What's Happening in the World of Wellbeing

This week, I had the opportunity to connect and grow at a wellness conference. The focus was ‘wellness at work’ and featured a plethora of presenters sharing their wellness journeys and tips. It was inspiring to hear of all that’s occurring around New Zealand workplaces and the implications this has for our future. It is also heartening to see a nation with strong desires to see it’s people be well. Here is a summary of ideas that appeared time and again across the different presentations:

Remove barriers so that we can talk about our wellbeing

This idea, focused primarily on our mental health. In essence, employers are aware that an individual needs to bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. This includes potential facets that people fear will deter their progression or highlight them in a negative way. Ensuring that people can talk freely and truly bring all of who they are will go a long way to improving our wellbeing.

The use of technology in supporting people to engage with wellbeing practices

There were several cases of organisations who have begun tapping into their technological resources in order to distribute (knowledge), track and improve wellbeing. There were some innovative ideas of how the masses can be reached and educated, as well as incentivised. If you’re looking for a small step: podcasts and webinars are great tools to share ideas that need to be widespread.

Having wellness first aiders, people who have skills and tools to address different facets of wellbeing 

This idea centred around equipping those in the workplace to support one another. A first aider volunteered for this role and was upskilled with the tools and knowledge needed to help those they work with. This took shape in different ways, such as a wellness window, a wellness first aid kit and a centralised place to share information about practices and events. Essentially, it is the next step after forming a wellness committee.

Ikigai: supporting people to find meaning and purpose in their work

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that looks at aligning the challenges and needs of the world, with passion, values, skillsets with remuneration. A quick google image search will display an organiser that shows the relationship between four aspects. If all of these aspects can be met, then purpose and meaning can be achieved, impacting positively on the wellbeing of an individual.

The tension of wellness being a tick box/another thing to do vs. being authentic

With wellbeing making a mainstream appearance, it can be difficult to purposefully and sincerely introduce practices and incentives in the workplace. It can quickly become another thing we need to do or appear as though boxes are trying to be ticked. A word to the wise suggested that weaving initiatives and ideas into the existing fabric and organisation of a company is the best way to ensure that practices are authentic.

Te Whare Tapa Wha: a model of holistic wellness

This model was mentioned several times and for good reason. The focus on ‘health’ and ‘wellness’ within workplaces has evolved throughout the past three decades, eventually settling on a holistic approach. This model captures the essence of holistic wellbeing, using the model of a whare (house) to describe how the different aspects of an individual relate to one another.

People drive, leadership supported

Like a double-edged sword, if wellbeing is to be achieved, there needs to be an alignment between leadership and its people. Effectively, ideas need to arise from within an organisation, validating the voices of those whose wellbeing we’re trying to improve. If leadership are able to support ideas that resonate with our schools, then we have a higher chance of success. 

Understanding the language people use to describe their challenges/pressures and responding appropriatelyThis one also focused primarily on mental health and suggested that the way in which we discuss this aspect of our lives doesn’t use words you may expect, given the connotations attached to them. To use the term ‘anxiety’ to describe your feelings towards elements of your job may not come naturally, but people will attempt to capture this idea using more work-friendly terms. Understanding what these phrases are and responding with care, concern and grace is essential.

Reframing stress and pressure in the workplace through language to improve the culture

The excellent presentation discussed the nuances between conscious and subconscious brains. He discussed how stress arises and how your body and mind respond to certain cues, as well as ways to reframe this. A memorable example suggested substituting the word frustrating for fascinating can do wonders for dealing with more challenging situations and people.

Data-driven and evidence based

This may seem rather obvious but centred primarily around the idea that it’s difficult to quantify something as complex as wellbeing. While no answers were reached, this is an excellent question to consider when trying to improve the wellness of your colleagues: how can we continue to measure success and know we’re doing better than previous years?

Don’t reinvent the wheel

There are a myriad of organisations, toolkits, ideas, initiatives, practices and resources available to us. It is easy to try and recreate the aforementioned, but where you can, use what’s already available.

Centralise our documentation and policies to ensure that wellness know-how is readily accessible and available

While this idea applied more so for larger organisations and corporations, it is still essential. The reality is, this is a call to the ministry of education to provide every school in our nation with what they need to improve the wellness of every person who serves our young people.

As you can see, we are well on our way to ensuring our lives have more purpose, more joy and more health. What do you think?

A Culture of Wellbeing

The existence of education, and its conduit: school, serve a variety of purposes. While these may differ around the world, the sentiments are often similar. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Education hopes that places of learning provide those who learn within them have the ability to: “seize the opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies (in order) to secure a sustainable social, cultural, economic, and environmental future for our country”. Additionally, “students will continue to develop the values, knowledge, and competencies that will enable them to live full and satisfying lives” while being “confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners.''

These goals sit alongside a growing body of ambitions that aim to positively impact the entirety of our young people. These ambitions may appear overzealous but their reality is achievable and in order to attain these goals, there’s a concerted effort required from those involved in the learning of our young people. One of the goals at the forefront of education is wellbeing which has seen a rise in positive psychology (dubbed positive education within our sector) initiatives and ideas. 

The current challenge with positive psychology lies within the complexity of educational settings and the factors that contribute to its complex nature. It is these factors which may appear to make it difficult to implement simple interventions. Despite the resonance of this movement with teachers and professional educators, a subtle misconception that these ideas will be easily replicated, effective and implemented neatly add unnecessary frustration to necessary work. It’s important to note that while change is “often messy and disorganised, with growth in unexpected areas, and numerous unintentional consequences”,  the change is not lessened in its impact or need, especially change which is attempting to improve the wellness of our tamariki. The importance and benefit of wellbeing juxtaposed with the complexity of implementation begs the question: “what contributes to this complexity?”

In their article ‘Positive Education: Learning and Teaching for Wellbeing and Academic Mastery’, Matthew White and Margaret L. Kern, suggest that “rhetoric can run ahead of the science” with numerous programs offering silver bullets which lead to confusion around which programs should be selected. White and Kern note that “activity is not the same as impact” so it’s important when identifying and selecting initiatives that they’re not only supported by evidence but their application, and the effort required by educators is considered so that they can be rolled out in the most efficient and practical way.

While empiricism and practicality are worthy of mentioning, one of the biggest determinants to success are which pathway the initiative falls within i.e. taught culture and caught culture. The taught culture is purposeful and planned and could involve clear goals outlined in their documentation or a dedicated team of teachers who respond and adapt to the needs of the school. The caught culture “reflects the overall ... feeling or tone of a school”, appearing in the “language used, how staff and students interact with one another, and implicit norms of the school.” 

Culture, though applicable to the nationality or the ethnicity of an individual can also be quantified as the way in which an individual makes sense of their experiences and situations. By this definition, schools have their own cultures and this is either intentionally created or arises naturally. This culture, whether purposefully crafted or innately found, can be foundational in the development of a student’s lens, empowering them to perceive themselves and their world positively, impacting on every facet of an individual.

In light of this, it’s easy to understand why schools are seen as one of the first lines of defence against languishing wellness and highlights the importance of schools selecting initiatives which align with their naturally caught culture or directly impact their intentionally taught culture. “Positive education has considerable potential, but must be studied, applied and managed in a responsible manner.” As you explore what wellness looks like for your young people and how you can contribute to this, and whether you should focus more on ideas that fit within your caught or taught culture, research suggests that both of these have their place, their role and identifiable pros and cons. However, the greatest path forward involves a combination of approaches that fit within both pathways. 

With this in mind, we see that wellness for each and every person is ambitious but not out of reach. In this world of wellbeing, I hope that your endeavours are both purposeful and successful.