Something appears to have shifted in how serious organizations are thinking about mental health at work—and it’s worth paying attention to. For a long time, workplace well-being occupied a specific corner of organizational life. Often considered important but far from critical, it was frequently seen as an afterthought. At worst, it was judged irrelevant to growth and commercial performance.
What’s changing, according to a recent piece in Forbes by Dr. Michele Nealon, President of The Chicago School, is where mental health support now sits in the organizational hierarchy. It’s moved from a benefit to an intentionally designed infrastructure piece.
The article cites the McKinsey Health Institute, which estimates that every dollar invested in mental health interventions has the potential to return five. Their findings show that absenteeism rose 33% in 2023. And 81% of employees now factor mental health support into decisions about where to work—and whether to stay.
For anyone leading teams or shaping culture, the question therefore shifts from “do we offer wellbeing support?” to “are the conditions we’ve designed enabling a sustainable business model?”
What’s interesting about Nealon’s framing is the concept of a “mental health economy”—the idea that organizational success is increasingly tied to how well leaders model and integrate well-being into everyday operations, decision-making, and culture.
This perspective moves the conversation away from programs and benefits toward something more structural: how we design work.
The Chicago School’s own experience points to one practical implication of this. Their shift was to build participatory models—involving faculty, staff, and students directly in designing their working environment. Nealon points out that the World Health Organization connects this kind of inclusive approach to a 74% reduction in burnout.
It’s not complicated: people who have some agency in how they work tend to fare better than those who don’t.
One pattern we notice repeatedly in our work at Drum Team Collective is the moment teams are given shared ownership of a unified rhythm, their entire behavior shifts. The collective energy in the room completely buzzes. When you put a pair of drumsticks in someone's hands and lock into a groove together, it requires active listening, mutual trust, and total presence. Designing a time and place for this kind of collaborative, interactive expression sends a powerful signal that every individual rhythm matters to the larger arrangement.
For business and team leaders, HR directors, and CEOs, the harder question is one of accountability. Nealon is direct about the mental health factor, though, convinced it’s no longer purely an individual resilience issue. Culture, leadership behaviors, and system design all shape the conditions people work within. Access to an Employee Assistance Program matters, but on its own, it doesn’t create psychological safety or sustained performance. That requires something more consistent: leaders who model collaboration, create space for honest communication, and design environments with human alignment in mind.
None of this is particularly radical. But there’s a gap between knowing it and building organizations around it.
Stories like this suggest those institutions most likely to navigate the next decade of workforce complexity—rising expectations, talent competition, the ongoing aftermath of pandemic-era burnout—are likely to be those treating mental health as a structural issue rather than a supplementary one.
Not just because it’s the right thing to do (though it is), but because the cost of not doing so is becoming measurable in higher absenteeism rates, rising turnover, and declining innovation. That measurement is getting both harder to overlook and clearly more detrimental to adaptability, alignment, and profit margins.
That seems worth thinking about, whatever sector you’re in.
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You lead or advise on company culture, employee engagement, and retention. Your organization already invests in building a positive workplace, and now you’re seeking fresh, experiential ways to energize and unite your teams. Your leadership knows that without high-level collaboration and communication, your competitive edge is at risk. So, you’re determined to create the conditions that spark creativity, drive innovation, build psychological safety, and foster deep belonging.
Drum Team Collective: Rock and Roll Team Building. We are a squad of world-class, touring professional musicians who use the interactive power of rhythm to bond teams and amplify your culture. For thousands of years, humans have used rhythm to synchronize, communicate, and unite communities. Why? Because it breaks down barriers instantly. We help your workforce lock into the same groove, proving that when everyone plays their part, you create an unstoppable collective sound.
