The Purpose Institute to support Healthways' Vitality Quest initiative

Healthways, Inc. (NASDAQ: HWAY), a Founding Member of The Purpose Institute, announced today that that the Institute has been engaged to support the Company’s recently announced Vitality Quest^SM initiative to help communities committed to the health, well-being and productivity of their citizens become Healthways-Blue Zones Vitality Cities^SM. In making the announcement, Healthways CEO Ben R. Leedle noted, “The Purpose Institute has an unparalleled track record of helping public- and private-sector leaders and organizations – including Whole Foods, Walmart, The American Red Cross, the American Council on Education and others – discover, articulate and align all stakeholders around a genuine and authentic purpose.”

“Our experience over the past decade dovetails precisely with the empirical research of Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner and noted business authors and analysts, like Jim Collins and Dan Pink”

“Under the leadership of Roy Spence,” Leedle continued, “The Purpose Institute is unquestionably the best in the nation at helping disparate groups within organizations and communities come together to discover and bring to life the core values and purpose needed to truly drive and sustain measurable, meaningful change. Neither community-wide nor individual well-being improvement can be effected with a national PR campaign. Real, sustained and measureable improvement requires all facets of a community to work together in all settings – where people live, work, eat, shop and socialize – to educate, encourage and support the culture, behaviors and activities that lead to improved well-being and happier, healthier, more productive people.”

The collaborative efforts of The Purpose Institute will include three initiatives each year to help communities engaged in the effort to become a Vitality City to evaluate or initiate the strong clarity of purpose, which research shows is critical for steady progress and ultimate success. Working principally with community-based employers, the Institute will provide guidance to business leaders with respect to enhancing their organizations’ engagement in and alignment to the identified purpose, as well as how to more fully engage their employees in the well-being improvement process.

At a project level, the Institute will work with the Vitality Cities team to evaluate city applications, provide consultative services to mayors and other city leaders, design and assure the delivery of purpose-based Vitality City projects, engage additional outside expertise and develop and deliver both national and local sponsorship models.

“Our experience over the past decade dovetails precisely with the empirical research of Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner and noted business authors and analysts, like Jim Collins and Dan Pink,” said The Purpose Institute founder and CEO Roy Spence. “People, individually and collectively, are motivated by purpose. We are seeing even more evidence of this phenomenon today, reflected in substantial increases in volunteerism, despite the impact of the continuing recession. This trend is particularly evident among Baby Boomers approaching retirement who – facing the prospect of many more years of life – are searching for their purpose, evaluating what they have accomplished and seeking to move from just being successful to being highly engaged in activities that will make a significant difference. The Healthways-Blue Zones Vitality City initiative is just such an effort and we’re proud to be involved in helping it happen.”

A national search is currently underway for the first Vitality City candidate. Civic or municipal leaders and organizations wanting to learn more or submit a Statement of Interest may do so by visiting www.vitality-city.com. The deadline for submission is May 14, 2010.

“Our collaborative work with The Purpose Institute, Blue Zones and Gallup to help individuals, organizations and communities improve their well-being is an example of our ‘joint effort philosophy,’” Leedle concluded. “That philosophy reflects our understanding that it will take the combined and focused efforts of a team of experts to drive meaningful measurable improvement in well-being for individuals, organizations, communities and the country. The research is clear. There is a strong link among well-being, healthcare costs and performance. For cities, the achievement of higher well-being for its citizens yields competitive advantage for economic development and job creation. For employers, it means greater productivity and better health in the workforce and dependent families, resulting in better business performance. For individuals, it simply means living well, longer. Helping achieve those results is our purpose.”