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Post-Thrive Summit 2022 Power Up Event Recap

On Tuesday, May 17th, we held our first-ever post-Thrive Power Up event in partnership with disaster relief expert and keynote speaker, Dr. Dan Diamond and Jeremy Reisig, to help our attendees put all of the incredible things they learned at Thrive Summit 2022 into action.

Check out the recap below to relive the moments, music, sentiments and key takeaways from the workshop.

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We started with music and dancing

As Dr. Dan says, "it’s always best to start with music!" "Brotha James" led the group in a song he wrote called “Love” and within seconds, everyone was up on their feet dancing! It sure does feel good to be with people who understand and live wellbeing.

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Experiential learning - the most effective way to learn (and it's fun!)

According to David Kolb, the author of Experiential Learning, real learning doesn’t happen when you passively sit and experience a lecture (or Zoom meeting). It happens when you have the opportunity to reflect, ask what it's really all about (conceptualization), and then do something with it (active experimentation).

This is what Virgin Pulse Power Up is all about.

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Thrive Summit 2022 - highlight experiences

We did some journaling (reflecting) on two questions:

  1. What was your biggest takeaway from Thrive?
  2. Where in your personal and/or professional life will you apply this takeaway?

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Then we had the opportunity to “conceptualize” and “experiment” by breaking out into groups. By design, each person shared their answers and then received feedback from the rest of the group. It felt good to be seen and heard.

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Bekki Early: “So, my big takeaway — what was really profound and stayed with me — was how powerful that experience [of being on stage with Second City] was for creating safe spaces for us to fail with a really bad joke that nobody laughs at, and yet, you felt supported and held by the audience. How can we take that back to work, our professional and personal lives? It felt like such a warm blanket experience of you can say anything now and you're not going to be negatively judged and people are going to welcome your ideas.”

The Power of Questions

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Rather than a problem-focused, deficit-filling strategy, ask generative questions that rally people, foster enthusiasm, and ignite new ideas. For example, rather than asking, “How can we keep patients from falling out of bed? ask “How can we promote safe mobility?” The questions we ask determine the direction we go.

Some of the foundational principles of Appreciative Inquiry that we discussed include:

  • Constructionist Principle - We create our social reality through conversation. “Worlds create worlds!” Therefore:
    • Hold your beliefs lightly. Make room for new knowledge, new ways of seeing and understanding.
  • Simultaneity Principle - Change happens the moment we speak or ask a question. Therefore:
    • Talk in ways that are mutually respectful and affirming, ignite energy and reinforce positivity.
  • Anticipatory Principle - We move in the direction of our thoughts; we look and listen for what we expect. Therefore:
    • Stay open, anticipate the best from others, and expect to be pleasantly surprised!
  • Positive/Generative Principle -Questions stimulate thought and imagery. The more positive the question, the bolder the image, and the more positive the action. Therefore:
    • Ask the most positive and inspiring questions you can.

Dr. Dan summarized, “If I ask the question ‘How can we create a culture where people thrive, where they feel connected, where they feel like they belong, and where they take care of themselves and each other?’ it is a completely different question than ‘What are we going to do about burnout?’” The outcomes are radically different. Asking the right questions like knowing your destination when you’re reading a map.

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Strategic interviews

Jeremy asked us to get out our pens and paper to journal on the following questions:

Purpose: “What about the work that you’re doing is important

High point: “Think of a time when you’ve been at your best in taking care of your wellbeing.”

Future Vision: “When you look to the future, what do you want to be celebrating in the way that you’re taking care of your wellbeing and how your prioritizing wellbeing in the workplace.” “How do you see well being amplified?”

Action: “When you think back about the Summit, what is the most important strategy, tool, technique, ah-ha that you had that will impact your wellbeing personally or globally in your workplace?

We then experienced the magic of Transformational Interviews. Rather than conversations, we split into pairs and did focused interviews. One person could only ask questions for 7 minutes. Before swapping roles, the interviewer reflected back on what they most appreciated about the person they interviewed.

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And here's what happened...

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Erin Mulligan: “And I think that this is something that I will bring back to my workplace... pretend you're interviewing, put yourself second, create that psychological safety. It is an amazing way to just make sure that you're listening to the other person in a different way. It’s not trying to have a conversation. You're really just trying to get more information from them and I just found it so valuable and I am going to implement it in my workplace.”

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Lucie Newport: “The person I was talking to is in a similar place - from that top-level down, how do you bring those things together with inspiring the top-level leadership to really engage in it and be excited about this, but also, bringing the bottom level up so that they meet in the middle?”

Leadership 2.0

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Leading change in a world that is changing faster than any single leader can adapt to requires a new type of leadership. Rather than the “FEW” with the “ANSWERS”, we need to invite the voices of “MANY” and ask better “QUESTIONS”!

Time-travel exercise

Using the latest Zoom technology, we traveled into the future to take a look around. We imagined a world where WELLBEING had indeed been AMPLIFIED! As everyone looked around at the new world, we asked the following questions:

  • What does it look like?
  • What does it sound like?
  • What does it feel like?
  • What do you tell people about where you work?

We then journaled the 3 most important success factors that made the new world possible. We divided into groups where everyone shared their ideas on sticky notes in Mural. Ideas were moved around the board and themed. Each team shared the poster they created about the new future:

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A few closing thoughts

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Bekki Early: “I have all these beautiful wonderful notes and I haven't yet compiled them and shared them out and I’m like oh no like I can feel the ideas fading, and this was so perfectly timed. Because now I’ve got this reinvigorated energy. It's bringing it all back to me, so the next action I’m going to do today is I’m going to go through those notes. I’m going to use this experience to light that fire again and get this out to my team and larger, larger team. It was so right for the refresher and getting back to the basics of how can I take that great learning and then take the next step on it!

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Rose Williams: “I appreciate it, the intentional thought process and application — it was well-timed and having a chance to synthesize everything and share with the team. And really not lose the good nuggets to acquire and share out with my organization and just my sphere of influence, so thank you, Dr. Dan and thank you brother James - thank you!”

The wellbeing strike - closing with an impact

We ended with a Wellbeing Strike where everyone sent a text of encouragement to someone they met at Thrive continuing one of the major themes that came out of the summit, connection.

Bonus: By request from our attendees, check out Jeremy’s Spotify Playlist to relive the great tunes from the workshop here and below.

 

Thank you to all of those who participated in our post-Thrive workshop! As much as it reinvigorated you, it did us. We hope that you are turning your ideas into action and are continuing to amplify wellbeing. 

Contact your Virgin Pulse Client Success Team if you have questions on how to turn your ideas into action or leave a comment below for inspiration from the Virgin Pulse community. 

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