Bowen White
MD
MO, USBowen F. White, M.D., combines the talents and expertise of a physician, speaker, consultant, clown, and author. He and his clown character, "Dr. Jerko," travel throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia, and Africa conducting seminars, consulting to businesses, and speaking to public and private organizations. His message is truly "international." As an organizational physician, Dr. White has developed training programs in the areas of Team Building, Leadership, Healthy Work Environments, Performance Enhancement, Managing Change, Sales, Ethics, and Communications. His programs emphasize the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own health and well being, and they offer help for organizations to create productive and healthy workplaces.
In 1983, Bowen founded the Department of Preventive & Stress Medicine for Baptist Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri one of the first such departments in the United States. He served as Medical Director of that department and the Department of Wellness and Health Promotion before leaving to pursue a private practice and a career as a consultant and speaker.
Besides being written up on the front page of the "Wall Street Journal" and appearing on national television programs, Bowen is often interviewed by radio, newspaper, and magazine journalists. He is at ease before any size audience. He has many years of experience as a weekly TV Health commentator for Kansas City's CBS-TV affiliate, and he has written a weekly newspaper column for the "Kansas City Business Journal," entitled "Patient Potential." In addition, Bowen contributes his time and expertise to The Gesundheit! Institute (founded by Dr. Patch Adams) and he is the father of four daughters!
MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
Why Normal Isn't Healthy
Doing what comes naturally - what millions of years of evolution have programmed us to do -may be perfectly normal, but it's not necessarily healthy. Where, in the headlong "progress" of the human race, do you really fit in? This program is devoted to the proposition that a whole, healthy, heartfelt life is something that each of us must and can learn-and earn-anew. Funny, incisive, and persuasive, this doctor's prescription is as easy to swallow, as it is effective: laugh, misbehave, make mistakes, and through it all discover your very own potential for health, healing, and wholeness.
Servant Leadership
To lead is to serve. The maxim sounds good but what does it mean to you as you strive to manage your organization? How do your attitudes as a manager towards power, responsibility, honesty and control shape the workday environment and influence each employee's contribution to your organization? This presentation revels the meaning behind the maxim. Come find out how you can move beyond your perceptual boundaries to become a leader who not only serves the common good but honors the individual as well.
Leadership vs. Squeezership
Leadership involves getting people to do or try something they may not think they want or can do. Squeezership has to do with forcing people to do something they don't have any choice about. Leadership is about engaging people in a process, giving them credit for choosing to participate, joining them, encouraging them in the quest. Leadership is about recognizing that anything's possible if you're willing to not take credit for it.
Creating A Healthy Workplace
What is funny? Take a moment and think about this. When you look over the breadth of your life, aren't some of the funniest moments that involve pain, a problem or some kind of discomfort? You may encounter pain and problems daily with co-workers, family members or strangers. Perhaps you were the one with the pain or the problem. But right where you are, humor waits like a jewel to be discovered. What are the impediments to discovery? What is the true value of this jewel, psychologically and physically? You will see why going a little crazy may be absolutely necessary for sanity.
Communications & Team Building In A Time Of Change
Life isn't fair. That should be no surprise. We all heard it's a jungle out here. The question is: Is there a way that we can relate to each other that will compensate for that unfairness and seek to heal it at the same time? You see it isn't just that people treat us unfairly; we also do the same thing. Owning that, we recognize that we are part of the problem. Being part of the problem, of necessity, we must be part of the solution.
Relational Intelligence
Putting our highest ethical values into ACTION
In order to create a trusting environment at home or at work one has to lead by example. Articulating our ethics and values is fine although that won't get the job done. Everyone is familiar with the "do as I say not as I do" leadership style. And that leadership style will never influence others to risk being vulnerable which only happens in a trusting environment.
Our actions speak volumes that can put the lie to our noble words. And now science has caught up with that truth through the discovery of mirror neurons in our brains.
It really is "follow the leader", not so much by what he/she says but by what they DO.
It turns out that our brains have neurons that mirror what other people DO. This means that we have a "wireless" connection to those folks that we lead and serve. Whether we are aware of it or not our mirror neurons tune into the emotions of others through their ACTIONS. And those actions then reproduce their emotions in us through our mirror neurons. Empathy then results which allows us to identify with and understand another's situation, feelings and motives. And a trusting work environment requires empathetic leadership.
For example, give positive performance feedback to folks while displaying negative emotional facial signals and they feel worse about their performance than those given negative performance feedback while receiving positive, lighthearted emotional gestures. Remember, "the media is the message"? How we give feedback is more important than what we say. The quality of the emotional energy that we DISPLAY sets the tone not only in us, but in them !
So the mood of the leader infects those being led. A leader that DISPLAYS a light, friendly, playful and positive mood infects those being led with a positive contagion. You've heard "a bad apple can spoil the whole barrel". We're not apples. But the metaphor holds. And the reverse is true. Fabio Sala found top performing leaders: "elicited laughter from their subordinates three times as often, on average, as did midperforming leaders". I'm a doctor. Laughter may not be the best medicine but it is a great social lubricant. It connects us to each other through our mirror neurons. And a workplace where people feel connected to the leader is a safer place to risk living out our highest, most noble values.
This one day program is about coaching those present toward defining those ethical values they want to put into ACTION, about the roadblocks that need to be overcome and how they can use the concepts of Relational Intelligence to implement the BEHAVIORS that set the tone for a trusting workplace. And we'll have some fun at the same time! (The leader, while the author of two books, WHY NORMAL ISN'T HEALTHY and A CLINICIANS GUIDE TO SPIRITUALITY is Vice President of Fun for the National Institute for Play.)
OTHER PROGRAMS AVAILABLE:
Core Values In Action
Ethics
Humor in the Workplace
Managing Change
Relational Selling
The Joy of Service
Using Stress to Power Peak Performance
The Juggling Act - Balancing Multiple Priorities
Other specific topics tailored to client's organization are also available
BOOKS:
Why Normal Isn't Healthy
Clinician's Guide to Spirituality (co-author)
Bowen F. White, M.D., combines the talents and expertise of a physician, speaker, consultant, clown, and author. He and his clown character, "Dr. Jerko," travel throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia, and Africa conducting seminars, consulting to businesses, and speaking to public and private organizations. His message is truly "international." As an organizational physician, Dr. White has developed training programs in the areas of Team Building, Leadership, Healthy Work Environments, Performance Enhancement, Managing Change, Sales, Ethics, and Communications. His programs emphasize the need for individuals to take responsibility for their own health and well being, and they offer help for organizations to create productive and healthy workplaces.
In 1983, Bowen founded the Department of Preventive & Stress Medicine for Baptist Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri one of the first such departments in the United States. He served as Medical Director of that department and the Department of Wellness and Health Promotion before leaving to pursue a private practice and a career as a consultant and speaker.
Besides being written up on the front page of the "Wall Street Journal" and appearing on national television programs, Bowen is often interviewed by radio, newspaper, and magazine journalists. He is at ease before any size audience. He has many years of experience as a weekly TV Health commentator for Kansas City's CBS-TV affiliate, and he has written a weekly newspaper column for the "Kansas City Business Journal," entitled "Patient Potential." In addition, Bowen contributes his time and expertise to The Gesundheit! Institute (founded by Dr. Patch Adams) and he is the father of four daughters!
MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
Why Normal Isn't Healthy
Doing what comes naturally - what millions of years of evolution have programmed us to do -may be perfectly normal, but it's not necessarily healthy. Where, in the headlong "progress" of the human race, do you really fit in? This program is devoted to the proposition that a whole, healthy, heartfelt life is something that each of us must and can learn-and earn-anew. Funny, incisive, and persuasive, this doctor's prescription is as easy to swallow, as it is effective: laugh, misbehave, make mistakes, and through it all discover your very own potential for health, healing, and wholeness.
Servant Leadership
To lead is to serve. The maxim sounds good but what does it mean to you as you strive to manage your organization? How do your attitudes as a manager towards power, responsibility, honesty and control shape the workday environment and influence each employee's contribution to your organization? This presentation revels the meaning behind the maxim. Come find out how you can move beyond your perceptual boundaries to become a leader who not only serves the common good but honors the individual as well.
Leadership vs. Squeezership
Leadership involves getting people to do or try something they may not think they want or can do. Squeezership has to do with forcing people to do something they don't have any choice about. Leadership is about engaging people in a process, giving them credit for choosing to participate, joining them, encouraging them in the quest. Leadership is about recognizing that anything's possible if you're willing to not take credit for it.
Creating A Healthy Workplace
What is funny? Take a moment and think about this. When you look over the breadth of your life, aren't some of the funniest moments that involve pain, a problem or some kind of discomfort? You may encounter pain and problems daily with co-workers, family members or strangers. Perhaps you were the one with the pain or the problem. But right where you are, humor waits like a jewel to be discovered. What are the impediments to discovery? What is the true value of this jewel, psychologically and physically? You will see why going a little crazy may be absolutely necessary for sanity.
Communications & Team Building In A Time Of Change
Life isn't fair. That should be no surprise. We all heard it's a jungle out here. The question is: Is there a way that we can relate to each other that will compensate for that unfairness and seek to heal it at the same time? You see it isn't just that people treat us unfairly; we also do the same thing. Owning that, we recognize that we are part of the problem. Being part of the problem, of necessity, we must be part of the solution.
Relational Intelligence
Putting our highest ethical values into ACTION
In order to create a trusting environment at home or at work one has to lead by example. Articulating our ethics and values is fine although that won't get the job done. Everyone is familiar with the "do as I say not as I do" leadership style. And that leadership style will never influence others to risk being vulnerable which only happens in a trusting environment.
Our actions speak volumes that can put the lie to our noble words. And now science has caught up with that truth through the discovery of mirror neurons in our brains.
It really is "follow the leader", not so much by what he/she says but by what they DO.
It turns out that our brains have neurons that mirror what other people DO. This means that we have a "wireless" connection to those folks that we lead and serve. Whether we are aware of it or not our mirror neurons tune into the emotions of others through their ACTIONS. And those actions then reproduce their emotions in us through our mirror neurons. Empathy then results which allows us to identify with and understand another's situation, feelings and motives. And a trusting work environment requires empathetic leadership.
For example, give positive performance feedback to folks while displaying negative emotional facial signals and they feel worse about their performance than those given negative performance feedback while receiving positive, lighthearted emotional gestures. Remember, "the media is the message"? How we give feedback is more important than what we say. The quality of the emotional energy that we DISPLAY sets the tone not only in us, but in them !
So the mood of the leader infects those being led. A leader that DISPLAYS a light, friendly, playful and positive mood infects those being led with a positive contagion. You've heard "a bad apple can spoil the whole barrel". We're not apples. But the metaphor holds. And the reverse is true. Fabio Sala found top performing leaders: "elicited laughter from their subordinates three times as often, on average, as did midperforming leaders". I'm a doctor. Laughter may not be the best medicine but it is a great social lubricant. It connects us to each other through our mirror neurons. And a workplace where people feel connected to the leader is a safer place to risk living out our highest, most noble values.
This one day program is about coaching those present toward defining those ethical values they want to put into ACTION, about the roadblocks that need to be overcome and how they can use the concepts of Relational Intelligence to implement the BEHAVIORS that set the tone for a trusting workplace. And we'll have some fun at the same time! (The leader, while the author of two books, WHY NORMAL ISN'T HEALTHY and A CLINICIANS GUIDE TO SPIRITUALITY is Vice President of Fun for the National Institute for Play.)
OTHER PROGRAMS AVAILABLE:
Core Values In Action
Ethics
Humor in the Workplace
Managing Change
Relational Selling
The Joy of Service
Using Stress to Power Peak Performance
The Juggling Act - Balancing Multiple Priorities
Other specific topics tailored to client's organization are also available
BOOKS:
Why Normal Isn't Healthy
Clinician's Guide to Spirituality (co-author)
