“i remember how i felt and how i felt helpless to change what i was being teased about. at times i felt…isolated, ashamed and exposed.”

peggy hebard’s talking about being asian. she could just as easily be talking about a health challenge.

take 3:50 to watch and listen.

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molly fletcher can tell a story.

en route to the masters tournament to support a new client, she felt a new mother’s pressing duty: the need to pump. undeterred by high-driving speeds, intrigued truckers, and incoming calls, she drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the breast pump before arriving at the masters, tossing the milk in an ice chest, and sauntering on to the range. she pumped. she navigated. she executed.

excellent execution was her focus and that of the other speakers at people report’s 2011 best practices conference (PRBPC), an annual conference that brings together senior leaders in the restaurant industry. execution that benefited the employee, the employer, the customer, the industry, and yes, the world. (i was there with bruce rush, director, total rewards at taco bell corporation, to talk about the excellent execution of workplace wellness efforts.)

with a tag line of “people, planet, profits,” the conference’s emphasis of doing well by doing good shouldn’t have surprised me. frankly, it did. this cynical girl—like the other, more famous one—has heard far too many BS-laden speeches to unquestioningly accept. but with shrinking markets and shriveling margins, the organizers, speakers and attendees at PRBPC recognize that good business means good ethics and meaningful brands.

which brings us back to molly fletcher, who ended her speech with three flip-the-frame questions every human resources department should ask:

• how do we find out what employees want?
• how do we have employees’ backs?
• how do we make employees heroes?

yes. how do we?

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upcoming: how do we use these questions to flip the frame on our approach to wellness?

mallika chopra, intent

“what am i doing?”

“what am i doing?”

this question tumbled out of mallika chopra’s mouth at the business innovation factory summit (BIF-7) in providence, rhode island this week.

it tumbled from the stage as it had tumbled from her mouth over ten years earlier while she watched the results of her hard work at MTV india: kids in india were watching scantily dressed kids dance elsewhere.

“what am i doing?!”

flash forward and mallika’s now behind intent.com, a social exercise in declaring your life’s intent with and to others.

her story echoed others we heard at BIF-7. in fact, i’d say it was an overarching theme: what am i doing?

am i doing something that feeds my soul?

am i doing something others can trust?

am i doing something that sees what can be instead of only what’s broken?

am i doing something that creates a meaningful economy?

am i doing something that improves the world?

_______________________

what am i doing? ask yourself.

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to learn about BIF-7, visit the BIF-7 website.

[image: android phone, if you couldn't guess.]

“you americans are crap at time off.”

from what i can gather, that’s what sir richard branson told 14,000 people gathered to hear him at the society of human resources management (SHRM) 2011 annual conference & exposition.

damn straight.

who doesn’t know we’re laggards when it comes to vacation time and maternity leave? you can forget paternity leave. that barely registers on our U.S. work radars. we’re also really poor on the work-life fit scale, despite the number of surveys that suggest we recognize how critical work-life flexibility is to 21st century success. SHRM credits the disconnect to a lack of trust by the employer and cries out for a culture change.

but you know what? we’re part of the problem. here are two prime examples, the first from an inc. article, why nice girls finish last:

“Interestingly enough, I had a conversation with an editor in New York the other day, and I know that she has three kids, and I know her company has flex-time. I said, ‘Do you work flex time so you can be with your kids more?’ She said, ‘No. If you ask for or take flex time, you’re marginalized. Instead what I do is when I need extra time off, I just quietly take it.’ I think that’s good advice because anything that sets you apart from your male counterpart—in terms of gender—is going to work to your disadvantage. Unfortunately, that’s still where we are. It’s unfortunate but it’s true. I’m not saying you can’t have a family if you want a career; you just have to decide what’s most important to you, what your values are, and how you’ll manage expectations around them.”

this next one’s from an article by cali yost, a woman i greatly admire:

“My advice would be not to get into ‘why’ you are leaving early/late or working from home, and simply let others know how the work will get done, and how you can be reached if needed. Go to the soccer game, meet your friend for coffee, get your nails done. Come in earlier, leave a little later, or catch up from home afterwards to make it happen. Just keep focused on the ‘how,’ and less on the ‘why.’”

i bristle at both of these articles, perhaps naively. and perhaps more so because gay marriage just passed in NY.

whether you agree with gay marriage or not, you can recognize that gay marriage didn’t pass in NY or elsewhere because people waited for it to happen or gave up when it didn’t. they didn’t keep their feelings, desires and legitimate needs to themselves. no. people championed for the right. they came back after being shot down. factions collaborated. and maybe most important, they made themselves visible—in all walks of life. more people now know they know someone who’s gay, including those whose votes mattered. that’s a game changer.

battles aren’t won without a fight, and achieving work-life fit is a battle. we need trailblazers and activists. i understand it’s a risky proposition for those who sign up. they can be labeled slackers, layabouts, GenY (!) and worse. but we need work-life flexatarians to come out of the closet. we need people, particularly those like the senior female exec with kids i mention above, to say it loud and say it proud, “heck yeah. i go to the gym during work hours.” perhaps we’ll strike a blow for better performance management at the same time.

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it’s a long, uphill battle to change the way we eat. i admire jamie oliver & IDEO’s moxie, teaming up to make that happen through the workplace with cooking & company. in this video, IDEO’s chris waugh speaks truth to power.

truth: small, social activities change our habits.
truth: work demands lead to “it’s take-out night, kids!”
truth: companies have enormous, unused leverage to make a difference. at work. at home. in the community.

power: that’s you, companies. listen up.

IDEO will be talking about cooking & company on the june 15 cohealth chat. don’t miss it.

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i wrote this post one year ago for boston college’s sloan work and family research network blog. today i’ll be talking about much of these things at PENJERDEL benefits and compensation association’s 29th annual forum. since last year, more companies recognize social networks and communities as solutions, innovative partnerships are springing up, and yesterday’s cohealth tweet chat focused on mobile health. and we’re still frustrated by lack of engagement, with more companies throwing money or penalties at the problem. a year has passed; we’re taking baby steps.

A recent National Business Group on Health and Towers Watson report finds employers frustrated with their employees’ lack of engagement in their own health and feeling their vendors aren’t bringing the goods, either. And they’re miffed about it.

Miffed? For real?!

Pardon me for saying, but I’m not sure any company qualifies for miffed righteousness just yet. At least, not about their employees’ lack of health engagement. Those who could qualify would be able to answer yes to all of the following:

1. Everyone understands that a healthy workplace is part of our business strategy. Our leadership sets the tone and our managers create the environment, and we recognize and reward them based on the actions they take. Some of our leaders are grappling with their own health challenges; we believe this makes them even better health champions.

2. Employees and their families are our partners. We are not doing unto them or asking them to do unto us. We are doing together.

3. Our health and wellness programs are based on evidence-based research. They integrate with each other and with other programs that affect employee health and well-being: work-life flexibility, professional development, and recognition, for example. Our incentives reward for taking first steps (taking a health risk assessment) and for progress made (sticking with a new behavior for an extended period of time).

4. We’re constantly looking for disconnects between our messages and our environment. Our cafeteria and vending machines aren’t stocked to the gills with junk, and our office locations and policies encourage movement.

5. Our information is targeted for specific end users and made available in a variety of ways. It appeals to each audience’s interests and aspirations, not only on what’s in it for the company.

6. Our benefits portal organizes information according to users’ needs, not the needs of program owners or vendors. It offers articles, tools, and interactive exercises that support someone all the way from deciding to make a change to preparing for it to doing it. When we don’t have the information or available tool, we help employees find trusted resources.

7. We offer social networking communities to facilitate conversation about living with chronic conditions, kicking the tobacco habit, organizing a walking group—real-life conversations about what concerns, frustrates, and interests employees and their families. We also offer our employees other ways to ask questions and seek advice from one another or the benefits department—like blogs and online forums.

8. All of our online information sits outside the firewall so employees and their families can get the information 24/7. Since the bulk of our program is online, we provide the necessary computer training to those who need it. And we plan for large groups of employees who need translation support.

9. We’re working with our insurance providers and other health and wellness partners to determine where and how we’ll use mhealth, health games, and other health 2.0 innovations in our company 2.0 world. We’re engaging our networks’ physicians so they, too, know about our efforts and can support them. And we’re forging community and nonprofit partnerships that make a difference in the communities in which we work and where our future talent goes to school and lives.

10. We realize that we, like the rest of the health care system, are grappling with a tremendously difficult and sometimes baffling situation. Yet we believe that healthy employees are more engaged in their work, have stronger relationships, and create better results with our customers. We will stay committed to creating a healthy organization, measuring and adjusting our efforts until we get it right.

One of the fundamental flaws in the employer-provided benefits system has been that it requires employers to assume an additional role. Companies didn’t enter the world to help individuals stay or get healthy—they’re not health care providers. Companies are invested in their product, whether that’s a tangible or service-oriented one. That’s why for years the game has been about containing health care costs, whether through managed care (HMOs) or cost shifting, and has largely ignored the connection between health, engagement, and productivity.

But the tide is turning. And sharp companies and leaders will turn away from being miffed and turn toward action. We have a long way to go, but simply talking about the issues from different angles and with new partners is a great place to start.

i’ve just returned from south by southwest where i facilitated a discussion on employee wellness and attended the one-day health track. south by southwest added the health track this year after seeing the appetite for it when shwen gwee and dana lewis held a social health unconference last year (note: i missed that. won’t make that mistake again. their next unconference is in philadelphia on september 19. mark it down.)

i already posted a slew of links to tools and other interesting resources from these health sessions. now i want to share my take-aways, which i’ve grouped by themes and tensions that spanned the sessions.

data and usefulness

data came up in most of the health sessions i attended: freeing up data. the various types of data (individual/population/reference). data siloes.

todd park from the department of health and human services (HHS) spoke about the government creating an environment for improving health. by releasing the data, the government’s creating opportunities for entrepreneurs who can benefit themselves while benefiting the public, and the response has been enthusiastic. (see my other post for examples.) there are scads of tools and innovations. what’s not as abundant is usefulness.

aza raskin of massive health raised the same issue in the behavior change checklist: down with gameification. he spoke about the tools we have versus the tools we need, like tools that give us feedback on how what we’re doing today affects our body tomorrow or on how well we’re doing at not doing something, like not eating that cake again and again and again or not sitting on the couch—these things that improve our health but we receive no feedback on otherwise.

while it’s exciting to witness all of this health innovation, what we need is innovation that targets specific end users and end goals.

tools, apps and target audience

in health: is there really an app for that? jane sarasohn-kahn shared statistics on health apps and those who’ve downloaded them. there are 8,000 apps in the itunes library that fall under the health umbrella. 20% are for cardiofitness, 16% for food, 7% for sleep and 9% for strength training. the single largest audience downloading these apps are black, young and live in the city—not the audience who’d most benefit from these apps, but obviously the audience who finds them cool.

in mobile health in africa: what can we learn?, jaspal sandhu shared a story that started out the same. many developing countries had wondrous donated incubators, all shiny and new. until, that is, they broke and were abandoned because the locals didn’t have the parts or know-how to fix them. in an ah-hah moment, a team fashioned incubators out of old car parts, materials that were abundant and the locals knew how to use. to me, this true story is an allegory for creating solutions that are right for the audience you’re trying to support.

the asthmapolis inhaler tracker is my favorite discovery and an example of bringing together data, usefulness and target audience. asthmapolis is an inhaler combined with a GPS system. when an asthmatic has an attack and uses the inhaler, the GPS maps the location. this data directs public health efforts as they look into environmental reasons for clumped asthma attacks, and it directs individuals’ routines as they use asthmapolis to avoid asthma trigger “hot” spots.

people, not patients (or employees)

in the health: is there really an app for that? session, john de souza from medhelp remarked that “the market is consumers, not patients.” we need to “bring the consumer perspective to health.”

in health data everywhere: not a drop to link, we saw instances of consumers doing it for themselves. jamie heywood talked about patients like me, a service where people opt to share all of their health data in order to better understand their condition or disease. gilles frydman highlighted the association of cancer online resources’ (ACOR) mailing lists that connect cancer patients and caregivers with others. both provide more up-to-date and personalized information than can be found elsewhere—not to mention community.

this same “for the consumer!” rallying cry was discussed by indu subaiya regarding health 2.0′s developer challenges and in apps for healthy kids: government challenges FTW, where challenges are setting the stage for us, as consumers, to come together as a community of solvers. health 2.0′s developer challenge extends the consumers reach to actual developers who solve the real-life health problems we pose.

privacy

it wouldn’t be a health discussion without privacy popping up. and it did, in more than one session, but no more powerfully than in patients/caregivers on facebook: establishing boundaries without barriers. this session brought together mayo’s legal counsel, web and social strategists, and health providers to discuss how they use social media to benefit their patients while still respecting their privacy. it’s a question that’s very relevant to employers as they seek to add social solutions to their wellness efforts. daniel goldman and ed bennett shared practical solutions, such as collecting HIPAA releases and other releases electronically and answering first-person questions in the third person. but it was an anonymous tweeter who asked, “what is privacy?” that raised the point we need to address in social + health + work relationships.

that complex question of what is private and who defines it came up in my session on employee wellness, too. companies already enter our lives in many ways. stress from work distracts us from our home life. work demands interfere there, too. now add in wellness efforts and their intent to change the way we eat, move and more, and you have to ask: where do you draw the line between the part of our personal lives companies can enter and the part they can’t? we discussed but never adequately answered this question, and it’s one that needs resolution—perhaps only satisfactorily on a person-by-person basis.

environment

my favorite quote was todd park’s: “the one thing that trumps process is culture.” truer words were never spoken. put in all of the policies and programs you want and communicate the heck out of them. if your culture doesn’t support whatever change you’re trying to drive, you’re not going to get it. actions will revert to what the culture supports, drives and rewards. if you want healthy behavior, build a culture that creates it.

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i’m feeling the pain of mott’s communication professionals; things don’t look pretty over there. in a year of record profits and with nary a word about leadership sacrifice, they’re faced with the unenviable task of fashioning palatable communication messages for why mott’s is asking employees for pay and benefits cutbacks.

to lend them a hand, i’m taking up a collection. drop your suggested copy in the comments. i’ll start things off:

mott’s new people strategy

• Reduce (your pay and benefits)

• Reuse (your uniform)

• Recycle (our workforce with those more compliant)

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“The built environment can constrain or facilitate physical activity. Understanding ways to encourage greater use of local environments for physical activity offers some hope for reducing the growth in the prevalence of obesity.”

dr. john m. macdonald, PhD, university of pennsylvania

translation: how can we change what’s around us to get us to move more?

macdonald, a PENN professor, studied the effect of a newly installed light-rail system on physical activity and BMI and found that the very act of offering an alternative led to healthier behaviors and healthier bodies. those who opted for the new commuting option walked an average 1.2 miles across their two daily commutes. a year after the light-rail’s installation, the riders were 6.45 pounds lighter than those who drove. (they did adjust their BMI downward, which is less meaningful to me, given the BMI’s controversy-ridden standing.)

the best part? i’ll bet these riders didn’t even think they were exercising. they were commuting.

after congratulating myself (again) for being so smart (smug) about making the city my home, i tried to figure out how companies could use this knowledge.

we already know that most companies aren’t set up for movement. we also know that sitting endlessly does more than contribute to our ever-widening bottomlines. it’s not likely that companies are going to redesign their existing structures to create more opportunities to move. they’re also not going to shut down email and phone service so you have to get up to talk with the team member who’s two offices down the hall. if the green movement continues to grow, they may advocate for more light-rail or other public transportation—something i believe would also increase the diversity of their workforce. but that’s long-term thinking. in the short term, we’re at a loss for how to improve the physical environment.

then again, we don’t sit all day. and some workers move. lots. what if we all started thinking of our normal movement as meaningful exercise, like the commuters? in switch, the heath brothers tell a great story about maids who discounted their on-the-job physical activity. they considered themselves to be non-exercisers—until the researchers changed their sense of identity. they told a group they were exercise superstars. suddenly, those maids were exerting so much more (unconscious) effort in their typical room cleaning, they lost weight. while losing weight isn’t always the point, increasing activity is. here, the simple act of changing the way they looked at themselves triggered new behavior.

over the long haul, companies can alter their “built” environment with consideration for physical activity. in the short term, they can help people change their self-image—and their health.

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more on the study:

• getting slim just by riding the subway
• public transit systems contribute to weight loss and improved health
• the effect of light rail transit on body mass index and physical activity

conant, a philly print shop, didn’t have an extraordinary idea. to get coworkers moving, they started a lunchtime walking club for them, clients and conant friends.

then they got creative.

working with local retailers, they created the d20 walking for rewards program and opened their group to everyone. they offer two daily walks departing from different locations. there’s no cost and no hassle. you just show up, walk a beautiful circuit, and get to know philly and others.

then they got motivated.

they’ve morning and happy-hour walks on the brain. and ditomasso, one of the d20 founders, now envisions, ““If [D20] took over and we had thousands of people walking, [maybe] we could turn into one of the fittest cities.”

two guys with a simple idea. this is how change happens.

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• read more about d20.