Worker Productivity and "Miracle-Gro" for Your Brain

Dr. John Medina is a developmental molecular biologist and research consultant. He is an affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University.

So what does this guy, who knows a lot about brains and not just because his is obviously pretty high powered have to say about how to optimize our brains for work, play and study? Exercise. Yes. Not only does Medina show that exercise is the number one rule for brain health (hint: when our brain was designed regular movement was a fact of life for humans), but he strenuously emphasizes that our modern, sedentary work environment is actually hurting brain performance.

The US's labor landscape continues to undergo dramatic shifts. Manufacturing jobs are fading fast as the rise of the service economy dominates the landscape.

"It's good for us to displace low-wage, manual kinds of labor with higher-skill, higher-tech, higher-education-content labor," says Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President William Poole, who compares what's happening with the decline in agricultural employment of the early 20th century.

The problem is we are treating service based workers like factory workers. Workers' brain capacity is - at its core - the very product most service based companies sell; however, the sedentary cube land structured like an automotive assembly line is one of the least conducive set-ups for brain function.

Creative, effective ways to mobilize wellness at work will be central to revolutionizing the effectiveness of the knowledge-based worker. Corporate wellness efforts for such companies cannot simply be seen as a small fluff program for the motivated few who thrill at the thought of spandex leggings, step aerobics in the lunch room, or a gym membership on the company dime.

Wellness, when done right, is a strategic, integrated, and systematic approach for improving employee health, but also key to unleashing the very engine of human creativity - the brain.

Get Well Soon, CEO!

Finding an executive manager is never easy. And once you do find a fearless leader, myriad cultural, economic and - yes - even personal health issues can threaten to throw the whole situation off the rails.

"The impact of replacing senior managers, especially due to sudden health issues, is even more acute than normal turnover. A study by Deloitte shows that 47% of companies cite their biggest people-related challenge as leadership development and succession planning," says Candie Fisher,Director of Client Development for Generator Group, a talent management firm based in Portland, OR

Last year,CFOs at nCipher and Servocell resigned due to ill health. In 2004 McDonald's CEO, Jim Cantalupo died at age 60 of a heart attack. Charles Bell, who replaced Cantalupo, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer only a month after being named chief executive.

Despite their strategic importance to an organization, executive leaders are in many other ways just like everyone else. They have bad hair days (case in point, get a load of Bill Gates and the Microsoft crew in this photo)!


They get sick - often due to preventable causes - just like the rest of us.

Sharon McDowell is an exercise physiologist for the Center for Creative Leadership's Leadership At The Peak Program. The program has looked at the overall health of senior executives and leaders with more than 15 years of management experience, in the top three tiers of the organization, with leadership responsibility for 500 or more people and/or executive staff functions. McDowell says that of the nearly 3,000 program participants screened 58% had high cholesterol; 60% are overweight or obese; and about 50% don't exercise regularly.

Executive managers lead high stress lifestyles and often lack the time for structured exercise. The World Heart Federation and the US Federal Centers for Disease Control say failure to exercise is as bad as smoking a pack of cigarettes every day.

Unexpected leadership transitions are costly, says Fisher, "At the top levels, many companies do not have a strong program in place to fill senior leadership positions from within. As a result, fully-loaded recruiting costs of 1.5 times the annual salary are commonplace."

Fisher recommends companies implement a two-pronged strategy of keeping their senior managers focused on both wellness and succession planning. "Executive level jobs can be stressful, reducing executives health risk through wellness programs can increase leadership productivity thus improving their ability to mentor, groom, and retain high potential talent," she states.

Increasing executives' personal well-being might also improve their effectiveness. McDowell's research has shown that executives that exercise are more likely to be perceived as more energetic and effective than their non-exercising peers in 360 degree management surveys.

$700 billion?! Pffffttt! The bailout is for wimps!

Think the Wall Street credit crisis is bad for business? Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! I heard a commentary on NPR where an economist being interviewed referred to health care as a “train barreling down on the US Economy.” And while everyone is busy untying the maiden that is the finance industry from the tracks, our back is turned to the real threat chugging toward us with increasing speed.

At $700 billion the current financial bailout is roughly equivalent to 5% of the US GDP. That’s chump change compared to the more than 16% of GDP (yes, that’s over $2.2 trillion) the US spent on health care in 2007. Pop quiz: What’s 34% of 2.2 trillion? Trick answer: The portion of the health care bill that is paid by business. The costs of poor health are outpacing wages, inflation and GDP. By a lot. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation Health care spending has risen about 2.4 percentage points faster than GDP since 1970.

The train shows no signs of slowing. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that by 2016 health care spending will be over $4.1 trillion, or, about 20% of GDP. Okay now do the math again! What’s 34% of $4.1 trillion? Answer: If you are planning to be in business in 9 years then we better get this credit crisis solved or you won’t be able to borrow enough money to pay for health care expenses!

Oh and by the way, this is all happening at a point where growth in corporate profits is on the decline and American productivity has reached an all time high – holding steady after impressive gains. In its annual report the International Labor Organization stated “The difference in [productivity] rankings can be explained by the fact that annual working hours per person employed are considerably higher in the United States than in the majority of European economies.” Unless business plans on lobbying for more hours in a day, their best bet for improving worker productivity will be investing in worker health.

In a study funded by the RAND Corporation, Soeren Mattke and his colleagues stated that “Annual US health-related productivity losses are estimated to reach some $260 billion, attributable not only to absenteeism but also to presenteeism (being present at work but working at a reduced capacity)”. Yes, you did the math correctly, that is $10 billion more than the current infusion of cash that the US treasury will be putting into American banks, but this number directly impacts business’ bottom line!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says chronic diseases are responsible for 75 percent of the $2 trillion spent on health care in 2005. Such diseases can be dramatically improved by things like: better diet, exercise and self-care. A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that if you took all of the Americans who: do not smoke, maintain a healthy weight, consume five or more fruits and vegetables per day, and exercise the surgeon’s general’s recommended 30 minutes 5 days per week, you’d have a whopping 3% of the US population.

So what do employees’ health habits have to do with business?!? Quite a bit as it turns out. American workers spend close to 2,000 hours per year on the job. At the end of a long work day, a half an hour commute and a family waiting to be fed, how many people are realistically going to change and head back out to exercise for 30 minutes? Would you?

If we are going to stop this train then Americans need help with their health. Serious help. Currently the place where they spend the majority of their waking hours is not effectively reinforcing healthy behavior. When it comes to employee health you are competing against things like: physical exhaustion, donuts, prepared foods, comfortable couches, a pack of smokes, and beer! Your savviest competitor’s slickest product has nothing on beer!

If you are busy freaking out about the credit crisis and have relegated employee health to some dark little corner of your organization where the sad, unimaginative and ineffective solutions proposed to reverse the state of your workers' health fly in the face of reality, then good luck with that and we’ll see you in the bread line in 2016.

If you've never failed, you've never lived.

I'm feeling this today:



I encounter many people in the workforce that dream about becoming more themselves in their work - finding balance and harmony between their personal life and their work life. Many feel too anxious that they won't fit in and continue to lament the disconnect between their personal and professional passions for the sake of keeping a steady job.

The current financial situation leaves a lot of people feeling uncertain, scared and wondering what happens next. It also underlines an important point to always remember - no job and no situation is solid, fixed or certain. Playing it safe might not ultimately save us from job loss or disappointment in life. If life were like horseback riding then what defines us is not that we fall off - since that is nearly inevitable - but whether or not we get back on the horse.

The poet Rilke so eloquently counseled a young man searching to bring his inner and outer world into harmony:

We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors, they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them. And if we could only arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful. How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.

This lack of security in the world might be frightening, but it's there. No amount of fantasy or wishful thinking can vanish it. How we embrace that uncertainty is what defines our life. Once you've had a taste of that kind of courage of doing something that feels terrifying, but making it out ok - even if you fail you become pretty brave.

How does this relate to the inner world/work world conundrum? Well wellness at work ultimately starts in the hearts of the people who come to work. Work might not always be a rollicking adventure full of spontaneous self expression, but it need not be a place where you feel completely hidden away. And if you try to bring a more authentic version of yourself to the workplace and it is not exactly met with enthusiasm there are a couple of options:

1. Examine whether what you feel is "authentically" you really serves your life. If you feel that you are authentically a crabby and negative person does holding on an attachment to that part of your personality really get you the kind of results you seek when you picture the life you want? If it's something that you are working with then being frank with people about your crabby disposition without letting it off leash whenever you feel a bit irked might help you find a happy medium.
2. If you feel that you are trying to express a part of yourself that is healthy, part in parcel to helping you achieve a balanced life and to reaching your goals and it is not welcome at work then perhaps it is time to consider if your current situation is a good fit. Keeping in mind that even seemingly solid situations come unglued from time to time, challenging yourself to persue new avenues will ultimately be more rewarding for you and those around you.

And if it fails? There is no need to burn bridges from your past. Exit your situation with a positive, helpful attitude and keep the doors open. You now have more life and work expereince and more perspective should you choose to return.

Everything you ever wanted to know (but were afraid to ask) about yoga.

What do you want to know about yoga? Leslie asked readers of The Weighting Game blog to submit their questions about yoga for Tracy and Tanya to answer. People submitted nearly 30 questions and since brevity was never a strong point of Tracy or Tanya's we decided to create a page where they could go into greater depth in answering your questions. The questions they answered: I have lost 63 lbs so far but still have a good bit more to lose. Can I do yoga at 244 lbs? It seems like the girls I see doing yoga are tiny. Any specific recommendations for reputable books, DVDs or Web sites to look for when starting a yoga practice? My instructor never corrects or adjusts me. Is it appropriate to ask her to do so? She seems to be "hands off" in general but otherwise a good teacher. My 60-ish mother is interested in doing yoga to add some activity into her life. What's the best way for her to start? Is my teacher a quack? Is there something I could be asking about their training before going to a class to have a better chance that they'll really know what they're doing? How important is the mind/body connection to doing yoga? Any tips for quieting the mind during yoga? Or is it OK to let my self-judgmental thoughts go wild? How often do you need to do yoga in order to see/feel results in flexibility? I really love yoga and have been practicing with various levels of frequency for years; however, I have "blocks" when it comes to certain poses, inversions for example. What tips do you have for getting past this kind of mental block. Check it out and leave us a comment if you would like to see more questions answered or if you learned something new today!