Engagement Insights

• Introduction

• Engagement's
  True Role

• Why Health
  Engagement is
  so Hard

• Behavioral
  Science

• Save Millions
• Neuroplasticity
• Health Dreams
• Behavioral
  Continuum
• Engagement
  Continuum
• Power of
  Intrinsic Forces
• Cost Effective
  Engagement
  Techniques

• Motivating
  Employees

What is it? Neuroplasticity explains a simple, but important principle: much of the human brain is wired by experience. To learn anything, our brains must create new neural connections – which is the essence of neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity affects your engagement strategy in 2 main ways:

1. Experience-dependent brain wiring: By living in a relatively unhealthy environment for many years, many of your people have repeatedly had experiences that have wired their brains with various unhealthy mindsets, pleasures, aversions, desires, willpower, and habits. Consider this diagram:

Taste acquisition is a prime example of neuroplasticity. At first you don’t like something (e.g. beer); then over time it begins to taste good. If lucky, you’ve developed intrinsic forces that drive you to healthy behaviors like eating broccoli and exercise. If unlucky (like the woman in this video), they drive you to french fries and 4 hours of TV per day.

2. The influence of brain wiring: Without major rewiring of unhealthy mindsets, pleasures, aversions, desires, willpower, and habits, far too few of your people will improve their health behaviors. Their pre-existing brain wiring keeps driving them to repeat unhealthy behaviors.