News

• Find Your Well-Being-Boosting Passion: 7 Inspiring Activities That Will Help You Find Your Flow

By IWIL Catalyst Team members Amy Kurlansky, Jessica T. Moore, and Jessie Spressart

At IWIL’s 2024 Well-Being-Week-in-Law, we gained inspiring insights about activities that people do to disconnect from work, revitalize their energy, stave off burnout, and feed their soul: music, knitting, photo walking, art journaling, travel, writing, and cooking.  If you missed any of these sessions, don’t fear: we summarize the takeaways here and give links to session recordings and materials.

• A Lawyer’s Guide to Not Being Part of the Problem: Practical Leadership Tips to Enhance Well-Being in Your Firm

By: Benjamin K. Grimes, BKG Leadership Coaching

You already know we’ve got pressure coming from all sides. From complex, emotionally taxing factual situations, to the rigorous pace of litigation, the intellectual nuance of regulatory compliance and contract drafting, or the pressures of high workloads or billable hour requirements, there are plenty of reasons for the high rates of stress, burnout, substance abuse, and mental health challenges. And making matters worse for many is the environment we’re asked to practice in – long on demands and short on empathy or compassion. To improve things, we often talk about sleep, exercise, gratitude, and the power of aligning with our values. I love all of these but wish our leadership practices weren’t so often left off the list of ways to make our workplaces healthier.

• Boosting Well-Being and Innovation through Smarter, More Inclusive Collaboration

By: Dr. Heidi K. Gardner, Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School, and Csilla Ilkei, Insights Director at Gardner & Co.

You know that sour feeling you get when people ignore your participation – or don’t bring you into the conversation? It triggers a chain of pounding questions about your worth as a colleague, and more broadly as a member of the larger organization (and oftentimes, even beyond). It can be hard to stop ruminating over the experience and get back to work.