In America, we’ve been conditioned to believe that health and happiness is something we get for ourselves, by ourselves. “Better health is easy!”, we’ve been told, and is attainable to any of us through a positive mindset, better habits, and heightened awareness. But what if that’s not true? With a goal to help people get real about why we’re so unwell and what we should be doing instead, Laura offers a disruptive - but important - rethink on wellness. This begins with the question: What if it’s the water, not the fish?  Read More >

Laura shows how our modern way of life, not personal choices, is what’s driving us to our chairs, overfeeding us with ultra-processed foods, hijacking our attention, and isolating us from others. In other words, it is the cultural shifts, the everyday pressures - the water itself - that is fueling the epidemics of loneliness, burnout, anxiety, and overall poor health we face today. The good news is we can change that - by focusing more on the water, and less on the fish.

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

• Be curious, rethinking the prevailing narrative on health and wellness that focuses so much on the individual.  
• Study the currents, to assess the “water” we each are swimming in.
• Engage the right people, in the right way to optimize the water, creating a culture and environment that naturally supports wellbeing.

From classrooms where our kids sit for hours at a time to workplaces that keep us in front of computers to groceries that are delivered to our homes, our society is built around us sitting – a lot. And, while catchy slogans like “sitting is the new smoking” are commonplace and yoga pants are everywhere, the average American sits 10 hours a day. This session unpacks the “biological-cultural” conundrum we’re up against, and the devastation it has rendered. Through inspiring stories and doable strategies, the audience comes away with an actionable path forward. Read More >

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

• Explore the science on just how much we are “born to move,” and the many, unexpected benefits of movement.
• Critically assess how our culture “tells us to sit,” driving us to our chairs.
• Take action to fight back, working with others, to naturally infuse motion throughout the day.

Workplace wellness isn’t working—but, it can. Leveraging every workplace to promote better health and wellbeing is a really good idea. The evidence is clear: a healthier, happier workforce is good for people, good for the bottom line, and essential for building a high-performing organization. Today, nearly all employees have access to some type of wellness programming. But do these programs actually work? Most don’t. In a provocative and insightful talk, Laura Putnam, author of Workplace Wellness that Works shows you can resurrect your wellness efforts to create a lasting culture of wellbeing that works.  Read More >

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

1. Inspire people to imagine what’s possible, setting a foundation of hope.
2. Analyze how the culture is either supporting, or sabotaging, one’s efforts to build wellbeing.
3. Create the fabric for wellbeing to become a way of life, across the organization and within every team.

Are leaders, especially managers, our greatest hope in building workplace cultures where people want to be? Yes, they are! The research shows us that no matter what the job description might be, leaders are uniquely positioned to make, or break, the daily experience for their people. Senior leaders set the tone across the larger organization, creating a vision that elevates hope. Managers, on the other hand, are the ones who “give permission” to their team members to engage with both their work and their wellbeing. In a world turned upside down by polarization and instability, today’s modern workplace calls for a New Kind of Leader. This session will show leaders how they can become what it takes to best meet the moment. Read More >

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

• Sharpen their understanding of what people need most and why wellbeing is the crucial differentiator in today’s challenging environment.
• Clarify their role as a leader in elevating a culture of wellbeing across the organization and within the team.
• Come away with a roadmap to make a measurable difference for the people they lead.

What if we really could lead our best lives? What would it actually take? How can we each close the gap between where we are and where we’d like to be? Through a combination of stories and science, learn about the secrets to thriving, exploring multiple dimensions: physical, emotional, social, financial, career and community. Then, examine why knowing what it takes is not enough, and how each of us must study the cultural and environmental “currents” we “swim in,” identifying those that we can leverage and those that we need to navigate. Come away refreshed, restored, and armed with specific takeaways to catapult yourself into a revitalized way of living. Read More >

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

• Envision what’s possible.
• Know what it takes to thrive, exploring the six key dimensions.
• Navigate the “currents” of one’s environment to more effectively achieve true wellbeing.

In the world of workplace wellness, science reigns supreme. But in our efforts to seek rigor and evidence-based solutions, are we missing the mark? Arguably, yes. Yes, we need science to diagnose, to problem solve, and to inform – but we need art to move people. Science alone, with all its facts and figures, is not enough. Learn about how you can take your workplace wellbeing efforts to the next level through art, by mastering the art of storytelling, the art of teaching, and the art of creating unexpected joy.  Read More >

Audiences will learn how to: Read Less ^

• Confidently cite the evidence behind why facts and figures are not enough to persuade people, and how art can fill the gap.
• Provide real-world examples of how art has moved people, especially leaders, to embrace wellbeing and in doing so, build meaningful cultures of wellbeing.
• Apply an artist’s template for leading wellbeing, built around the art of storytelling, the art of teaching, and the art of creating unexpected joy.