Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. Each week we talk about heart rate variability and how it can be used to improve your overall health and wellness. Please consider the information in this podcast for your informational use and not medical advice. Please see your medical provider to apply any of the strategies outlined in this episode. Heart Rate Variability podcast is a production of optimal L L C and optimal HR-v. Check us out at optimal hr-v dot com. Please enjoy the show.
Speaker 1 00:00:32 Welcome friends to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. I'm Matt Bennett, uh, for the last time here flying solo with you as we, uh, published the second episode in our, uh, the Heartbeat of Business, uh, series. So, uh, we are exploring the introduction in this episode. I just wanted to give a, a quick introduction to it. Uh, and then, uh, next week we will hit, uh, chapter one and followed by, uh, a little bit of an analysis and insight with, uh, me, Dave and Nina. So, really excited for that. If you are, um, just starting to listen to the podcast, uh, we are basing a series off, uh, the book we published last year, the Heartbeat of Business, really looking at how to integrate heart rate variability into the team and organizational perspective, while also exploring individual health as well. So the introduction was a lot of fun to write for this book.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 Uh, I took the lead, um, on that piece and really looking at what, how to really connect heart rate variability, uh, to the business, the organizational environment. Um, we are entering a time and, uh, probably if you're listening to this podcast, you are aware of this, that biometrics, uh, wearable devices, uh, smart watches, smart phones, um, fairly inexpensive inaccurate Bluetooth devices, uh, are really creating a revolution in healthcare. Uh, we know more about ourselves now from a health informational standpoint than at any time in history. Uh, we can wake up in the morning, uh, where I didn't even know what heart rate variability was five years ago. I, I now have four or five years of data that, that I can compare my morning readings, uh, to, we're bringing this into the biofeedback arena. Uh, so with mindfulness practice, with meditation, we now bring in that biometric approach.
Speaker 1 00:02:40 And this really led to, uh, the publication of The Heartbeat for Business. Uh, I said in the, the last episode is, uh, Jeff and I would just chuckle when, uh, business leaders would call us up and really almost try to convince us, uh, that optimal H R v, the dashboard, the app, uh, could work in the, uh, corporate environment. Um, I have been a fan of leadership, uh, a student of business, uh, for my entire career. As I shared last time, I do have a, a master's in business administration, uh, as well. So, uh, as, as folks in, and in many ways, early adapters, uh, were not necessarily our target audience during the pandemic, uh, but businesses started to reach out to us. And one of the things that, that we really saw was, was a couple pieces of insight coming out of this one, and what we'll talk about this as we go through this series is this, we're, we're on the edge, uh, the, the tip of the wave, so to speak, with the introduction of biometrics into the organizational context.
Speaker 1 00:03:48 Now, it's, it's very interesting. A lot of people I talk to, um, in the nonprofit healthcare arena could really get excited about heart rate variability as, uh, sort of a vital sign, a way to track progress in treatment, in care, in services. And then I'd start talking about a way to use this to really look at, uh, burnout and the health of the individual. And a lot of the responses that that we got was, well, I would never give my supervisor, my boss, my biometric information, even if they just a minute earlier, heard what a heart rate variability was for the first time. So one, it kind of speaks to, I think, where we are more than anything else, but this sort of lack of trust, even though, at least here in the states, we give social security birth certificates. Basically, we give our employers all the information they need to take out a loan in our name, do a credit card in our name.
Speaker 1 00:04:49 This idea of a biometric that many people just got introduced to sharing that feels too vulnerable, um, with it. And so, you know, we, we quickly started to look at different ways to protect confidentiality with that, whether that's us giving management reports, uh, whether that's just de-identifying the information as well. So, you know, we're, we're hitting this time, and what I love about being on the top of a paradigm shift, being on a wave of inno innovation, is you do run up against these ethical issues and how do you create safety with this? How, how do we, you create, you know, a fair exchange if, if we're going to maybe even get your de-identified, um, health information like heart rate variability, uh, what, what do we give you in return? Because one of the, uh, things I just chuckle about is there's no way I would give my boss this, my heart rate variability information.
Speaker 1 00:05:48 And then I kind of follow up with, well, what if they gave you a, uh, Starbucks gift card? Oh, of course I would no part. What if they gave you $50 off on your health insurance premium? Of course I would. So there is a cost to this for a lot of people as well, and we are very clear with our corporate clients that we will never, if you punish people for their heart rate variability, you will no longer be a client of ours. We, we do not value your money in any way, shape, or form as we do that end user with that. And that's just a really hard line that, uh, we have made in the sand. Um, I do think it's interesting to think about as we start to look at this and we start to explore this series, what does it mean for a manager whose team's heart rate variability is much below their, the population norm, uh, that their teams are struggling?
Speaker 1 00:06:39 Is it, is it the responsibility of a manager to help to maintain a work environment that keeps the team healthy, um, keeps them engaged? And so we'll explore that as we go through this series. The the other thing in the introduction that, that I love to, to think about is where biometrics are going. Um, we, again, we, we've we're hitting this sort of golden age, uh, that also is really connected to this golden age of psychology and health and wellness. And, and neuro, uh, you know, what we know about the brain and the nervous system, you know, all this is really coming to a peak where, uh, how long is it? Because I know the technology kinda ra exists to where, you know, our urine gets analyzed, uh, every morning, uh, where, you know, our, our refrigerator is giving us feedback on how the food is going to impact our health.
Speaker 1 00:07:40 We, we are hitting this time of information, and I think it's on folks that, on the top of this way to how do we make heart rate variability very usable, the very practical, uh, because it's going to be one biometric within a range of other things. Um, uh, we're highly connected in the neurofeedback world, uh, you know, almost overwhelming the technology, uh, influx in, in, in that world and trying to figure out, okay, is is this valid? Are, what are we measuring here, uh, with this thing? It's why I love heart rate variability is that, you know, uh, be it since the sixties, it's sort of been the gold standard of measuring the stress response. So we, we, um, and, and why I was so attracted to it is I don't have to prove heart rate variability as a measure of the stress response that's been done, tens if not hundreds at this point of thousands of peer review journal articles, uh, make that case for us, uh, finding an accurate reader using, uh, you know, algorithms that are well proven, the major aspects of the autonomic nervous system.
Speaker 1 00:08:48 We've got this information now. And so as, as we start our exploration with this, and I'm, I'm gonna play the introduction here for you, uh, right after this. It's, it's really being on that wave, and I, I'd love to just kind of throw that out to you, uh, especially if you're part of a team and organization is, you know, we will, and we will explore this in great detail in the first few chapters, is that if people are struggling to manage their stress response, it just doesn't mean that they're stressed out, right? It does mean that they're stressed out, but it means so much more because, you know, we're not just looking at somebody who's struggling with to manage stress. We're, we're also, uh, looking at somebody who's maybe their cognitive capacity is, uh, lower. There's social intelligence, there are emotional intelligence that is so important to pretty much any job, uh, you could create is also really struggling as well.
Speaker 1 00:09:45 So, um, through this exploration, how do we support the individual, including as we talked about, uh, last week, including ourselves, uh, recognizing that I think burnout is, uh, at an all-time high right now, and that we've been in that, uh, state for so long that that could be coming for a lot of us a trade as well. So with this introduction, I kind of, I'll be honest with you, I had fun with it. Um, I wanted to really engage people that might not have thought about bringing this into an organizational context in that way. So I hope you enjoy this. If you're watching me on YouTube, it'll kind of get boring from here visually. But, uh, we, we, we will play, uh, the, the introduction to this, like I said, uh, next week I'll give a short introduction, uh, but, but then it's basically going to be chapter one.
Speaker 1 00:10:36 If you're interested in downloading the P D F, uh, with this, you can go to heart rate variability.com, or excuse me, optimal hr-v dot com. Um, though you can see that free download link there, you can also get my other book Heart Rate Variability to the Future of Trauma Informed Care. Uh, we really wanna be all in with you in 2023 as, as I mentioned last time, the year of resiliency, the year of recovery, depending on where you're at, how do we get our mojo back as individuals, as teams, as organizations, uh, to do the important work that we do each and every day. So I hope you enjoy the introduction. Like said, we'll follow this up with chapter one next week, and as always, love to get your feedback. My personal email is matt optimal hr-v dot com and enjoy the introduction.
Speaker 2 00:11:25 Introduction. Take a minute to imagine the future of your business. What does it look like? How does it feel? What has changed? What are people doing to ensure success in this future? For most businesses, envisioning the future means thinking about new ways to integrate and utilize technological advancements. Even with developments in artificial intelligence, deep learning, automation and computing power, people still lie at the center of every business. Business success always has and will continue to rely heavily on their people's collective cognitive ability and interpersonal skills in order to meet customer and market demands. The problem for many leaders is that it is challenging to quantify cognitive and relational capacity and readiness. To perform recent technological advancements now allow leaders to include monitoring the cognitive capacity and mental health of their workforce as part of their future vision. Next time you are in an office building on a bus or train, or in a restaurant, at lunchtime notice people's wrists.
Speaker 2 00:12:36 You'll see smart watches gathering and analyzing biometrical data such as heart rate and movement. Few doctors in the history of medicine have had more health information on their patients than these watches, the smartphones they synchronize with and the companies that manage the data. These tech companies analyze data on every heartbeat spoken word and breadth. As biometric hardware and software advances, people will gain increased insight into their health. Most business leaders possess some notion that stressed or burned out people struggle with efficiency and productivity. How are your people doing right now? Historically, this question was difficult, if not impossible to answer. A survey can only give limited data at the specific point of time when someone fills it out. Business leaders have had to rely on anecdotal observations or gain insight through missed targets and unacceptable business outcomes. We now live in a world where an inexpensive device or a watch that many already wear on their wrist could provide business leaders with quantitative and accurate information about people's intellectual and emotional health.
Speaker 2 00:13:50 Think back to that vision for the future of your business. Are people in this future engaged and excited about their work? Do they possess the intellectual capacity to solve complex problems and to overcome challenges facing the business in evolving future markets? Are they mentally healthy enough to engage effectively in a vibrant business culture and to support and engage customers? Business leaders find themselves in a fascinating place in history. New and inexpensive technology provides users with incredible cognitive, mental, medical, and social health data. Business outcomes require healthy engaged people. Yet few business leaders currently get access to this crucial data. We created this audiobook to address this issue and give our readers a chance to gain a competitive advantage. As technology and comfort with biometrics continue to advance, more businesses will utilize measures like heart rate variability as a business metric. Today's leaders find themselves in a unique position with an opportunity to become early adopters and achieve an advantage over competitors by maximizing the potential of their people.
Speaker 2 00:15:04 As many business leaders already know, healthy and engaged people achieve better business outcomes, burnt out people achieve less than optimal outcomes, cost the business money and hurt its culture and morale, pulling other people's performance and motivation down with them. Biometrics helps leaders understand the health of their people, documents the positive or negative effects of human resources and other initiatives, and provides an early warning to more significant issues. In this audiobook, we focus on one specific biometric heart rate variability, or H R V. It will become apparent in chapter one as to how this biometric provides leaders with a tremendous amount of crucial information on their business. Before jumping into this exciting science, let us address the elephant in the room right up front. As with most technological innovations, biometrics comes with ethical dilemmas for early adopters and innovators by its very nature, biometrics is personal data.
Speaker 2 00:16:09 This data provides leaders with crucial information on the health and productivity of their people. However, do people trust leadership in the company enough to share this data? Those who get the daily information on their people's cognitive and emotional health possess a clear strategic advantage over those who stay in the dark. Our excitement for the power of biometrics and HR V let us to engage friends and other professionals we respect around the vision that resulted in this audiobook. The most common response we heard from people, the majority of whom had never heard of the term heart rate variability before, the conversation was, I would never share that information with my boss. Many in leadership positions agree, my people would never show that information with me. We look at their risks and respond, you know, you are currently providing that information to the big tech company behind that device every second of the day and night.
Speaker 2 00:17:06 At this point, some people sit back and think a couple, remove their watches and examine them. Others quickly respond that they trust their boss and business far less, even though they do not trust big tech very much. Our follow up question is equal parts entertaining and insightful. Well, what if your boss gave you a $50 gift card to your favorite coffee shop every month? If you shared the information, the person often smiles as they think about free coffee, then I would not have any problem. Some others, those without a caffeine addiction would share it for a hundred or two off their healthcare premiums. In our conversations, we find few people would give their biometric information to their employer for free, but almost all would provide it for a few cups of coffee or a hundred dollars a month off their healthcare costs. These conversations put forth a challenge to implementing biometrics in a business environment.
Speaker 2 00:18:05 Some of these challenges should dissipate with time. We freely hand over our social security card, birth certificate, and all the other information needed to take out mortgages and credit cards in a person's name. Upon starting employment, few people hesitate to share this very personal information. Biometrics tracking will only increase in the next decade. In businesses where people do not feel comfortable sharing data, the strategies in this audiobook can still create a competitive advantage. For those implementing the optimal H R V app, we can de-identify user information or create reports for businesses without names. This small step helps address most of the concerns raised when implementing the science and research in this audiobook. As biometrics become a regular part of people's lives, we predict this hesitancy will dissipate. The technology currently exists to make the following possible a decade or two from now. This example will describe a typical day for many people.
Speaker 2 00:19:08 Someone wakes up and checks their biometric data generated by their bed on their quality of sleep and energy level. To start the day throughout the night, the bed communicated with a thermostat aromatherapy device, the humidifier, to create an environment for an optimal night's sleep. Their toilet analyzes their waste to gain inside into their daily dietary needs, detect disease and scold them for drinking too much wine the night before. They put on their shirt with biometric sensors placed strategically to measure heart rate variability, galvanic skin response, a marker of stress and the content of sweat. Before leaving the house, they put on a smart watch that tracks movement, air quality and stress levels during their commute to work. Sensors in the car seat measure alertness and stress level suggesting relaxing music. When stressed and more upbeat songs that they need to wake up at work, they put on a headset that measures stress through vocal tones between calls.
Speaker 2 00:20:11 They get feedback and suggestions on being more effective on the next call. Their smartphone collects data from all these sensors throughout the day and provides recommendations for lunch based on their current stress levels. Later at the gym, the phone offers a suggested workout to maximize remaining energy while minimizing the risk of injury. Each exercise machine adds data to their biometric record. At home biometrics quantifies the family's discussion on how was your day? Today, as parents monitor their children's stress levels and physical activity to unwind, they play a video game customized around their biometric states, challenging them to adjust heart rate or breathing to get through the game's challenges. Finally, their bed sends a reminder through their watch that they need to end screen time, put on blue light blocking glasses and pick up a book if they want to maximize sleep. Quality. The technology to make this future vision a reality already exists as of this writing in 2022.
Speaker 2 00:21:15 This reality might excite some and seem like a dystopia to others. Regardless. Human history with technology usually starts with fear Before widespread acceptance, there is no evidence that biometrics will be any different. The message to business leaders is that biometric information will become more prevalent and normalized in people's lives. It will give people the health data needed to help them live longer and healthier lives. Let us now address another dilemma and how leaders use biometric data. H R V allows the leader to predict the cognitive, physical, and emotional capacity someone possesses to succeed in their work. So what happens when a person has had too many drinks the night before, did not get any sleep because of a sick baby, or got into an intense fight with their spouse? The leader has the data showing they will not perform at their best today, but they still need to show up for their job.
Speaker 2 00:22:13 As you will hear in this audio book, we suggest that in most situations, leaders should not pay too much attention to daily readings. The main problem with daily readings is that there are too many variables potentially influencing each reading, providing misleading information, healthy, but challenging activities such as a long run, a fast bike ride or an extended fast can lower short-term H R V as the body recovers from the physical stress making it seem like the nervous system is struggling. However, once the recovery is complete, H R V is likely to bounce back to the original baseline or possibly go even higher correctly, indicating an improvement in overall health. Similarly, a few days of poor sleep, a fight with a spouse or a few too many drinks on a Saturday night can also lower short-term H R V. While these lower scores may indicate some difficulty with self-regulation, these decreases are often temporary.
Speaker 2 00:23:16 It is difficult to determine the accurate trajectory and meaning of H R V just from a few days worth of data as long as people show up and perform to expectation. These personal events are not the concern of leadership as long as weekly averages stay relatively stable. While a daily score can predict productivity and effectiveness on the job, most people manage to perform consistently through one or two days of lower scores. As the authors of this audiobook can attest. Longer term H R V averages are much more indicative of overall health and wellness as they're less effective by the short term variability, and therefore serve as more effective leadership tools. While the general rule is to attend to longer term averages, there are a few situations where daily H R V monitoring allows the leader to offer additional support. For example, when a business is going through a particularly stressful event or transition, it may be helpful to attend a shorter term trends to catch people who are struggling early on and offer support and aid in recovery.
Speaker 2 00:24:23 H R V provides an objective measure of the recovery process and allows the leader to gauge the effectiveness of the support and resources. With daily H R V monitoring, the leader needs to work with people to decide how and when data is shared. Involving people in decision making helps to position H R V as a supportive wellness tool and avoids being punitive. Furthermore, in certain occupations where lives hang in the balance, such as surgeons, construction workers, pilots, first responders, and police officers, significant drops in daily H R V might indicate a reduction in the capacity for effective decision making, physical agility and the ability to read critical social cues, leaders and their people should proactively strategize different interventions when these significant drops occur. Everyone should understand that any action taken after a considerable reduction in someone's H R V is based solely on safety considerations.
Speaker 2 00:25:26 We admit that we struggle with the above suggestion. As we know, leaders need these critical workers to show up for work and do their jobs. Most people want to work and often feel guilty when health and psychological issues prevent them from showing up for their teammates. In business leaders need to balance these considerations with the significant improvements to safety. Realize through thoughtful H R V monitoring daily readings might save lives. If reductions in mental, cognitive, or social functioning put people at risk. When using H R V to mitigate risk, the leader needs to ensure they use the information in a supportive way that avoids shame and stigma and protects the person's confidentiality. Just as daily HR V tracking helps leadership make crucial decisions on how personal or professional stress impacts people's safety and readiness. Daily readings also track recovery and show when a person is safe to return to work.
Speaker 2 00:26:27 We highly encourage leaders who manage these high risk positions to develop specific wellness plans that promote a collaborative approach for recovery while prioritizing safety. Finally, leaders should never use H R V or other biometrics in a punitive way. No person should ever receive punishment for a drop in H R V. Providing H R V data to a leader puts people in a vulnerable position. The only way H R V becomes a successful management tool is when implementation supports wellness. The minute that H R V is used to shame or punish people is the moment it becomes useless. Loss of trust between people and their leadership will make H R V data less trustworthy. As many will stop taking readings or have someone else take their reading for them.
