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Don’t Forget the Road

By on October 7, 2015

Written by Juliet Funt

There is a potent and wonderful trend in the training world to bring in programs that maximize human capital. These courses tend to focus on four elements of the machine that is us, and how to tune it up: exercise, nutrition, psychology, and some aspect of spirituality. It’s a very heartening trend in a work culture that aggressively robs us of our general health.  When we’re this overstressed, we don’t sleep well, are more anxious and irritable, and collectively take more than 40,000 tons of painkillers a year to counter the ever-increasing stress-related headaches, bad backs, and neck pains.

While I could not be more of a fan of the holistic wellness these initiatives provide, I do notice a troubling aspect of the relationship between them and the companies they serve.

When individuals learn to eat healthy, move their bodies in an optimal, consistent way, and achieve mental clarity it’s as if they were each a vehicle getting an overhaul. Lose the doughnuts and add some spinach and we’ve switched from regular to high octane. Sleep more and the tires inflate. Hone our minds towards more focused emotional intelligence and clarity and it’s as if the engine was getting a delicate tune up from the best mechanics. And off we go—engine purring and ready for action.

But what about the road ahead? What if it’s covered with potholes and strewn with boulders? What if distracting, flashing signs are challenging our attentiveness or the path to where we are driving is laid out in a complex and circuitous way? Will our problems be solved? No—that high performance machine may fare better than a beat up Ford Pinto, but it still might not get where it’s going.

When the environment and tools a population relies on are unnecessarily complex, antiquated, or burdensome, these players cannot be at their best no matter how much yoga they do. In fact sometimes the “optimize the human” approach can serve as an excuse not to fix the environment. Once again the worker has to do more and be more to keep his head above water. These ignored obstacles can include corporate complexity, frivolous meetings, email, and stubborn bureaucracy.

There is a subtle implication that if workers could just be tougher, better, bigger, and faster they could handle the crazy environment around them. There’s a mindset that it is, in some way, our fault that work feels hard and overwhelming.

And once again a tinge of guilt springs up within us. We eat a high protein breakfast, do a few pushups and try again.

Talented folks need both a healthy personal regimen and an environment that sets them up for success. Critical elements such as boundaries around technology, simplified processes, and simple shared work protocols can’t be by-passed. Take the WhiteSpace approach, and enjoy how much smoother the ride feels. Yes—improve the machine, but don’t forget the road.

 

juliet Juliet Funt is the owner and founder of WhiteSpace at Work and is a warrior in the battle against reactive busyness. It is her mission and that of her team to unearth the potential of companies by unburdening their talent. With thought-provoking content and immediately-actionable tools, she has become a nationally-recognized expert in coping with the Age of Overload in which we all live and work.

Juliet helps attendees learn the pivotal difference between meaningless activity and true productivity. She teaches a streamlined method for personal process improvement, leading to more creativity and engagement. She helps executives, managers and teams answer the critical question, “What thoughts deserve my full attention today?”

Incredibly intuitive, Juliet successfully blends highly-customized content with a keen understanding of clients’ needs in her programs and consulting work. Yet beneath her powerful assets, she is both authentic and accessible. As a busy corporate speaker and consultant, business owner, wife and mother of three young boys, she practices on a daily basis the WhiteSpace concept she shares with clients.

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