Redesigning Wellness Podcast

With the emergence of COVID and the sudden shift to sending employees home, wellness professionals had to pivot their offerings quickly. The focus had to shift from in person, planned activities to remote working and lots of uncertainty.

Today's guests, Laura Berry, Manager of Employer Wellness at Quartz Health Solutions and Tammy Oechsle, Wellbeing Program Director at Western National Insurance offer a report from the trenches on altering wellness programs in light of COVID and how the tools they learned in the Redesigning Wellness Academy proved valuable.

In this episode, Laura and Tammy share their reactions when COVID first hit and how it impacted them personally and professionally. They share their programs that were successful and those that were less so. They each discuss the progress they've made on mental health programming and discuss their plans and considerations looking forward to 2021. Finally, they each give a tangible tip to success for other wellness professionals.

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For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

Exhaustion is one of the leading causes of performance decline and eventual burnout among people today. Most people don't realize how many facets of rest they're missing out on and it's keeping them depleted. Today's guest, Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, says that rest is not about the cessation of activity, but about doing restorative activities - things that help fill you up and make you able to do your best work.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith is a physician, speaker, and author of her book Sacred Rest. She is an international resource on wellness expertise and has been featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, Prevention, and the Dr. Oz Show to name a few.

In this episode, Saundra shares her personal experience with burnout and what made her start researching the 7 stages of rest. She explores each type in depth, and shares ideas of how to restore them.

Saundra discusses how important boundaries are in staying rested and the necessity of getting comfortable saying no. Lastly, she leaves wellness professionals with a tangible tip for helping employees avoid exhaustion.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

It's no secret that wellness and workplace culture are inextricably linked. Today's guest, Rana DeBoer, Chief Culture Officer for the City of Sioux Falls proves that the career avenues available to wellness professionals are expanding.

Serving for almost 13 years as the city's Work Well Manager, Rana accepted the position as Chief Culture Officer in Sioux Falls in January of 2020. She is also the Founder of Create Energy, where she supports business leaders to generate new thinking so they can embrace a culture of empowering energy.

In this episode, Rana explains what her role as Chief Culture Officer entails and the importance of the role in an organization. She offers an example of a day in her schedule and highlights both what she is most proud of accomplishing in the position and her top challenges.

Rana briefly discusses her previous position and what has prepared her for this role and shares the most exciting thing she's currently working on. Lastly, she leaves wellness professionals with a few tangible tips.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

We've all heard it said that the healthcare and insurance systems are broken, but today's guest, David Contorno, believes it's functioning just as it was designed - with higher costs giving more payouts to doctors, brokers, and agents while employers and end users foot the bill.

Through his company, E Powered Benefits, David offers creative solutions that increase transparency, help "bend the trend on rising health insurance premiums", and at the same time increase quality of care and employee satisfaction with the benefits packages they're paying for.

With more than 21 years in employee benefits, nationally recognized author and thought leader David Contorno has worked on both sides of the table, and is uniquely positioned to disrupt the healthcare status quo and deliver better quality at lower costs for employers and their employees.

In this episode, David briefly discusses the impact he hopes COVID will have on open enrollment and what he means when encouraging people to be good healthcare consumers. He explains why the healthcare system isn't broken and how changes can be made despite its design.

David highlights a few missteps employers are making in the effort to lower costs that really result in spending more and offers some advice on how they can save money and what strategies his company uses. He shares why he left insurance brokering and what prompted him to work against the current healthcare structure.

Finally, David offers tangible tips to both wellness professionals and employers on how to begin increasing transparency and stop getting taken advantage of by the healthcare system.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

Though burnout is a topic garnering more and more attention, physicians are one professional group sometimes overlooked despite higher substance, alcohol abuse, and suicide rates. Today's guest, Dr. Nisha Mehta, believes the answer to physician burnout lies in organizational and institutional changes within the healthcare industry.

In addition to being a radiologist, Dr. Nisha Mehta is an international speaker and writer specializing in physician advocacy and addressing physician burnout. She is the founder of two online physician community groups reaching more than 100,000 physicians and has had her work featured by outlets such as Forbes, CNN, and Bloomberg.

In this episode, Dr. Mehta discusses her decision to talk and write about physician burnout, the unseen stressors of physician life including the current focus on patient reviews, and the signs of burnout. She shares some personal experiences with physician burnout, including how she and her husband have avoided it, and missteps organizations make while attempting to address the problem.

Finally, Dr. Mehta gives a list of ideas for organizational and institutional change as well as a tangible tip for wellness professionals serving physicians.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

As wellness professionals we're in a unique position to bring employees together. But as humans, we're biased. We make stuff up about people all of the time. We do it at work on a daily basis. Even worse, our biases are rarely blatant. It's usually subtle micro-behaviors that we often don't notice. So, what can we do about it?

Today's guest, Howard Ross, is considered one of the world's seminal thought leaders on identifying and addressing unconscious bias. Howard has delivered programs in 47 states and over 40 other countries to audiences including Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, and major institutions within healthcare, government, and non-profit sectors. His newest book, Our Search for Belonging: How the Need for Connection Is Tearing Our Culture Apart describes how to bridge the divide in our increasingly polarized society.

In this interview, Howard and I talk about what's changed in the area of Diversity and Inclusion in the past 30 years and what hasn't. He then explains that we all have unconscious bias (even him) and Howard explains what we can do about it. He makes the provocative statement that "Maslow was wrong" and that our need to belong trumps any other need. Finally, Howard leaves us with his tangible tip.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

If showing up as your best self gets increasingly difficult with added stress and anxiety, it's no surprise that the coronavirus pandemic is putting our emotional intelligence to the test. Today's guest, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, best-selling author and co-founder of the Institute for Health and Human Potential, has a plan to help you manage your emotions, stay focused, and navigate this new world.

Dr. Pawliw-Fry, a premier expert in managing emotions during high pressure situations, has worked with NFL, NBA, and Olympic athletes as well as Fortune 500 giants like IBM, Goldman Sachs, and BMW to name a few. He is an advisor to the US ARMY and NAVY as well as a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and host of the podcast Last 8% Morning.

In this episode, Dr. Pawliw-Fry explains why people often avoid or make a mess of the last 8% of discussions and decisions and the importance of building self awareness to know your triggers. He discusses how organizations can promote the building of these critical skills and offers a few tips for leaders in high pressure situations.

Dr. Pawliw-Fry breaks down how important movement is for the brain and how leaders and especially parents can model self awareness and emotional intelligence to others. Finally, he leaves us with a tangible tip to start navigating our own last 8% situations.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

As organizations return to in person workspaces, leaders are tasked with the responsibility of encouraging productivity without increasing already high employee stress and anxiety. Today's guest, Becky Jacobs, Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Simple Change, believes balancing compassion with the push for productivity is the key to facilitating this transition with minimal negative impact on the workforce.

With more than 20 years in senior leadership roles at industry giants such as Bank of America, Red Hat, and Rise Against Hunger, Becky is uniquely poised to help organizations improve engagement and productivity by building healthy, high performing teams.

Becky's company, Simple Change, offers support, inspiration, and encouragement on the path to transformational change in organizations through leadership coaching, workshops, keynotes, and consulting.

In this episode, Becky discusses the considerations organizations should keep in mind while transitioning employees back to the office and how important flexibility and creative solutions are during this unprecedented time. She mentions a few missteps she's seen and offers some advice for leaders during the transition to both take care of themselves and their teams.

Becky explains what she means by balancing compassion with productivity and how leaders can communicate effectively and minimize employee anxiety. Lasty, she implores leaders to look ahead to what is necessary in the new normal, rather than looking backward at how we can return to pre-COVID operations.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

With COVID numbers rising, businesses returning to the office, kids returning to school, it should be no surprise that anxiety abounds in your workforce. Along with anxiety, comes many hurdles to productivity in the workplace, from assuming the worst, inflexible thinking, and less commitment to the organization. What can your company do to lower employee anxiety?

Today's guest, Dr. Ashley Solomon, founder of Galia Collaborative and a nationally recognized expert in the treatment of anxiety and stress, has a few tips for managing and responding to the increased anxiety of these uncertain times.

In this episode, Ashley differentiates between anxiety and stress and discusses the increasing disparity of these emotions between genders based on common family roles. She shares some facts employers should know about anxiety, common missteps that can make employees more anxious, and a few tips to minimize these feelings in the workplace.

Lastly, she offers tangible tips to both wellness professionals trying to reduce anxiety and stress in the communities they serve and to individuals currently struggling.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod

Take a moment to picture a wellness professional in your mind's eye. What or who came to mind? Chances are, the image of a young, fit, white woman sprang to mind. Considering the vastly varied workforces that the wellness community aims to serve, the lack of diversity in the field means we're missing out on a staggering amount of perspective that would greatly benefit our end user - employees.

Today's guests, Dawn Carter, Jessica Etheredge, and Juanita Hawkins, are health promotion professionals who are brave enough to discuss the challenges they've faced in their careers.

They offer their perspectives on why the health promotion field is largely white and what the wellness community is missing out on due to a lack of diversity. The panel leaves us with what wellness professionals can do to encourage more diversity and lessen the micro and macro aggressions black wellness professionals experience.

For links mentioned in today's episode visit: http://bit.ly/Redesignpod