At some point in the workday, everyone feels it—little moments here and there where your work drains you or feels heavier than it should. Creativity melts through your fingers when you need it most. These experiences may not show up on a dashboard, but teams immediately feel when momentum or clarity decays.
Today’s organizations have an opportunity to capture a first-mover advantage: learning to read energy. To read it as information. “Energy literacy” means treating mental health as a living signal flowing through the body and shaping how people think, decide, and perform.
Replace out-of-context ideas about well-being with a shared skill positioning your organization to harness the best parts of your work.
Why this matters
People’s work performance is closely connected to how their bodies respond to stress, pressure, and recovery. How we think changes when we’re tired, overwhelmed, or well-rested. As a result, teams understanding this tend to move with more focus and fewer delays. Leaders who notice early signs of strain or depletion are better positioned to respond sooner, communicate more clearly, and maintain trust. This is where mental health stops being merely a benefit and starts becoming core strategy.
Companies building energy literacy don’t seek control. Rather, they acknowledge their most valuable asset is human capacity. NOTA Inclusion partners with organizations to design mental health programming to feel grounded, credible, and—most importantly—energizing. The goal is less inspiration, more learning-that-sticks because it reflects how work really feels.
What organizations can do
- Create shared language for energy states. Leaders introduce brief check-ins to name energy conditions before diving into decisions. This practice improves focus and reduces misalignment without asking for personal disclosure.
- Embed creativity as a stabilizing force. Use creative practices to help teams regulate stress and reconnect to purpose. Dayna Altman’s workshop, Mental Health and the Healing Power of Creativity, shows how creative expression supports clarity and emotional steadiness during periods of change.
- Embed creativity as a stabilizing force. Use creative practices to help teams regulate stress and reconnect to purpose. Dayna Altman’s workshop, Mental Health and the Healing Power of Creativity, shows how creative expression supports clarity and emotional steadiness during periods of change.
- Design movement into everyday work. Short, intentional movement resets are becoming part of meetings and team gatherings. Making Moves for Mental Health by Patrick “Pac Man” Perez equips teams with practical tools reconnecting body and mind, restoring motivation and mental clarity in real time.
- Plan work with recovery in mind. Teams can pair high-focus periods with intentional recovery windows. This design strengthens endurance, supports retention, and improves long-term execution.
