Doing Our Bit for Men’s Health: Movember at NKD
‘Movember’ has become such an important part of the year and is so well known that when one of my friends said he wasn’t participating this year, my other friend said, “So, I guess for you, it’s NO-vember…”
*crickets* *blank looks* *awkwardness*
In addition to growing moustaches and raising money for men’s health organisations (you can donate to our team page here:
https://uk.movember.com/team/2390998), this year, at NKD, we shared a number of resources internally to coincide with each of our weekly focuses.
Week 1: Get Thinking!
In our first week, to kick things off, we encouraged our male colleagues to ‘check in’ with themselves and to ‘Get Thinking’. By encouraging our male colleagues to reflect and ask themselves ‘how am I doing?’ and encouraging them to be honest, we can create a space for them to reach out and talk to someone.
We shared this crucial statistic below and also the following clip from the Movember YouTube Channel.
Week 2: Get Active!
The second Movember focus we had was on our physical health. While we’re a fairly active bunch at NKD, lockdown has made getting active that little bit harder… so we organised a lunchtime Zoom Yoga session! Led by the amazing Imogen North, it was a great chance to connect our minds and bodies and promote a healthy lifestyle!
Week 3: Get Talking!
Each month, we have a monthly ‘Tea+Talk’ session, where we can get together and… have a tea and talk together! At these sessions, we share openly and discuss our thoughts and feelings on any number of topics. In the past, we’ve discussed family pressures, dealing grief, managing personal finances, tips and tricks to stay motivated and energised… and even sometimes we just use it as space to have a vent!
This month, we devoted our Tea+Talk to the topic of ‘self-esteem’ and we shared what builds our self-esteem, what can tear it down and how we can get better at managing those little voices in our head.
Week 4: Get Checked!
The final piece in the Movember puzzle is encouraging men to take more responsibility for their health, encouraging them to get checked for testicular and prostate cancer. To shine some light on this topic, we shared the BBC Documentary, “Me, My Brother and Our Balls”.
Our moustache growing efforts were put the test when we paraded them in front of our colleagues and Laurence’s bushy handlebars were crowned by Sue as the most stylish moustache! Well done Laurence!
A Final Thought…
NKD is not alone in running Movember events – you only need to log on to LinkedIn to see individuals and whole teams participating in various event with various types of moustaches. What Movember highlights is that the greatest employee engagement comes when teams or individuals are given space and support to try something different and that when they feel connected to something worthwhile and important, they will go above and beyond to achieve.
Men’s health issues don’t stop after 30th November – to find out more, head to www.movember.co.uk, keep donating to various men’s health charities, and, guys, remember to keep thinking, being active, talking and getting checked.
HAPPY MOVEMBER EVERYONE!