Incentives
Skeptics might ask, why don't we just raise paychecks? Tying the money to an explicit, public commitment made it worth more to people than cash, because it is a specific, transparent demonstration of care and commitment.
Main questions
- Is wellbeing a reliable leading indicator of high performance?
- Does money tied to a conscious wellness commitment do more than the same money in a paycheck?
- How do competing commitments, at work and outside it, affect a person's capacity to deliver?
Origin
The original framework for Be Well emerged from a design strategy project at IDEO. From there it was modified into a self-assessment scale and tested with hundreds of employees across several organizations, including a major wellness initiative at Y-USA. The current version of the scale is built into the momentmaking app as the Readiness Check.
Be Well became a workplace strategy at Hulu where employees were given a stipend to spend on whatever would make them feel better according to the scale. They were asked to complete a pre- and post-survey and the data showed how purchases lined up with the scale: mattresses for better sleep, plane tickets to visit parents, marathon entry fees for fitness, pots and pans for cooking at home, and some gave the money to charity.
Core concepts
Work Maps
Calendars and habit plans are important to wellbeing but they hide competing commitments. A Work Map plots a month of work and life by importance and urgency, so overlaps are visible and priorities (including recovery) can be negotiated in the open.
Leading indicators
Humans thrive with holistic wellbeing, sleep, time for slow thinking, physical activity, and constructive social contact. It's an open question if companies should track these leading indicators and test their correlation with commercial results.
Resources
Writing
How to Avoid the Busy Trap
Busy is not progress. A playful heart keeps you going through the routine.
Working Human
Let's move on from the machine words: horsepower, engines, weakest links.
