar patterns, driven by AI transformation, economic uncertainty and increased workloads.

The numbers themselves matter less than what’s behind them:

Why happiness is dropping industry-wide:

• Lower sense of safety
• Work–life balance pressures
• Lack of recognition
• Senior leaders making decisions; middle managers delivering the hard messages
• People wanting more access to senior leadership

Actions we can take forward at LOOP:

• Re-communicate career paths and compensation philosophy  

Clear, transparent, human.

• Increase senior leadership accessibility & transparency  

Our CEO’s monthly 1:1s with every team member—rare in agencies our size—make a real difference.  Have honest conversations, even when they’re uncomfortable.

• Improve work–life balance  

Protect the right to disconnect.

• Make listening visible  

“You said → we listened → we did.”  And when we don’t act on something, explain why.

• To boost engagement:

Offer stretch assignments people can opt into. Amplify the “why”. Purpose fuels performance.

3. Resilience, Mindset & Choosing Courage

Speaker: Amy Conroy, Four-Time Paralympian

Amy’s session was powerful, raw, funny, and vulnerable.

Key messages I’m taking back:

• Resilience grows from tough times
• Choose to show up, especially when it’s hard
• Choose courage over comfort.

An important mindset for any high-performance culture.

4. Human-Centred AI: Power Up, Don’t Replace

Speakers: Spencer Gallagher, Tiffany St James

This session helped demystify what “AI maturity” truly means.

Spencer shared a practical Agency AI capability model, designed to guide agencies from “experimenting with tools” to embedding AI across leadership, culture, data, governance, skills and workflows. It’s a roadmap for understanding where you are on the AI journey and planning for deeper, more effective adoption.

We’ll be referring to this model as we continue embedding AI into how we work at LOOP - making our processes smarter, more efficient and more creative.

5. High Performance requires freedom, not control

Speaker: David Meikle

David articulated something we intuitively know but often struggle to put into practice:

“When you give people control, they assume more responsibility.”

High performance isn’t built through micromanagement. It’s built through clarity, trust and freedom.

He also shared ways to support mental health in performance cultures:

• Listen with intention
• Have mental health champions
• Offer mental health drop-ins
• Introduce “Guide to working with me” documents
• Build sensory awareness for neurodivergence
• Invite authenticity. Never mandate it

We will absolutely be adopting the “Manual of Me” at LOOP.

6. Leadership Lessons from the Mountains

Speaker: Kenton Cool

A mountaineer’s perspective was the perfect close to the day.

Themes I’m taking away:

• Preparation creates confidence
• Communication saves lives—and projects
• Humility keeps you grounded.

What This Means for LOOP

Walking away from the Festival of Happiness, the key takeaways for us are clear:

• Continue building psychological safety
• Increase leadership transparency
• Strengthen career clarity
• Create more opportunities for voice, contribution, and recognition
• Evolve our coaching culture
• Encourage vulnerability and honest conversation
• Bring mental wellness into everyday work
• Help people understand themselves and each other better.

Our focus is on turning these insights into practical actions that improve how we work, collaborate, and perform as a team. High performance isn’t just about speed or output it’s about creating an environment where people can do their best work sustainably.

The Festival reinforced that performance and wellbeing aren’t opposing forces they’re interconnected. By embedding these principles into our day-to-day practices, we can build a culture that supports both.