Workwell Labs: The New Brand For People Leaders With Adam Markel

Life happens, and not always the way we expect it to. Every single day we face change, stress, and uncertainty. What if you could learn to thrive no matter what life throws your way? Resilience expert Adam Markell and his inspiring guests explore breakthrough strategies to fully embrace change and build the resilience required to become change. Proof.

Hey everyone, it's Adam Markell. And today's podcast will be just a little bit different in that I'm not going to be interviewing anybody. I'm sort of going to be sharing a bit of good news, amazing news, actually, something we've been working on for a very long time is coming to fruition, and that is that we are in the process of introducing our new brand to the world. And it's an interesting thing because our work is not new. In fact, we've been engaged in the work that I'm going to share a little bit more about in a moment for more than eight years. But the brand itself is something that is brand new, which is really exciting, actually. So without further ado, let me, let me just kind of set a little context and then share some information about this. And hopefully this will be something that is interesting and informative and a resource to all of you that are listening or many of you that are listening. So who is this intended for? This is intended for people that are people, leaders, people that are in leadership roles or are aspiring to be in those leadership roles, people that are running organizations, whether that's an organization that you have founded or co founded, one where you are involved, operationally speaking, or where you are working in another organization that was created perhaps long ago by, by others. And you know, all these things have the same origin points. You know, whether, whether it's the biggest company you can think of, whether it's Apple, for example, we know the stories of companies like that, or Microsoft or Hewlett Packard or, you know, any, any of these companies, they all kind of start in the same way. They start with an idea. They start with a person or more than one person that collaborate on that idea. Sometimes that collaboration occurs in, in, in a garage someplace. I mean, it's just the, one of the most exciting things about business. And I'm a lover of business. I've been a serial entrepreneur since I'm probably 14 or 15 years old when I began collecting baseball cards and, and then selling them and reselling them and all kinds of things back in, in, you know, as early as I can think about it. I just am in love with business. And why I love business is that there's no, there's nothing, there's nothing about it that is out of reach for anyone, meaning anybody can start a business. I, I like to think that, that there are places in the world where that is eat more easily done. Warren Buffett speaks about winning the ovarian lottery. Those are his words, which he's, he's shared with with audiences of people for, for years and years. And what he means by that is that having been born in the United States, he was given this privilege of, of being able to start a business or start several businesses, many businesses actually. And that if he had been born somewhere else in the world, that would have been much more difficult if, if not nearly impossible. And, and that's coming from a guy who's know, born in the 1930s. And so he was literally born at the, during the Great Depression, as it was called in the United States and a period in between the World War I and World War II. So you know, to, to. To say he started with nothing and to say he started with. With certain strikes against him, you know, is, is true. And yet he, he recognizes the privilege that he had in being born in the US and being able to therefore begin in an environment that, that was friendly to the, the person, the self starter and the person that wanted to create a business or create a path to wealth. And so that's, that's what I love about business. Every, every one of them starts in the same way. It starts with this idea, it starts with collaboration, it starts sometimes in the most just common of environments and, and then those ideas can blossom into something that changes the lives of so many, many people. We work in the space of assisting organizations to become more than what they are presently. Meaning that in the area of helping those organizations to reach those greater aspirations for themselves is, is the area that we love to work in. And we have a specific niche in that. And by my saying we, what I mean is our team of people that are expert, truly expert facilitators, trainers, speakers and the like, people that love to work with, with others, whether it's through process and exercise, through coaching, through experiential trainings, through keynote speaking to audiences of folks virtually or in person. These are the people committed to those to masterful facilitation to that craft that are a part of our team. So our is now a new brand and the hour is called Workwell, meaning who we are is as a brand is called Workwell. Our our unique orientation on business and on the world of business is, is derived from hundreds of years of Collective experience. I know. As I said, I've been in business myself for three decades, both as a business owner, as a CEO, as a co founder, as an attorney, having been in that space for a couple of dozen years as well. And, and our collective expertise has to, has one particular through line and that is that in every instance where, where myself and others on our team have been involved in business, ourselves or supporting others in their businesses, we have found that there is a common thread to success. And that common thread to success is something that I've spoken about on this podcast for four years now through more than 300 episodes. And that is resiliency. That in every success story, resilience is the unsung hero. I've yet to find any business, whether it's large or small, public or private, whether it's a multi billion dollar enterprise or it's a startup where resilience isn't one of, if not the most important ingredient in why that business is still around and still serving others and adding value in the marketplace after, after the market has, you know, proven itself to be so disruptive to, to other models and where so many businesses have failed, the ones that are still here and will, will continue to be here and continue to thrive in the years to come are those organizations that are the most resilient. And by that I mean not only organizationally speaking, but all of its component parts and most importantly, its people. And so the through line for my work and the work of all the other members of our facilitation team is really focused on what it takes to be at your best, even in the most challenging and uncertain times like the ones that we're living in right now. And by that we mean providing tools and skills, tangible things that, that add to the resiliency of the individuals that are working and the organization as a whole. So whether that's talking about psychological safety or emotional intelligence or change management or well being in the workplace, behavioral health, whether it's, whether we're talking about AI, AI adoption and how it is that AI in many ways is one of the greatest tools that we will ever receive and experience and be able to utilize. And yet it is also causing tremendous anxiety and stress. So when it comes to stress management, when it comes to how it is that we are able to perform at higher and higher levels over longer periods of time, what it actually means, a brain health standpoint or a neurological standpoint, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually speaking, to be more resilient in the face of change, to be able to perform at Higher and higher levels in the face of constant, never ending change. This is the arena that our team works in and the organization, the brand name of, of this collaboration, this collection of talent is called Workwell. And so for those of you that would like to check out who we are and what we're doing and how our talents have collaborated and what it looks like in terms of case studies and the many, many people and organizations that we have already served for, as I say collectively a long, long period of time. All you need to do is go to workwelllabs.com workwelllabs.com and you to see more of that, more of who we are and what we do in the world and how we've added value already. One of the things I'll just quickly mention is our resilient leader assessment. This assessment has actually been utilized by more than 7,000 leaders. As of the date of the airing of this podcast, more than 7,000 leaders globally have taken our resilient leader assessment. Everything from Fortune 50 companies to startups. And what we've, what we've been able to determine through all of that research and data is really profound. We've, we've got white papers and research studies that, that share the fundamentals of how you create a resilient organization. But one thing that I will tell you is clear is that we've got two choices. Organizations either lean into a watch your back or a got your back culture. It's that simple. So creating that got your back culture is really important. It's valuable. It's, it's what we are so committed to at Workwell. It's so, it's what drives me. So not so long ago, I should say I was engaged in work that, that just didn't, didn't have a deep purpose for me, that just felt more about chasing money or chasing power than it did chasing impact. The work that I've been doing for more than a dozen years now has been the opposite of that. And the collection of amazing people that we have as part of our team, and it's an expanding team of people that have that same craving, that yearning to have greater purpose in their lives in what they do, that, that is so in alignment with our company's mission and with my own personal direction in life to help other people to find that as well. And that is our commitment that when we go into an organization, we want to meet them where they are. And often we see low engagement stores, high absenteeism, people that, that sick days that we know is really related more distress than it is to anything structural that's wrong in their lives. We see attrition, of course, and performance standards that are just not exemplary. And what that tells us in total is that people are not actually meeting their true potential and that organization therefore isn't meeting its true potential. And you can have both. I mean, the fact of the matter is that, that companies are formed to produce profit, they're formed to produce a result for stakeholders. And it is not mutually exclusive that you can have performance and have the highest performance even and also create longevity and an environment where there's loyalty, where people are getting their needs met and feel empowered and seen and heard and are able to truly live into their own personal highest potential. Those things are not mutually exclusive. So to create work cultures of well being is what workwell is committed to. And I thought I'd just take a little bit of time here today to share what is really exciting news for us. I am an entrepreneur and our organization is, is not any different than any of the organizations that we study. Again, having done so much research, spent so many time with, so much time with leaders, what we know for sure is that we're all just baked the same way. Just people. And in our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being is vitally important. And so what I love is that we have, we have solutions for those things. Everything from curated monthly content and videos, virtual trainings, workshops in person events that, that really lift people up and give people resources to think differently and behave differently. And of course longer term opportunities for train the trainer and certifications and team norms and just a host of things that we have found over time truly moves the needle help helps people to make the kind of changes in their lives that create this greater well being personally and then ultimately contributes to their, to their, the quality of their work and their experience at work. And so again, what we see is that all those metrics that we measure at the start of an engagement begin to improve engagement. Nutrition and how people feel about their work and how productive they are, how they perform, how they are able to innovate and work together, collaboratively speaking, all of those things begin to improve when that culture begins to shift from that watch your back environment to a got your back environment that the context is. It's everything. It's not just important, it truly is everything. So I want to thank you as always for being a listener to this podcast. Much of what I aspire to do with the podcast in terms of bringing on leaders to talk about change, to talk about becoming change, proof Just like the title of my most recent book. And earlier on, to talk to people about their pivots, professional pivots and personal pivots is to create this kind of content that is ongoingly meeting the moment, that is relevant in the moment, because the moment is, is constantly changing. Talk about the future of work. The future of work is, is now. And it is in anticipation of change, further change and disruption and opportunity with a big capital O in the, in that space of the unknown. And so many people have trouble, of course, living in that space of the unknown and of uncertainty. And yet we all, in looking back, that the future is always net positive. No matter, no matter how murky it looks and how shaky it may seem, whether it's market conditions or it's geopolitical or it's any, anything that might be causing fear in the moment, the future is always net positive. So I thank you so much for being a part of our community, a part of this, this show. If you know someone that, that is in a position where they're leading teams, whether in the HR function or in the training and development or talent functions at an organization that you may want to improve in some way, which is pretty much every, I would think every organization, but not every organization is ready to put their money where their mouth is. Somebody said to me once that your budget is a reflection of your values. So if you have a budget for, for, for learning and development, if you have a budget to really develop talent, if you have a budget for, for wellness programs to meet people where they are and to recognize that they're, they're probably taking themselves for granted in some respect and, and whether that's their physical health or their mental health or their emotional well being, you know, to actually help and not just in words and not just during, you know, the month that these things are addressed or on the day when it's mental health awareness day, but rather there's a longer term commitment to resiliency and meeting people where they truly are, which is that they're in need of advocacy and support, that when that is the commitment, then so many things shift and so many things change. And if you know somebody that is currently working in an organization that may, may, may have that level of commitment and they'd be a perfect person to have listened to this, this show and hopefully work well will be, will be something they would consider as well as something you'd consider. So again, check out workwelllabs.com and, and lastly, I'll say if you want to check your own level of resilience right here, right now, in the moment, a snapshot, it changes. So it's not something that's going to, you know, it's the same, you know, one day as the next. Often you can see some changes even day to day, but, but often over. Over periods of months. Just taking into account some of the small changes that we advocate, some of the small changes that we talk about in prior episodes of this podcast, even what you can see are pretty profound changes. And if you'd like to check your own resilience level, go to rankmyresilience.com rankmyresilience.com and in three minutes, and I truly mean three minutes or less, you, you will get that assessment, your own score in those four key zones of resilience for the moment, as well as free resources that are ours to share and provide at no, at no cost at all. So it's our, it's our honor and our privilege to do that with that. Once again, thank you so much for being a part of our community. Thank you for sharing this. Thank you for being so kind in your feedback as well. And, and whatever feedback, you know, kind or otherwise, we are always open to that. Feedback is like oxygen, so we all need it in order to thrive, not just to survive. All right, well, I'll just say thank you again and ciao for now.

Thanks for listening. We hope you now have even more tools and greater insights to build resilience and become change proof. Remember to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and you may be featured in an upcoming episode. For more resilience tips and strategies, including support for building change proof teams, visit AdamMarkel.com to get your own free resilience assessment, go to rankmyresilience.com.