an interview with Deborah Jones

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Deborah Jones, MPE, is President of Well-Advised Consulting, based in Vancouver, B.C. Well-Advised Consulting provides assessments, cost-benefit analyses, culture change initiatives, and leadership for organizational health for non-profit, government and private organizations. Ms. Jones also serves as the director of the Canadian Health, Work & Wellness Conference, an annual event now in its 5th year. She also is on the faculty for the Royal Roads University Executive Leadership Program and was a lead assessor for the Canadian National Quality Institute’s Healthy Workplace Award Program in 1999. In this capacity, Ms. Jones developed the Institute’s two-day “Framework for the Development of a Healthy Workplace” training course, now taught regularly across the nation.

Don: How is your conference different from the National Wellness Conference (NWC) held each summer in Stevens Point, WI. which you have attended for many years? Besides, of course, it being held in Canada and focused upon the needs/issues relevant to Canadians?

Deb: Our Health, Work & Wellness (HWW) event is focused strictly on organizational health, whereas the NWC addresses individual, workplace, community, school, and other areas. The organizational perspective is quite different from the usual individual program approach to workplace health. We emphasize strategic planning for company well-being, which entails integrating health initiatives into the overall business goals of the organization. I personally do not think a programmatic approach to health in the workplace has lasting effects on organizational function; the literature seems to support this position. Workplace programs certainly can benefit individuals and reduce health risks, but management behaviors must support greater employee control, flexibility, fairness, meaningful rewards, and other changes in the workplace. Without such changes, any positive effects will not prove to be long lasting. This year’s HWW event will feature sessions devoted to building capacity through investing in workplace health, retaining top talent, fairness, and the human spirit, among other organization issues and challenges.

Don: What have been the key self-management elements that have been most instrumental in your own personal growth over the years (such as, fitness, critical thinking, meaning and purpose)?

Deb: I am constantly learning new things about living better, dealing with people and situations differently, and becoming a better teacher, role model, and communicator. Instrumental to all of this has been a lifetime commitment to being active -- swimming, running, cycling, skiing and, most recently, Power Yoga. The latter is good not only for the fitness benefits, but for philosophy and calmness it allows. This is important, given the stress of my daily business functions.

A key element has been my desire to create a positive and calm work environment where I can be creative and productive.

Don: Have you advanced farther and faster as a consequence of being a woman, or has the opposite been true, in your opinion? Or, perhaps, maybe you don't think your gender has played any role for better or worse.

Deb: I don't think it's played a role -- although I haven't done what you call a double-blind cross-over study of a longitudinal, horizontal, vertical, and dignified nature on it -- so I can't be certain! I do consider myself lucky to have been born when I was though as, gender aside, the work I am doing would not have been possible even a decade earlier.

Don: What would you list as the top three to five wellness issues in North America, that is, the challenges that individuals have to meet successfully to come closer to their best potentials for personal fulfillment, optimal health, and felt meaning?

Deb: I would include the following, for starters:

Dispel the myth that more hours equal more productivity.
Stress, anxiety, burnout, and depression.
Lack of awareness -- not about health risks and health information, but lack of awareness about what's going on in the moment. So many people are overly focused on what's going to happen tomorrow or what happened yesterday, or keeping up with what's on their plate, that they spend too little time living in the moment, or meeting others who model such awareness. This can and does lead to innumerable health and wellness shortfalls.

Don: Why are you here, that is, in existence? What are your thoughts on the meaning of life, or how do you find added meaning and purpose?

Deb: I find added meaning and purpose through my life's work -- having chosen a field that I feel compelled to follow -- and through the relationships I enjoy with friends, family, and colleagues.

Don: Does it take courage of any kind to sustain a wellness lifestyle? How so, if your answer is "Yes?"

Deb: Sure -- it takes courage to go against the grain. This applies to all aspects of living a wellness lifestyle, from choosing to work in a certain manner -- choosing balance over workaholism, for example -- to choosing to make activity a regular part of your life when there are all kinds of other ways to spend your time.

Don: A mutual friend of ours, Grant Donovan, told me in his interview that our societies have more obese and depressed communities now than before spending tens of millions of dollars over the years on health promotion. He explained this seeming paradox by saying most people learn helplessness very early in life because society largely operates control and command structures, leading to poor life skills, lives of quiet desperation, and vast numbers of people who simply don't enjoy life. Do you agree? Or not?

Deb: I agree with the learned helplessness idea and the victim mentality that many people have. Also, that there is not enough emphasis on teaching self-responsibility, especially in schools. I have focused my career on wellness in the workplace, but recognize that we're not reaching people soon enough with this message.

However, in terms of the increase in depression there are some schools of thought that suggest that the increase in incidence may have much to do with the increased acceptance of mental health issues today versus even a decade ago. The National Post reported a study recently indicating that doctor visits for depression have jumped 36% in the past five years in Canada. Doctors suggest that these numbers have increased because more people are seeking treatment now since depression doesn't carry the same stigma it did ten years ago.

Don: Assuming you're still around, where would you like to be in ten years, and doing what?

Deb: I hope to be fitter, smarter, funnier, more enlightened, and still enjoying my life and work as much as I am now!

April 2001