The Environment of Change

The events and rhetoric leading to the inauguration of President Obama swept the mindset of the Nation in a tsunami of healthcare changes - to embrace healthy lifestyle changes and changes in attitudes that shift the responsibility of employee wellness to their employers.  Why? Because the cost of high cost claims are causing the employer contribution to employee health insurance to soar.   Employee wellness will lead to a more productive work force and lower healthcare cost.   A Google search for the phrase “environment of change,” reveals article after article on issues in need of transformation such as global warming and atmospheric pollution.  Glaringly absent was anything related to creating a safe and supportive space to encourage employees to make behavioral changes that lead to better health – the “human environment” that leads to the betterment of the human condition.

While we rightfully are concerned with the environment in which we live, we are neglecting the environment in which we spend the second most abundant amount of our lives – the work environment.  The environment we work in has both the power and the potential to either enhance or detract.  To stimulate or inhibit the essential elements that motivate our employees to step out of a lifestyle that has become too familiar, and begin to embark on a new decision tree that can lead to a healthier and more productive life.  To contain your healthcare costs you must create an environment of change; and one that makes it easy for your employees to adopt a plan of action.

The administrators of a company create the work environment.  Just as they set the example for work, they must set the example for health in the work place.  Employees will in turn follow the example of leadership and become attracted to what is comfortable.  Jim Gyurke, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at PAR, Inc., the world leader in psychological testing says, “Any company that hopes to successfully implement a new program, whether in manufacturing, service or employee wellness must fully embrace that initiative and make it part of the corporate philosophy and values.  In practice, what that really means is that all employees must ultimately accept the offering as both positive and necessary and value it as a personal benefit.  It is not enough for management to talk about changes, they must model it; and when observed in the workforce, reward and celebrate it.”

So recognize that making the decision to change when nothing is changing around you is difficult.  The decision in itself can cause stress.   Posters in the lunchroom or an occasional postcard from your health insurance provider will be ineffective if there is no noticeable awareness of the process of behavioral change.  The key in evoking participation is to reduce the stress associated with making the decision to move toward better health by developing a new corporate culture.  Those companies that are most successful create a new social norm that embraces a healthier lifestyle.  It begins with the reduction of stress.

Is there really additional stress in making a decision that is good for you?  In 1958, J.  V.  Brady, the pioneer in behavioral psychology, conducted a study in which a monkey was strapped to a chair for six hours a day.   During that time the monkey would receive an electric shock sufficient to be uncomfortable, but not physically harmful to the monkey.   The shock was automatically administered to the monkey every 20 minutes unless the monkey pushed a large red button placed within its reach.   If the monkey stayed alert and made the decision to press the button at least once every 20 minutes, the monkey avoided the shock.   The experiment continued for three weeks, six hours a day.  The monkey died.

Upon examination, the researcher found that the cause of the monkey’s death was an ulcer.   The experiment was repeated with a second monkey and at the end of three weeks, the second monkey also died which also was found due to an ulcer.  The assumption was that the electric shock had created the condition that caused the monkeys’ deaths.  Brady repeated the experiment again with a modification.  This time he placed two monkeys side by side.   One monkey had the button that could be used to avoid the shock.   The other monkey did not have a button.  The experiment continued for another three weeks until one of the monkeys died.   Which one?  The “executive monkey,” the monkey with the button.

The companion monkey that was shocked but was not repeatedly forced to decide whether or not to push the red button remained healthy and happy.  Brady concluded that the monkeys who developed the ulcer died because they had an extremely stressful job.

Mitigating stress may be as simple as taking “the straps” off of the chair and promoting movement around the office.  Here are some ideas:

1. Meetings in motion.  When two or three team members need to meet face- to-  ace, encourage that meeting to occur outside.   Suggest routes around the campus or neighborhood that should take 15 to 30 minutes at a casual pace.  You’ll be amazed at how liberating and stimulating your meetings will be.
2. Encourage stretch breaks.  Ergonomics are often not ideal and many of the sub- acute injuries treated in private practice stem from repetitive physical stress in the workplace.  Not from lifting in the warehouse as much as headaches and neck pain from people who sit at their work station for hours with no break.  An excellent reference for low cost remedies is Pete Egoscue’s book titled “Pain Free at your PC.” Backs were meant to be straight; heads and backs aligned.
3. Offer help and simple tools for time management that cause people to get up and move, like a calendar or to-do list on the wall.  While technological improvement seems very cool, it can sometimes become a time drain that creates “virtual straps” that bind people to their chairs.
4. Keep schedules flexible enough to accommodate emergencies or changed work requirements.  Allow time for exercise during the work day.   Adding 15 minutes to lunch can provide the needed time for a walk.
5. Yoga classes or simple exercise classes incorporated into the lunch hour or work day as a 30 - minute “in house” fitness and stress reduction program that becomes part of the day.
6. Incorporating these and related approaches might seem a huge departure from your current work environment and a potential risk.  But consider the potential gain - containing rising healthcare costs without cutting benefits.  People seldom make lasting changes without some external stimuli.  Changes in how we eat, cope with stress, our physical activity, self-talk or relaxation activities can all lead to better health and result in lower claim costs.  But to be lasting, the environment must support that change, and the employer must be willing to set the example.  The influence of leadership is an extraordinary resource as leaders are in the position of authority and power that dictate rewards and sanctions, shaping employee behavior.  It has to start at the top.  Be aware of how your behavior affects the employee’s behavior.  They are looking to you as the example.

So what about those rewards? Invest in your employee’s wellness and offer incentives to ensure participation.  Not every reward is expensive; recognition goes a very long way.  The idea of celebrating an individual’s performance by recognizing their accomplishments is often more effective than their rebate for joining the gym.

A key component in creating an effective program is to analyze a company’s healthcare expenditures and design effective programs to contain costs.  We ask a lot of questions and when we ask the percentage of management’s participation in the company’s wellness program, the answer is usually surprisingly low.  We design executive programs and have developed ways to analyze each individual’s interest to promote participation.   To contain healthcare cost it’s essential to first understand the trend that leads to your company’s high cost claims and institute measures to mitigate them.  Because people are different, the greatest success comes from providing a variety of options available.  When leadership sets the example through participation, the employees are much more likely to participate.

About The Author

Neil Treitman is the President of Cambium Wellness.  Mr. Treitman followed his entrepreneurial instincts in 2001 after 25+ years of success in the real estate development industry to pursue an undeniable trend-worthy shift into studying healthcare prevention and wellbeing.   As a wellness coach and  neuromuscular therapist, he pulled together a team of multi-specialty professionals to create a company that offers a solution to corporations nationwide for programs that increase the health of employees and decrease the cost of rising healthcare claims,  crippling the overhead of both small and large businesses. 

Dr. Seibel is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  He is author of 14 health related books, over 200 scientific articles and consistently listed in Best Doctors in America.  He speaks internationally about health and wellness.  Dr.  Seibel founded www.HealthRock.com to help America stay well.  He serves as Medical Consultant to Cambium Wellness.  You can find more about him on www.DoctorSeibel.com.