Occupational health

and fitness newsletter

FEBRUARY 2008

HEALTH PEOPLE - HEALTHY WORKPLACE

THE PREMISE

Personal and organizational change go together.

It’s a big ask expecting to fit into an organisation if you’re not changing.

The Healthy People, Healthy Workplaces program is designed to

The seminar begins with participants focusing on what they want for their

•     health and fitness

•     personal career direction and

•     organisation.

If you don’t know what you want there’s a high likelihood that you’ll be buffeted by the waves of turbulence, not only in the workplace, but everywhere. It’s very difficult manage change and stress when you don't have a clear idea of what you want. And as they say, if you don't know what you want you're going to have to put up with whatever comes your way.

The day is divided into three parts

•   Healthy People

•   Healthy Career

•   Healthy Workplace

SECTION I - HEALTHY PEOPLE

I see lots of people in the workplace who are stressed and are putting up with the discomfort of all sorts of body system dysfunctions. Click here and you’ll see first hand the sorts of distress that people are under. (In particular look at the Mind and Body profile and the Stress profile.)

Participants complete a number of assessment profiles including

-   Health, Fitness and Wellbeing (formerly the Mind and Body profile)

-   Fitness

-   Musculo-skeletal risk

-   Diet

-   Chemical Intake

-   Stress risk.

Whenever I conduct this program I collate the responses and provide the group with an audit report.

I conduct this section of the program along the lines of the Seven Habits of Fit and Healthy People program.

I talk about where stress comes from, what it does to you and what you can do to better manage it.

I see lots of unhealthy people. They frequently blame their work for the way they feel, but like most things, the cause of the problem rarely resides where the problem is manifest.

The workplace is  frequently blamed for stress and musculo-skeletal dysfunction because it’s a big, soft, slow-moving target. It’s easy for people to complain about something at work, rather than complain about something they’re not doing for themselves at home.

Participants need to be aware that the cause of the stress is frequently not at the site where the stress is manifest. It generally comes for a dysfunctional internal locus of control.

In this day and age it's easy for a personally generated body system to be dressed up as a work-related injury.

During this segment of the program participants will have the opportunity to step back and take a good look at themselves - their fitness, diet, chemical intake and stress management ability.

SECTION 2 - HEALTHY CAREER

Being in the right job, one that is congruent with your personality, one that suits your intelligence strengths and is something you’re passionate about is the foundation of managing stress at work. If you’re in the wrong job it can be hell on earth. I see lots of people who are in the wrong job. They usually blame their organisation.

Once the foundation is laid there are a few simple laws of work to be aware of: -

1.      The first law is: manage yourself

2.      The second law is: manage your manager

3.      The third law is: work with your fellow workmates.

I emphasize the point that for happiness at work you need to get on the front foot and start managing, yourself, your manager and your work colleagues. If you don’t do that you'll get shoved from pillar to post.

My research shows that lack of job satisfaction and the feeling that one's work is not appreciated is correlated highly and positively with people who are in the wrong job and people who don't know what they really want to do.

Completing the Career Satisfaction profile provides people with a very good indicator of what they need to do to better manage their career.

Wouldn't it be good to have a job that you’d love doing so much that you’d do it for nothing, but which you did so well you’d be paid handsomely?

I base this section of the seminar on the Career Satisfaction seminar.

SECTION THREE - HEALTHY WORKPLACE

The methodology fosters consensus, rather than the loudest, most senior and most prominent voices being the centre of attention. Points are raised without fear or favour.

PARTICIPANT GROUPS

I recommend the seminars be conducted for groups, with their managers.

They'll come away from  the day with a renewed sense of purpose and group cohesion. Often if staff do these seminars on their own they go back to where they’ve come from and keep beating their heads against brick walls (a major cause of workplace headaches!). 

CHANGE

On the subject of change, it’s generally the case that things change when I change. That concept has been around since antiquity. The person I can influence most is myself. Once I’m aware of the mechanics of change I can start to work on myself. It’s amazing how much others change when I change!

The other model I use is that personal change precedes and then attends organizational change. It’s hard for me to fit into an organisation that’s changing if I’m not changing. Conversely, if I’m a manager trying to change an organisation and the people aren't changing, then it’s like pulling teeth.

By the end of the day participants will have set goals – for themselves and their workplace answering that critical question, ‘What can I do to make this a better workplace.’

Once people take responsibility for changing the things they can change, it's amazing how much that can change the workplace. There are things managers need to change and things staff need to change.

It's based on the two-fold philosophy:

It's a powerful tool.

You'll be amazed at the responses people will come up with. Most people want their workplaces to tick over nicely and they're prepared to contribute to that end. Of course for those that don't want to contribute the seminar is usually a turning point and they decide to go somewhere else.

Once the seminar is over I collate and publish those responses in a report to the team manager or program coordinator.

MY WORK

You can take a look at some of the programs I run by scrolling up the page.

ABOUT JOHN MILLER

I’m a physical educator who’s knows something about health and fitness and has had enough experience working in organisations and managing organisational change to be able to weld these two streams together. Take at look at my CV here.

CONCLUSION

The day provides participants with an holistic look at their life and their work. They’ll be engaged. They’ll set both personal and work goals. They’ll have some fun, work as a group and, as I said earlier, come away inspired and motivated to enjoy their life and their work.

This is the program designed to give workplaces a real shot in the arm.

It's a big ask expecting to stay healthy without keeping yourself fit.

It's a big ask expecting to get better by having someone do something to you; sooner or later you have to do something to yourself.