🧠 Most organisations don’t have a motivation problem…they have a systems problem 🧠
- Olly Bridge
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
I see it every week with senior leaders and executive teams.
Smart people. High standards. Genuine intent.
And yet health initiatives still don’t stick.
Not because people don’t care…but because the system around them makes the healthy choice the hard choice.
Decades of behavioural science show that knowledge alone rarely drives sustained behaviour change. Health behaviours are shaped far more by environment, stress load, social norms and cognitive capacity than by willpower.
• Chronic stress reduces executive function and self-regulation, making “good decisions” harder under pressure (McEwen et al., 2015- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26404710/).
• Habit formation is strongly influenced by cues, context and repetition, not motivation spikes (Lally et al., 2010 - https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-22273-010).
• Interventions embedded into daily workflows are far more likely to persist than stand-alone wellbeing programs (Kelly et al., 2017 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29258596/).
In short…people don’t fail health programs. Health programs fail to meet people where they actually are.
⚙️ What this means in the real world
For leaders operating under sustained cognitive, emotional and time pressure, wellbeing must be:
✅Simple
✅ Integrated into work, not added on top
✅ Designed to reduce friction, not increase guilt
✅ Backed by credible science, not hype
This is exactly where @Essentio Health sits.
🌿 What Essentio actually does
At Essentio Health, we don’t run “wellbeing campaigns”. We build health operating systems for leaders and organisations.
✅ Evidence-led strategy
✅ Behavioural design, not box-ticking
✅ Practical levers across sleep, stress, energy, movement and recovery
✅ Built for real leaders, real pressure, real days
The goal isn’t perfection, it’s capacity, clarity and consistency over time 📈
Sustainable performance isn’t about doing more to people. It’s about designing environments that allow people to function at their best…more often.
When health becomes easier, performance follows.
At @Essentio Health, alongside @Build a Bridge – Live Your Best Life, we help leaders turn good intentions into sustainable habits that compound over years, not weeks.
