Why don’t well-being programs work? Many programs use apps, webinars and employee assistance programs to enhance well-being, but research indicates many of these interventions have little to no benefit.

So, how can companies improve the impact and outcomes of their well-being programs? The first step is realizing that we are not naturally wired to care for ourselves. Self-care is thwarted by our attachment to unhealthy behaviors, lack of motivation to change, difficulty adopting new behaviors and difficulty maintaining healthy behavior over time.

Approaching Well-Being Training Like a Change Management Program

For maximum impact, well-being training must be designed in a way similar to a change management program. Think of well-being as a new operating system that must be adopted. Then, help people understand that they must learn how to adopt this.

Caveats: While the adoption of new well-being practices is like adopting a new operating system, it also differs in important ways: The operating system is not the same for everybody; and if you do not engage with well-being practices in an ongoing way, well-being will fade.

Create an Ideal Self Guide

Extensive research has demonstrated that it is far better to start by defining an ideal operating system rather than correcting current practices. For example, if one is overweight, anxious and depressed, rather than targeting those symptoms, it would be more effective if they define how they want to be and then use that as a rough guide in their day-to-day lives.

Why treat the ideal self as a rough guide and not a goal? Being goal-directed is far less effective than being compassionate toward oneself. In the brain, being too goal-directed enhances fight-or-flight reactions, thereby creating tension and disruption and eventually thwarting the goal. That’s why tennis players just focus on being in the game without thinking of the end and why CEOs in a flow state are five times more productive than those who are not. A flexible and forgiving attitude is key to sustainable and effective change.

Components of an Effective Well-Being Training Program

When I work with organizations to implement well-being programs, several principles have proven to enhance effectiveness:

1. Engage stakeholders: In one program, we received an NPS score of 97, but we would not have been successful had we not engaged the stakeholders first. This set the tone for the rest of the organization.
2. Start with an “ideal self” guide: In another program, I provided an ideal self-guide. We started the sessions by exploring how well-being differed for people. This set the stage for our success, and people immediately adopted the practices.
3. Design the program to address relevant pain points, but also to enhance a sense of possibility. I help organizations do this by filling out a possibility thinking index and then using that as a guide to where possibilities can be enhanced with the help of videos, real-life examples, and group discussions to activate new and inspired thinking.

Of course, measuring and tracking the impact and outcomes is crucial. But it is far better to be aware of the need to reroute ahead of time. While we have not cracked the code on optimizing well-being, I have found that these measures do increase the likelihood of success and should be tailored to the organization’s culture.

Well-being training is a thing, and when organizations realize this, the impact and outcomes of their offerings will be enhanced.