Workplace Wellness that Works: 10 Steps to Infuse Well-Being and Vitality into Any Organization

Preface

My approach to workplace wellness has always been “different.” Perhaps that's because I come from a different background than most who are in the field. For years, I was a public high school teacher. My job, in fact my calling, was to engage every one of my students. Every day, I needed to design and facilitate a classroom experience that taught, motivated, and inspired, and that ultimately led my students to their calling.

Now I'm CEO of Motion Infusion, a well-being consulting firm, and I'm finding that I'm doing exactly what I did as a teacher—but with adults, and, specifically, with adults in the workplace. My job today, or calling, is to engage, energize, catalyze, and to promote lasting behavior change, moving people toward their higher purpose.

The workplace is essentially school for adults. Just as schools are uniquely positioned to foster positive growth and change in young people, workplaces are uniquely positioned to do the same with adults, especially in the areas of health and well-being.

The numbers clearly demonstrate that the traditional wellness model—one that overly relies on medical and behavioral sciences—is simply not working. What's the missing ingredient? A meaningful and lasting engagement of employees. We need to widen the lens and use a more interdisciplinary approach to promote wellness that works in the workplace, applying thinking from psychology, education, design thinking, and even advertising. To bring sustainable wellness to the workplace, ...