Brain Chatter

How does absenteeism and presentism impact a company's effectiveness and sustainability? Does my company need a wellness program? What are the goals of company wellness programs? How do corporate wellness programs work? How do you create a workplace wellness program? What are the organizational leaders' responsibility to workforce wellness programs when it comes to program success? What are the bottom line costs of a workforce with unhealthy habits? What are the wellness and nutrition impacts on US worker's massive chronic disease rates? What has elevated the workplace wellness movement in recent years?

Wellness expert, Registered Dietitian, retired state public health leader, and Samford University School of Public Health adjunct faculty member Mim Gaines is this episode's guest. She answers all of these questions and more. 

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 RESOURCES:

Connect with Mim Gaines on LinkedIn

Article: "The Business Benefits of a Healthy Workforce" (Harvard University)

Good Choices Programs

Healthy Vending, Alabama

Scale Back Alabama

Wellness Council of America

WELCOA Getting Started Checklist

CDC: Workplace Wellness Programs

Community Foodbank of Central Alabama

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Tony Orlowski provides an overview of the new book on workplace safety, Safety Beyond The Numbers, co-authored by he and Dr. Ken Chapman. The two of them wrote the book based on their 80+ years of leading change in workplaces in the US, Canada, and in locations across the globe. What can be achieved beyond basic workplace safety compliance and why does it matter?

What is the responsibility of a front-line worker, front-line supervisor, safety manager, department manager, or executive to other people's safety? What can be done to maximize the outcome of everyone in the workplace going home safe and whole to their family and friends each day? What is compliance? What is beyond compliance? What is the moral factor? What does safety ownership mean and how does it work?
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 RESOURCES:

>SafePath Solutions (Book & Seminar info)

>Anthony Orlowski's Bio

>Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Shannon Allen walks through how mentorship works, sharing her experiences of both having mentors and serving as a mentor herself.  What makes successful mentorships mutually beneficial to both participants? Who should seek out mentorships? What are the expectations of mentors and mentees? Should both participants be from the same industry? Should you choose a mentor much older than you? What should the mentor have in common with the mentee to maximize success? How long should mentorships last? What's the difference between mentors and role models? What are common misconceptions about mentoring? What causes mentorships to fail? How can you approach someone if you want to ask if they'll serve as your mentor? If you think you can add value to someone's career growth or life, what's the best way to approach them and offer mentorship? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Keith Richards explores the importance of a strong company culture and purpose in building a strong restaurant and franchise business with unusually high team member retention. He and his wife Amy founded fresh-casual restaurant Taziki's in 1998, which now has 90 locations in 15 US states. More recently, they have started a second restaurant business, Greek Street. Keith served as President from May 1998 until December 2012, and then served as the Chief Franchise Officer from June 2012 till 2017. Keith has returned to manage the flagship market in Birmingham, AL, and continues to lead their culinary R+D and the HOPE project, Taziki's signature charity. Before creating Taziki’s, Keith Richards worked under the direction of Frank Stitt at Highlands Bar and Grill- which won the elusive 2018 James Beard Foundation Award for the most outstanding restaurant in America. Today, Keith and Amy and their two sets of twins live in Birmingham, AL, where Keith serves on the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce Board and advances the cause of employing special needs students in metro Birmingham and across the country.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Taziki's website
• Greek Street website
• Taziki's HOPE Project
• Keith's bio
• Connect with Keith on LinkedIn
• Taziki's Franchising

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Tommie Goggans III, husband, father of eight, president of The Goggans Group, Financial Advisor, active community volunteer, and dedicated physical fitness devotee, delves into the ever-challenging topic of "Balance & Planning in Leadership and Life." On a day-to-day basis, Tommie helps his clients with planning. With a large family of his own, his own company, and multiple leadership roles in the community, he actively practices balance in his own life. So, what are the strategies and pathways to success in finding balance, keeping balance, and effectively planning out our days, weeks, months, years, and decades ahead? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Tommie Goggans on LinkedIn 
• Read Tommie Goggans's Bio
• Visit the Goggans Group website
• Tommie's In-Episode Book Recommendations:
  • Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss
  • 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, by Kevin Kruse

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

In this episode of Brain Chatter, Derek reads Chapter 4 (Trust), a chapter from the book The Leader's Code (2023 version) authored by Dr. Ken Chapman. The chapter identifies why trust it is critical to high functioning teams and organizations, provides examples, and outlines strategies for developing and growing trust within in an organization. 

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Deborah Boswell, communication consultant, coach, and author, examines the practical side of effective communication in the workplace. Ask your peers and direct reports, 'do we do a good job with communication here?' How do they respond? Are you surprised? Ineffective communication costs organizations big money while it also costs trust in leadership. What's the fix? How many moving parts are there to just one sentence communicated from one person to another? How can we each do what we can to communicate better? And what does Deborah advise about the new 'great debate' about cameras-off vs cameras-on in virtual meetings and why?

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Connect with Deborah on LinkedIn 
• Deborah Boswell's Company Website
• Deborah's Book: Become a Confident Business Communicator

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Dr. Ken Chapman discusses the imperative of accurate self-reflection in organizational leadership and success. In fact, at the heart of almost every leadership issue in an organization, is the lack of accurate self-reflection on the individual level. 

What is practical self-reflection? Why is it important?  What are best practices? What tools and strategies are helpful? How do you self-reflect accurately without doing so neurotically? How can one help a leader who is unaware of their own deficit or avoidance of self-reflection? How often is failure at self-reflection by leaders tied to failure in overall business success? 

Dr. Ken Chapman founded Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc. (producer of this podcast) almost 40 years ago. He has since worked on 4 continents in over 500 electric generating stations, foundries, manufacturing facilities, corporate headquarters, banks, nonprofits, and more. He is the author of 5 books, the mostly widely distributed of which is The Leader's Code. He is a graduate of Emory University and Colombia University. 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Dr. Chapman's bio
• The Leader's Code book
• The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

We'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, as well as topics you'd like us to explore in a future episode. Email [email protected] 

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Kyle Roed is Global HR Manager for CPM Holdings, based in Waterloo, Iowa. He discusses the massive costs of team member turnover. How can you start to measure these often unrecognized, un-reported, and siloed costs, both financial and cultural? How can you minimize them? What are some top strategies to retain top human capital talent? Are you asking the basic questions? Do you conduct 'stay interviews' in addition to exit interviews? Does your human resources department have operational and business clout to help with solutions? 

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Kyle's LinkedIn
• CPM Holdings
• Kyle's Rebel HR Podcast
• SHRM eLearning
• SHRM Article:  “To Have and To Hold” 
• Bill Conerly Article in Forbes: "Dollar Cost of Employee Turnover"
• US Bureau of Labor, Recent Data
• Gallup Article: "Fixable Problem Costs Businesses a Trillion"

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability. 

Dr. Isabel Scarinci, Vice Chair for Global and Rural Health in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UAB, psychologist, and polio survivor, discusses The Power of Thankfulness. How powerful is a genuine sense of thankfulness in our daily lives with co-workers, friends, and family? How does expressing thankfulness change our relationships with others? How can we make authentic thankfulness habitual? What is the science behind gratitude? And how does daily meditation on thankfulness impact our sleep?

This episode is a conversation with Dr. Isabel Scarinci who survived polio as a child in Brazil. That experience led her into a life of service to others. As a child, between surgeries she went door-to-door with her mother encouraging complete strangers to vaccinate their children against polio. Her efforts prevented untold other children from suffering.  Now she works as an administrator and psychologist in cancer prevention with one of the world's leading cancer centers and medical schools. She is a leader in three major efforts to eradicate cervical cancer: 

1- Operation Wipeout, an effort to eradicate cervical cancer in an entire US State (Alabama).

2- An effort between the Rotary Club of Birmingham, O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rotary International, Rotary Clubs in Guatemala, and the national government of Guatemala to eradicate any type of cancer (in this case cervical cancer) from an entire country for the first time in human history. 

3- She has been appointed by the US White House to lead a workgroup to determine how to create a nationwide cervical cancer prevention strategy across the entire United States.

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Isabel and her work in Rotary International Magazine (Nov 2024) 
• Isabel's Appointment by US White House
• Isabel's Bio
• Connect with Isabel on LinkedIn
• Rotary International's END POLIO NOW Campaign
• Sri Lanka Cervical Cancer Eradication Effort
• Maya Angelou Quote referenced by Isabel (Forbes article)
• Honorary Consul of Brazil for Alabama article
• "How to Cultivate Gratitude, Compassion, and Pride on Your Team" Harvard Business Review article 
• O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center

We'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast, as well as topics you'd like us to explore in a future episode. Email [email protected] 

Brain Chatter, a podcast where we listen past the daily noise and explore topics at the intersection of leadership, workplace culture, profit, and sustainability.