Sowing the seeds of a healthy workplace, one plant seminar at a time.
Photo: Victoria Meadows
Being in a leadership role often involves a never-ending search to find new ways to reach and motivate your staff. It’s a quest that Sherry Bohn, PhD, MSL, CBSP, executive director of the Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) in the Division of Administration and Finance (A&F), knows well. When she accepted her position with the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) more than two years ago, Bohn inherited a department with communication challenges; mostly a distinct lack of it.
While she’s a scientist by training, Bohn holds dual bachelor degrees in biology and theater, so she understands the importance of engaging her audience. Working to improve the culture, she implemented a range of initiatives including monthly staff meetings.
To give her staff meetings structure and relevance, Bohn decided to focus on the A&F Guiding Principles. For 2024, she selected sustainability and well-being, but she was open to all ideas. Bohn’s staff meetings have included everything from collaborative painting endeavors and themed bingo games to a surprisingly engaging psychic medium, all of which provided staff the opportunity to learn something about their colleagues and their role at the University. Recently, Bohn heard from a colleague about “Let's Grow Together: A Plant Workshop with Victoria Meadows.” Her curiosity piqued, she reached out to Meadows, MS, who is the manager of UMB's Enterprise Risk Management program.
“A colleague made a passing comment about how Victoria had come to their department and done this plant workshop and how she was super in to plants,” Bohn said. “I asked Victoria if she could do a presentation to my team on the benefits plants can have on the office environment and emotional well-being.”
The Science of Green
While touting the emotional and mental health benefits of plants may sound like new-age thinking, the science says the therapeutic effect of plants is real. Numerous peer-reviewed studies have shown that growing plants can “reduce physiological and psychological stress,” “create a pleasant atmosphere that positively influences patients' well-being,” and even provide “improvements in attention and concentration” among students.
As with any outside-the-box endeavor, Bohn wasn’t sure how the workshop would be received. “I have about 24 staff total and just about everybody was at the plant workshop. They were polite listeners, and there were lots of questions. But just like with the psychic medium, the proof would be in how they respond to the interactive portion of the presentation.”
Much to her delight, she said that every person in the room enthusiastically lined up to “get their hands dirty and pot some plants.” The team’s response was so enthusiastic that “even Miss Charlotte, who is our EVS custodian for the building, looked in to see what all the commotion was about. And I was like, 'Get in here!' She was thrilled to be included and wound up making two plants of her own.”
The enthusiasm was not surprising to Meadows, who has held a number of plant seminars over the past 15 months. The idea for the plant workshops came about organically, as they say.
“Anna Borgerding, [assistant vice president, Facilities and Operations], suggested that I speak with Elizabeth Main, [director of the UMB Office of Sustainability], about my love of plants to see if a workshop could happen on campus that the Office of Sustainability would host to teach our UMB family about how to take care of indoor plants,” says Meadows. “In October of 2023, the Office of Sustainability and the Office of Enterprise Risk Management joined efforts and put on the first plant workshop on campus.”
“During that first workshop it was Elizabeth and I giving a plant lecture on how to take care of plants and the benefits of plants. We gave out some sustainability goodies as well as free plants,” she said.
The overwhelming feedback from that first presentation provided her with proof of concept, and so the idea took root.
“Since then, the workshops have evolved with just me doing a live planting demonstration as well as still doing a PowerPoint presentation of how to take care of plants and the benefits of plants.”
Meadows says the typical reception is “excitement, enthusiasm, apprehension because individuals really want to be a good plant parent so they walk in with a little bit of apprehension but leave feeling equipped that they can keep their plants alive and be a good plant parent," she says. "I also get joy and happiness for appreciating the need of plants and a sense of gratitude in sharing my love of plants. Overall, my goal always is to ensure that everyone walks away with valuable information to keep their plants healthy and happy, but also to give individuals confidence that 'they got this' and to enjoy their plants.”
Bohn says her team appreciated how Meadows was able to demystify the plant-growing experience.
“She’s engaging and fun, and she answered tons of questions. She said things like, ‘It's like this. If you do this, you can't kill them. Just try it.’ She even gave us a cheat-sheet handout. Everybody left the meeting with a plant and a smile on their face.”
In the end, it proved to be a great way for Bohn to keep her staff engaged while sowing the seeds of some scientifically validated well-being and sustainability for her team.
If you or anyone on your team is interested in having Meadows bring her green thumb to their corner of UMB, you can email her at victoria.meadows@umaryland.edu to set up a time for a workshop.