Introduction
An Overview of Workplace Wellness

People are designed to move. As hunters and gatherers, we moved up to 20 miles a day. We had to move to survive. We're also designed to eat food-real food, not processed food. We're designed to perform under pressure and then renew. We're designed to love and be socially connected. And we're designed to find happiness and meaning in life. These essentials are at the root of what we've been seeking through the ages, told through the voices of philosophers like Aristotle and Viktor Frankl to poets like Pablo Neruda to pop singers like Lady Gaga. Today, more than ever, we're talking about these ageless questions, but grasping to find the answers.

Wellness, at its core, is about getting back to doing what we naturally do. Increasingly, however, we're being culturally asked to do things that we're not biologically designed to do. We're born to move, but we're culturally mandated to sit. We're biologically programmed to eat whole foods, but our busy schedules and toxic environments prompt us to eat processed foods that are immediately gratifying, but never satisfying. We're hardwired to alternate stress with relaxation, but the society we live in idolizes being busy and always on the go. We're born to be with others, but many of us are feeling isolated in a sea of hard-driving competition, despite our ever expanding virtual social networks on Facebook and LinkedIn. We live in a world that exerts pressure to be available 24/7 and dishes up professional demands that are ever more unrelenting, with less time to rest and replenish. It's no wonder that so many of us are feeling depleted and worn out.

In this petri dish of biological-cultural mismatches, workplace wellness initiatives have been gaining both popularity and notoriety. Workplace wellness, one might say, is any kind of organized effort to support employees in being more human at work: moving more, eating more natural foods, finding balance, building meaningful connections, and working toward a higher purpose. Done well, workplace wellness has the potential to offset the ill effects of the increasingly demanding and toxic environment and culture we live in. Done poorly, workplace wellness can feel like another top-down compliance initiative that has little to do with well-being and everything to do with checking boxes and taking tests.

Workplace wellness should not be complicated and controversial-and yet, it has become just that. In truth there are a number of really simple, inexpensive practices that any organization-and any person within the organization-can do to create an oasis at work that nurtures well-being and benefits the bottom line. Every organization already has the capacity and the resources right now to achieve Workplace Wellness That Works. This is exactly what this book is about.

Applying promising practices from workplace wellness, along with principles from related fields like education, learning and development, organizational development, psychology, and even a discipline called "design thinking" (think like a designer to devise creative solutions), we can make a difference in employees' health and happiness, and we can promote an overall culture of well-being at work. We can create Workplace Wellness That Works, and we can help employees achieve their higher purpose.

A Guide to Using This Book

This book is designed for anyone who is tasked with or is interested in workplace wellness. You could be the designated wellness liaison or a manager in human resources, a safety coordinator, a senior executive who wants to bring wellness to the entire organization, or even an external consultant or broker. The book assumes no prior background in the wellness field, but even wellness veterans may be interested in the chapters that highlight innovative thinking from other industries.

This book provides tips that can be applied to any stage of a wellness program, whether the program is just getting started or is long-standing-and it can be applied to organizations of any size. You will find that what I write about goes beyond standard wellness programs. Be prepared, because a lot of organizations and decision makers are not ready for this. For many organizations I work with, the first challenge is to move decision makers forward on how they perceive wellness. In some cases, you will have to work around limited views of workplace wellness, or you may have an organization that is completely wellness-averse. In these cases, you might consider "going stealth"-sneaking wellness into non-wellness initiatives-being sure not to call it wellness.

In still other cases, you may enjoy the full support of senior leaders and managers who are ready to jump on board and a receptive group of employees who are waiting to join the wellness movement. Whatever the case, you'll need to tune into what your organization is ready for-and this book will help you identify where your organization is right now and how to get started, given your current reality.

Let's step back first, though, and take a look at the larger context.

We Are Facing a Tidal Wave

We are facing a tidal wave of obesity, chronic disease and conditions, lots of stress, and too many missed opportunities for each of us to reach our full potential. The statistics are overwhelming. By and large, this tidal wave stems from the massive biological-cultural mismatch that we have collectively created in the United States, and increasingly as a global community.

In the United States, more than a third of us are obese, and another third of us are overweight-double the rate in 1980.1 If trends continue, almost half of us will be obese by the year 2030.2 Nearly one in two Americans has at least one chronic disease or condition.3 Heart disease continues to be the number one killer.4 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 1 in 10 Americans has type 2 diabetes and more than a third of American adults are in the early stages of diabetes.5 If we continue on the same trajectory, a third of us will be diabetic by year 2050.6

The cost of this tidal wave is enormous. It's estimated that obesity alone costs over $300 billion annually in medical costs, disability costs, premature death, and lost productivity.7 About 75 percent of our national health care expenditure goes toward treating largely preventable diseases. Meanwhile, less than five percent goes toward prevention.8

Our economy simply cannot sustain these skyrocketing expenditures. Almost 20 percent of our gross domestic product goes toward health care costs, and we spend over two and a half times more than any other country in the world on health care. Sadly, we have little to show for it. In a controversial World Health Report released in 2000, the United States was ranked No. 37 in the world in terms of overall health performance-behind countries like Morocco, Dominica, and Costa Rica.9 According to a 2013 "Most Efficient Health Care" Bloomberg report, the United States ranked 46th in a group of 48 nations. The authors of this report noted, "Among advanced economies, the U.S. spends the most on health care on a relative cost basis with the worst outcome."10 More important than money, though, is the human cost. This tidal wave is shortening our life spans, diminishing our quality of life, and limiting our potential.

Perhaps most devastating is the impact this tidal wave is having on our children. Nearly one in five children in the United States today is obese.11 It's estimated that at least one in four children born after the year 2000 will acquire type 2 diabetes sometime in their lifetime. For some populations, it could be even higher-30 percent, 40 percent, even 50 percent.12 And, for the first time ever in history, there is evidence to suggest that our children will have shorter life expectancies than we do-unless we do something.13

So the natural question is, "What can I, as just one person, do to stand up to this colossal tidal wave?" The answer: I can make better choices. The fact is that the onset of most of the chronic diseases and conditions we face today-heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, arthritis, and certain cancers-could be prevented, if only each one of us made better choices.14

Let's break this down a little further. The American Heart Association has identified a list of seven criteria needed to support a healthy heart. Called the "Simple Seven," the list includes eating a healthy diet, getting at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week, being a nonsmoker for at least a year, along with maintaining a healthy weight, healthy blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels, and healthy blood sugar levels.15 Seems straightforward enough. When I speak to groups about this, I then pose a follow-up question: "According to one large study, out of a pool of 17,820 adults between the ages of 45 and 98, how many do you think met the Simple Seven?" Usually, the guesses are in the percentages-ten percent, five percent, or, for those who are feeling more pessimistic, two percent. Then comes the shocking answer: "two people."16 We can do better than this. The question is:...