Connecting with Nature to Improve Mental Health and Resilience
Can connecting to nature help improve our mental health and personal resilience in the age of COVID-19? Melanie Choukas-Bradley believes it can.
Blog Posts
Healthy work from home habits in the age of COVID-19
How can you stay healthy, productive (and sane) in the age of coronavirus? Here are…
Design Well Conference Summary
In case you missed the first annual Design Well Conference in San Diego, California…
Forest Bathing 101: An Interview with Melanie Choukas-Bradley
Have you heard of the term forest bathing? If you're like me, you may have heard …
How Design Can Positively Impact Civic Engagement
In Washington DC where I live, civic engagement is part of the DNA of the city. My …
Being an Outsider at Work
Being an Outsider at Work If you’ve bought anything from LL Bean recently you might…
Co-Working Is Not What You Think
Several weeks ago a women-only co-working / social club space opened up in Georgetow…
The Breakers: Making the Case for Work-Life Balance
I get asked all the time to share examples of companies that really showcase what a …
The Intersection between Caregiving, Leadership, and Financial Wellbeing
GW4W launches first white paper! As some of you may know, I’m heavily involved wi…
The Nesting Instinct: Why we “need” our own stuff and our own space at work
If you have ever been pregnant or known someone who is pregnant, you are aware of th…
Lose Some Efficiency to Build Reserve Capacity
Ever feel like you've got everything under control, then something unplanned happens…
How to Design an Emotionally Safe Workplace
How can we design an emotionally safe workplace in this era of exposed sexual harass…
Why Work Isn’t Working
For a long time, I’ve been helping clients redesign their workplaces and improve the…
Measuring Health and Human Performance
How do we measure human performance? It's fair to say that measuring human performa…
Aetna’s Chief Mindfulness Officer: An Interview with Andy Lee
There are a number of stories out there of individuals who have benefitted from the …
Stress Management in the Workplace
When it comes to work and workplace health, one of the biggest challenges is stress …
Nature Fixes Everything: An Interview with Florence Williams
What does being in nature have to do with our happiness, health or productivity? Ap…
Is the Office Obsolete?
I was recently asked, "Why do people need to go into the office?" It wasn't a naïve…
A Healthy Environment Can Nudge Behavior
Consider the many ways a healthy environment impacts our decision-making. What we s…
Best Health Apps to Motivate You
Are you the kind of person that "has an app" for everything? Then you need to check…
Find an Accountability Partner to Stay Healthy
Are you the kind of person who lets yourself “off the hook” too easily when it comes…
Use Peer Pressure to Stay Healthy
You can influence your behavior by hanging out with healthy people. Use peer pressu…
How to Motivate Yourself to Stay Healthy
Did you make a resolution to take on more healthy habits this year and you're alread…
Healthy Workplace Book Recommendations for 2017
Here are my top 8 "healthy workplace" book recommendations and why you will benefit from reading them. Some might surprise you!
The Benefits of a 30 Hour Work Week
A few years ago I hit a wall. I was working 60-80 hours a week for months and months…
10 Easy Ways to Create a Healthy Workplace
Studies show that people who feel more “in control” of their work and work environment are less likely to suffer from stress and illness and see increases in productivity.
Global Women for Wellbeing: An Interview with Mim Senft
The first time I learned about Mim Senft was listening to her on a podcast. She was …
A Good Walk Spoiled: Playing Pokemon GO
Mark Twain (probably falsely) is attributed as saying, “The game of golf is a good w…
A Peek into the World of Publishing, Interview with Stephen S. Power, Senior Editor for AMACOM
Stephen Power has been a book editor for more than twenty years. He is currently a s…
Bring Pets to Work… for Your Health!
One of the recommendations in The Healthy Workplace is to consider allowing employee…
FITWEL and the Center for Active Design, an Interview with Joanna Frank
Joanna Frank is the Executive Director of the Center for Active Design (CfAD) in New…
Brave Endurance Podcast #63 – “We All Like a Little Cheetah” Episode
I recently got the chance to speak with Dr. James Kelley from the Brave Endurance Po…
Stop Obsessing Over “Outputs” and Pay Attention to “Inputs”
My single best tip of advice? It's so easy to measure the success of your busines…
The *Real* Reason Open Offices Bother Us So Much: An Interview with Ethan Bernstein, Professor at Harvard Business School
You might have read a recent article in the Harvard Business Review called The Trans…
On the Importance of Boredom
I was meeting with a client recently who is an academic researcher. I’m helping him …
The Medicines For The Treatment of Impotence
Where to find generic Viagra at a low price – this question is important for almos…
Creating a Wellness Movement: Interview with Laura Putnam, Author of Workplace Wellness that Works
Laura Putnam, author of Workplace Wellness that Works: 10 Steps to Infuse Well-Bei…
The Science Behind Happiness at Work and Other Take-aways from GMU’s Leading to Well-being Conference
I just got back from George Mason University’s Leading to Well-Being: Cultivating Re…
What Can Casinos Teach Us about Designing Healthy Workplaces?
I’m reading the book Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha D…
Unlocking Creativity at Work: An Interview with Teresa Amabile, Professor and Director of Research at Harvard Business School
Last year I got the chance to see and meet Teresa Amabile at a conference in Boston …
Making Space for Tranquility at Work, Advice from Sharon Salzberg
If you live in the Western Hemisphere and study mindfulness, meditation and its conn…
Healthy Buildings and Beyond: An Interview with Paul Scialla, Founder of Delos and the International WELL Building Institute
In case you haven’t heard it yet, there is a new well-being standard in town. It’s t…
Play More Offense
I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to them when I walk to work, when I’m going …
How Space Influences Your Attitudes, Behaviors and Biases: An Interview with Sally Augustin, PhD
The “most worn” book by my desk is a book called Place Advantage: Applied Psychology…
Why I Don’t Like Being “Busy”
During research for The Healthy Workplace, I visited an office that was experimentin…
A Vegan Workplace, and Other Needs
Recently I had dinner with a two friends who are both workplace strategy directors f…
So You Want to Write a Book?
I was trained as an architect and have always worked for architectural design firms.…
Tapping into the Human Machine
Several years ago, one of my mentors sat me down and set me straight. “Business isn…
The Benefits of Circadian Lighting
If your workplace does not have windows, or even if it does, consider installing circadian lighting that provides light waves to trigger wakefulness.
The Power of “Choice Architecture” at Work
You know how you walk into a grocery store and find yourself buying food at the end …
GMU’s Center for the Advancement of Well-being: Interview with Nance Lucas, Executive Director
A few months ago I was listening to National Public Radio and heard a story that men…
The Importance of Choice on Worker Health
Robert Karasek, an industrial engineer and sociologist, and Tores Theorell, a specia…
Roses, Buds and Thorns
Every night my husband, girls and I sit around the dinner table and share our "roses…
How “Gamification” Can Improve Your Health
I'm always looking for "nudges" or ways to encourage more healthy behavior. Sometim…
The Conflict between Work and the Workforce
This disconcerting image (above) is a drawing from Lennart Levi, who has given 4,000…
The Business Case for Health: Interview with Ron Goetzel, Johns Hopkins University
I first met with Ron Goetzel doing research for my book The Healthy Workplace, and s…
Work, Love and Play: An Interview with Brigid Schulte
Brigid Schulte is the author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure…
Designing a “Free-Range” Workplace
I can't stop talking about the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval N…
Interview with Jennifer Stevens, PhD: Neuroscience and Space
When I first met Jennifer Stevens, PhD, about a year ago, she was giving a presentat…
Interview with Timothy McGee, Entrepreneur, Biologist and Designer at LikoLab
I first met Tim when he was working at Biomimicry 3.8 with Janine Benyus. He then w…
Interview with Executive Medical Director of Mercy Virtual, Dr. Thomas Hale
I recently got the opportunity to meet Tom Hale, MD, PhD, the Executive Medical Dire…
Interview with Sam Whiteside, Chief Wellness Officer at The Motley Fool
During my research writing The Healthy Workplace, I got the opportunity to meet Sam …
Measuring the Health and Well-being of your Organization (Metrics, Scorecards, Awards and More)
If you want to understand the current state of health in your organization, it takes…
Individual and Group “Flow” in the Workplace
I've been obsessing lately on human performance, specifically, what makes us produc…
The Value of Urban Friction
I recently read Jonah Lehrer's book Imagine: How Creativity Works. There are severa…
Fuji Kindergarten: Lessons in Movement by Design
I recently saw a great TED talk by Takaharu Tezuka, describing his design of a kinde…
Is Coffee the New Gin?
I recently heard Seth Godin, one of my favorite "thought leaders," discuss a major s…
How Can Space Promote Creativity?
There have been dramatic shifts over the last several hundred years that have profou…
We Shape Our Buildings
I have often borrowed Winston Churchill's quote, "We shape our buildings; thereafter…
How do you make room for “mindfulness” in the workplace?
Check out the latest Work Design Magazine article for how! http://workdesign.com/…
Love It or Hate It: Why the “Open Office” is Under Fire
Over the years, environmental psychologists have interviewed people of all ages and …