$1 + 90min = A Fit and Healthy You

Earlier this year, January in fact, we introduced our 10-to Workday Workout programs to help you take little workout breaks all throughout your workday. If you do 5 to 10 minutes of exercise each hour, you'll have from 45 to 90 minutes of exercise by the end of the day. Awesome!

The program has two versions, the details of which are here. If you're not a Cybercise member, you were left with the written instructions for each exercise which we made available on our website for free. For Cybercise members, you could simply click on the link and follow along to the exercise video on our website.

Until..... (drum roll, please).... today!

Today, we are lauching a new video storefront which gives you the ability to subscribe to a specific set of videos. We are debuting our storefront with The 10-to Workday Workout videos which you can subscribe to for $1 per day (made easy with PayPal). You get access to 9 videos most of which don't require any equipment (or we suggest handy substitutes if some gear is required). You're running out of excuses! Imagine... a full body workout by the end of the day, you'll be feeling great and can have some fun instead of hitting the gym after work.

If you're following along on Twitter, you'll know that today is a B program day and you get a handy tweet reminder at the :45 minute mark of each hour. What are you waiting for??? Head over to the Cybercise Video Storefront, invest a dollar in you today and exercise all day long.

Psssst... As a super debut day bonus, the B Day program is FREE today only. Click here!

Carrot. Stick. Fish.

When workplace wellness programs began to get popular the common theme was to give employees incentives for participation. The wellness programs focused on biometric screenings and health risk assessments. Starting with knowing your numbers is an important piece of the wellness puzzle. The theory being when people knew their numbers they'd do something to improve them. The carrot arrived in the form of incentives which ranged from gift cards, a special luncheon with the boss, an extra day of vacation, etc. Did they work? For some people, yes. For some, they were suspicous of "big brother" intervening and didn't participate. Still others made some short-term changes but quickly fell back into their old habits.

Workplace wellness, take two. The stick! Some room in regulations gave employers the ability to punish those employees who didn't participate. Higher health insurance premium co-pays being the most popular stick. Do an HRA or you'll pay. Did the stick work? Again, for some. People respond to pain and spending more money is pain, particularly in this economy. Does the stick improve long-term wellness? The jury is still out on that one, but historically humans don't respond well to the stick over and over again. More people may be doing their HRA but are they investing the effort to make real improvements? Again, for some.

Most people, inherently, know what they need to do to get healthy.They may be deep in denial, but they know. You know. We all do. So, what are we misssing? Why haven't we yet been able to make positive lifestyle choices and wellness sustainable? I think it is the "how" we keep ignoring.

Everyone will recognize the popular quote from Lao Tzu, "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you'll feed him for a lifetime." What some wellness programs have missed, to date, is the fishing lesson. To make things more challenging, we have to acknowledge that each person might require a different fishing lesson. People are different. Their bodies are different, their lives are different, their budgets are different. Wellness needs to match the individual to be sustainable.

Teaching each person to fish for their own wellness requires time, enrollment, investment and a pathway. It is needs to be based on a series of small changes, over time, so new, healthy behaviors become habits. It needs to be accessible so each individual can get the lesson in the way they learn best. It needs to be experiential. I eat a donut; I feel awful in 30 minutes. I eat a piece of fresh fruit; I have more energy.

We can create all of the plans, programs and schemes in the world. But, until we empower people to learn how to fish by learning about themselves, we could be in the constant search for a bigger stick.

Organizational Wellness

Working with a team of colleagues yesterday to design a new curriculum, the conversation got around to the idea of "organizational wellness." It is all the rage of late to talk about employee wellness and I do agree having healthy, happy employees is important to the long-term success of a company. Perhaps though, employee wellness isn't enough. Let's take it a step further and talk about organizational wellness.

Having worked in consulting for 20+ years, I've had experiences with organizations that I would consider "well" and some I would consider extraordinarily "unwell." I've also worked with organizations over a long span of time that started out well and slid to unwell. Fewer have gone in the other direction. I think it is possible to avoid the slide to unwell and regain organizational wellness if you're in a bad place. To do so, however, requires awareness and effort. Below are my characteristics of a well organization:

1 - Passion
Passion, in the positive sense, is "for the love of" something greater than ourselves. A company with a clearly defined mission the employees truly believe in is a good ingredient of organizational wellness. The missions that focus on altruism and the welfare of the customers typically garner the most passion. Profit is important, but I think passion comes in those organizations that focus on something greater than EBITA.

2 - Leadership
Yes, I had to include leadership. And, I'm raising the bar. In my opinion, we need to start with individual leadership. Individual leadership means each person's ability to make the right choices for themselves so they are then able to make the right choices for the company. A healthy company is one where each person can live both the organizational mission and their personal mission at the same time. This requires a few things: 1 - A clear organizational mission, 2 - A clear personal mission, and 3 - Working for a company where both missions can align. 

Lastly, organizational wellness comes when company leadership encourages people to thrive while pursuing both missions. If neither mission is clear, doing so is the place to start.

3 - Creativity
Everything changes. At some point, even a company which has operated for dozens of years faces a change. Customers change, technology changes, competitors change. A well organization is one that fosters, encourages and expects creativity from its employees. Every single one of them. There are some amazingly talented and creative people hiding in your organization who can see something others can't. Give them a platform, ask for their voice and give them an outlet for their ideas (for example, instead of the annual holiday party convene an annual "New Idea Conference").

4 - Openness
I've been in far too many meetings where there is a "meeting after the meeting" so a smaller group of people can say what they really think. If the people in your company huddle after a meeting, there is something going on you want to know about. Or, you have the wrong people in a meeting. Or, you didn't need a meeting in the first place. Organizational wellness comes from the confidence that the most important thing is honesty, no matter what.

5 - Social Networking
Capitalize on the power of the social networks that exist in your organization. If your company has more than five people, odds are, you have a social network. Use the social network for the good of your team and your organization. Have them start a book club, or an afternoon walking break, or send them to a class together. By building the strength of the social networks you're building the strength of your organization.

Is your organization well? Probably the easiest test is to take a walk around. Are people smiling, energetic and excited? If not, there is work to do be done. In three months, with a concerted effort, you can take your organization from unwell to well. If you're an employee and are living in an unwell organization, your first step is to get really clear on your personal mission. Once there, your next step will be clear.

Workplace Wellness

Thank you to Corporate Wellness Magazine for publishing our article, "One Size Wellness" in this month's issue. I encourage you to go to link to read the entirety of our article and the other fabulous articles written by my esteemed peers. This publication has great information and advice on workplace wellness strategies.

The following is an excerpt from our article listing seven steps for finding the best wellness program for your company. Feel free to share with your boss or human resources department.

1. Do a census. Understand who is in your company. Understand what they spend most of their workday doing (sitting at a computer, driving, physical labor). Understand their general health status, age, preferences and health knowledge.
2. Take a survey. Ask them what they would like in a wellness program. Ask them about their preferences. Ask them what would work best for them. Ask them their biggest personal wellness challenge or need. If you want help coming up with survey questions, do a Google search, there are plenty of examples on the web.
3. Create a budget. Wellness programs can range from practically free to hundreds of dollars a month. Sure, a weekly health coach onsite to meet with each person would be great and is generally very expensive. Be realistic about your annual budget and what your company can afford.
4. Consider a co-pay. People are more likely to follow something they are invested in. Simple fact. Ask your employees to pay a fraction of the wellness program costs and then consider a discount on their insurance premiums for meeting wellness goals.
5. Ensure accessibility. To be most successful, the wellness program you select should be available 24/7 from everywhere. Sure, office-based workout facilities are great but what does your staff do at night and on the weekends? Wellness should integrate into their lives, not just become another thing “to do.”
6. Build a community. Look for tools that help your team get, and remain, engaged in the program. Are there social networking features? Inter-company challenges? Ways to measure group success?
7. Seek Balance. A well-balanced wellness program includes exercise, nutrition and stress-reduction information. With the diversity in your group, each person will need a different aspect from a wellness program. More exercise won’t combat a bad diet of too much processed food. And eating leafy greens won’t much help the person so unhappy and too stressed. Be sure the program you choose has some elements of each key tenet of wellness (exercise, healthy eating and living well).

If you're ready to learn more about how Cybercise delivers workplace wellness solution, we have more information right here.