Athletic metaphors about business and life seem ingrained in our collective psyche. “Three yards and a cloud of dust. . . win one for the Gipper. . . just do it!” Stuff like that. So it was with little surprise that the term “Coach” found its way into wellness nomenclature.
Taking on the temporary role of Head Wellness
Coach, I’d like to share a simple but powerful strategy that may change the way you think about the game of wellness.
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the term “wellness” was just starting to be used. There was a lot of talk about “Superior Wellness and Superior Health.” Meaning health and wellness should not just be the absence of disease but a life in full motion.
Back in the early 1980s the vision for wellness
could be summed up by these 3 goals:
#1. For individuals to achieve the full realization of mind, body, and spirit potential.
#2 To stop the progression of disease and instead make health a norm for life.
#3. For employers, wellness was to be a promise of great workplace cultures, high productivity, competitive advantage, and full engagement.
That’s the Wellness Game Plan I signed up for, back in the day.
My mentor and Coach was Louis C. Robbins, MD. See 5 Lessons From One of America’s Greatest Pioneers of Wellness and Health Promotion. He was always conscious about the difference between Primary Prevention (offense) and Secondary Prevention (defense).
He wanted health educators to strategically and consciously manage educational content and programs with a balanced attack. He knew the nation could easily get caught playing defense against diseases. And that playing defense all the time uses up too much time, energy, and resources.
The Wellness Team Locker Room
Think of the blue and green area of the infographic as your “offensive unit.” And the yellow and red areas as your “defensive unit.” A big weakness in many Workplace Wellness Game Plans are that they’re too heavily weighted in secondary prevention. We’re playing too much defense. We’ve got to get back on offense.
We’ve morphed workplaces into rehabilitation clinics for the members of our team on the injured reserve list. We’re stuck in a rut with injured players and absent offensive units. Can you imagine any team without an offense? I’ve seen a lot of workplaces that have “wellness” programs that do not have one aspect of primary prevention (lifestyle improvement) in their arsenal. All defense, and not one offensive tactic, in the play book. That’s a recipe for a losing season.