A Staircase of Individual and Organizational Health White Paper

8/12/2019 A Staircase of Individual and Organizational Health White Paper

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A Staircase of Individual and Organizational Health:Bringing the Biology of Business Performance to Life

By Jack Groppel, Ph.D. &

Ben Wiegand, Ph.D.

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CONTACT

For more information, please contact us at:

8552063815; or visit us online at:

www.wellnessandpreventioninc.com

WHITE PAPER

A Staircase of Individual and Organizational

Health:

Bringing the Biology of Business Performance to Life

Jack Groppel, Ph.D.

Vice President of Applied Science & Performance Training, Wellness & Prevention,Inc. and Co-Founder of the Human Performance Institute

Ben Wiegand, Ph.D.Vice President, Wellness & Prevention, Inc., and Disruptive Growth

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INTRODUCTION

Several experts throughout the United States have

proclaimed that the healthier one is, the better one

might perform cognitively (Ratey, 2008; Levine, 2009,

Ratey & Loehr, 2011; Groppel & Wiegand, 2012A). Yet, in

the business world, employee health remains largely

relegated to Human Resources departments as a way

to save money, rather than a critical component of corebusiness strategy. Indeed, evidence shows that physically

active people have a 27% lower healthcare cost per year,

averaging $4,240/year for active people and $5,783/year for

inactive people [Anderson et al, (2005)]. But, is there more

to wellness than just lower costs? Can health really drive

business performance? And conversely, could unhealthy

organizational habits lead to poorer individual and

business health? Is there a pathway by which the effect ofwellness can be better understood?

In an earlier 2012 paper, we proposed the

idea of the Biology of Business Performance

(Groppel & Wiegand, 2012A) to identify

health as the ultimate enabler of human

performance. Our goal in this paper is to

broaden that thinking namely to say

that business health and performance are

analogous to a biological organisms health

and performance, in that teams, leadership,

and entire organizations are composed

of biological and behavioral beings who

must, on a daily basis, engage in healthy

behaviors to be able to access all of their

talent and skill to solve problems, innovate,

lead others, sell, connect, serve customers,

communicate, market, and manufacture.

Person

Enterprise

Brain

Leadership

Nervous System

Team

Cell

Employee

Biology is defined in the Merriam-Webster

Dictionary as a branch of k nowledge that

deals with life organisms and life processes

(Merriam Webster). Textbooks in biology

will take us from the very basics of life to

the complex integration of the organism in

question. For human beings, as with all life

forms, the basic structure and unit of life isthe single cell. While incredibly complex in

and of itself, the individual cell is where all

life begins, and i nterestingly, where many

diseases begin. Millions of cells combine

to create tissue, which is further integrated

to create organs. Then, the hierarchy goes

to systems, and finally to the complete

integration of the organism in this case,

a human being (SEE FIGURE 1). There is,

however, one more obvious step. A human

being is a behavioral being, capable ofcognition, free will, and emotions, which

all result from a combination of genetics

(cell make-up) and environment. Thus, a

healthy individual is healthy in se veral

dimensions: Physical, emotional, mental,

and spiritual, and is aligned to a mission in

life and work. (Loehr & Groppel, 2008).

By comparison, lets examine a similar (and

again simplified) hierarchy of a business

enterprise. In a business, the simplest unit

of integration is the individual employee.When employees unite, teams are formed.

For all teams, there is designated leadership

(often several layers deep ), which is

ultimately (and hopefully) integrated and

aligned to produce the desired outcomes of

a profitable enterprise (SEE FIGURE 2). Just

as a person is more than just the sum of his

or her cellular biology, an enterprises overall

performance is more than just the total

performance of each individual employee

(Khair & Saeed, 2011).

THE STAIRCASE: A METAPHOR FOR ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH

Fig 2: A Simplified Perspective of

Enterprise Organization

Fig 1: A Simplified Perspective of

Human Biology

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Now imagine, if you will, dual columns,

side-by-side, depicting the hierarchical

order of these two systems, progressing

from the simple to the complex with each

step. Lets equate the human cell with the

employee (SEE FIGURE 4); the nervous

system with the organizational team (SEE

FIGURE 5); the brain with the leadershipof the organization (SEE FIGURE 6); and

the integrated biological person with

the overall organization (SEE FIGURE 7).

With this as a lens, it is easy to think of a

business as a hybrid organism made up of

biologic and organizational building blocks,

which comprise a larger staircase.

THE STAIRCASE: A METAPHOR FOR ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH CONTINUED

Fig 3. A New Perspective of the Biology of

an Enterprise, and why health in the entire

spectrum is important

Whats most interesting in this metaphor

is the pecking order. The absolute highest

order of integration in the biological

diagram is the human being, while this

same human being, when put in the

position of employee, is at the lowest level

of integration in the overall enterprise

(SEE FIGURE 3). This is telling of thecurrent perception of employee health

and the common oversight that the

same mechanisms that must be used to

keep a body healthy actually help kee p

businesses healthy as well: activity, good

nutrition, emotional resilience, laser focus,

engagement, etc.

The Person The Organization

The Brain The Leadership

The Nervous System The Team

The Human Cell The Employee

Fig 4. Equating the human cell with the employee


Fig 5. Equating the nervous system with the team

Fig 6. Equating the brain with the leadership

Fig 7. Equating the biologically integrated person with the overall organization

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The staircase metaphor is telling of the

current perception and role of employees

in todays corporate world. In 2010, Towers

Watson reported that companies who

are committed to health as a business

imperative achieve significantly better

financial outcomes and lower employee

turnover (Towers Watson, 2009/2010).

Gallup (2010) took this to another level and

found that unhealthy employees are not

engaged in their jobs, and that numerous

chronic conditions existed (e.g., obesity,

diabetes, etc.).

Just as cells are the building blocks of

the body and the body encompasses

the environment in which those cells

exist people are the building blocks

of an enterprise and the enterprise

encompasses the environment in which

those people exist. The body has evolved

to be an optimized model of productivityand efficiency. Its dynamic environment

supports the health of the cells by

supplying oxygen, blood, vital nutrients,

feedback and feed-forward mechanisms,

etc. Healthy cells, in turn, play vital roles

toward the optimal function of the body.

Similarly, the enterprise must supply

an environment to support the (literal)

health of its people. But is our business

environment optimal in that goal? Are

norms like si tting all day, multitasking,

Disengaged employees are less likely to be

productive than engaged workers (Gallup,

2011). When the majority of a workforce

is disengaged, business productivity and

profits often suffer. Additionally, employees

under stress may exhibit survival-

based behaviors, such as impatience,

uncooperativeness, defensiveness,

frustration, hyper-criticality, and pessimism.

All these emotions decrease their ability to

perform effectively with their work teams.

The cost of underutilized human assets

can run from the tens into the hundreds of

millions of dollars, depending on the size of

the firm (Robison, 2010).

a lack of organizational purpose, and no-

recovery cultures healthy or potentially

toxic? Has the business e nvironment

sufficiently evolved to optimize the health

of its building blocks (its people)? Or did it

evolve out of convenience, tradition, old

business think?

For people to achieve the absolute highest

order of biological integration and

perform at high levels, many things must

fall into place, including good nutrition,

physical activity, adequate sleep, and

THE ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT OF BAD BEHAVIORS


The Person

The Brain

The Nervous System

The Human Cell

The Organization

The Leadership

The Team

The Employee

purpose, or alignment to a mission, just to

name a few. The key to remember is that

high performance is more than just the

sum of all the cells, tissues, organs, and

systems functioning well. An individuals

performance depends greatly on the

environment and health of the staircase

as well.

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THE ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT OF BAD BEHAVIORS CONTINUED

In the 2012 Towers Watson Staying @ Work

Survey Report, it was said that, This years

survey results show a strong link between

highly effective health and productivity

strategies and strong human capital and

financial results (Pathway to Health and Pro-

ductivity, NBGH/Towers Watson 2011-2012

Staying @ Work Survey Report, 2012, p. 2).For example, nearly two-thirds of companies

with highly effective health and productivity

programs (66%) report they perform better

than their top competitors.

In 2008-2009, Right Management surveyed

28,800 representative employees across

10 sectors in 15 countries worldwide. They

found that employees who responded

favorably to the proposition that their

organization actively promotes health and

well-being were:

8x more likely to indicate that they

were engaged

4x less likely to indicate that they

planned to leave within the next year

3.5x more likely to identify their

organization as encouraging

innovation and creativity

3x more likely to assess their

organizations as being productive

To summarize our thinking, it seems that

if an individual is healthy physically,

mentally, emotionally, and spiritually a

multitude of possibilities arise for an

enterprise. If an enterprise allows or even

enables unhealthy behaviors (e.g., sitting in

long meetings and on lengthy conference

calls, lack of ability to develop or practice

emotional skills, multitasking, lack of

alignment to the organizational purpose,

no recovery in between meetings, etc.),

employees and teams may not live up totheir potential, due to the habits/culture

of the organization, leadership, and team

leaders. Thus, human capital is not only

harmed from a performance perspective,

but healthcare costs could skyrocket,

simply because of negative cultural habits

being pushed down the staircase.

Rath and Harter, authors of Wellbeing: The

Five Essential Elements, stated, in 2012, that

Wellbeing affects the whole person. The

whole person comes to work, not just the

worker. So how you manage that person

affects key outcomes like new disease

burden, sick days, and obesity, which have

direct implications on annual health-

related costs. If companies take care of the

whole person, they build more loyalty over

time, and that affects their brand in many

different ways (Gallup Business Journal,

2012). As simple as it seems, if a person (on

the same level as the employee) performs

at higher levels, you increase the chancesfor teams to perform better, and thus,

the performance of the enterprise could

improve as well.

So why does employee health continue to

fight for a seat at the strategy table?

THE STAIRCASE AS A CORPORATE CONSTRUCT

The staircase construct can be used to

illustrate and analyze the true impact of

employee health on an organization and

elevate the creation of a culture of health

from a buzz word to a strategic business

imperative that would emanate from the

top down to the bottom up. For example,

if employees engage in healthy behaviors,they likely bring their best energy and

selves to their work and their teams,

fueling the performance of the business.

Similarly, if an organization promotes

a culture of wellness and e ncourages

employees to adopt healthy lifestyles and

work styles, it helps fuel the performance

of its employees, who in turn can ignite

the business and illustrate a successful

feedback and feed-forward staircase of

organizational health.

We believe that a healthy organization

top to bottom and bottom to top could

be the new Going Green (Groppel, 2010).

'Going Green' became the rage from a

top-down (governmental legislation)

and a bottom-up (children emphasizing

to parents the importance of recycling)

approach the perfect staircase

phenomenon! In terms of the environment,

the old story of society was one in which

individuals behaved in thoughtless waysthat were bad for the environment. At the

beginning of the 20th century, foremost

conservationists like John Muir and

President Theodore Roosevelt fought to

save millions of acres of land through

the creation of national parks, forests,

and animal reserves. The Environmental

Protection Agency was created in 1970 and

charged with protecting human health

and the environment. However, in the

late 1970s, two colossal environmental

disastersthe Three Mile Island nuclear

core meltdown in Pennsylvania and the

public health emergency created by 21,000

tons of chemical waste buried beneath the

Love Canal neighborhood in New York

brought the importance of environmental

protection to the awareness of the generalpublic. And, who over the age of 40 does

not remember the simple advertisement

that struck an emotional cord in our

hearts, of an aging Native American with

a tear rolling down his face because of the

destruction of our natural habitat? Once

evidence of the harmful effects of these

behaviors began to accumulate and to be

internalized, society as a whole realized that

a change in story was not only necessary

but of epic importance.

Finally, the new story of environmental

conservation mattered to the majority.

And, so, we rewrote our story based on

a mission that strives for a cleaner and

more sustainable environment. An action

plan, aligned with this new story, then

followed, which induced society at large to

change behaviors as necessary to achieve

these goals. Children were taught about

conservation in schools, and they brought

this knowledge home to their parents(leaders) and their families (teams), who

began adopting these practices. Today,

recycling is becoming the norm, littering

is not tolerated, and natural resources are

better protected. This behavioral cascade

from schools, to children, to homes, to

society, and vice versa illustrates the

staircase at work in a social context, further

underscoring its potential use in the

professional arena.

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Blair (2009) has stated that physical

inactivity is the biggest healthcare concern

of the 21st Century. Likewise, Healy, et

al (2011) have found that sitting too long

increases the likelihood for disease.

Furthermore, in July 2012, the journal Lancet

proclaimed that in view of the prevalence,

global reach, and health effect of physicalactivity, the issue s hould be appropriately

described as pandemic, with far-reaching

health, economic, environmental, and social

consequences.

It is interesting to note the potential effect

of the brains involvement in motion, and

the effect of motion on the brain. The brain

is the control center for motor control and

coordination of movement. According to

Dr. John Ratey, Associate Clinical Professor

of Psychiatry at Harvard and the author of

Spark: the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise

and the Brain, when the body starts moving,

the brain lights up in almost all areas, and

the result is improved cognition, creativity,

and problem-solving (Ratey, 2008).

In an effort to apply these neuroscientific

implications to the corporate framework, we

developed the Organization in MOTION

program to study the impact that small

and frequent amounts of movement canhave on individual energy levels, cognition,

creativity, and problem-solving throughout

the day. The objective of the initiative was

to test the theory that increasing movement

would increase self-reported energy,

engagement, and focus levels in employees.

To do this, we administered the program

to New Balance, the athletic shoe company,

based in Boston, MA.

A STAIRCASE SUCCESS STORY

The leadership at New Balance realized

that although they are an athletic company,

their human capital was doing business

the same way most businesses do sitting

in long meetings or on long conference

calls, grounded in an inactive business

culture. While their employees were likely

fitter than employees at other businesses,workplace inactivity was keeping them

from being their best, and quite possibly,

preventing them from keeping up with

their ever-increasing business demands.

With the launch of the Organization

in MOTION program, New Balance

participants reported that the more they

moved, the more energy they had, the more

engaged they were, and the more focused

and intrinsically motivated they became.

Throughout the 90-day study, several factors

played out to create a successful program

that demonstrates the staircase in action:

1. CEO and C-Suite ownership

2. Leadership buy-in and role modeling

3. Permission from leadership at every

level of the enterprise

4. Champions at every level to stimulateand sustain the program

5. Buy-in at every employee level

6. Bi-directional enthusiasm,

encouragement, and support

7. Establishment of a culture of

movement

SUMMARIZING THE STAIRCASE

Although it is often neglected, employee

health is a critical strategy for business

success. CEOs and other leaders can use

the staircase as a construct to demonstrate

the impact that employee health or the

lack thereof can have on organizational

performance. Using this tool, leaders may

finally have the evidence they need withintheir own cultures to change the legacies

for their organizations from wellness as

parity to wellness as a business engine.

The ability of the staircase progression to

maximize the health of your organization

in both directions and optimize the

development and growth of employees,

teams, and leaders, can help improve the

overall performance of an organization.

In studying the staircase, it is clear that

organizational success is more than

just executing business objectives. It

stems from creating an effective and

functional biological environment whereemployees, teams, and leadership can

thrive. When one takes the time to dissect

the organizations culture of health from

the employee to the enterprise one

can enable a business to grow in an

exponential way while supporting and

improving the health of its people.

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