by Chris Warner, Caroline Greenlee, and Chris Butterworth
There has been a global explosion in volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) with the pace and complexity of work continuing to increase in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This complexity and uncertainty is accelerating for many reasons, including climate change and the not yet fully understood impacts of artificial intelligence.
At the same time, there is growing evidence from around the world that mental well-being has an impact on individuals, the economy, and an organization’s ability to provide either required services or shareholder returns. Some more recent publications provide startling statistics.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a report in 2022 titled A New Benchmark for Mental Health Systems: Tackling the Social and Economic Cost of Mental Ill-Health stating:
“The economic and social costs of mental ill-health are significant. On average, half of people experience a mental health condition at some point in their lifetime. Living with a mental health condition makes it harder to stay in school or employment, harder to study or work effectively, and harder to stay in good physical health. These individual and social costs also have a clear economic dimension—up to 4.2% of GDP—with more than a third of these costs driven by lower rates of employment, and lower productivity at work.”
In a global study published in 2023 by the Workforce Institute titled Mental Health at Work: Managers and Money, the authors found that 20% of workers say their job negatively impacts their mental health. They found that 81% of employees worldwide would prioritize good mental health over a high-paying job, and 64% say they would take a pay cut for a job that better supports their mental wellness. It is an issue across all generations, with around 70% of Millennials, 69% of Gen Z, 56% of Gen X and 46% of Boomers likely to “trade in a well-paying job” for better mental health.
If organizations are going to thrive in this environment, then they need to be able to adapt and respond quickly. To do this, they need to maximize how they engage and leverage the limited psychological capacity (the amount of emotional and cognitive energy available for use at any point in time) of every person in the workplace. This needs to start with an inside-out perspective focused on every individual. We need to see people as people, not as payroll. Underpinning this approach is a deep understanding and application of the Shingo Institute’s Cultural Enabler principles: Respect Every Individual and Leading with Humility.
There is also a strong link to the Enterprise Alignment principles: Constancy of Purpose and Think Systemically, with evidence that connecting an individual’s purpose to the organization's purpose is critical to Psychological Well-Being (PWB). In addition, organizations will struggle to fully enact the principle of Create Value for the Customer without ensuring individuals thrive at work.
As the Shingo Institute Insights teach us, systems drive behaviour. Organizations must ensure the PWB of all their people at every level through robust systems of psychological health and safety and continuous improvement (CI). These two systems are intertwined and support each other. Without PWB in place, we will severely limit the full potential of the CI system and restrict the organization’s capacity to respond to the external environment. At the same time, if we have a robust psychological health and safety system in place but do not have a robust CI system, we will limit people’s potential to make best use of their psychological capacity.
Both systems are essential to a thriving organization. Working together, they provide incredible potential for every individual and the whole organization. They provide a protective shield that helps the organization and its people manage the external environment more effectively. Throughout the book Why Care?, we have tried to demonstrate the essential elements of both these systems and how to integrate them to strengthen each other.
PWB is not a constant; personal and workplace factors will impact it. We need to recognize this and put things in place that aim to maximize everyone’s PWB. Workplace factors can present themselves as psychosocial hazards that need to be proactively managed through the psychological health and safety system to prevent harm. Some foundations need to be in place to support PWB, such as the critical importance of being accepted and valued for 100% of yourself. A deep understanding of and constant focus on diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) is essential to support this.
PWB is a human right everyone needs to protect, promote, and support. Negative PWB reduces psychological capacity (our emotional and cognitive energy)— a scarce resource critical for people to do their work effectively and to improve the way it is done. Psychological capacity is needed to help people stay “in flow” and connected to their work. When people are not in flow, this can have catastrophic consequences, tragically including fatalities.
The CI System needs to be co-designed to leverage the available psychological capacity. It needs to be constantly matured and improved to maximize every individual’s capacity for improvement. A well-designed CI system will support PWB and help embed the psychological health and safety system. Together, these systems will create capacity for improvement and ensure everyone can contribute to making tomorrow better than today both through CI and innovation.
Organizations, leaders, teams, individuals, families, and friends all have a role in helping manage PWB. Without PWB, the individual, the organization, families, and the community will suffer.
This is not just a nice thing to do. It is critical to the future of every organization and its people.
Thriving is not a one-off event. It takes constant focus and nurturing, but the rewards are tremendous. In the book Why Care? we present a range of frameworks and assessments to support individuals and organizations on their journey through the development of thriving plans and we encourage you to try them out for yourselves.
More information can be found on www.whycarebook.com
A webinar on Why Care? will be held on April 16, 2024. Click HERE to register.
There will be a Why Care? pre-conference workshop at the 36th Shingo Annual Conference on the 8th May. Click HERE to learn more about the conference and the workshop.
The book is available to pre-order Why Care?: How Thriving Individuals Create Thriving Cultures of Contin (routledge.com)
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