The Blue Zones of Happiness by Dan Buettner

Author:Dan Buettner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

CREATING A BLUE ZONES WORKPLACE

That’s one reason why Salo LLC, a Minneapolis-based staffing and consulting firm, began introducing its employees to one another a few years ago. Because so many of the company’s far-flung staff were located at client worksites, rather than at Salo’s headquarters, the firm had been looking for ways to strengthen connections among workers. With help from our Blue Zones Project team, Salo agreed to try a six-month experiment in 2012. They created 21 moais and assigned six to eight workers to each one based on shared interests rather than on titles or departments. The idea was for members to get to know one another through biweekly conference calls, potlucks, and other off-site activities.

“I was skeptical at first,” said Angie Complin, who worked in business development at Salo at the time. “My moai had single people, married people, younger people, middle-aged people, even a few retired people in it. But everyone was really engaged. We learned a ton about one another, including some pretty personal things, and now I feel really close with them, even with the ones I don’t see on a daily basis, almost like long-lost friends.”

As an effort to boost well-being, the experiment was a big success, said Gwen Martin, a co-founder of Salo. “People were happier, more engaged and more collaborative,” she said. The moais were only one part of a larger Blue Zones initiative at Salo aimed at creating a healthier and happier workplace. The approach employed several dozen evidence-based nudges and defaults designed to silently get employees to eat better, burn more calories throughout the day, and, to the point of Gallup’s finding, socialize more with co-workers. The company also offered free purpose workshops, life coaching, happy hours, volunteering events, and nine-minute meditation sessions, which turned out to be surprisingly popular. “When we started, people snickered at the idea of meditating,” Martin said. “But by the end, many of them were doing just that.”

In fact, the range of things that Salo employees were willing to try had really evolved, she said. After the first six months of the campaign, the number of workers who were volunteering for community causes had increased by 14 percent, turnover had dropped by 9 percent, life expectancy had risen by an average of 2.6 years, and happiness levels had jumped by 47 percent! “We were really fortunate to have taken part in the Blue Zones initiative,” said Martin (who later joined the Blue Zones team as our managing director).

Even before taking part in the Blue Zones initiative, Salo had adopted a number of worksite innovations, especially those designed to encourage more activity. At its main offices in downtown Minneapolis, table-desks occupied one end of the open loft–style space and a games area the other end, with table tennis and a foosball station. One whole section of the office was outfitted with standing desks, several of which even had treadmills installed. They were part of a 2007 Mayo Clinic study of active workplaces, for which 18 Salo

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