Marion Janner, Director, Star Wards

In: BlogDate: Nov 20, 2024By: Claire Lickman

Marion Janner, the Director of Star Wards, spoke at the recent Creating Happy Workplaces Conference about how she helped develop mental health wards through small, low-cost changes.

Hi, we are Happy

We are leading a movement to create happy, empowered and productive workplaces.

How can we help you and your people to find joy in at least 80% of your work?

More about Happy

Marion Janner, Director, Star Wards

Marion talks all about changing and how important change can be in a business sense. in Star Wards, they have changed a lot of systems based on the Happy Manifesto, which has had a positive effect on their business. After spending some time in a metal ward, Marion came out with a lot of ideas for how they could be better ran.

When people are at their lowest moral, staff working with them need to be at their highest, to cope. Being appreciative and supportive, while providing practical resources to staff, has very much helped. This talk is very engaging and includes a little dog!

About Marion

Marion’s main background is developing and managing services for people with learning disabilities, after previous experience as a chocolate entrepreneur. Following her experience as a detained in-patient, she set up Star Wards to help mental health wards introduce mainly small, low-cost changes which have a huge positive impact on patients’ and staff experiences. In 2010 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of the changes that Star Wards has brought.

Why not sign up to our newsletter?

Sign up to our monthly newsletter, full of tips, tricks and news to help you to be happier and more productive at work.

Sign up here

About this talk

Marion Janner, Director, Star Wards interview

What you will learn in this video:

  • The importance of learning and growing from mistakes made in the past.
  • How one should manage staff and how to ensure you are motivating staff instead of discouraging them.
  • Ensuring that you enable your staff and allow them autonomy. 

Related resources:

Wellbeing and Resilience for Staff Workshop - This workshop will give you the tools you need to make sure your staff are looked after.

Four Tips to Help you Manage Change Positively - This blog post provides direction when it comes to making changes in your business.

Google: Hire Great People and Give Them Lots of Autonomy - This blog post deep-dives into how Google hires people and how they let them work independently. 

Claire Lickman

Claire is Head of Marketing at Happy. She has worked at Happy since 2016, and is responsible for Happy's marketing strategy, website, social media and more. Claire first heard about Happy in 2012 when she attended a mix of IT and personal development courses. These courses were life-changing and she has been a fan of Happy ever since. She has a personal blog at lecari.co.uk.

More by Claire

Next Conference: 2025 Happy Workplaces Conference

Our Happy Workplaces Conference is our biggest event of the year, and we'd love for you to join us on Thursday 12th June!

This year's event will be held in London, venue TBC. We may also offer a hybrid option for people to join us online simultaneously — do let us know if you are interested in joining online and we can add you to the waiting list.

As always, our next conference will be filled with interaction, discussion and space for reflection.

Book now and get our special half-price Early Bird rate — just use discount code Happy2025.

Find out more