My 10 lessons: A year-end WorkWell podcast 2020

Show Notes

On this special year-end WorkWell episode, Jen reflects on conversations she’s had with past guests. She shares 10 lessons she’s learned from the show that have helped her with some of the challenges we’ve faced during this tough year. Visit www.deloitte.com/us/workwell to find the full episodes.

What is The WorkWell Podcast™?

The WorkWell Podcast™ is back and I am so excited about the inspiring guests we have lined up. Wellbeing at work is the issue of our time. This podcast is your lens into what the experts are seeing, thinking, and doing.

Hi, I am Jen Fisher, host, bestselling author and influential speaker in the corporate wellbeing movement and the first-ever Chief Wellbeing Officer in the professional services industry. On this show, I sit down with inspiring individuals for wide-ranging conversations on all things wellbeing at work. Wellbeing is the future of work. This podcast will help you as an individual, but also support you in being part of the movement for change in your own organizations and communities. Wellbeing can be the outcome of work well designed. And we all have a role to play in this critical transformation!

This podcast provides general information and discussions about health and wellness. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. The podcast owner, producer and any sponsors are not liable for any health-related claims or decisions made based on the information presented or discussed.

Jen’s 10 lessons

Jen Fisher (Jen): It’s been a tough year for all of us. When I feel overwhelmed about the challenges we’ve faced, I often refer back to some of the conversations I’ve had on our show. So I wanted to share 10 lessons I’ve learned from our past guests that have helped me, and I hope they’ve helped you too. And while we’re at it, if you have a favorite episode or lesson you learned from one of our episodes, reach out to me and let me know. You can find me on LinkedIn under the name Jen Fisher or on Twitter and Instagram @JenFish23.
And don’t forget that you can listen to the full episodes on your favorite podcatcher. Thank you to our producers, and all of our guests and listeners. You all make the this show possible!
Jen: First, it’s never the wrong time to seek help for your mental health. My conversation with Dr. Christine Moutier revealed that when you are struggling, seek help, regardless of circumstances and current events.
Jen: If you are experiencing unusual amounts of, of worry, anxiety, stress, perhaps depression, how do you know when to ask for help? At what point should you reach out to ask for help and where can one go to get help right now?
Christine: My personal view is that as a society, we haven't learned about when to recognize when it's time to seek help, because we've been so well-practiced at writing everything off to the stress or the circumstance of the moment that we haven't realized that, certainly while things absolutely are tied to the things happening in our life, moment by moment, that there's nothing incorrect about that. But it kind of takes a passive approach then like, well, so let's just wait and see then when this stressor ends, how I'm doing then, or, well, wouldn't anybody be that stressed out if they were going through X, Y or Z? And I actually view that as a very dangerous, but yet common and alluring way of thinking because it says that on the one hand, we're all having very normal human responses in a way. It's like a trauma response. There's a human response to that that's completely natural. And yet it doesn't mean that we don't seek help for those things. And so, if for example, you're finding that your sleep is being disrupted and you're having trouble self-managing that and getting it back intact, that is a sure sign that it's time to try something new. At least get some input on what can be done to manage what's going on, if not a specific sleep strategy, but even just a stress management strategy, or therapy for the anxiety specifically. If you find that the anxiety, which most of us are having right now, but if you find that it's sort of all- consuming and that your worry is front and center and it's very hard to focus on anything

else. Of course, that's one of the reasons that we're all saying really limit your media intake right now and absolutely avoid sensationalized information right now, because it's just fuel for that fire of anxiety. Some people are very much more vulnerable to going down that deep anxiety hole that it takes us into. We don't realize that it is something that is treatable because it feels so in line with reality, the circumstance that we're in, and yet the ramifications of it in your life and your health, it can also be a very physical response. If you find that you're having headaches. I already mentioned the sleep disruption, but changes in your appetite, if you're overusing alcohol or substances, physical tension in your body, sexual dysfunction can happen related to stress and overwhelming anxiety, all of those physical signs would also be indicators that it's time to seek professional help.
Jen: The second lesson is that there are many definitions of well-being. Each is unique and personal. When I talked with Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon founder and CEO of the Village Market, I was moved by her explanation of what self-care means to her as an entrepreneur.
Jen: I know that you are a pretty outspoken advocate for self-care, especially among the entrepreneur community. We know it's a community that in a lot of cases has a higher instance of burnout. And you said it earlier, when you were talking about passion and, you know, being the octopus that could grow the extra arm, but you also said something about making sure that you got a good night's sleep, so you could show up at your best. So, let's talk about the convergence of that passion and that purpose when you're an entrepreneur, and, and you're the only thing you've got because you're an entrepreneur. And so, the importance of self-care and what it's meant to you in your own journey.
Lakeysha: Very good question. I've seen, I witnessed people aspire for things, be it wealth or other tangible things that appear to be, or to give the impression of wealth. But I've also seen, Jen, people who obtain those things and they died young. And when we learned about them, we learned that they were depressed and lonely, riddled with anxiety. And those are the things that I love to understand more. How did you achieve this thing, yet you were deeply depressed? And so, when I started to really anchor in on my why, as much as I want the economic upward mobility for my community, I can't imagine leading with that first and not leading with help. Because if we aspire for all of these things and we're not well, and we're not healthy. And well in how we treat each other, this community that I deeply desire to be built will be fractured.
And in my own journey, I just don't, I don't believe in being a hypocrite. I can't push the community for a holistic entrepreneurship, if that's not how I live my life. I saw my mother died at 50 years old with a lot of dreams left here, with children still left here, with a mother of her own still left here. And so being so close to death, knowing that we have no control over it in a sense, pushed me to want to live so completely at my highest. So there are no dreams left on the table.
And so, as we think about how we show up in the work that we do in the world, I also know this Jen, if I'm in a good place internally, and you're in a good place internally, we have a better chance of hearing and seeing each other. And in that hearing and seeing, that's where change takes place. And so, I'm pushing us to be in the space where we can hear and see each other. Love is all in that space. So being healthy and being well, that's what that is for me.
Jen: The third lesson is that failure is not a bad word. Retired soccer player Abby Wambach, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup champion shared her

personal approach to overcoming the failures she’s faced in her career and how she turned them in to opportunities.
Jen: We, being society, all know you are synonymous with winning, I mean that’s who we know you to be, but you talked about many, many failures and suffering whether it was the loss of the game or…?
Abby: Well, I think that the word failure has to be reclaimed. I think our whole lives we are trying to avoid it like a plague and every single person on the planet has failed, every single successful person on the planet has failed and made something of it and so I think back to the times of my life that I am most proud of. All the successes that I ever had playing, all the medals, all the championships, all the awards they were directly related to recent failures that had happened. Recent things that I had to overcome. I have some unique failures of my life, I know this sounds super weird, but I broke my leg in 2008. Five days before we got in a plane to go to the Olympics in China. Though that was an accident. I very much input that into my brain, into my spirit as a failure. I had spent the whole of that year training. I was the fittest that I had ever been. I was so excited about this idea, the possibility of representing my country again and winning another gold medal and so when I think about that time I had to get really honest with myself in the moment of the game. In the moment of the game when I broke my leg, I lost myself, what my teammates would call, I turned red. I was angry, we are playing against a really difficult Brazilian team, the referee in my opinion at the time wasn’t taking care of the players because this was the last game, she wasn’t calling fouls like I thought she should have, so I went into this tackle a little bit recklessly. And so that’s on me, like I could have very easily chalked that up as “you know what, stuff happens, this is sports, this is part of the game,” but that wasn’t it.
Everybody knows what it feels like to fail, you get embarrassed and you have that pit in your stomach and you don’t want to share it with anybody. And turning failure into an opportunity is a mindset shift.
Jen: Fourth, I learned is that it’s not the survival of the fittest, it’s the survival of the kindest. I love that! Dr. Dacher Keltner, the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley shared how compassion is in our genes and truly a competitive advantage.
Jen: So, in your book, you coined the term or I learned the term or the concept rather survival of the kindest and I’m a big believer of if you can be anything in this world be kind. So that kind of really struck me. Can you say a little bit more about what you mean by that?
Dacher: Thanks for bringing that up Jen, I appreciate your careful reading. That was in Born to Be Good which is like 10 years ago, 9 years ago. I tried to think about like who we as a species are and how do we evolve out of chimpanzees and bonobos 7 million years ago. So, a lot of evolution and who we are. You answer that question by looking at the brain and genetics and emotion. As I was doing the deep research for that book, I read Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man 1871 and Darwin’s really interesting, probably the most influential scientist who ever lived and evolution is our maybe the biggest idea that people have come up with for understanding humans. He said those communities with the most sympathetic members will flourish and raise the greatest number of offspring, sympathy is our strongest instinct. And when I read that, literally my jaw dropped, and I screamed because you think of Darwin as saying, it’s all survival of the strongest or the most violent. The reason he was saying that, as historians have noted, is he was a really loving parent.
He lost a daughter early in life, Annie, and he kind of got overwhelmed by sympathy, god

what is this passion? And now we know that our altruistic tendencies, kind tendencies, are there first and foremost to protect babies, human offspring are the most vulnerable mammal ever to be born. I like to joke, it takes 7 to 52 years to reach the age of independence because they are carrier genes and they take years of protection and that changed everything. So that, Jen, along with these other findings of like wow compassions is in the vagus nerve, it’s their genetics for it. Kids are compassionate, babies are compassionate, we are compassionate to strangers, says maybe we should rethink the survival of what kind of species led to us.
Jen: The fifth lesson is that your mind and body are inextricably linked. Emiliya Zhivotovskaya, a leading voice in the world of positive psychology and the science of flourishing explained how building a greater understanding of the link between mind and body can help enhance our holistic well-being.
Jen: You have touched on it a little bit but I wanted to dive in deeper to the concept of mind-body connection because I think for most people there is, okay let me take care of the
mind piece and let me take care of the body piece and oftentimes we really think of them as two separate things but they are not. It is not like you can cut off your head and still live or vice versa cut off your body and still live. We don’t often I think put those things together or think about them in that way.
Emiliya: Firstly, any people if they probably noticed how many times they reference the mind-body connection throughout the day, they would probably be shocked. That person has such a pain in the neck, I was worried sick, I am heartbroken, we use these words all the time to actually describe this connection between our mind or our emotional state and what we experience within our body. We all live it and within the field of science, it used to be mind and body medicine. Then we actually now call it mind-body medicine, and now it's actually just one word. So just the word mindbody. When you were just referencing even chopping off your neck, so if we were to chop off our neck and you actually would still be separating body from body. Its brain, the brain is an organ that is a part of our body, which actually gets us more connected to a more profound question, which is what is mind. What we now know is that the mind is not just in the brain, the mind is actually all over our body. The mind is outside of the body and it's the in-between and it has actually to do with our perception and our reception of information that we are getting from our skin on the outside, we are getting it for our digestive system which is on the inside. So where is this perceptual organ, it is not in any one place, it’s actually all over our body. So when we think about the mind-body connection, we are thinking about mind as a mental state, a state of cognition, a state of feeling, and it's very hard to separate that out from our body and our physical state. So we want to take care of both of them and what's beautiful is as you take care of one, you often tend to heal the other.
Jen: The sixth lesson I learned is that our voice is one of the most powerful tools we have to break down stigmas. Naomi Hirabayashi, co-founder of the Shine app with Marah Lidey, spoke about how the power of breaking our silence can also break down long-held stigmas in society.
Jen: Obviously we are still in the midst of this global pandemic and it seems like this is where we are going to be for a while and I know that you all have been doing some great things really to support your community and others during this time, those are new to kind of struggling with anxiety, but just in general and potentially depression, PTSD anything that might be coming out of this pandemic, which I guess some of it is still to be seen, but

certainly the uncertainty, the loneliness, the loss of kind of life as we know, which for some can be a grief and grieving, what advice or kind of what do you think the best advice that either somebody gave you, you guys gave each other, you like to give other people for taking care of your mental and emotional well-being, but especially during this time.
Naomi: I do think that is one of the powerful outcomes about this time is that there is a shared sense of struggle and obviously this pandemic is highlighting so many inequities in our country and so the experience for so many people is very different and there is a common struggle and that we haven’t experienced what we are experiencing or anything like it. There is no playbook. We are trying to process this time and trying to get through it and so I think one of the powerful things is that in a very American way, they are like, hey, how are you doing, I am good, I am fine, things are okay and that might probably not true most of the time. I think we are being a lot more open about what’s hard versus trying to smile through it and we did actually a survey to better understand how our community was processing and navigating their mental health during the pandemic and the racial just surprising in our country and one of the things that we saw was that people actually said that they were expressing their emotions more than they were before and the big reason was because they knew that other people were struggling too and it speaks to this communication that Marah and I are really inspired by the beginning of the start of the Shine, which was this concept of the spiral of silence. So, the idea that for fear of isolation by publicly speaking out, you don’t speak out and as a result, common human experiences stay either taboo or kind of oppressed and example would be like miscarriages that so many people experience, but for a long time, women were kind of suffering beside each other, not realizing that this was a shared experience because there was so much stigma about speaking out. I think we are experiencing a time where that stigma for mental health and that spiral of silence is starting to be broken and the more the people speak out, the more they will speak out and continue to find those connections between people and the other thing that we found that was really powerful and this is to the question of like what is something that you do every single day that I try to practice is remembering to share like Marah said to me and this was such a big reason why we started Shine and why were connected is speak about what’s hard. You know, speak about that inner narrative that’s tough and the thing that you feel kind of ashamed about, but once you mention it, I did this the other day with Marah, I was like I am just being really hard on myself about feeling behind, we are talking about productivity guilt, and how that is obviously a big thing right now because it’s like in some ways you have more time and other ways you have less time and your energy depression that is very, very real and so when we got to talk about that, I was able to be more compassionate with myself and that is a similar thing that we heard from our community as well. So, the people that are speaking out more about their mental health struggles are also practicing more self-compassion and what I love about that is it’s not about this quick fix or silver bullet or any of that because none of that exists in this space, but what are the way that we can be kind to ourself and be more compassionate with ourself and where we can and if we have other virtual networks or in person networks possible connect over that struggle because that is I think one of the most important things that we can do during this time.

Jen: The seventh lesson is that time off isn’t just essential to our personal well-being, John Fitch and Max Frenzel, co-authors of the book Time Off, discussed why it will be a necessary skill in the future of work.
Jen: What do you say to the people who say I don’t have time for time off, I don't have time for rest or I don’t have time for sleep.
John: If I am going to look at the lens of the book, the chapter that has been resonating with me a lot post book launch is the reflection chapter. If you feel like you don't have the time then that means someone else has your time…is that culture, is that your boss, what is it…identify that first and then second you can peel back the onion and do you feel trapped, do you feel like you have a lot of meaning, are you creating space for the things that bring you meaning…those hard questions that you can sit with for a long period of time with yourself I think is the first step. If you don't have time, I would ask them why don't you have time, it like write that out, what is keeping you away from it…is it truly external like you're being forced to not have time off, is it because you and your partner haven't found a way to co-parent more successfully, have you not requested that you need time off…therefore it's kind of your own fault. There are a lot of reflections one can do and that would be my first step and one of my favorite activities from our reflection chapter, I do this all the time both in my personal life as well as professional and on various scopes and altitudes and it is a more off less of list. So, I identify what are things that I want more off in my life, it is typically time off or rest ethic like things, you know deeper connections with certain people more creative expression. Then, I also talk about what I want less of and so those are things that don't make me feel good in in my life and when I do that it makes it very clear what's on the left side of the paper and what's on the right side of the paper and you start realizing, a lot of it is actually in your field of influence, you just haven't identified it and therefore done something about it. If someone really feels that way, you can email me and I would be happy to walk through an exercise anyone who feels trapped. I empathize I have felt trapped, but I was trapping myself and I have a feeling most people are doing the same or they haven't had the courage yet to speak up to maybe an externality that is keeping them away from it and happy to help.
Max: I think you got that completely right, I don’t really have much to add but just one thing on the reflection side as well, I think one issue about understanding how important time off is, it is a little bit of a chicken and egg problem actually because you only really realize how much you need time off once you start taking the time off to reflect or just to get away from things only that's when it hits you how busy you actually are, how much problems that busyness is causing and just one other exercise which I think is very interesting and I think that actually comes from John as well it's ask yourself a simple question is all my hard work actually working and it seems like a very trivial question at the beginning, but if you do the work and sit down with it for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes you might actually get very deep and uncover some things that might be a bit uncomfortable but really will get you ahead. Also, maybe reflect on when do you actually feel the most accomplished, I can say for myself from my own experience I don't feel the most accomplished on my busiest days. Those days I just forget them again after…maybe on the same evening. The days were I really in the evening look back and think yes okay I made a really big break through, this was a very important day, I really achieved something. I actually often didn't work all that much, it was maybe just two, three, or four hours at most, maybe I was even out in nature hiking or something but I had a key breakthrough idea and I sit down for an hour off to it to just integrate it. Those big

breakthroughs rarely come on those busy days, so reflect for yourself when do you feel the most accomplished and try and get more in life and chances are that will automatically bake some more time off into your life.
John: I am going to add that Max, you just inspired all of us have to think about where work is heading even. Max more than I, but we both spent a decent amount of time in the world of artificial intelligence in the commercialization of it and if you are doing machine like work, so I'm going to say anything that takes 10 seconds or 5 seconds or less of your thought to execute that's likely a workflow or a task that a machine…if it's not already doing better, will do better very soon. If you've heard all of us on this interview, talk about these breakthrough moments, these aha moments in a way we are artists, we are like designers, the value we produce and output like a machine, it is like we invent something out of thin air like an artist and in a future where we're all more artists like, our book will show you this, but just watch a bunch of documentaries on artist of any medium and their nonworking time is essential for their breakthroughs. In the future of work, where we are all artists see these micro practices of time off as like you are upskilling yourself for kind of what's left for us humans as the machines execute the mundane much more effectively.
Jen: Number eight is that you shouldn’t dismiss or fear your emotions. Dr. Susan David, I’m a total fan girl, a psychologist and author of the book Emotional Agility shared that you can use them as data to become more emotionally agile.
Jen: So let's dig into that a little bit more because you keep talking about emotional agility and of course that is your book. So, what is it and how does it better help us understand our emotions.
Susan: Emotional agility is I think is one of the most critical skills that we can have as human beings. Again, it is every aspect of how we love, live, how we parent, how we lead is ultimately driven by how we deal with ourselves, our inner world. So, what is emotional agility? Let me give you a short answer and then let me give you a longer answer. The short answer is that emotional agility is basically the capacity to be healthy with ourselves, to be healthy with our thoughts, our emotions, and the stories that we have. The longer answer is that there are core components to emotional agility that are really critical to this capacity to be healthy. The first is the ability to show up to our emotions with a level of gentle acceptance and compassion, and this really circles back to the beginning of our conversation, this idea that there aren't good and bad emotions. So, if you start hustling with yourself and start only have positive emotions or see your emotions as positive or only think good thoughts, then what you start doing is you start hustling with yourself, you start trying to push aside difficult thoughts or difficult emotions. Number one, it doesn't work.
When we try to push aside these difficult emotions, there is actually an amplification effect and listeners will have known and experienced this amplification effect. You said yourself, I am really upset with my colleague, I am just not going to say anything, I am just going to push aside this difficult experience and then you are in a meeting and you’re snarky and let the person know how you feel because you have got the amplification of this emotion.
Jen: We have all been there.
Susan: We have all been there, we have all been there in a meeting, we have all been there at the Thanksgiving table, we have all been there. So, the first part of emotional agility is really the ability to be able and compassionate and kind in the way we show up to our difficult emotions. So, that instead of hustling with them or pushing them aside, we just

accept them, this is what I feel right now. I am in a situation in which I need to be compassionate with the fact that I am bored or I am anxious or I am feeling undermined and I can be in that space in a way that is making room for that difficult experience. So, that's a showing up part. A second part of it is about bringing a level of curiosity and mindfulness to the emotion again so the emotion doesn't own you or the story doesn't own you. So, what does that look like? It's about noticing your thoughts, your emotions and stories for what they are, they are thoughts, they are emotions, they are stories, they are not fact, and I can go into a couple of strategies later if that's helpful. Another part of emotional agility is about asking yourself who do I want to be in this moment, what are my values so that I can actually bring myself forward and not be hooked by this difficult experience. So, the short answer is that emotional agility is about being healthy with ourselves. The longer answer is that emotional agility is the ability to be with ourselves in ways that are curious, compassionate, and courageous so that we can move forward in the direction of our values, in how we bring ourselves to the world, and this is just again a critical capacity for all of us.
Jen: The ninth lesson is that kindness is a win-win. It positively impacts the person giving it and the person receiving it. And according to Dr. Kelli Harding, author of The Rabbit Effect, it’s also contagious.
Jen: Yeah, when we talk about kindness, when we're giving kindness to others or we are being kind to others, we know that there's obviously a positive impact on others, what does the science say about the impact on us, when we're being kind or giving kindness to others.
Kelli: Well, this is what's so cool, it's like a complete win-win. So, being kind is good and then also receiving kindness is good. And I think it is really important to know that giving the kindness and whoever you are, that's an important part of being a human being, and it boosts our health. So, there are amazing studies from nursing homes that even caring for a plant makes a difference, you know, like it doesn't always have to be these like grand acts of kindness. It can just really be these tiny day-to-day, or caring for a pet or a child or a loved one, that actually is really important and even when somebody, for listeners who are out there who may be caring for a family member who is ill, it's actually really important for somebody who's even in the receiving role of kindness to be giving kindness as well and to keep that in mind. So, we know that volunteers live longer, which is exciting because it's a complete win-win, and it's about all these hidden factors of health. And in terms of our social world the more things you can do to get involved in all these different areas, including our neighborhoods in particular, and also, building friendships and volunteering is a great way to combine all those things. It's a win-win.
Jen: So, is kindness contagious?
Kelli: Yes, yes. So, this is also where the neuroscience lines up so nicely with what we know from public health. So, we are constantly mirroring each other, and this is something to be mindful of as we're looking at our phones a lot of the day, particularly for listeners who may have kids. I know, I have three kids, so I'm extra mindful of this now. We're constantly mirroring each other, and we know that good behaviors are contagious. So, you're more likely to be kind if you see somebody else being kind. Unfortunately, that also works in reverse, and so it's important to point out, but here's the thing, you know, a lot of times I think people are sort of waiting for a top-down change. Like, let's wait for the system to change, but we don't have to. Like, we actually, every single individual who's listening to this has far more sway in their circle than they realize and it's…they're these studies of a

friend of a friend, and it turns out actually your actions are impacting people, it's got this lovely ripple effect downstream. So, there is absolutely no harm in doing something kind and it can have this tremendous change of culture and sometimes it happens overnight, which is pretty exciting.
Jen: And last but not least, number 10, I learned that you don’t need to make big, sweeping changes to your life to find purpose. Jonathan Fields, writer and founder of the Good Life Project, explained that small shifts can help you connect to your why.
Jen: I wake up every day and I live into my purpose every single day. At the end of the day, I can see the fruits of that in so many different ways. The reality is a lot of people don’t have that or don’t feel like they have that. What’s your advice for somebody that says I hear you, all of this purpose is great, but I don’t know how to align with the job that I’m doing today.
Jonathan: Yeah, and that is a huge question, especially these days. So here’s my lens on that. One of the biggest fictions is that if you don’t feel that sense of fulfillment, aligned purpose in the actual job or the role that you have right now that you need to do something big and disruptive and leave and seek it outside. You may at some point need to make that move, but that’s the last step that you take. It’s not the first and most people don’t realize, your job first and foremost is if you don’t feel it is to look at your immediate surrounding, to look at the company you’re working with, to look at your role and your job and the task and responsibility and say, okay, let’s go back to self-knowledge. First, I need to really understand myself, what matters to me, what feels me up, what empties me out on the various different levels. Then I need to look at the work that I’m doing and the culture that I’m in and the people that I’m with and the tasks and processes I do every day and I need to identify where are the conflicts between who I am, what I need, what fills me up, what empties me out, and what am I’m doing on a day-to-day basis. What most people will find when they do that is there actually is a fairly high level of alignment, but there’s one or two things that are really off. So then, what you get to do is say, okay, I am not going to blow this up because especially the further we get into life, that hurts. If you get a mortgage and a family and you want security, you don’t want to do that unless you absolutely have to. It’s like how do I redo what I’m doing right now, how do I change the way that I’m investing myself in what I’m doing now to get what I need without leaving. There’s some really interesting research around this called job crafting and what they’re showing is that in fact very often you can make shifts in the way that you’re doing what you’re doing without leaving to get that sense of purpose and fulfillment and nourishment and flow and full expression without walking out the door, but most people don’t realize that, so they don’t even try and they don’t actually do the self-knowledge work to realize that actually there is a lot of really good stuff here and there’s a couple of things where if I do a little bit differently, Adam Grant did really interesting research, and Adam is the one of the most beloved professors at Wharton, and he took a group of call center employees at the university. They’re calling to try and get people to donate money for scholarships, huge burnout, huge turnover, poor performance. What he did with them was he did a really simple intervention, super simple, and he brought in a couple of grownups who had graduated the school who have been first-generation in college and they went because of the scholarships that were raised by these people in the call center. In the month that followed that, the people in the call center felt like it changed the way they experience their work. So much so that it wasn’t just more fulfilling and more purposeful for them, but they actually raise something like twice as much money by the effort that they put in and it

wasn’t intentional. They didn’t intentionally say I am going to double my effort here. They’re just having a deeper understanding of the why, like getting a deeper sense of purpose for the work that they were doing allowed them to function completely differently and allowed them to get what they needed differently. I think a lot of it is Step 1, self-knowledge. It just it all goes back to that. Step 2 is contrast that with what you’re actually doing and conflict resolution. Very often you can make small changes and it may be actually doing more than what your job description requires, which some people are like but I don’t want to do that because I am not getting paid for that, but if that’s thing that actually gives you that sense of everything, do it, and what the job crafting research is showing that when you do that, it actually allows you to accelerate your growth within an organization a lot faster too and have much more control.
Again, thank you again to our producers, guests, and listeners. You can find the full episodes of the WorkWell podcast series on Deloitte.com or you can visit various podcatchers using the keyword WorkWell -- all one word -- to hear more. And if you like the show, don’t forget to subscribe so you get all of our future episodes! If you have a favorite episode or lesson you learned from one of our past guests, reach out to me and let me know. You can find me on LinkedIn under the name Jen Fisher or on Twitter and Instagram @JenFish23. Thanks, and be well!