I’m an optimist at heart. I need optimism almost as much as I do air. Given that, I’ve been looking for positives in the midst of this pandemic. Lately, I’ve been thinking that perhaps one positive is an increased focus on employee well-being. I’m not a romantic…so the jury is still out, but I sincerely hope that the heightened interest in well-being will become the silver lining in all of this—because it’s time to reexamine how we prioritize our people.
In fairness, the focus on well-being has expanded from what was healthcare and a gym membership in the 1980s to something much broader today (especially within larger organizations)…including a focus on mental health, creativity zones, flexible work schedules, and more. All of that is helpful; yet we can do more. A recent McKinsey report stated that “forward-looking companies know that everything else—such as technology, access to raw materials, intellectual property, and customer relationships—is fleeting and the only sustainable advantage is rooted in harnessing the passion, skills, capabilities, judgment, and creativity that people bring to work.” However, much that is being written about the future of organizations has focused on law, regulation, ownership, governance, measurement and pre-pandemic descriptions of performance—with little mention of human beings. If mentioned, employees are referred to as “human capital”…but we are—all of us—flesh and bone, bodies and brains, hearts and minds—and every single organization will be relying on those hearts and minds to carry them out of this crisis.
In order for employees to tap into their full potential and carry us out of this crisis and beyond, they need a different level of support than what most organizations have been providing. That shouldn’t be a surprise because if we’ve learned nothing else over the last several decades—or centuries—we’ve learned the definition of insanity.
Long before the pandemic arrived, we were already experiencing unprecedented change (estimated by McKinsey Global Institute to be 10 times that of the Industrial Revolution and 300 times the scale). Human beings have not evolved as quickly as the rate of change around us and most of us haven’t been trained to cope with that degree of change, leaving many people feeling threatened, stressed, and overwhelmed. In 2018, “stress” was the #1 symptom googled. In 2019, the World Health Organization designated burnout an official syndrome, defined as workplace stress that has not been effectively managed. In 2019, it also reported that suicide rates have risen 60 percent over the last 45 years globally. Enter COVID-19, and 53 percent of adults in the United States say their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress and report difficulty sleeping (36 percent) or eating (32 percent), increases in alcohol consumption or substance use (12 percent), and worsening chronic conditions (12 percent), due to worry and stress over the Coronavirus. A recent PwC study of remote workers found that while productivity has increased during the pandemic, one-third of employees are actually working much harder than the rest, masking the shortfall of others and leaving that third at more significant risk of burnout. In a recent Companies in Motion survey, 77 percent of businesspeople surveyed stated they had no resources for times when they needed more resilience.
There is a clear need for action. If we respond correctly right now, the current crisis has the potential to catalyze a meaningful change in how organizations approach well-being, and it will show up in the bottom line. We have known for decades that a healthy worker is a more productive worker. So what specifically has to change?
- Historically, organizations (especially in the U.S.) have made well-being resources available to their people, presented as a menu, but few have put balanced well-being “meals” together for their people or armed them with the knowledge to do that on their own—educating people on what well-being is and how it impacts performance and encouraging or requiring them to take advantage of the resources provided.
- Most organizations have not integrated well-being into their culture in a way that changes behavior in a meaningful and lasting way. In the U.S., we don’t even consistently require employees to take their vacation days—the lowest hanging well-being fruit. (In 2019, 55 percent of U.S. employees did not use all of their paid vacation time.) To bring about lasting change, organizations need to create cultures where well-being practices are embedded at individual, team, and organizational levels, where leadership is committed to well-being and even measured on its effective implementation, where work environments support well-being, and people at all levels are looking out for each other and understand how to enhance their own and their colleagues’ well-being. (There is no point in giving people “Zoom-free” days if their workloads are still leading them toward burnout).
Putting well-being at the center of your strategy and culture will provide you with a sustainable advantage (e.g., attracting and retaining top talent) and a return on investment in terms of business outcomes. However, creating that culture and achieving those outcomes requires a new type of intelligence—Physical Intelligence—because physiology drives our performance.
More than 400 chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) are racing through each of our bodies (in our bloodstream and nervous system) at any given time. Those chemicals largely dictate how we think, feel, speak, and behave. They arrive at receptor cells and activate circuits of response that lead us to feel sadness, elation, frustration, etc. Most of us operate at the mercy of those chemicals, experiencing thoughts, reactions, and emotions without realizing that we can strategically influence (some of) them.
Physical Intelligence is the little-known ability to detect and actively manage the balance of certain key chemicals—through how we move, breathe, think, and interact with each other—and enables us to achieve more, stress less, and live and work more happily. Literally hundreds of studies have proven that how we use our body impacts our Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence, indicating that Physical Intelligence doesn’t just sit alongside but underpins our Cognitive Intelligence (IQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). There are hundreds of Physical Intelligence techniques, many drawn from the worlds of elite sports and the arts—all underpinned by neuroscience and easy to incorporate into your day. Some take seconds.
People who have developed their Physical Intelligence have transformed their lives, and organizations that have incorporated Physical Intelligence across their teams have experienced a measurable impact on business outcomes, including double-digit revenue growth or commercial success; increased operating efficiency, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction scores; and enhanced innovation.
Well-being is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Each employee and team has unique strengths and needs—generally and situationally. Without understanding and having access to a Physical Intelligence playbook, the positive impact of the well-being resources available will be limited by the knowledge of the user—and no well-being program is complete if it isn’t addressing physiology.
Our bodies have been too far down on the priory list for too many years. To complete the well-being revolution, that needs to change. People and teams need deeper knowledge of their physiology in order to make strategic decisions to enhance well-being and business performance based on their unique needs.
The more we understand the neuroscience that underpins our behavior, the more we can exercise control over the balance of chemicals that we can influence, enabling us to leverage our well-being to help our businesses thrive—regardless of, or in response to, the world around us.
