Learn by Doing

Ever stopped to think about how it is that you move? Most people don’t until there’s a problem.

“Hi, Cindy. (heavy breathing)

“I… I’m… I’m not going to be coming in today.”

“I bent over this morning to tie my shoes (gulp), and WHAM!” (long pause)

“I threw my back out and can’t move.” (sounds of grown man whimpering)

“It takes my breath away, and the pain is excruciating! I’m not going to be able to make it in to work today because I have to go to the doctor.”

Does this scenario sound familiar?

At that moment, you feel:

- Empathy for them; “Wow, that's horrible”
- Mild panic; “How are we going to work short-handed today and get the job done?”
- Disbelief; “Really? From tying your shoes?”
- A bit more panic; “When are they going to be able to make it back to work?”
- Even more PANIC; “This can’t be happening!”

It is estimated that 85% of adults under 50 years of age will experience back pain. Nearly ALL of them will have at least one recurrence.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrates that those with back pain will spend $2500 more per year on medical and insurance costs than those who do not experience back pain.

Well then, let’s just look at the risk factors for back pain, and try to minimize them. Let’s be proactive, you think.

Those risk factors include:

- Aging (Damn, can’t do anything about that)
- A previous back injury (Over 85% have had a problem. This isn’t Back to the Future, we can’t go back and change anything!)
- Physically demanding jobs - those that require repetitive tasks/ motions, such as standing all day, sitting all day, or working in non-ideal ergonomic environments. (Doesn’t that pretty much describe every job out there?!)
- Being sedentary and/ or overweight (Over 60% of Americans over 20 years of age are overweight. We can’t force our employees go on diet!)
- Playing sports that require a great deal of bending and twisting. (Isn’t golf the unofficial sport of corporate America? Better outlaw golf as an activity – yeah right!)
- Joint or bone disease (e.g. osteoporosis, arthritis) – You’re not a doctor, good luck changing that one!
- Poor posture. (Hmm…, this is something that we can work with!)

Looking at the above risk factors, the only entry point you have it to work with is posture training (and maybe some nutrition counseling).

But you can’t simply tell them to stand up straight, or sit up straight. Your employees need to learn by doing.

The postural patterns that are the root cause of back pain have been learned over time.

The thing is, the overwhelming majority of us have learned habits and patterns of action that we are largely unaware of that have a direct negative impact on our productivity.

Most of your employees are only a shoelace away (or a sneeze, or whatever), from being in that 85% of back pain victims.

These inefficient habits and patterns were established through doing, and doing repeatedly.

To retrain ourselves requires that we be allowed to do.

Experiential learning processes exist in order for us to create more effective habits and patterns resulting in more positive outcomes.

And less pain.
And less missed work.
And less insurance costs.
And less panic.

LET ME ASK YOU THIS…
What does your company have in place that allows your employees to learn better ways of doing?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a list titled “9 Principles for Learning More Efficient Ways of Doing”, send us an email, and we’ll send it to you for free.

*****

Chad Estes
Movement Specialist
cestes@etmconsultants.com