Kindness by Design: How Active Listening Disrupts the Cycle of Incivility

August 13, 2025 12:00 pm Central | Register 1 CHES/MCHES Credit Available

Guest Panelists:

Incivility in the workplace is on the rise, and it hurts all of us. Whether it’s hurtful dismissals or plain disrespect, incivility spreads beyond the perpetrator-victim relationship and undermines the psychological safety of witnesses as well. To combat this toxicity, we need an antidote that not only elevates the quality of our interactions but also spreads quickly and widely. That antidote is kindness. But how can we transition from incivility to kindness in one fell swoop? The active ingredient that bridges this gap is active listening. When we listen to understand rather than to respond, it becomes nearly impossible to act with incivility. In a world where few seem to have time to truly listen anymore, authentic listening is a precious gift.

Join us on August 13th, 2025, as we explore these transformative concepts with Wendy Lynch, PhD and MJ Shaar, MAPP. This interactive webinar will give you the opportunity to ask your questions live while helping you:

• Understand how active listening serves as a key ingredient to overcoming incivility in the workplace
• Learn about the benefits that come when we move beyond random acts of kindness to adopting an intentional, systematic strategy for cultural change
• Develop practical strategies to implement active listening techniques that foster psychological safety and build stronger workplace relationships

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how simple shifts in communication can dramatically transform your workplace culture!

After this educational event, participants will be able to:

1. Define workplace incivility and its broader impact on organizational culture, including its effects on psychological safety for both direct targets and bystanders.
2. Explain the role of active listening in counteracting incivility and promoting respectful, empathetic communication in professional settings.
3. Differentiate between random acts of kindness and a structured, intentional approach to kindness as a cultural strategy within the workplace.
4. Apply evidence-based active listening techniques to enhance interpersonal interactions and foster a culture of psychological safety.
5. Design a preliminary action plan to implement a kindness-centered communication strategy tailored to your organizational context.

SPEAKERS

MJ Shaar, MAPP, HERO Senior Education Fellow  As one of the pioneers in kindness-driven performance, MJ’s work proves that kind people don’t finish last. They lead the pack in creating thriving, high-performing organizations and create ripple effects that extend beyond the workplace into our home lives and broader communities.

Armed with a Bachelor’s in Organizational Behavior and a Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology, MJ is a sought-after corporate trainer and keynote speaker. She enjoys partnering with forward-thinking organizations to elevate employee engagement, strengthen team dynamics, and develop inspiring leaders. In her role as Senior Education Fellow at HERO, MJ’s focus is on creating educational programs aiming to improve employee and community health and well-being. MJ’s evidence-based approach marries scientific evidence with personal stories and real-world applications.

She is a regular collaborator for nationally-recognized wellness institutions, such as The American Institute of Preventive Medicine, Health Enhancement Systems, and WellCoaches. She is also an occasional guest speaker at many Ivy League Universities.

Wendy Lynch, PhD, HERO Senior Education Fellow  As a research scientist working in the business world, Dr. Wendy Lynch learned to straddle commercial and academic goals, converting analytic results into market success. Through her experience in diverse work settings she became familiar with (and fascinated by) the unique language of each.  That experience led to her true passion of promoting clear and meaningful conversation that promotes mutual understanding and success. A consultant to numerous Fortune 100 companies, her career includes faculty at the UC Health Sciences Center, VP of Strategic Development at HCMS, Principal at Mercer HR and Board of Directors for two publicly-traded firms. Now Dr. Lynch runs her own consulting firm conducting Big Data analytic projects in Human Capital Management.  In every instance and every setting, communication is key.

A frequent speaker, and author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Lynch has also published four books, including, Get to What Matters: Tools to Transform Conversations at Work.

HOST

Karen Moseley is President & CEO of the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), a national think tank dedicated to advancing best practices in workplace health and well-being. In collaboration with HERO members, Karen and the HERO team provide leadership in research and education by connecting science and practice to demonstrate the value of a health and well-being employer ecosystem.

 

Sponsored by Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), a designated provider of continuing education contact hours (CECH) in health education by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. This program is designated for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) to receive 1 total Category I continuing education contact hours. Provider ID#101039

Why Is Everyone So Damn Grumpy?

September 4, 2025 12:00 pm Central | Register 1 CHES/MCHES Credit Available

Guest Panelists:

We are bombarded with stories about war, famine, crime, climate disaster, social unrest, disease, lack of civility, and political divisiveness – delivered ad infinitum via Tik Tok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and other social media.

It turns out that doom scrolling is not good for one’s mental health and well-being. Not only that, money, power, fame, stuff, and more stuff can’t buy happiness (beyond a minimum threshold, of course). Just look at Elon, Jeff, Mark, and Donald.

So, what can make us happy? Friends, family, faith — and wait for it — work. Work can be a happy place when there is an intentional culture promoting mental health and well-being. What does it take?

Psychosocially, instilling positive emotions, creating “flow,” highlighting organizational support, building bonding relationships, and communicating a sense of purpose. Add fun, and work becomes a fulfilling life experience, and of course, a way to pay bills.

The session will not just wax poetic. It will present findings from recent studies and literature reviews uncovering the sources and impacts of toxic work environments that cause distress and burnout. On the bright side, it will also offer solutions that extend beyond telling employees to “grin and bear it.” The session builds upon traditional psychosocial interventions aimed at enhancing resilience by introducing organizational and environmental stressors and solutions to improve the workplace. The session will recall a case study of protective factors shown to be effective in ameliorating stressors experienced by front-line hospital food service workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finally, the session will conclude by answering the question, “what is Ron Goetzel thinking about and what are his solutions to the world’s problems?”

Learning Objectives

• Participants will articulate factors causing stress arising from psychosocial, organizational, and environmental (POE) sources.
• Participants will describe possible solutions to distress by drawing from research unearthed in recent literature reviews on mental health and well-being in the workplace.
• Participants will articulate a basic framework for “calming the waters” on stress and anxiety on a societal level.

 

SPEAKER

Ron Goetzel is a Senior Scientist and Director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The mission of the IHPS is to bridge the gap between academia, the business community, and the healthcare policy world – bringing academic resources into policy debates and day-to-day business decisions and bringing worker health and productivity management concerns to academia. Dr. Goetzel is responsible for leading innovative measurement and evaluation projects for healthcare purchaser, provider, government, and foundation clients engaged in cutting-edge research focused on the relationship between health and well-being, medical costs, and work-related productivity. He is an internationally recognized and widely published expert in health and productivity management (HPM), return-on-investment (ROI), program evaluation, and outcomes research. Dr. Goetzel has published well over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and frequently presents at international business and scientific forums.

HOST

Paul Terry, PhD, is a Senior Fellow at HERO where he leads our learning agenda. Paul is also Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Health Promotion. His prior positions were president and CEO at HERO, president and CEO at StayWell Health Management, and president and CEO at The Park Nicollet Institute. Paul is the author of four books and over 200 research and professional papers. A study he led won the C. Everett Koop National Health Award. He was awarded two Fulbright Senior Scholarships and served on advisory councils for The National Academy of Sciences, the American Heart Association, the CDC, the University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

 

Sponsored by Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), a designated provider of continuing education contact hours (CECH) in health education by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. This program is designated for Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and/or Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) to receive 1 total Category I continuing education contact hours. Provider ID#101039