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Redesigning Wellness Podcast

The Redesigning Wellness podcast explores the world of corporate health to help employers build strategic wellness programs that engage employees. The Redesigning Wellness podcast is centered around what works and doesn’t work in wellness. In this podcast, Jen will interview experts in various worksite wellness specialties to demystify the common worksite wellness program. She’ll also spend time sharing common barriers to help get your wellness program moving forward. You’ll discover common sense approaches to wellness, tips for engaging employees and how to implement a program that your employees actually like.
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Now displaying: July, 2016
Jul 29, 2016

This episode is a summary of this week's podcast interviews and focuses on what to say when you talk to leadership about wellness. Jen recounts her struggles talking to CEO's when she was just starting out in her career. She summarizes advice from Dee Edington and Jennifer Pitts on what to say when your leadership could care less about wellness.

Jul 28, 2016

Dee Edington, CEO of Edington Associates, has been in the wellness field for 40 years and reveals the wellness questions he asks CEO's when he's working with organizations. He has great advice on how to talk to leadership even when they're not bought into wellness. 

Dee gives a ton of value in this episode. He talks about why we shouldn't walk away from the word "wellness", how we can help employees get to their highest potential and how we should always start with what's going well first.

He also talks about the standard approach to wellness, including biometric screenings and financial incentives.

Finally, Dee talks about the value of caring and gratitude. There's an amazing amount of knowledge Dee imparts on us in this episode and I know I learned a ton.

Jul 26, 2016

Jennifer Pitts is the founder of the Institute for Positive Organizational Health, and co-founder of Edington Associates. She and Dee Edington recently coauthored a new book, Shared Values - Shared Results, a book that proposes a systems view for designing healthier cultures in organizations.

In this podcast, we talk about:

  • The Institute of Positive Organizational Health and how it co-exists with Edington Associates.
  • How we need better collaboration through opening up and being vulnerable about where we're not succeeding within our organizations and also being proud of where we are.
  • How poor health is a wicked problem because of it's interconnectedness with the other 8+ dimensions, such as social health, emotional health and occupational health.
  • The value of becoming a caring organization.

This was my favorite quote from Jennifer and great advice for anyone having trouble starting a wellness movement:

"Start a movement wherever you can get a foothold or leverage in your organization."

I also pick her brain on a focus on disease management vs wellness, systems thinking, characteristics of healthy organizations and mistakes employers make with evaluation.

Finally, Jennifer answers this question:

How do we shift the thinking from a wellness program to whole organizational health?

Jul 22, 2016

This is a 4 minute quick tip where Jen talks about what to consider in the environment when putting in a weight loss program. 

Jul 20, 2016

Dr. Rebecca Robbins conducts research at the NYU School of Medicine on the critical role sleep plays in our waking lives. She co-authored a book called Sleep for Success! in 2011 with Dr. James B. Maas.

Dr. Robbins published peer-reviewed literature in publications including SLEEP, the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and Preventing Chronic Disease. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Financial Times, Condé Nast Traveler, and Martha Stewart Living.

Dr. Robbins has appeared on many news shows, including Fox Business News, ABC World News Now, CBS This Morning, and ABC Nightline. She speaks on the topic of sleep to audiences ranging from academic to corporate, including Google and General Electric (just to name a few).

Today Rebecca and I discuss:

  • The key benefits of sleep
  • Breaks down circadian rhythm and REM sleep
  • How we can make getting good sleep more normative and make sleep part of the conversation in corporate environment

Rebecca talks about her time at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab where she published a few papers on employee wellness. One was the 10% solution around management involvement in wellness and workplace health codes of conduct. It's a very interesting approach to employee health.

Dr. Robbins talks about a powerful approach to technology, tangible tips for getting a good night's sleep and what night shift and split shift workers can do to get better sleep.

When talking sleep, of course we talk about sleep pods, nap rooms and what's up with being sleepy between 2 and 4 p.m.

Jul 13, 2016

Meet Amy Grazen, Corporate Resilience Trainer and Intrinsic Health Coach. Amy and I met a couple years ago when I was brought her training to my last employer. From the first time I was exposed to resilience training, I was hooked because it made such an impact in my life both personally and professionally.

In this episode we discuss:

  • Amy's definition of resilience and how it relates to stress management
  • Her reflections from trainings thousands of employees in corporate America
  • The different dimensions of resilience, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, and examples of each
  • Why multi-tasking is the enemy of resilience
  • The importance of planning recovery throughout the day

Amy also shares a hard time in her life when all of her resilience practices went away. She tells us how she got back on track with practicing resilience.

As with every episode, Amy will give us a tangible tip for both employees and employer's health and wellness practices.

Jul 6, 2016

Ryan is President of WELCOA, otherwise known as the Wellness Council of America. 

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Ryan's career at the Blues of Tennessee and the wellness initiative that seemed to work best with their employees.
  • Why you don't need a large budget to have a successful wellness program
  • How he got to be President of WELCOA and a friend that nudged him to apply
  • His first 6 months on the job and his aggressive course for changing things
  • How the ROI conversation put the wellness field in a precarious position

Ultimately, Ryan thinks we're having the wrong conversations around wellness.

He gives us advice on:

  • How to change the culture
  • Where the wellness function should sit within the org (hint - it's not in benefits)

Ryan is very transparent about the changes he's making within WELCOA and gives us a behind the scenes recap of their brand redesign. He also shares the 3 words that represent WELCOA's brand.

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