Ordinarily, wellness is delivered to employees through standalone wellness programs with a primary focus on health improvement and risk reduction. Some classic examples include walking challenges, weight-loss programs and smoking cessation programs. Another route to consider, and one that can often serve as a starting point (especially if there is resistance within the organization), is to "go stealth" and embed wellness into non-wellness initiatives, such as leadership development, safety training, or onboarding initiatives, allowing improved health to emerge as a side benefit. 

In fact, a Stanford University School of Medicine study demonstrated that a "stealth intervention" might serve as a novel approach to an age-old issue: how to help people make better choices when it comes to their health and well-being. Their findings revealed that students enrolled in coursework focused on the social and environmental aspects of food were more likely to make improvements in their eating habits compared with students who took courses focused on the nutritional aspects of food. The intention is not to deceive, the researchers explain, but rather to help people to connect with their deeper needs and desires. And, for many, being part of a larger movement is more motivating than simply striving for improvements in personal health. 

The origins of this stealth movement at Schindler began not with the Stanford researchers, but with Julie Shipley, manager of general training at the time, who came up with the idea of integrating well-being into a leadership development program for top-tiered managers. After getting support from Mike Yurchuk, director of organization development, along with the vice president of human resources, she and her team launched what has now become a multi-year "Leadership Odyssey" development series. 

A key point to note is that throughout this series, the focus has been less on health and more on enhanced leadership capacity. In a previous interview, Shipley noted that the programming is not a "wellness" conversation about "needing to eat more vegetables or drink more water," but rather one that addresses Schindler's core business objectives, such as building a culture of engagement. 

Year one of Leadership Odyssey focused on self. In an intensive off-site setting, managers had the opportunity to engage in discussions about topics like energy management, and, more importantly, to personally experience the benefits of well-being through activities like walking meetings, morning yoga and stretch breaks. 

In year two, participating managers shifted the focus from self to bringing the message back to their teams. After renewing their personal commitments to well-being, participants deepened their understanding of the business case for wellness and acquired additional tools to keep the movement going. 

This multi-year initiative has, in turn, sparked interest in other departments, including safety (as described above), as well as human resources. In an earlier interview, Yurchuk shared, "It's happening through word of mouth and modeling of well-being. Moreover, these managers are now much quicker to recognize signs when team members are experiencing burnout and they're now more proactive in addressing these issues from a place of understanding and compassion." 

While the stealth strategy served as a useful starting point, Yurchuk points out that now Schindler has "transitioned into more of an 'opportunity' approach as leaders have become more comfortable discussing these ideas of well-being." He explains, "The key is to not go overboard with promoting new ideas, but to understand the organization's ability to absorb next steps.  It takes patience and discipline, but the journey is half the fun." 

Inspired by the story of Schindler? Here are three steps you can take to introduce a stealth movement of well-being in your organization: 

1.      Identify your organization's top priorities. 

First, your task will be to identify what is deemed important within your organization. In the case of Schindler, top objectives include building winning teams, promoting safety and ensuring zero accidents. To support these goals, the company heavily prioritizes both learning and development, along with safety. As discussed above, both of these areas have served as portals for delivering well-being into the organization.

2.      "Go stealth," and find ways to sneak wellness into these prioritized initiatives. 

After identifying the portal for entry, your next step is to build wellness into key initiatives. These initiatives might be management training, leadership development, safety, innovation, community outreach, onboarding or even the everyday staff meeting. At Virgin America, wellness is embedded in every onboarding workshop. New hires are given pedometers, are educated on wellness offerings at Virgin America, and are invited to take part in the company's quarterly walking challenges. 

3.      Speak the language that resonates. 

Finally, you need to choose language that will resonate within your organization. The idea is to recast worn-out wellness language with language that is more likely to inspire both top-down and bottom-up engagement. At Schindler, words like "health" and "wellness" are traded in for terms like "energy" and "sustainability." Goldman Sachs markets its quarterly mindfulness program as an opportunity to "sharpen one's competitive edge" (as opposed to "reduce one's stress"). 

Ultimately, your challenge will be to find the strategy that works best within your organization to foster your own movement of well-being. As evidenced by Schindler, starting out with a series of dispersed stealth initiatives just might be the key to achieving this worthy objective. You, too, can boost well-being at your workplace by sneaking wellness into non-wellness programming.