A Cure for the Common Company

Make your workforce happier, healthier—and more productive—with strategies from a world-leader in company culture and health

In A Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient Organization, health and well-being expert, Richard Safeer, M.D. delivers a step-by-step roadmap to creating a culture of health on your team and in your company that keeps your people happier and more engaged. In the book, you’ll discover the importance of shaping your well-being culture, challenging yourself, your team, and your workforce to live better lives by offering them new tools and methods to do just that. This book discusses:

• Bulletproof strategies to help leaders build a sound cultural foundation that supports their efforts at change
• A path forward that allows organizational leaders to step up and help their employees be the best versions of themselves
• Techniques to build a supportive culture that overcomes common obstacles to change, including positive social climates, norms, and peer supports

A can't-miss resource for business and human resource leaders at medium- to large-sized organizations, A Cure for the Common Company also belongs on the bookshelves of every professional interested in supporting employee health and well-being.

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Inspiration from a Fire Truck: The Case for Building a Well-Being Workplace Culture

Chapter 2: Getting Personal: How Our Subcultures Influence Our Well-Being

Chapter 3: Best Companies Value Well-Being: Shared Values

Chapter 4: Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful: Social Climate

Chapter 5: Norms: All the Cool Kids Are Doing It (or Thinking It)

Chapter 6: More than My Love Handles: Culture Connection Points

Chapter 7: The Friends and Family Plan: Peer Support

Chapter 8: How to Be the Best Boss: Lead with Well-Being

Chapter 9: Culture Killers: Watch Out for the Speed Bumps

Chapter 10: Counting Culture: Assessing Your Progress

Chapter 11: Dinner is Served

About the Author(s)

Index

RICHARD SAFEER, MD, is Chief Medical Director of Employee Health and Well-Being at Johns Hopkins Medicine. He works to help leaders understand how to build cultures of health in their own organization. He holds faculty appointments in both the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Less than 5% of Americans are sufficiently active, eat a healthy diet, maintain a healthy weight, and abstain from smoking. Most Americans are stressed out and work is a major contributor. Chronic health conditions are on the rise, and employee illness and injury costs companies billions every year.

Employee health is an increasingly important priority for many business leaders. But today’s organizational well-being programs are only partially successful because they expect the individual to bear the responsibility of changing their behavior despite the likelihood of unhealthy influences in the workplace.

In A Cure for the Common Company: A Well-Being Prescription for a Happier, Healthier, and More Resilient Workforce, Dr. Richard Safeer delivers a point-by-point blueprint to creating a robust culture of health at your company. You’ll explore the importance of shaping your own organization’s culture, so that it is easier for you, your team, and your entire organization to live happier and healthier lives. Dr. Safeer provides the six building blocks needed to create a well-being culture. He also offers practical strategies you can apply immediately that supports the transformation you’re trying to achieve.

Finally, this book offers a path forward that allows organizational leaders to step up and help their employees be the best versions of themselves.

An indispensable roadmap to navigating the path toward a culture of health that prioritizes holistic employee wellness, A Cure for the Common Company will earn a place in the libraries of managers, executives, human resource personnel, other business leaders and those in healthcare, who understand that the well-being of their organization and the well-being of the people who run it are inextricably linked.

Praise for A Cure for the Common Company

“Dr. Safeer provides a thoughtful blueprint for fostering a workplace well-being culture. A timely and critical priority for all leaders.”

—JANET FOUTTY, Executive Chair of the Board, Deloitte US

“Every leader that wants to take their team to the next level must pay attention to their well-being. Dr. Richard Safeer provides a roadmap to create a well-being culture that will lift the team to new success.”

— DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH, #1 Executive Coach, Thinkers50 and New York Times bestselling author of The Earned Life, Triggers, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Great Place to Work has measured trust by surveying over 100 million working people over the last 30 years. Without trust there is no engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, or happiness. In this book, Richard Safeer has made the case for well-being in the workplace that’s built on a foundation of trust. It’s packed with great examples and suggestions that will create not only a thriving workplace full of happy and healthy employees, but one that boasts higher retention and financial success.”

—MICHAEL C. BUSH, CEO, Great Place to Work

“Dr. Safeer offers a compelling and science-based prescription for enriching organizational culture and boosting individual flourishing.”

— DANIEL H. PINK, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret, Drive, and When

“This book is one of the best business blueprints that wellness practitioners and champions can use to drive a culture of well-being and health at work. Leadership throughout the organization, from the CEO to the front line supervisors, should be required to read the book and be properly trained to deliver on the blueprint.”

—CHUCK GILLESPIE, CEO, National Wellness Institute

“A Cure for the Common Company is nothing short of an organizational change recipe to create a well-being culture. Dr. Richard Safeer creatively applies Dr. John Kotter’s change steps into a formula that is sure to improve employee health and well-being.”

—RICK WESTERN, Chief Executive Officer, Kotter, Inc.