Expert Interview: Martha R.A. Fields - Reason for Being
In this Expert Interview, AdvancingWellness CEO Mari Ryan is joined by author, speaker, and businesswoman Martha R.A. Fields to discuss her new book “The Okinawa in Me: Finally FInding My Ikigai (Reason for Being)”.
Mari Ryan: Welcome to the Workplace Well-being Essentials Series, I’m Mari Ryan. I’m the CEO and founder of advancing wellness, it is my pleasure to welcome you today to this expert interview. Where we explore topics that impact employee well-being my guest today is Martha fields. Martha is a highly respected and accomplished international education, healthcare, and human resources, executive and consultant. She is also an author inspirational speaker and businesswoman at the age of 33 Martha became Vice President of human resources at a Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospital. Martha is a prolific writer and is the author of eight books her eight and latest books is “The Okinawa in Me: Finally Finding my Ikigai (Reason for Being). Martha welcome. I’m so excited to see you to have you here today for this interview.
Martha Fields: Thank you so much for having me on your show Mari. Bienvenue, bienvenidos, hola, namaste, konnichiwa. It's a pleasure to be here.
Mari Ryan: Fabulous. In today's discussion we are going to focus on the role of well-being from both the individual level and in the workplace. Martha in your career, you've held various leadership roles, including those in human resources, what do you see as the link between employee well-being and business success?
Martha Fields: You know the answer that I’m going to really talk a little bit for a moment about the business case for all this and, both from the employees perspective as well as the employer. I think the two major incidents that have happened to us over the last two and a half years that have framed the whole well-being and what I call the purpose, work, and well-being. The triad – purpose, work and well-being success dialogue. One is COVID 19 and the other one is the great resignation.
Let's start quickly with COVID. I look at COVID 19 in three ways. I look at what I call it AC, BC, and CC. AC is after COVID we have no idea when that is going to be, and you know it may be on forever. BC is before COVID and that's anything that happened in my mind in history, up until December, the 31st, 2019. Because, if you remember that was the time when COVID was started, and it was this bat that had bitten something, and that you know that was next called Corona, whatever. But we heard about it. Then it would not be until January 21, 2020 that in the United States that we really began to see for real this is here because we had our first case, but COVID really went to the lockdown and then coming back up. In the workplace, it did two things one with the employee well-being. The employees said what's important to me, you know, both in terms of my job, my work my life what's important to me. Also, for the employer what it did was it said that there's a new market out there, people like some people really like that remote working. And so, the workplace had to be totally shifted and change. But we also know that, in terms of well-being that it took its number, both on employees and on employers. We know that both employers and employees have the same thing in mind. They both want to be engaged in the organization, productive. For employers, they have to look at a way to retain attract, develop, and engage their workforce. If as an employee and this is really important terms of the well-being. If as an employee, I am constantly getting sick or my employer is making me sick because I’m so stressed out, I’m not going to be that productive, engaged loyal worker. The employer, because of the great resignation and people finally saying after COVID, I want my life to have some meaning and purpose. I want to have some work and life integration. I call rather than working life balance but you know I want that in my life. I want to be working for an organization that is purposeful and so they went back to the important said that's what I want.
But currently we're looking at you know employees are leaving their jobs. In November, it was 4.5 million people who left their jobs. What we've got to look at now is for employers there is a reason why you want to have your employees have purpose, working well-being success. First of all, let's talk the bottom line. That impacts your bottom line great and because employees that are not showing up in a holistic way in terms of their physical, their mental, their social their emotional well-being, they're not going to be productive for you. Turnover costs now. Gallup did a poll and they're saying that to replace an employee is up to two times the annual salary. And we also know and have learned, that employers need to really you know, think about well-being in their workplaces and here's why. But that turnover rate, if you are employer, and this is, according to a study it's the 20th annual study of Met Life Employee Benefits. And they stated that and you'll find this also Harvard Business Review is written a lot about this. They are saying that, in order to keep employees what employees want, they want a purpose driven organization. And, believe it or not, that Met Life study that I just referred to it says that if you have that as an organization, you the employee, is two times more likely to stay, If you also have those well-being success programs and benefits that employee is 1.6 times more likely to stay in your organization. So all of those things are really important. If you're looking at a workplace where people can have that purpose, work, and well-being success for you as an organization to be successful.
Mari Ryan: Well, I am so delighted that you started our conversation with the business case for well-being. I think, for those of us that are close to this, we always feel like it seems very rather obvious. But I think all of your points reinforce exactly why. Employee well-being is such an important topic for businesses today.
Martha Fields: And you know what you don't fool the employee they want a purpose driven organization. But they also you know they're concerned about the bottom line, they're concerned about the about the customer. But one of the things that I think is also sometimes missing in this dialogue about purpose working well-being success is that employers have got to you know have great leaders in place in order to execute all of these things. Not just look to human resources for how are we going to solve these things, but really take that responsibility and learn how to be a leader in very different remote hybrid organization.
Mari Ryan: There's a lot of changes that have gone on, and people are still adapting but at the core of it well-being really is a very important element, so thank you for sharing that business case. In your latest book “The Okinawa in Me: Finally Finding my Ikigai” you outlined a framework for purpose, work, and well-being success and you’ve referenced those three things purpose, work, and well-being. Could you please take us through those principles?
Martha Fields: Yes, let me just mentioned. The principles are from my book, which you just showed, I will show again. The Okinawa in Me: Finally Finding my Ikigai”. And it's based on research in terms of what people do to live long and healthy life. I have a background in healthcare as a former Vice President, as you heard from Mari, of the Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, so it was really important to understand what was happening there. I also had a personal thing happen to me in terms of you know, the eight principles that I’m getting to. I grew up in the number one place where people live the longest and are the healthiest in the world. Mari, I know you know the answer, but if you didn't know the answer what would you say that that the number one places.
Mari Ryan: Well, there's only a few that like that in the world, so if it wasn't Sardinia, would have to be Okinawa.
Martha Fields: Yes, and actually there are five places called Blue Zones where people live the longest and they're the healthiest in the world. And they are we actually: one here in Loma Linda California, There's another one in the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica, so that south of us, and then like you said you have to go all the way over to Sardinia Italy. that's the third zone in the fourth zone is its neighbor right there in Greece, think about the Mediterranean diet and things like that. Icari Greece, and then finally get to Okinawa Japan. The people there live to 100 and they're more people there who live to 110 plus per square feet than anywhere in the world, and they are healthy and they are happy. But in all of those eight Blue Zones to my surprise, and like I said I grew up there, and it was the number one thing on my bucket list to go back there to my childhood home in Chatan, Okinawa that I left when I was 11 years old, so decades had gone by. When I went back there, I understood what these things are in terms of how people live a long and healthy life.
The scientific research, basically says that in all Blue Zones there eight factors that people look at to live a long and healthy life, and I call them my healthy aging principles. There are four different categories. The first principle in terms and that why this is important is that if you are bringing your best self to the workforce, you would practice these. Employers, you can also have programs for employees, so that they can reinforce these things and be healthy, in a holistic employee. One of the first things that people who live the longest and the healthiest in the world do in the Blue Zones is they are aware of “you are what you eat and drink.” The first thing is everything in moderation. They have a saying called “hara hachi bu”. Some people may know this as ‘you only eat until you're only 80% full. That basically says don't over eat.
Another principle around, that is to shake off stress and to make sure that you de-stress from stress. Let me go back just a second to the you are what you eat and drink. I want to just mentioned something that I found very interesting. If you're going to work and you're trying to think about what should you bring for your lunch, so you can be healthy and happy. Employers if you want to you know put some of these things on your menu in the cafeteria, but there were a few things that I learned that the people that live the oldest and the healthiest in the world they do. They eat they eat, believe it or not ,the number one food is a purple sweet potato from Okinawa, Japan and it's called beni imo. It is about 75% of the traditional Okinawa diet. But it is packed with a lot of B vitamins, A vitamins. It's really wonderful. That's why you're seeing in the store a lot more sweet potato chips, sweet potato fries, all that kind of stuff. The other thing that actually is not bad for you, that is good for you is an ounce of chocolate a day. It's got to be dark chocolate between 75% and 80% cacao. The woman who lived the longest and the healthiest in the world is a French woman named Jean Calmet. She lived to 122 years and 164 days. And most of that time she would eat an ounce of chocolate a day. So that's really good for you.
The second piece that you've got to look at in terms of how do you live a healthy life and employers what you can also do. You have to destress from stress. That means like really destress from stress. Stress is a major chronic killer. It gets you into diseases, and you know if you're in a stressful situation at your job, then you've got to really look at whether or not that's the right fit for you, because it can be on your health. And employers, if you're looking for a reason why you need to have stress reduction classes, is that if that employee does get sick because they're overworking they're burned out doing the job of 10 people, your health insurance benefits are going to go up. Your costs are going to go up. So it pays for you to help that employee to move forward.
Just two other things I want to say about this. People that live long and healthy. The third principle is about I call LB to the third power. It's love, be loved and belong. And, and what that means that people that live the longest and the healthiest, they have wonderful relationship with family, friends, colleagues. They put their family first. The other thing that they do is that they belong to the right circle of friends. In terms of your company where you're working, think about it. You work more hours there than you do doing work at home or being with your family or whatever. You've got to make sure if the job is not right for you, is it worth that kind of stress. Given this market from the great resignation, if you're good you can you pretty much have your pick of what you want to do. Making sure that that that you do that, but also employers again looking into what are your well-being programs to help people to actually destress from stress.
The last one is what I call let your little light shine higher. What that means, believe it or not, the people that live the longest in the healthiest, they practice what I call and again it's called different things, but in my book, and in the Okinawa tradition it's called ikigai. It's about you finding your purpose. One of the number one things that employers, through all kinds of surveys again, the Met Life Survey, McKinsey, Korn Ferry, the Harvard Business Review, which I never thought would be talking about these issues gratitude and purpose. That's one of the number one reasons that people live the longest and healthiest. Ikigai translates to your reason for being. What is your purpose, the reason you wake up. Those people who know what their purposes and they live it daily, that can add, Mari, seven years of good life on to you it's been researched. Employers, you also helping people so that they can find those things in the organization is important. The lesson for organizations is - people are looking for purpose driven organization. All kinds of research out there. They want to go into an organization where their purpose aligns with the mission, vision, and values of that organization. They want something in return, and in this employees market, you need to give it to them because they're saying also employer. You need to make sure that I’m finding and I’m able to exercise my purpose at work in some way. It might be that that isn't their purpose for being but it's allowing them to make money to move forward so purpose driven organizations, you see so much in the literature today about that. Organizations would be wise to heed that and also read my book, because that's what I talk a lot about is both from the personal perspective, but also from the organizational perspective.
Mari Ryan: If our audience wants to learn more about you and the work that you're doing, where can they find that information Martha.
Martha Fields: Yes, they can find that information on my website okme88.com.
Mari Ryan: And how about in order to get a copy of your book?
Martha Fields: Yes, the best place to go is to my website. The website will lead you to a place where you can order my book. I can't thank you enough for letting me on your show. You are so well known and you're doing. I was honored when you asked me to be on your podcast. You're doing such great things in the world around all those three things that are important to me, the purpose, work, and well-being success.
Mari Ryan: Thank, thank you for being here today. As always, it's a delight to spend time with you.
