Well-Being Has a Culture Problem and the Four Fundamental Truths Behind Real Change
Mary Rose Connolly is the founder of POSA Consulting and an experienced international educator with over 20 years in schools in Ireland and the UAE. She works with teens, families, and schools, bringing a strong background in positive health, wellbeing, and safeguarding to provide clear, personalised educational guidance.
Well-being at work has become big business. From yoga classes and lunchtime talks to therapy apps and team socials, companies are investing heavily in the idea that happier employees make better employees. On paper, it sounds progressive, but in reality, it often feels a bit like throwing darts in the dark. Good intentions do not always result in good outcomes, particularly when we are not quite sure about the ‘why’. The problem with well-being is that, essentially, it is not tangible or truly definable as it means different things in different contexts, it's elusive and always just beyond our grasp, and yet the research shows it works. Organisations that do it ‘right’ see the results. But ‘right’ is equally elusive, so how do you apply the best principles to your context? The starting point has to be culture.
There are four fundamental truths that we must accept in order to truly embed wellbeing as a driver of innovation and standards.
Truth 1: Culture is the foundation
Number one, well-being cannot exist without a clear understanding of the context of your company and the vision of the culture you want to create. Without a clear vision and a shared acceptance of its objectives, no amount of wellbeing ‘activity’ will have the desired impact. Employers will continue to pay for initiatives and hope for engagement, employees will continue to show up, enjoy the moment, and then walk straight back into the same environment that made them need the yoga class in the first place, and most importantly, with the same attitude. Money will be spent, but nothing will really change in the long term.
Truth 2: Well-being is about engagement, not happiness
The second fundamental truth is that well-being is about engagement, not happiness. No adult is responsible for another person’s happiness, not even in the workplace. Most of us are busy enough managing our own happiness, let alone being responsible for someone else's. Yet somewhere along the way, workplace wellbeing has become synonymous with keeping everyone content. The result? A cycle of short-term fixes and long-term frustration.
Since COVID, a good example of this is around flexible work locations, staff want the autonomy to work from a location of their choice. Employers allow some flexibility and write it into policy - some staff performance goes down, management gets frustrated, and the company revokes the policy (often seen as a privilege), much to the annoyance of those who continued to perform at a high level. Policies protect companies and staff and ensure compliance and fairness, but arguably, and possibly controversially, the best employees will never ‘need’ the parameters of those policies. They will work hard, come in when sick, be available when they should be off (the list is endless), and yet when that employee asks for something, companies often invoke policies, telling them they need to be ‘fair’.
This is where the idea of ‘fairness’ gets messy. Is fairness really treating everyone the same, regardless of effort, output, or accountability? Policies exist to create consistency, yes, but your strongest people rarely need them. They show up, step up, and go beyond because that is who they are, and yet, when they ask for flexibility or trust, they’re often met with rigid rules designed for all. I am not suggesting a two-tier approach or a system that shamelessly promotes your best workers and punishes others, but is there an entirely different approach that we can take? Is it possible to take this metaphorical jigsaw completely apart and remake it to become the vision that we want - one that prioritises culture, connection, belonging, and performance in equal measure? Because culture is where wellbeing actually lives.
Truth 3: People cannot flourish in fear
The third fundamental truth when creating a culture of wellbeing is that people cannot flourish in fear. Every successful person on the planet has referenced how failure brought them success. And yet, often in the workplace, we punish those who step outside the line, who misstep, even inadvertently, and punish them through performance reviews, investigations, written warnings, or worse, social isolation. In high-performing environments, there’s a universal commitment to the belief that things can always be done better.
Conversations happen, and mistakes are not quietly punished but used as fuel for growth. Positive organisational scholarship explores ways in which human potential can be unlocked in the workplace. It investigates what makes some organisations and their employees flourish and identifies positive processes, strengths and behaviours that can be adopted by all organisations to improve performance. It understands that well-being is not about happiness but about how connection, belonging, and culture can enhance resilience, improve communication, and ultimately output. In layman’s terms, it wants to prove that a culture of wellbeing can drive standards.
Truth 4: Leadership must live well-being
Here is the final fundamental truth: Well-being in the workplace cannot thrive unless those who lead believe in it. In today’s drive for wellbeing, leaders often have to adopt ideas and policies ‘for the sake of it’, which undermines the whole concept of what they are trying to do to begin with. Leaders at the highest levels must live what they want to see. Wellbeing is knowing your company, wellbeing is designing the culture you want to embed, purposefully creating processes which foster this culture, and driving it through behaviour and communication at every level.
Adaptive complex systems
If your organisation is a system, then wellbeing must be embedded within it and drive systems thinking. Those who do this successfully create adaptive, complex systems that learn from experience, remain flexible and reflective, and ultimately have the potential to teach themselves how to solve their own problems.
So stop spending money on aimless activities and start by auditing your staff's wellbeing levels. Collate and analyse the data to build a clear picture of how effective your current culture really is before planning how you will effectively invest in wellbeing. Stop asking if people are happy and start measuring their engagement. Happy staff doesn’t tell you they’re happy, they show it!
Read more from Mary Rose Connolly
Mary Rose Connolly, Wellbeing-Led Education Consultant
Mary Rose Connolly is an international educator and school leader with over 20 years’ experience supporting young people and families in Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. Beginning as an English teacher, she developed a lasting belief in student voice and in empowering teenagers to grow into confident, capable adults. As a senior leader, she embedded well-being into school culture to strengthen relationships and drive outcomes. In 2025, she founded POSA Consulting to champion young people and provide trusted, unbiased guidance to families throughout their educational journey.
