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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Discover how healthy buildings, culture, and people lead to high profits Organizations and employees now spend an average of $18,000 per year per employee for health costs, a 61% increase in 10 years. Every indicator projects these costs will double before 2030. This is an unsustainable path. These costs are the tip to an even bigger iceberg, the hidden costs of time out of the office, distraction, disengagement, and turnover. The Healthy Workplace Nudge explains the findings of research on 100 large organizations that have tackled the problems of employee health costs and disengagement in five fresh ways: * Well-being leads to health and high performance * Wake up to the fact that 95% of traditional wellness programs fail to improve health or lower costs * Behavioral economics has become a new powerful tool to nudge healthy behavior * Healthy buildings are now cost effective and produce your strongest ROI to improving health * Leaders who develop healthy cultures achieve sustainable high performance and employee wellbeing In addition to proving highly effective, these approaches represent a fraction of the cost sunk into traditional wellness and engagement programs. The book explains how to create a workplace that is good for people, releases them to what they do best and enjoy most, and produces great and profitable work. * Find actionable strategies and tactics you can put into use today * Retain happy, productive talent * Cut unnecessary spending and boost your bottom line * Benefit from real-world research and proven practice If you're a leader who cares about the health and happiness of your employees, a human resource professional, or a professional who develops, designs, builds, or outfits workplace environments to improve employee health and wellbeing, this is one book you'll want to have on hand.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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CONTENTS
Cover
Praise for
The Healthy Workplace Nudge
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Foreword
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction: The Elephant Whisperer
The Things We See and the Things We Miss
Promises, Promises
The View from the Ridge
Part I, Slow-Moving Storm: A History of Warnings and Apathy
Part II, Is There Shelter from the Storm? A Search for Wellness
Part III, Magical Nudges: The Road to Health and Well-Being
Part IV, Haven in a Heartless World: The Need for Safe Places
Part I: Slow-Moving Storm: A History of Warnings and Apathy
Chapter 1: A Slow-Moving Storm
Storm Details: The Mother of Wake-Up Calls
Our Personal Python
Just Five Things
Chapter 2: The Rainbow in the Storm
The Birth of Well Buildings
The Workplace Enters the Wellness Conversation
Humanizing the Workplace
Exposing the Wellness Industrial Complex
The Real War: Leadership Engagement
Fight to Win
Chapter 3: Storm Damage
A Nation in Pain
Why Business Leaders Should Care
What Do You See?
Chapter 4: Stress
Stressed-Out Baboons
Primates in the Workplace
Please Help Me!
Your Body Under Chronic Stress
Well-Being Before Wellness
Well-Being Requires a Mind Shift—Not a New Program
When Well-Being Becomes the New Norm
Getting the Horse Back in Front of the Cart
Part II: Is There Shelter from the Storm? A Search for Wellness
Chapter 5: In Search of Wholeness
What Are Wellness and Well-Being?
Fuzzy Wellness
5.1 High Touch
What Does It Mean to Be Human at Work?
So, What Is the Point?
Chapter 6: Why Happiness Before Health
The Pursuit of Happiness
An Engaged Mind Is a Happy Mind
What Makes Us Happy at Work?
PERMA—Five Keys to Human Flourishing
Hope and Engagement
Out on the Frontlines
Social Emotional Literacy
Chapter 7: Where's the Data?
The Wellness Industrial Complex
The Great Train Wreck
Two Nagging Questions
Wellness Claims Ignore Biology
Change or Die
The Hidden Cost of Wellness Programs
So Why Is Everybody Doing Wellness?
Nail in the Coffin
How Do We Ever Get to Reality?
Chapter 8: The Mystery of Hospitality
Death of a Project; Birth of a Story
What This Means for Leaders
When a Workplace Cares
Does Anyone Here Care?
It's About Being Human
Can the Workplace Be Restorative?
The Power of Hospitality
The Big Takeaway: It's About Leadership
Part III: Magical Nudges: The Road to Health and Well-Being
Chapter 9: Nudge Thinking
Nudge and Wellness
The Homer Simpson Effect
Predictably Irrational
Sirens in the Workplace
The Power of Framing
Freedom of Choice and the Battle for M&M's
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Domino Effect
The Nudge of Norms
Chapter 10: The Healthy Building Nudge
Begin with a Healthy Building—A Slam Dunk!
How Can a Building Make a Difference?
“Let's Design a Better Planet!”
Your Workplace Is a Proxy for Your Health and Well-Being
Let There Be Light!
New York Times Building—The Magical Effect of Light
The Bridge to a Happy and Healthy Workplace
Chapter 11: The Financial Nudge
Is It Personal?
Are We Smart or Healthy?
The Power of a Meme
So, What Are We Missing?
Flipping the Argument
The Strongest ROI: A Healthy Building
Chapter 12: Becoming Your Best Self
The Corporate Athlete
Walking the Talk
My Great Aha
Kristin Holmes-Winn
Become a Champion Sleeper
Mindset and Character
The Puzzle of Engagement: Fit and Equipped
Parallels Between Sleep and Work
Deep-Present Work
Part IV: Haven in a Heartless World: The Need for Safe Places
Chapter 13: How They Did It
The Cleveland Clinic: Clarity, Focus, and Simplicity
Barry-Wehmiller: “We Just Need to Care”
Tom Emerick: The Human Touch
Ron Goetzel: 10 Principles
J&J: Persistence, Data, and Continual Improvement
The Effective Leader
Chapter 14: Courageous Leaders and a Culture of Care
The Trouble with Culture
Hello, Shadow Culture
Performance Cultures and the Art of Recovery
Transformation in Tempe: The GoDaddy Story You Don't Know
Next Jump: Happiness and Success for the Long Term
Dancing with Your Elephant
Chapter 15: The MeTEOR Story
To Own Change
“We Are a Numbers Culture”
Boat Behaviors
What Did We See, What Did We Learn?
Pressing into Well-Being
Extreme Ownership: “What Gets Done”
Chapter 16: Starting a Movement
How to Start a Movement Without Permission
Why First Chair Leaders Need Second Chairs
Emily's Journey: A Call to Action
Start Easy—Get the Lay of the Land
No Turning Back—A Collection of the Curious
“Who Owns Employee Health or Happiness?”
The Grand Challenge
The Ladder of Engagement
Silver Lining
The Network Effect
Future Travelers
Kyle Majchrowski and Seek Change
Chapter 17: Haven in a Heartless World
From Complicated to Intuitive
The Collapse of the Cost Barrier
Seven Golden Nuggets
The Power of a Psychologically Safe Workplace
The Story of a Good Workplace: The Promise of the Future
Appendix A: The Well MindShift Core Team
Appendix B: Well MindShift Participants
Appendix C: Personal Story Template
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Table 11.1
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1
Figure 1.2
Figure 1.3
Figure 1.4
Figure 1.5
Figure 2.1
Figure 4.1
Figure 4.2
Figure 4.3
Figure 5.1
Figure 6.1
Figure 6.2
Figure 7.1
Figure 7.2
Figure 7.3
Figure 7.4
Figure 7.5
Figure 7.6
Figure 8.1
Figure 9.1
Figure 10.1
Figure 10.2
Figure 10.3
Figure 10.4
Figure 11.1
Figure 12.1
Figure 13.1
Figure 13.2
Figure 14.1
Figure 14.2
Figure 15.1
Figure 15.2
Figure 15.3
Figure 16.1
Figure 16.2
Figure 17.1
Figure I.1
Figure I.2
Figure I.3
Figure I.4
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Part 1
Chapter 1
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Praise for The Healthy Workplace Nudge
“The Healthy Workplace Nudge is not your standard wellness-for-business book. In fact, Rex Miller directly challenges most of the ways companies deliver wellness programs to their employees. His team of researchers addresses why we need wellness programs in the first place: a lack of care.
“More than that, this book provides new pathways and practical approaches. Most importantly, it calls for a new kind of leadership. A leadership of care.”
—Bob Chapman, CEO, Barry-Wehmiller; coauthor, Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family
“Workplaces are killing people, costing economies and business fortunes in the process, and no one seems to care—or believes that anything can change. The Healthy Workplace Nudge shows what it would take to enhance employee well-being and provides compelling examples of the change that is possible.”
—Jeffrey Pfeffer, author, Dying for a Paycheck; professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business
“The ‘wellness’ industry is complex, siloed, and confusing. Miller has engaged a group of top health professionals, researchers, wellness program specialists, building designers, and forward-thinking business leaders to chronicle the current state of the wellness industry and carefully lay out some frightening challenges ahead. This book will help leaders to step back and focus on what is most important and impactful when it comes to the health, engagement, and performance of their employees. Spoiler alert: Culture eats wellness for breakfast.”
—Leigh Stringer, workplace strategy expert; author,The Healthy Workplace: How to Improve the Well-Being ofYour Employees—and Boost Your Company's Bottom Line
“Creating environments that allow people to be their best selves every day is not just a nice to have; it's a business imperative. While everyone agrees philosophically that healthy, happy employees are tantamount to innovative and successful business, rapid change in the wellness industry demands a clearer definition of the hows and whys of employee health. This book masterfully cuts through the noise to shed light on to what works and what doesn't. Rex has truly helped carve the way to the future of the workplace.”
—Ryan Picarella, president, Wellness Council of America, WELCOA
“Combining the world's largest asset class (Real Estate) with the world's fastest-growing industry (Health and Wellness) represents the most significant economic and societal opportunity of our time. It's not someone else's responsibility or even opportunity. This is about all of us breaking our industry silos of real estate, HR, healthcare and financial performance. Rex Miller's team and their research describe not only the full potential but the threat to business and our economy, if we don't take advantage of this historic tipping point.”
—Paul Scialla, founder/CEO, Delos; founder, International WELL Building Institute
“In the twenty-first century, organizations that are not designed to develop all aspects of employee life will be at a disadvantage. Rex and his team are spot-on in their insights about the importance of a workplace that fosters physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual engagement in their employees.”
—Greg Kunkel, SVP and cofounder, Next Jump
“In 2013, the Gensler-designed new CBRE headquarters became the first workplace to receive a WELL Building certification. From that, we witnessed the birth of a movement and a new conversation. Rex Miller's work to capture those events and his team's research on workplace health and well-being provide a vital tool for leaders and practitioners for understanding this movement and the future vitality of organizations.”
—Andy Cohen, CEO, Gensler
“Without a thriving, healthy workforce, businesses cannot remain competitive. With the growing health-care crisis, we need a better solution than the usual “check the box” workplace wellness approach. By combining experienced voices from a wide variety of industries, MindShift brings a positively disruptive approach to wellness in the workplace so that companies can thrive in the twenty-first-century business environment.”
—Mim Senft, president and CEO, Motivity Partnerships, Inc.; cofounder, GW4W
“The emphasis on wellness in the workplace is more important than ever. Why? Because people are our biggest asset. Whether it is installing cork layers into our floors for better posture, offering sit-stand desks to help blood circulation, or providing concierge services to run errands and give time back to our employees, the successful implementation of features that enhance and support our people is not an afterthought, but the key ingredient to our success. Rex has done a tremendous job in illuminating the importance of wellness, which transcends the office and reaches well into our personal lives. It is the key to keeping companies and ultimately our country competitive in the international marketplace.”
—Lewis C. Horne, president, Southern California and Hawaii Division, CBRE
“A radical shift in the employee experience is necessary to redefine the standard of wellness and change lives for the better. The Healthy Workplace Nudge provides insight into new levels of engagement, within the workplace, to positively benefit both people and companies.
“It's time for a radical shift in the level of engagement and the standard of wellness that companies provide within the workplace. Rex and his team are challenging the status quo and providing the insight for positive disruption in The Healthy Workplace Nudge.”
—Calvin Crowder, vice president, Global Real Estate, GoDaddy
“Rex has done a wonderful job blending employee welfare results with the heart. He provides the data to confirm that companies that focus on the ‘people model’ have an impact on their related health investments. The heart is the center of all goodness, emotionally and financially!”
—Tom Carmazzi, CEO, Tuthill
“In our hearts, we know that we should genuinely care for all people, everywhere. At home, on the street, and at work, we should care for others and be cared for. However, our minds have been fooled to believe that profit is king, at the expense of care. In The Healthy Workplace Nudge, Rex Miller connects what we know in our hearts to be true with concrete methodologies that will transform our minds regarding wellness in the workplace.”
—Wade Lewis, VP, Business Services, ISS
“It is not only possible for organizations to be communities of human flourishing, but this is also the natural state when people exert themselves in a common, meaningful purpose. If this sounds overly idealistic, it is indicative of the pressing need to win the battle for well-being. But it requires leaders who understand and embrace that, like all living things, humans desire to flourish. For such leaders, The Healthy Workplace Nudge will be a clarion call to lead the humanizing of our workplaces.”
—Steven E. Carter, PhD, author, Good Leader;president/CEO, Carter, Inc.
“I've always believed that the number one responsibility for a business leader is to create an environment in which people can excel—but that requires creating an environment that aligns the body, soul, spirit, and mind. Most corporate efforts have focused on improving the physical environment of work, but Rex's book “nudges” us to address the spiritual and mental elements of well-being by creating a culture of care that recognizes that energy, not time, is our most valuable asset.”
—Barbara Jackson, director, Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, University of Denver
“Rex takes a chainsaw to the oft-marketed idea that wellness is achieved by implementing health testing, free gym memberships, and, oh yes, fewer snacks in the lunchroom. In its place, he presents the far more powerful concept of health and happiness, and then proceeds to weave inspirational stories of success.”
—Craig Janssen, managing director, Idibri
“Memorable characters, humane CEOs, caring physicians, and a cast of other fascinating characters have inspired Rex Miller to tell one of the best argued, entertaining, and factually solid stories about the connective tissue between the wellness movement and the built environment. The Healthy Workplace Nudge will inspire you. It inspired me!”
—Susan S. Szenasy, director of design innovation, Metropolis
The Healthy Workplace Nudge
How Healthy People, Culture, and Buildings Lead to High Performance
Rex Miller
Phillip Williams, and
Dr. Michael O'neill
Cover image: (stairs) © bbbrrn/Getty Images; (room) Wiley
Cover design: Wiley
Illustrations by Michael Lagocki
Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Miller, M. Rex, 1955- author. | Williams, Phillip, 1957- author. | O'Neill, Michael, 1959- author.
Title: The healthy workplace nudge : how healthy people, culture and buildings lead to high performance / Rex Miller, Phillip Williams, Michael O'Neill.
Description: Hoboken : Wiley, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018006249 (print) | LCCN 2018008038 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119480235 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119480167 (epub) | ISBN 9781119480129 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119480235 (ePDF)
Subjects: LCSH: Work environment. | Employee health promotion. | Corporate culture. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / General. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Human Resources & Personnel Management. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Inspiration & Personal Growth.
Classification: LCC HD7261 (ebook) | LCC HD7261 .M544 2018 (print) | DDC 658.3/82–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006249
Inspired by and in memory of my mom, Lisa's mom, and my brother Britt.
In gratitude to my lifelong mentors Charles Simpson and Clifford Christians.
—Rex Miller
For all of us who have worked in, and work to create, places for people, young and old, rich and poor . . . ipsum attollere (raise your game).
—Phil Williams
To my wife and best friend Danelle O'Neill, whose interest in the health and well-being of others, inspired my contribution to this book.
—Mike O'Neill
Foreword
It has become clear that work is the number one cause of stress; that stress is a big driver of chronic disease, and that the rise of chronic disease and associated costs are a direct threat to the survival of businesses. This book hammers this point. Businesses have no more room to fight with insurance companies or shift costs to employees. We must begin to reduce stress, and health-related costs, by creating cultures of care. This book will show you how.
The Healthy Workplace Nudge is not your standard wellness-for-business book. In fact, Rex Miller directly challenges most of the ways companies deliver wellness programs to their employees. His team of researchers addresses why we need wellness programs in the first place: a lack of care.
The Healthy Workplace Nudge also explains the limitations of ROI thinking when it comes to employee health. The book describes a model of people in harmony with profit. It begins with the lives entrusted to us. With them, we create lasting value. Together. We don't chase ROI when it comes to wellness. I tell our frontline leaders, “Let's do the right thing; it's our job to make it work for the business.” The marriage of profits and people makes us a better and more competitive company.
When we visited with Rex, we saw that his research confirmed our view of business: creating a workplace where people feel safe, giving them genuine appreciation, and providing well-trained supervisors all come together to produce happy people and a thriving organization.
This book confirms that we as leaders can and must rehumanize why and how we deliver wellness. As you read it, make it personal. Think about the people who work around you, especially the ones in your span of care. Where do they come from? What are their hopes? Do they go home at the end of the day energized and inspired by their time at work? Is work fulfilling? Or do they return home drained and stressed by their time with us? The Healthy Workplace Nudge takes a serious look at why so many wellness efforts fail to improve the lives of employees.
More than that, this book provides new pathways and practical approaches. Most importantly, it calls for a new kind of leadership. A leadership of care.
—Bob Chapman,CEO, Barry-Wehmiller;coauthor, Everybody Matters:The Extraordinary Power of Caringfor Your People Like Family
Acknowledgments
For some, writing is a solitary affair. This book was a barn raising. I found myself in constant communication with about 30 of our inner circle. I needed their expertise and help to validate stories and details, poke holes in my reasoning, and to give an oft-needed kick-start. I traveled several times just to sit with some of my guides. Meeting face-to-face was so much better than connecting by phone or Skype. In many cases, I only wanted them to tell their story one more time, like my kids wanted to hear their favorite stories just before bedtime. I already knew the details; I knew the punchlines. I wanted a way to give those words the life and resonance I felt sitting with them. For some reason, the atmosphere, breathing room, and friendship provided that boost I needed.
It took a while to find a voice for this book. It was a chorus of about 100 contributors. Every chapter is an ensemble on its own. Together they turned into a harmonized four-act symphony. It is our most serious work to date, but it also touches the emotions more than any previous projects. Health and well-being quickly turned from research into something very personal for all of us. We began as a collection of the curious and became a cohort of the committed.
Richard Narramore, Wiley's senior editor, led the previous three projects and helped guide us to our unifying theme. He has continuously challenged my thinking, asking, “What book do you want to write? You have three here.” This project was no different. My editor, Ed Chinn, and I created an “Editing Floor” section. The strategy was simple: let's frame it up and start writing. Then we can step back and see what book this really is. That strategy asked more from Ed than in past books. His fine-tuned editing eye often found hidden treasure, but also kept an eye out for that common thread. We left another full book on the editing floor. For various reasons – space, style, coherence, consistency – several interviews and companies had to be removed. Seeing them excised was very difficult.
The idea for this project was first birthed at the CBRE headquarters. Lew Horne hosted the session; it was the first time I met Paul Scialla. It was clear there that we were touching a new, vital, and compelling story. We had to dig deeper. Shortly after that meeting, Haworth, Delos, DPR, and The Carter Group enthusiastically came together and said they would fund the effort to explore a new frontier. I am profoundly grateful for their faith and support to launch this mission.
I want to thank Phil Williams and Dr. Mike O'Neill for their willingness to coauthor this book. They both served as guides, interpreters, and scouts. I relied on their expertise and their encouragement. I also enjoyed the many trips that allowed us to piece this story together.
I'd like to especially thank Haworth and Mabel Casey. Without their support 10 years ago we would have never had the opportunity to test the idea that leaders could come together, without permission, and solve common complex challenges. It seems to be working. On a practical note, Michelle Kleyla with Haworth provided the ear of reason and common sense. I have come to call her my handler.
I had several guides and protectors along this journey. Paul Scialla treated me like a nephew and understudy. He opened doors and pulled me back from rabbit trails. I met Leigh Stringer through her book, The Healthy Workplace. It was my first compass into the wilds of wellness. She was also generous with support and introduced me to Mem Senft, who joined early. She was skeptical and had good reason. We had no bona fide wellness experts on our team until we found Mem; she brought others along. She became our guide, conscience, and incredible door opener. Kate Lister and Scott Muldavin were our truth-with-numbers squad. I met and talked with both several times to make sure I was doing the math.
Patrick Donnelly and Drew Suszko were my two closest summit collaborators. They gave time and BHDP's resources to help me better choreograph many of the exercises. Our events became incredible learning and creative labs.
I leaned on other past MindShift graduates, like Bob Fox and Craig Janssen, who challenged my direction for different summits, but also filtered what we produced through their lens as business owners. Randy Thompson, with Cushman Wakefield, generously read and critiqued our first draft.
Part of what makes our experiences so essential is the ability to spend time onsite with some of the most advanced thinkers on the topic. They host and participate. Haworth held our inaugural summit in Chicago. Janelle Weber and PQM brought us into an incredible dining experience and conversation around the issue of hospitality.
Barbara Spurrier and Dana Pillai hosted our immersion into health and well-being at the Mayo Clinic and the WELL Living Lab. Google has been a partner on a few of our projects. Josh Glynn and his work services (REWS) team hosted us in San Francisco and brought Bill Duane to share their new research on well-being. DPR opened their San Francisco offices, providing an ideal environment for our project-based learning. They also gave us behind-the-scenes access to their unique open culture. One of my favorite locations was Denver's Four Winds Interactive. They provide embedded interactive displays that feel a bit like those futuristic touch displays in the movie Minority Report. This summit provided a window into the future of building sensors, personal wellness technology, and interactive media. Rich Blakeman gave us access to their facility. It was an incredible playground to explore the technology of wellness. Our final summit was hosted by Calvin Crowder and Wade Lewis at GoDaddy. That was our book's barn raising summit, and our most creative session as we watched two years of work come together in four different book concepts.
I was able to meet directly with many more leaders and fascinating personalities than in previous projects. I owe that to our members inviting us into their relationships and networks. I met five best-selling authors, leaders of some of the most admired companies on the planet, medical experts and academics who opened worlds I never imagined existed. You will meet and read about them in the book.
Because there are so many people to thank, I've created an addendum to list the participants and contributors.
The roles of some were so vital that we could not have completed this project without them. Michael Lagocki has worked with me on the last three MindShift efforts. His role has grown from event facilitator and live scribe to codesigning events and taking on the role of the ears and emotions of the participants or reader. His advice continues to elevate our events and the quality of our work.
I owe the deepest gratitude on this project to Ed Chinn, my editor. He's much more than that. Ed traveled and participated in each of the summits and was, in many ways, an understudy, stepping in and keeping the process on track while I was pulled away to wrestle with life. At times, I felt like Rocky Balboa with my eye swollen shut and gasping for air in the corner. Ed stepped in, like Mickey, and kept saying, “Dig deeper, you can do it, kid.” Creators know the magic in movies and books happens in the editing room. That was Ed's study in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
I want to express my love and appreciation to my family, especially Lisa. It was a hard year for our family, and she shouldered most of that. Lisa stayed positive and always encouraging. Lisa is our guardian of health and has become a gifted caretaker. I've come to see that role as a combination of gentle angel and fierce drill sergeant in giving care. And she can be a lawyer when dealing with the health-care world. She attended several of the summits and insisted we practice what we learned along the way. The hardest new rule she gave me was saying goodbye to bacon.
When I look back, this project feels like one of the wilderness high adventure treks I've taken with my oldest son. They all start with naïve optimism. That disappears with the reality that most of this trip is a three-mile-an hour trudge with a 50-pound pack on my shoulders. It doesn't matter how beautiful the world is around me, I'm still carrying this pack. Every trip gives incredible high points, but most of the time it's one foot in front of the other and finding creative ways to make that feel fun. The finish, however, is hard to describe. Deep satisfaction and a desire for a shower, a steak, something. When I sent my last chapter to Ed for editing, I ran some chores. I was in that happy relief state. The Kwik Lube attendant told me it would take a while to get my car serviced. I was bored with the outdated magazines in the waiting area, and my phone was on 2% battery life when I saw McDonald's next door. “I haven't had a cheeseburger and fries in years. I wonder…” So, after a few feeble attempts to talk myself out of it, I succumbed to temptation and walked over. I was “Homered.” You'll learn about that in Chapter 9. I ordered a cheeseburger and small fries. They were good, no lie.
When I returned home, I shared the story with Lisa. All she could say is, “What?” Then she laughed. “Darling, you've been cooped up way too long.” So, I guess the moral is, wellness is a journey. The good news, I've taken our lessons seriously, and today I am measurably healthier than I was a year ago and the year before that. I wish the same for you. I hope you embrace wellness as a journey and keep your sense of humor in the process.
About the Authors
Rex Miller is a five-time Wiley author. The Commercial Real Estate Revolution and Change Your Space, Change Your Culture won international awards for innovation and excellence. He is a respected futurist, frequent keynote speaker, and an elite leadership coach. His MindShift process applies a unique crowdsourced approach to tackling complex leadership challenges. Mr. Miller was named a Texas A&M Professional Fellow for his work in leading edge leadership processes.
The MindShift model invites diverse participants into a creative and collaborative process. This makes each book deeply researched, easy to read, and practical to apply.
The previous book, Humanizing the Education Machine, collaborated with over 100 leaders and experts to break the vicious cycle of reform efforts without change and shows communities, schools, and leaders how to lead transformation on a local basis.
More than half of MindShift's work is guiding organizations through change and improving project, team, and organizational culture. Recent clients include Google, Disney, Microsoft, GoDaddy, Intel, FAA, Delos, Haworth, Turner Construction, Balfour Beatty Construction, DPR Construction, Seattle Children's Hospital, MD Anderson Hospital, Universal Health Systems, Oregon Health Science University, University of Illinois, Texas A&M, University of Denver, and many others.
Mr. Miller is also a USPTA certified tennis professional, a member of the National Speaker's Association, and actively mentors young leaders. He believes leaders come from anywhere in an organization or community and hopes his work helps empower hidden leaders to step up and step forward to create positive change.
Phillip Williams is the president of Commercial Business Development at Delos and directs the business development of health and well-being services and solutions for the commercial real estate market sector. Delos is a real estate technology and research company focused on helping to create healthier, higher-performance places for people.
He has spent his career in the commercial design, engineering, and construction industry and prior to Delos served as a vice president with Webcor Builders, where he initiated and lead the Systems Engineering, Sustainability, and International Consulting groups. Prior to Webcor he held senior leadership and management positions with Southland Industries and Carrier/United Technologies Corporation.
Phil has a BS in engineering, and his research and industry affiliations have allowed him to stay at the forefront of leading ideas that have consistently been focused on people in the built environment.
As the industry chair for the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) through the University of California, Berkeley, and a founding executive board member for Eco-Districts (a nonprofit focused on the economy, ecology, and equity of development and redevelopment of urban centers), he has been able to help transition theoretical research for the commercial private and public markets for scalable adoption.
Through service on the Joint Steering Committee for the Well Living Laboratory (WLL) a Mayo Clinic research collaborative, his industry experience has contributed to the understanding and inclusion of health science for the benefit of people through the improved design, construction, and operations of buildings and communities.
Phil is a founding member of the Industry Technical Advisory Group for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory FLEXLAB. He is a representative from San Francisco to the United Nations Global Compact and served as the chairman of the San Francisco Mayor's Task Force on Private Sector Green Buildings. He is a member on technical advisory boards for several Silicon Valley emerging technology companies, venture capital, and research organizations.
Dr. Michael O'Neill is currently director of the Global Workplace Research, Workplace Strategy and Market Insights teams for Haworth, Inc. At the start of his career, he worked at BOSTI, a firm that pioneered the use of analytics to show how workspace design affects employee performance. Later, he was a professor of interior design and industrial engineering at the University of Wisconsin.
Mike has a BA in cognitive psychology, and MA and PhD in architecture and human behavior. For his doctoral work, he developed software that models peoples' decision making during way-finding tasks within buildings, based on the biological properties of neural networks. He has authored over 50 articles, two books on workplace research and design, is a coauthor of an upcoming book on well-being (2018 release).
Mike developed HumanSpaceTM, software that estimates the impact of workspace design on the financial value of human capital and identifies the most important features. He believes that predictive analytics “made easy” can help organizations make better decisions about how they allocate investment in their office space – based on improving the economic value of their people. He is also on the advisory board of TableAir, a European tech startup (space sensors and user experience software).
Other areas of interests include cars and planes. Mike is a Porsche Club of America national driving instructor and holds a competition racing license through Midwest Council of Sports Car Clubs, racing a vintage Porsche 911. He also holds a Private Pilot license.
Introduction: The Elephant Whisperer
In his book, The Righteous Mind1 Jonathan Haidt suggests that we are all like a rider on an elephant. The rider is our conscious mind. It is intelligent, rational, and intentional; it thinks, decides, and acts.
But, here's the problem: We lumber along, atop an enormous beast of culture, subconscious desires, assumptions, genetic predispositions, and complex webs of fears, biases, and subjective experiences and feelings. The elephant is going to go where the elephant is going to go. Our conscious mind can choose and announce all it wants, but the elephant is larger.
The Healthy Workplace Nudge tells the story of good intentions, rationality, and high levels of intelligence, all riding an impenetrable, unresponsive, and resistant leviathan. That brute has been around a very long time and is not threatened by anything the rider could imagine.
Ten years ago, I and some associates created an approach to solving unresponsive and resistant dilemmas, known as “wicked problems.” They're not wicked in a moral implication, but in the sense that they cannot be solved, only navigated. But first, we had to change conversations that were stuck. We called that process MindShift. And a MindShift has to first become an elephant whisperer.
To whisper to the elephant is to build certain triggers, chutes, and ramps into the elephant's thinking. For example, Richard Thaler, the 2017 Nobel Prize winner in economics, has captured the behavioral economics idea of “nudge.” A nudge is a subtle design in buildings, policies, strategy, marketing, food choices and sizes, and other nuances in society that make the good choices easier. A nudge also flips the narrative; for example, from “Quit killing yourself” to “Start living younger.” Reframing the narrative is the fresh start nudge. For our purposes, a nudge is anything that makes it easy for the elephant to pick a better path.
You will meet several intelligent riders, lumbering elephants, and nudges in the pages to follow.
This journey started several years ago when I saw the powerful and transforming result of an office working together to explore what wellness and well-being meant to them. CBRE is the largest real estate company on planet Earth. Their Los Angeles office, rebuilding after the Great Recession, worked with wellness and design professionals to translate their vision into a new kind of workplace. That resulted in the first corporate space to bring medical and building science together. It revolutionized their business and their own people. Furthermore, it attracted thousands of curious leaders and professionals to come, see, and learn.
I was one of those who made the pilgrimage. And I came away fascinated. But, to some degree, touring that space was like watching a well-staged magic trick. The workspace was impressive, but something of an illusion. The real magic came from the unseen journey the leader and his people took to create that space. The outcomes weren't predicted (or even likely). So, I asked them what I've asked others with comparably enchanted workplaces:
“How did you pull it off?”
“How did you survive the politics and pushback?”
“Why did you think you could do it?”
“What stories describe how you lost your naïveté?”
“Where did it almost fly off the tracks?
“How did it turn around?”
“How did it change you and your people?”
In most cases, their answers did not present a scripted list of lessons learned, but rather a chronicle of the journey's insights.
The process as a journey is the key to taming the elephant. Each organization raises and rides a different one. Unlike what is described in many business books, we found patterns not formulas. Simply plucking the lessons from an expert rider and applying them to your elephant typically fails.2
Elephants are also social animals. The same thing is true for great projects and work. The environments we create to facilitate work become proxies for how well we work and live together. CBRE did not direct their employees to swallow something new. They engaged their people and their culture and created a highly social process that resulted in the by-product, a magical environment.
They had to let go of previous assumptions about how they once accomplished work, what a “normal” office might look like, design, and wellness. They had to wake up in a new world every morning, literally making it up as they traveled. To do that required them to whisper new directions to the elephant. Trust me – that is a gut-wrenching, exhausting, stressful, and humbling process. But it produces something of immense value.
They created something new, a place that truly embodied health and well-being by introducing medical science into design. You've heard the old adage that the process of making a great sum of money is more valuable than the money itself. In that sense, CBRE's process was worth far more than what the eye could see. The process of creating their new home provided the context to learn a new way to work together. I went back several times, trying to understand what was in the process to produce such transforming power.
But, before I figured it out, I fell under the same spell. I concluded that they had simply found a way to do wellness better. And that naïve assumption is where our work really started. We started by believing the wellness elephant was not only large, but wise, sensitive, and caring. In time, we began to realize we fell into an illusion. So, we had to dig down through the strata of illusion to the bedrock of reality.
Figure I.1 The elephant is going to behave as it wishes.
In the lost craft of barn raising, not only was the barn built much faster, but the deepened intimacy, trust, reciprocity, sense of purpose, satisfaction, celebration, and learning also made priceless contributions to the community. Our collective journeys to wellness carry the same potential of barn raising. The barn didn't cause the performance boost; it was a catalyst for what happened.
The Heathy Workplace Nudge explores the journey of, and relationship between, the rider and the elephant.
The Things We See and the Things We Miss
The Healthy Workplace Nudge describes our search to explain how some companies have created healthy, happy, and resilient organizations, while most have not. This book examines why there are so many emphases and promotions for wellness and well-being, with so little to show for it.
Leaders of industry and business clearly must, and many do, understand they face the constant threat of disruptive innovation. Despite knowing that, too many fail to see or respond to the warning signs. Kodak knew about digital photography. They invented it. Before Amazon created ubiquitous distribution, Sears stores and catalogs covered the land. Whole Foods was king of the organic food world; now it is just part the Amazon universe. Many saw the truth; many missed it.
Our brains are designed to come to clear and rational conclusions. But only in hindsight. If we knew then what we know now, Kodak, Sears, and Whole Foods would still be giants. And the 2008 crash wouldn't have happened, and I would still have my 401(k) intact and be able to retire. Inside each collapse is a beguiling narrative (the elephant) to ignore contradictory evidence (the rider). And it usually works: the best and the brightest minds in the financial industry closed their eyes and simply rode the lumbering beasts off the path to destruction.
Chronic disease is a massive and growing bull elephant, and the wellness industry and corporate leaders have been unable to slow it down. The ride, however, is taking us all down the same destructive path. If we don't slow this beast down, we will reach the end of the road, a sheer cliff, by 2025. The collective effort to slow and reverse its path will require the kind of creative and courageous leadership we saw after the Great Depression, in the rebuilding of Europe after World War II, and landing men on the moon.
Because American companies employ more than 160 million people, they have the largest platform and greatest leverage for accomplishing this mission. We will introduce you to leaders who understand that. Furthermore, they recognize the positive ripple effect that happy, productive, and healthy employees carry back home and to their soccer coaching, book clubs, community groups, places of worship, and families each day.
I make this promise: If you take your office and colleagues toward health and well-being, it will transform your life, your work, your relationships, and your work space. The Healthy Workplace Nudge explains why taking this journey is urgent.
Promises, Promises
The promises we have heard from “reputable sources” for decades have, until now, cancelled out the warnings from critics and prophets. After all, this small choir is comprised of nut jobs, screwballs, and iconoclasts. Banished voices. However, they know and won't let anyone forget that the $3.7 trillion wellness industrial complex made convincing promises:
To reduce health costs by improving health
To attract and retain employees
To improve engagement
To return $3 for every $1 invested in wellness
Those promises tuned out to be the loud ranting of riders bouncing along dusty roads on top of the elephant. They meant nothing. In fact, health costs keep rising at an average of 7% per year.3 And we have no evidence that wellness efforts improve employee attraction and retention. Workplace engagement has remained under 30% since Gallup first started conducting its Global Engagement Survey.4 And, if wellness generated a 300% return on investment, companies would be looking for ways to increase the investment, not ways to cut it.5
Our Well MindShift project, including more than 100 industry experts and business leaders, concluded that wellness efforts, as they are today, cannot deliver any of its promises.
But we did find hope for the future of the workplace and the country. You will find that hope detailed in vivid stories from all across the country. In most cases, these are not “brilliant” leaders running complex sophisticated programs. Rather, you will meet serious, down-to-earth, tenacious, and healthy leaders who are easy to talk to and continually curious, courageous, and caring. The question is, if it is that simple, why isn't everyone doing it? That is what our MindShift team worked hardest to understand. I think the answers will drive you to devour, underline, highlight, and dog-ear the pages. Regardless if you're in charge, in a support role, or stuck in an organization that doesn't get it, you will pause several times and think, “If they can do it, we can too!”
The View from the Ridge
Several years ago, my older son and I joined a 10-person expedition backpacking through a 140,000-acre preserve in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We hiked 110 miles in 10 days, including eight mountain ascents.
Our expedition required eight months of preparation. We learned how to pack light, how to set up camp in the dark, meticulously clean our campsite, and protect our food from bears. And then, after three days with our guide, we were suddenly on our own. We suffered a few injuries and weathered a lightning storm on a mountain ridge. We saw bears and rattlesnakes, but we also saw pure mountain streams and breathtaking sunsets. We tripped, stumbled, bled, and cursed like sailors in front of our sons. But we also discovered the quiet and sublime joy of sitting around an evening fire, just listening to the lazy pops of the crackling fire. It took me three days to unplug from my digital dependence and frantic pace; I finally slipped into a new rhythm and found deep joy in our grand adventure.
We spent our last night atop the preserve's most recognizable landmark, Tooth of Time. The 500-foot granite monolith tops the 9,000-foot peak providing a panoramic view of the 140,000 acres. From that vantage point, we could see the great sweep of our trail. From that magnificent overlook, as we “mountain men” relived the expedition, the trail took on a new dimension. We connected the dots we missed when we were down there. We saw the seamlessness of that gorgeous habitat as we had not seen it before.
As I listened to the boys touching the bonds of their shared experiences and stories, I felt wistful that the journey would end tomorrow. We sat on the ridge at sunset and watched the valley slowly darken. Some of the boys slept on the ridge in order to be awakened by the sunrise. Tracing the 10 days and seeing the finish several miles below generated the energy for a final push. Our descent took several hours hiking along the switchbacks, but eventually, we arrived at the finish line. I just wanted to cross the line and get to the camp for a shower. But one of the boys was thinking like a leader: “Hey, let's cross this together at the same time.” He captured the magic our journey produced. We started as a collection of naïve and dissimilar individuals; we finished as a closely bonded and seasoned team.
When we finally arrived into camp, we saw the next wave of crews coming in. Our boys eagerly told the “newbies” of the mountain sights, thrills, and challenges to come. They had the right: they earned the patch.
Our MindShift group has now come down from our patrol in search of wellness. I think we earned the patch. Like the trek with my son, this exploration of new territory took us to unimagined discoveries (about the territory, but perhaps more about ourselves). We are forever changed.
Figure I.2 A nudge encourages the elephant to pick a better path.
This section is a practical guide to the book. Let it give you a lay of the land and whisper some guidance for what you will see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Just as I could not have made the mountain trek alone, I couldn't have completed this project alone. We have crossed over into uncharted territory for business, our society, and our personal lives. One big lesson to take from this book is the journey itself is the point: it's the solution far more than the artifacts we discovered along the way. You will find no manuals, recipes, formulas, or best practices in these pages. That's because finding health and happiness are highly human endeavors. Just follow the maps and listen to the guides ahead.
Part I, Slow-Moving Storm: A History of Warnings and Apathy
This section reveals that business is in the direct path of a slow-moving, deadly storm. This is an emergency warning for leaders to take immediate action. The looming health crisis and its destruction of business and the economy is a probable but still avoidable forecast. This section also highlights the storm shelters being built by some very forward-thinking leaders and companies. By doing so, they have retooled their cultures and developed readiness for future uncertainty.
America is now entering a catastrophic collision with a slow-moving storm of health-care costs. If the current “storm tracking” is accurate, within the next decade those costs will devour our GDP and double federal income taxes. Alzheimer's spending will hit over $1 trillion by 2050. The same pattern is true of Type 2 diabetes. According to the Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Michael Roizen, by 2025 we will hit that point which is “undoable.”6
At that point, the storm will produce profound societal disruption.
And, tragically, this has been one of the most predictable crises in history.
Part II, Is There Shelter from the Storm? A Search for Wellness
These chapters present the critical need for shelters from the storm. But, it first examines what wholeness looks like. In the process, we expose the flawed foundations and the false hopes of too many wellness efforts. We also strip away the false promises, expose the self-interest of the wellness industrial complex, and rehumanize the conversation. You will see that the search for wellness is both a very personal issue and a very personal journey.
Let me be more specific.
