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If you caught the Winter Olympics halfpipe competition you witnessed an amazingly acrobatic aerial display by 2-time gold medalist Shaun White. He blew the doors off the competition with enormous leaps, twists, and flips that almost defied imagination. Almost.
White won the same competition at the 2006 Turin Olympics. But instead of doing what he had always done for the next 4 years and simply trying to maintain position atop his sport, White essentially reinvented the halfpipe — with an entirely new string of tricks that only he imagined… a “good-sized” backside air, a front double cork 1080, a cab-double cork 1080, a frontside stalefish 540, and a backside 900 to finish.
Where’s Our Double McTwist 1260?
The wellness industry seems to evolve in glacial time. In 30 years we’ve had some innovations — increasingly sophisticated HRAs, health coaching, targeted messaging. But most of what we’ve done is simply incremental enhancements of existing processes and technologies, not wholesale changes that tip the industry on its ear.
Maybe that’s not all bad. Clearly some ideas in vogue the last few years, such as paying people to engage in wellness activities or punishing with disincentives, hurt the cause more than helped it; fortunately, they’re receding from the spotlight. Others, such as online health portals, have been oversold and have failed to deliver on their promise.
At the same time, a casual walk through the local mall and airport — or the halls of any organization — will convince you: we’re a long way from winning the wellness wars on obesity alone. So maybe it’s time we stopped playing it safe and tried the wellness equivalent of a 2-flip, 3-spin gyroscopic marvel. Here’s how:
Commit to do something different once a quarter. Keep all of your tried-and-true services and resources in place, but make a commitment now to do something in your 3rd quarter program that you’ve never done before.
Eliminate “best practice” from your vocabulary. It’s another way of saying best of been-there-done-that. Of course if you’ve solved all of your health risk and cost concerns with a best-practice philosophy, don’t change a thing. But chances are you’re stuck in neutral on several fronts, just like everyone else.
Don’t send out another RFI or RFP — ever. They’re a recipe for sameness and result in precisely the wrong decision at least half the time. If you’re going to hire someone outside your organization to manage any portion of your wellness program, talk to current and former customers until you’re tired of hearing how wonderful the vendor is.
Zig when others zag. The good news about going to wellness conferences and reading trade journals is you get to hear about the successes of others and how that might apply to your population. The bad news is if you only follow the crowd, you’re not creating anything uniquely tailored to your situation — so you’re less likely to develop a true game-changer for your organization. You’ve a chance at silver with this approach, but never gold.
Go for show and have some fun. “Professional” health promoters don’t dress up in a turkey suit? Yeah, they do, if they want to really get the attention of people and promote a holiday campaign. Take your responsibility seriously, but remember that people have enough serious stuff going on at work. Wellness should be fun.
If all that fails, grow your hair out, wrap a bandana around your head, and wear some baggy pants to work.