Optimal Behavior: Spaces Context: “Grow a Willow in a Desert? The importance of Spaces”

Watch a replay of the second webinar in Humaculture, Inc.'s “Optimal Behavior: Making Optimal Behavior the Natural Choice” to learn why spaces can hamper performance and well-being and how to design your spaces to lead to optimal behavior.

PRESENTERS
• Steve Cyboran, ASA, MAAA, FCA, CEBS, actuary and strategy consultant
• Wes Rogers, Humaculturist® and strategy consultant
• Colin Bullen, ASA, behavior change actuary
• Hanlie van Wyk, behavior change consultant

OBJECTIVE
In this second session in our series on optimal behavior, we explore how spaces influence behavior. The physical space in which you work can elicit mental and physical reactions that impact positively on performance, mental wellbeing and physical health. Today, physical configuration of buildings reflects a bias toward human energy conservation—and against physical activity, thereby contributing to sedentary behavior which has been linked to nearly all costly lifestyle diseases. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 30% of new or remodeled office buildings show signs of Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and that between 10% and 30% of the occupants of these buildings are affected by SBS, e.g. lethargy.

Research further indicates that your physical space can have a positive effect of up to 22% on a range of performance indicators, such as improved concentration, focus, collaboration, learning and cognitive control (working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility). Furthermore, loyalty to an organization is increasingly determined by social and place attachment.

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards, our buildings shape us.” –Winston Churchill

KEY TAKEAWAYS
Join us to learn:
• Why spaces do not support well-being and may lead to sickness
• Why spaces hamper performance
• Why spaces are built counter to tasks
• How effective spaces can be designed to:
- Support healthy behavior and choices
- Improve innovation and performance
- Support efficient task completion