David Green is an author, business founder and wellbeing enthusiast. Here, in the first of a series of posts on people in the wellbeing world, he talks to our Communications Officer, Robyn O’Mahony, about how he got interested in wellbeing and why he became a NOW Trustee.
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From Duty Manager to business owner
“I started my career in leisure, working as a Duty Manager at a local sports centre. This was a great role as it enabled me to keep fit and play semi-professional football, which I loved. However, the realities of married life, coupled with a football injury, soon saw me needing to earn more money, and I entered the world of financial services.
“Money is an important part of wellbeing, but it’s not everything.
“Over the next fourteen years, I worked for Lloyds Bank, Friends Provident and Aviva. I took on roles as a coach, financial advisor, marketing manager and brand strategy consultant. When the opportunity arose to take redundancy in 2012, I decided to set up my own business.
“Improveon was created to help individuals, teams and brands improve performance using the coaching, facilitation, brand and marketing skills I acquired throughout my career.
A focus on wellbeing
“When I was setting up Improveon, I read Flourish by the American Psychological Association’s ex-chairman, Martin Seligman. This was my first real introduction and deep dive into the concept of wellbeing, and a bit of a lightbulb moment. It occurred to me that all I’d learnt up to that point fitted within this exciting concept of wellbeing. It gave new meaning and a direction to my focus on improvement. This was what it was all about!
“Since then, I have devoured books, Massive Open Online Courses, indexes, videos, research papers and anything I could get my hands on to improve my knowledge of wellbeing. So much so, that I have written my own book, The Age of Wellbeing. I’ve also refocused my coaching, consulting and speaking services on wellbeing to help individuals, teams and organisations thrive.
The Network of Wellbeing
“The most recent addition to my work at Improveon is my Wellbeing Design for Business workshop. Free to download, it challenges businesses to rethink their model to one which supports a world where people and planet can thrive. This is also the central goal of the Network of Wellbeing.
“This work, along with the models from The Age of Wellbeing, were recently presented to eighty Resource Economics and Sustainable Development students at the University of Bologna. During this visit, we also presented the Production of Wellbeing (#POW) as an alternative to ROI, or other purely financial measures that businesses use for decision-making.
Wellbeing first
“It’s my current focus, and hope for the future, that we begin to see a systemic change in individuals, organisations, and communities where wellbeing is our organising principle. For me, ‘Wellism’, is the evolutionary next step from capitalism and communism, and can help us deliver a world where people and planet truly thrive.
Joining the Network of Wellbeing
“During my research into wellbeing, I came across the work of NOW. I attended many of their online events and even wrote a guest blog, back in 2016. I liked the collective spirit of NOW, which is emphasised through our values and work, in the area of ‘Building Wellbeing Together’.
“After engaging with the charity for some time, I was encouraged to apply for a Trustee role, and joined the team in 2022. I’m enjoying learning about being a Trustee and working to deliver as much value as I can to help move the organisation forward.
“NOW combines practicality with forward thinking and since conception, there are many more organisations working in the wellbeing space. I believe NOW can play an important role in convening these key changemakers to share best practice, find opportunities for greater collaboration, and amplify our collective work.
“I hope this will help us deliver our vision of people and planet thriving together”.