CWO Diary, May 2024

Hello and welcome to the May edition of the Chief Wellbeing Officer newsletter on LinkedIn. I guess time flies when you're having fun. It seems that only yesterday I was writing the April edition (and surprised too at the timing of that one). I'll take the fun excuse gladly, rather than the other likely alternative that I'm just getting old! Our perception of the passing of time is one of the nudges in The Daily Reset (May 1st) but we'll leave the details for another time ;)

This month we look at routines , rituals (including the first thing to do each day ) and triggers, both good and bad . In community spotlight we look at two WellTech start-ups, Movebite and Talk It Out , my 8 wellbeing article series in Spanish Business newspaper Expansión in back catalogue and the usual recap on CWO programs. Ok, ?vamos!

New Writing

We begin with the power of routine in helping open "the big heavy door " with the example of Japanese fiction novelist Haruki Murakami. Creative work requires energy and so the routine in Murakami's case means that automation saves mental load. His mental processing power is saved for the creative writing ahead rather than the process of the creative writing.

I also love that Murakami, known as a Marathon runner and triathlete combines the physical and mental in his creative writing, noting:

“It’s physical. If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course, you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place you have to be strong physically. Every day I go to my study and sit at my desk and put the computer on. At that moment, I have to open the door. It’s a big, heavy door.”

And routine may be created on different levels of detail. Even if you find yourself overwhelmed, stick to simple means of framing that routine. There's no need to create complexity. For example, US founding father Benjamin Franklin used two questions, morning and evening, to frame his daily routine . These helped drive the details.

A look at routine naturally links to that of ritual. How may ritual be defined? I believe rituals satisfy deep-lying needs. We may talk of rituals within the context of religion or history, but might not readily associate them with our own life and work, our day-to-day. Yet they can satisfy our emotional needs. And connect to purpose and to other people.

Here's a distinction I've used recently based on a quote in a book, The Ritual Effect, by Harvard Prof Michael Norton:

Routines automate us, Rituals animate us.

I believe that animation to be a critical counterbalance in a world in which we are constantly striving for optimisiation and productivity. Rituals allow us to be fully present and alive in the moment. Here's a checklist for designing rituals in your own life and work:

1. What rituals might help elevate your team culture and performance?
2. What rituals might help create separation from work?
3. What rituals might help you connect deeper with family?
4. What other rituals are important for you and what purpose do they serve?
5. Which artefacts or objects are important for these rituals?

And here's an example of a routine that is also a ritual:

Each day, look at the sky before your smartphone.

Automaticity is baked in to who we are as human beings . It is a critical part of our evolutionary survival mechanisms. The amygdala part of our brain triggered our fight-or-flight response when we perceived a threat. It’s instantaneous. Otherwise there’s no way we’d have survived on the savage plains, there was no time to waste!

Today, our physical survival may not be at stake but we still perceive psychological threats. And the amygdala still gets to work, causing us to react.

An awareness of that trigger is critical for any professional today. This awareness allows us to respond instead of reacting. Click below for content on that subtle difference and advice on controlling the trigger.

Wrapping up this month is a story I've shared for many years regarding one of my habits . Here goes ;)

I do squats in the shower.

I may look daft but it’s not as if anyone sees me. It’s probably the strongest new habit I’ve added to my routine in the past several years.

Here’s what I do:

I wash my hair and before rinsing out the shampoo, I do 20 squats. That’s at least 140 squats per week, or 7280 squats per year, and a powerful cumulative impact from an achievable daily habit.

It's an example of using the trigger to our advantage. My trigger or cue is not the shower, it’s the shampoo. If I don’t wash my hair, I don’t end up doing the squats. The cue is that specific and that’s what makes it work.

This links to one of the fundamentals of habits and behaviour change . We may use the habit loop, or call it an 'anchor' like habits pioneer BJ Fogg, or 'habit stacking' a la Atomic Habits if you prefer.

For your daily habits, good or bad. What's the before and after? What already exists in your daily life that you can use as support for a new intention?

Community Spotlight

It gives me great pleasure to highlight two start-ups this month, especially since my own adventure in stealth mode for almost 18 months recently ended in failure. I know how hard it is to get traction and will cheer for anyone willing to get stuck in to the maddening, rewarding, rollercoaster entrepreneurial journey.

I first met Rachel Wolff when working for Uber a few years back. A former legal counsel she's now the co-founder of Movebite , which aims to make movement during the workday as normal as drinking a cup of coffee.

They have developed an AI-powered health coach which provides active micro-breaks to prevent muscle and joint discomfort caused by prolonged sitting and other factors.

Movement was my first deep foray into wellbeing, something I recalled yesterday in my feed , and I think it has so much impact to offer.

Follow Movebite on LinkedIn here and click on the image below to visit their website.

Talk It Out comes from the same brilliant source of inspiration that is Upping Your Elvis and professional development pioneer Chris Baréz-Brown .

Think about Talk It Out as an intelligent assistant for your 'walk-and-talks.' It helps you to access your subconscious and understand how you’re seeing the world and why you’re reacting the way you are.

During a walk you simply talk to the app about anything that's on your mind. Whenever you say something that creates an emotional reaction for you, it gets captured as an insight for you to review.

Follow Talk It Out on LinkedIn here and click on the image below to visit their website.

Back Catalogue

This month's spotlight on previous content is in Spanish, so if that's not your language then there's not much to see here ;) In August 2019 I published 8 articles in Expansión , the main Spanish business newspaper, as part of their 'Summer Reading' series in healthy habits.

I dug them out earlier this week on my main feed as part of a decision to move again on the Spanish language side of Chief Wellbeing Officer. It was great fun working with Expansión on these articles as well as videos for their TV channel, an emerging collaboration that the pandemic stopped in its tracks. Watch this space for more content in Spanish soon. Click here or on the image below to view and download all 8.

And even if you don't speak the language the 8 themes of:

• Sleeping as a Skill,
• Become a Hacker,
• The Importance of Movement,
• Human Leadership,
• The ROI of Wellbeing,
• Circadian Rhythms,
• Workspace Design, and
• Happiness at Work,

are all fascinating areas that are well developed in my English-language writing too. If you're interested in a specific theme drop me a line and I'll send you some content.

CWO Programs

• The coaching.com coaching summit started on 28th May, and my keynote is on 10th June. There is a mix of live coaching mastery sessions, implementation mastery sessions and coaching demos. Coaches also earn 5 ICF CCEUs. Registration is free .

• I've enjoyed travelling to SE Asia and Geneva in recent weeks on program delivery, including for the European Broadcasting Union (brief details on scope via the image below).

• Switzerland will be the destination again later in the summer with a week-long visit to Zurich to work with different teams at On (brief details of scope via image below).

Thanks for reading everyone and best wishes for the Summer. I'll likely change the cadence of this newsletter digest over the Summer period but you can stick to a more frequent update via my weekly email newsletter (now on 56 weeks straight :)

Steven