Mental Health: Building a Supportive and Resilient Framework

A Commonwealth Fund survey conducted this summer reported a third of US adults had experienced a potent cocktail of stress, anxiety and sadness since the beginning of the pandemic. The rapid spread of COVID-19, the deluge of information and misinformation, together with the feelings of isolation resulting from physical distancing and quarantine measures continue to exact a heavy toll. And it’s far from over.

Our individual fatigue has a collective impact on our organizations. The antidote is the same for both: rest, reflect and reset. It’s the surest way to cultivate the resilience that’s so essential for steady and consistent growth.

At the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), we’ve worked with intention to create an extraordinary workplace, built on shared endeavor. Throughout the course of the pandemic we’ve been busier than ever, helping our clients to solve urgent problems. In our passion, ambition and drive, however, we have an institutional tendency to push ourselves too hard: as one of my colleagues likes to say, “It’s only a marathon until it’s a sprint.”

Sprinting all the time simply isn’t sustainable – not for individuals and not for companies. Fortunately, we were able to bank a good deal of resilience before the pandemic hit hard.

As an organization, we had spent several years creating a culture of transparency and saying what’s true, as well as establishing a strong foundation of psychological safety. We’ve been able to build on this further in recent months. With the help of our director of workplace wellness, we continue to prioritize the physical and mental well-being of every individual on the team through a wide range of activities and offerings designed to top up our resilience reserves.

Maintaining optimal energy and performance levels requires regularly slowing the pace or taking a full-on break — something that’s been hard to schedule as the majority of us have taken far less vacation this year than we have previously. We knew that our risk of burnout was elevated before the pandemic. Today I believe it’s the greatest threat to our organization and our ability to thrive into the future.

People first places have become even more imperative in light of the pandemic, so at IWBI we’re putting more focus than ever on strategies that nurture mind, body and spirit:

We’re taking a break. In the tradition established by our Executive Chairman Rick Fedrizzi four years ago, we’re again closing our offices for the week between Christmas and the New Year (a similar break will also apply to February’s Chinese New Year celebrations for our team in Asia). We’re encouraging everyone to power down completely after setting their out-of-office messages. I’m hoping to break myself of the habit of repeatedly checking my inbox by moving my mail app into a less visible place on my phone! If we can truly disconnect, I’m hopeful that we can start 2021 feeling refreshed, revived and ready for what lies ahead.

We’re developing a “Do Not Do” list. One of our New Year’s resolutions is to remove as many items as we can from our to-do list – even if they’re great ideas or worthy initiatives – so that our top priorities have their best chance to succeed. As an entrepreneurial organization, we need to exercise restraint as much as we exercise creativity: it’s easy to let a thousand flowers bloom but it’s impossible to give every single one of them the sunshine and water they need to thrive.

We’re adding the capacity we need – in the wisest way we know how. Through a combination of new hires, consultants and interns, our staffing plan is as nimble and adaptable as this moment in time demands. We’ve fine-tuned our recruitment process, gotten creative about finding our way to top talent and reimagined onboarding in the absence of in-person interactions.

We’re investing in our teams. We’re swiftly ramping up our professional development programs and channelling investment into workplace wellness resources. We’ve been inviting our favorite yoga teachers, personal trainers and meditation guides to deliver Zoom sessions to our staff. We also encourage healthy behaviors around meetings, including short meditations, meetings on the move (I personally aim to walk for two hours each day during meetings) and “Soundwalks” that offer opportunities for reflection. In the coming year, professional development at IWBI will address themes like stress management, conflict competence and strengths-based leadership, with a focus on enabling equal access for all members of our global team.

We’re keeping lines of communication open. Once or twice a month we host “WELL Heard,” an open forum where any question is welcome and we invite feedback from all. Recently, we’ve also scheduled some smaller, more intimate sessions to encourage participation across every time zone. COO Prateek Khanna and I have found these sessions to be extraordinarily refreshing and deeply regenerative. We’ve loved that each has been a unique mashup of IWBI staff offering their diverse passions and perspectives.

In taking on the CEO role at IWBI, I’m more conscious than ever that my mental health impacts the health and well-being of my team and the organization as a whole. If I can demonstrate my own commitment to resting, reflecting and resetting — like keeping up my daily exercise and meditation practice or powering down on the weekend, for example — I hope it will give others permission to do the same.

It will be a genuine test of resolve for me to stay out of my inbox over the holiday period, but I know it’s something I need to do so I can show up as my best self for what promises to be another challenging year. In previous breaks, when I feel my commitment to the pause to be flagging, I remind myself that this isn’t just something I’m doing for myself, but also for my team — and that’s all the inspiration I need.