Stop polishing the canary. Start cleaning the coal mine.
We’re approaching January. If you are in HR or you’re a prevention advisor, you are probably staring at spreadsheets. You are finalizing the annual action plan (JAP), allocating budgets, and mapping out training schedules for the year ahead.
The goal is clear: a resilient, high-performing workforce. The reality? Absenteeism is rising, and ‘burnout’ is the most used word of the year.
Look closely at your plan for 2026. Does it rely heavily on mindfulness workshops? A ‘Healthy Week’ initiative? Or perhaps resilience training for employees who are already overwhelmed?
If the answer is yes, you are falling into the “Fix the Person” trap. And according to data, including a landmark HBR study, that is exactly why burnout rates keep climbing despite our best intentions.
The Canary in the Coal Mine We all know the metaphor, but few apply it. Imagine a coal mine where the air is toxic. The canaries, your employees, start getting sick. They stop singing. They collapse.
Do you organize a workshop to teach the canaries deep breathing exercises? Do you buy them better seeds to eat? Or do you also fix the ventilation in the mine?
Most organizations today are busy teaching their canaries to meditate in a toxic environment. We demand corporate athletes’ performance, yet we design workplaces filled with back-to-back meetings, nutritional deserts, and constant digital interruptions.
The Shift: Resilience By Design As you finalize your prevention plans, I challenge you to make a shift. Move from reactive symptom management to proactive design.
This is the core of my philosophy, Resilience By Design. It’s not about doing more (more yoga, more apps, more tips), but about designing better. It rests on three pillars:
- Mental Resilience: Stop treating nutrition as a weight-loss tool. Start treating it as brain fuel. Design a food and focus environment that prevents the 3 PM crash, rather than just offering fruit once a week.
- Team Dynamics: Build psychological safety. A team that dares to say “no” to an unrealistic deadline is healthier than a team that says “yes” and burns out later.
- Culture: Design workflows that respect human biology. For example: enforce a “45/15 rule” for meetings to allow for cognitive recovery.
Your Red Pen Moment Don’t just copy-paste last year’s plan. Be the leader who dares to tackle the root cause.
Later this month, I will be launching “The Resilience Shift”, a podcast dedicated to the biochemistry of burnout and leadership, and I will open spots for a new strategic wellbeing program for organizations ready to redesign their work culture.
But for now, take a red pen to your annual plan. Ask yourself one question: Am I trying to fix the people, or am I designing a better environment?