I am not sure how this one will go down in the record books, but in my mind right now I cannot remember anything like it. The temperatures in Barcelona the past few weeks have been suffocating! Setting records for both highs and lows – as in the low temperature for the day was still in the 30s! This is craziness. And I was complaining about the heat before the heatwave even hit, so you can only imagine my feelings while we were under siege…
These behaviour change 'hacks' have evolved over the years, first appearing in LAB programs around 2011 as '4S' (small, specific, supported, shared) and detailed in Sustaining Executive Performance. Looking further into the importance of the environment added 'surroundings' and 'social' with 'streak' rounding off the 7. Chapter 10 in Chief Wellbeing Officer discusses each of the hacks in detail and is based on this European Business Review article from 2017. Many thanks to the EBR team for this animation, especially for the appearance of Harry the Sheepdog!
Originally published as the July edition of Executive Health with The European Business Review and re-posted on Thrive Global.
Here Steven talks to Kenneth Mikkelsen, author of The Neo-Generalist with Richard Martin, a 2016 book that challenges head-on society's fascination with hyper-specialism and labelling. Neo-Generalists, according to Kenneth "live in more than one world" with the conversation covering mental agility, life-wide learning, the education system, the discomfort of being a Neo-Generalist, and how they may play an ever more important role in the future of work.
Originally published as the June edition of MacGregor on Executive Health with The European Business Review.
In episode 9 of the Chief Wellbeing Officer podcast we talk to Neil McIntosh, a pioneering journalist and the managing editor of BBC online. Responsible for the BBC homepage which has 8 million visitors per week and 1 billion clicks per year we talk to Neil about news and journalism today including the dangers of fake news, our online habits, and where health and wellbeing fits in a 24-hour a day industry.
Episode 8 of the Chief Wellbeing Officer podcast is the Executive Education special.
In the introduction Rory and Steven reflect on how IESE Business School got to number 1 in the world, according to the Financial Times rankings. Rory helped set up the international executive education division 20 years ago as its first director and Steven has taught on 106 executive education programs since 2009.
We then talk to Nathalie Labourdette and Frederic Frantz of the Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU) Academy during their recent executive program at IESE. We discuss public service broadcasting in Europe, the need to equip journalists with a new set of tools to deal with disruption, and some of the results of the Sustaining Executive Performance element of the program.
Originally published as the May edition of ‘MacGregor on Executive Health’ with The European Business Review, here. An excerpt from Chapter 7 (Learning to Live) in the new Chief Wellbeing Officer book.
The 20th straight month of MacGregor on Executive Health with The European Business Review, originally published here.
Reflecting on the pilot of a new Agile Ways of Working program for Telefónica we speak to Jeff Gothelf, a global expert in the areas of lean and agile, about why agile is so important for the world of work today, covering benefits for health and wellbeing as well as his own de-risking strategy in moving his family from New Jersey to Barcelona.
Barcelona, Monday, April 16, 2018. Santander Bank has chosen The Leadership Academy of Barcelona [LAB], to support “BeHealthy”, an employee health and well-being initiative which will be accessible to Santander’s entire workforce of more than 200,000 employees based in Europe, North and South America, and Asia.
Targeting employees in offices in major cities in Brazil, Poland, the U.S., the U.K, Spain and elsewhere, Santander’s “BeHealthy” will make use of all the resources included in the LAB’s Sustaining Executive Performance (SEP) programme. Santander’s “BeHealthy” initiative was presented with the LAB’s new materials last week during the bank’s annual “BeHealthy Week”, which raises awareness of the importance of health and wellbeing among its employees.
SEP will help form the basis of Santander’s bid to become one of the world’s healthiest companies.
Developed by the LAB in 2010, SEP is a comprehensive programme geared to promoting healthier habits in the workplace and beyond, which in turn drives sustainable performance and value, both professionally and personally. Drawing on a confluence of ancient wisdom, including Greek and Chinese philosophy, innovative business cases and emerging research, SEP demonstrates how the often forgotten premise of mens sana in corpore sano (a sound mind in a sound body) can be an actionable business strategy for the 21st century professional. Originally conceived for executives, it has since been applied to everyone in the workplace, irrespective of job title, and recognising the great pressures we all have these todays to manage work and life.
The deal will see Santander deploy and customize all of the SEP content across its offices. This content includes an online course of more than 30 videos, practical exercises for employees and readings. In addition, there is a customised eBook published by Pearson and nudge posters will be deployed around offices to help sustain behavioural change in the workplace.
Santander committed to becoming the healthiest company in the world
The bank’s “BeHealthy” programme to drive a healthy, balanced and structured approach in the workplace is backed by Global HR Director, Roberto di Bernardini. This month sees the Santander annual “BeHealthy Week” aimed at raising awareness among employees. The Sustainable Executive Performance Programme will, he says, have a key role to play in igniting this initiative and bringing it to life across the bank’s workforce in all of its geographies.
"We're passionate about making Santander one of the healthiest companies in the world, with BeHealthy a key part of our company mission to help people and business prosper. We needed high quality material that had a track record of impact and we are delighted to work with the Leadership Academy of Barcelona on customising their transformative Sustaining Executive Performance program, which all 202,000 employees will have access to off and online."
Dr. Steven MacGregor, CEO of the Leadership Academy Barcelona said: “This agreement marks a highly significant commitment from Santander to driving the well-being of its workforce. The scale of the initiative is a first for us also. The online nature of the programme delivery means that we are able to extend reach and impact exponentially.”
"We've been lucky enough to deliver Sustaining Executive Performance to over 20,000 people face-to-face the past seven years, which has allowed us to develop a rich material base and understand what works in changing peoples’ behaviour and improving their health and happiness at work. Customising the existing material with a client who are committed to health at work has been a true privilege, and the exposure to such a very large number of people is very exciting," he adds.
About The LAB
The Leadership Academy of Barcelona [LAB] was founded in 2007 with the mission of Designing Sustainable Leadership. We help to bring a more human approach to work that improves health, happiness and lifelong learning to create positive cultures and drive business success. Recent clients include McKinsey, Salesforce and Uber. Sustaining Executive Performance was published as a book by Financial Times Press in 2015 and Dr. MacGregor’s follow-up, Chief Wellbeing Officer, is out this month with LID publishing, and is endorsed by Arianna Huffington and other leading figures from business and academia.
![Santander Partners with The Leadership Academy of Barcelona [LAB] to Promote Health and Wellbeing to More Than 200,000 employees](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/52b03d07e4b0f29916f9bb9d/1524470586635-YLMMBKSBWK78ZK2BG8OA/be-healthy.jpg)