Explore the Human Factors Behind Workforce Performance
Organizations invest heavily in skills, training, leadership, technology, and culture. Chemistry at Work™ explores another dimension of performance: the human factors that influence how people feel, think, focus, recover, and perform.
What Influences Workforce Performance?
Performance is shaped by more than skills and systems. Every employee brings a human system to work each day, influencing energy, focus, mood, resilience, recovery, decision-making, and day-to-day function.
That understanding creates a foundation for greater self-awareness, more informed choices, and deeper engagement with health and wellbeing resources.
A Learning Environment Built for Exploration
The Discovery Plaza gives employees a clear sense of place as they move through a connected learning journey. Each destination explores a different aspect of the relationship between biology and performance.
A Connected Learning Experience
The Discovery Plaza is designed as a connected learning experience. Each destination explores a different aspect of the relationship between biology and performance, helping employees build a broader understanding of the human factors that influence how they feel, think, and perform at work.
Introduces the foundational relationship between biology and performance and gives employees a framework for the journey ahead.
01Explores how screening and personal data can add context to individual biological patterns and performance factors.
02Examines vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other nutritional building blocks that support human systems.
03Connects neurotransmitters with mood, motivation, focus, emotional steadiness, and resilience.
04Explores how food choices can influence energy, concentration, mood, recovery, and daily performance.
05Explores food-first nutrition, individual needs, personalization, and appropriate supplementation.
06Introduces practical strategies related to focus, engagement, stress, recovery, and performance.
07Explore the Performance Discovery Center
Employees learn through guided exploration rather than conventional training slides. Narration, visuals, reflection, and interaction work together to introduce concepts and encourage understanding.
Build a Food for Mood Plate
Concepts are reinforced through interactive activities that encourage exploration and application. Here, employees make choices and see how the composition of a meal changes its biological context.
Progress Becomes Visible
The Performance Passport gives employees a visual record of where they have been and what they have completed. Destination badges reinforce progress across the Discovery Plaza.
Performance Passport
A visual record of exploration across the Discovery Plaza.
Destination Progress
Completion is represented visually so employees can see their progression through the broader learning experience.
Learning Connects Back to the Individual
Reflection activities help employees connect concepts to their own experience. The Progress Report brings those responses together into a personal summary.
Performance Exploration Summary
A learner-facing summary brings together reflection responses and areas of personal interest.
From Information to Awareness
Reflection helps transform general information into something personally meaningful.
Understanding Creates Opportunity
Chemistry at Work™ helps employees better understand the factors that influence energy, focus, mood, resilience, recovery, and day-to-day performance. That understanding can support more informed choices for individuals while giving organizations a scalable way to strengthen the broader workforce performance conversation.
For Employees
For Organizations
A Different Way to Explore Workforce Performance
Chemistry at Work™ combines interactive learning, guided exploration, reflection, and practical application to help employees better understand the human factors that influence performance.
Choose a destination on the map
Select any destination to preview what employees explore in that section of Chemistry at Work™.
Performance Discovery Center
Chemistry at Work™
Discovery
Center
Insight
Center
Science
Center
Chemistry
Lab
Mood
Market
Supplementation
Studio
Performance
Lab
HERE
Performance Discovery Center
Start here. Discover what nutrients are, what a nutrient imbalance means, and how nutrient status can influence the way we feel and function.
Performance Discovery Center
Step inside to explore how nutrients, biological balance, and interconnected systems can influence the way we feel and function every day.
Your Body Runs on Chemistry.
Every cell in your body depends on nutrients. They help provide building materials and support the biological processes involved in energy, brain function, muscle function, recovery, metabolism and much more.
Before we can understand a nutrient imbalance, we first need to understand what nutrients are.
What Are Nutrients?
Nutrients are substances the body needs to function. We obtain many of them through food, and the body uses them in different ways.
What Is a Nutrient Imbalance?
A nutrient imbalance occurs when the amount or availability of one or more nutrients does not match what the body needs.
When Needs Are Met
Nutrients are available to participate in the processes that depend on them.
When Needs Aren't Fully Met
The body may have less of what it needs to support certain biological processes efficiently.
Nutrition Connects to Everyday Function.
Nutrients participate in many of the systems involved in how we feel and function. Select an area to explore the connection.
Choose an area above.
You'll see how nutrients participate in that part of everyday function.
Your Chemistry Works Like an Ecosystem.
Nutrients do not work independently. They participate in connected biological systems and pathways.
Because these systems are connected, one imbalance may affect more than one pathway. That is why nutritional status is better understood as part of a larger biological picture.
If nutrient imbalances can influence how we feel and function, how do we know what's happening?
Symptoms can provide clues, but they don't always tell us what is happening beneath the surface.
Testing & Insight Center
Step inside to explore how symptoms, screening, biomarkers, and patterns can provide additional insight into what may be happening beneath the surface.
How Do We Know What's Happening?
How we feel can give us useful clues, but a symptom rarely explains its own cause. Fatigue, brain fog, low motivation or changes in mood can arise from many different biological and lifestyle factors.
Testing gives us another window into the picture. It can help identify measurable patterns that are difficult to see from symptoms alone.
One Symptom Can Have Many Possible Explanations.
Choose a symptom. Notice how many different factors could potentially contribute to the same experience.
Select a symptom above.
The goal is not to diagnose the symptom. It is to understand why additional information may be useful.
Different Tests Answer Different Questions.
Nutritional assessment can use different specimen types. Each provides a different kind of information, which is why the test should match the question being asked.
A Test Result Is Information, Not the Whole Story.
Laboratory data can be extremely useful, but it is most meaningful when viewed in context.
Testing Can Help
- Measure selected biomarkers.
- Identify values outside or near reference ranges.
- Reveal patterns that may not be obvious from symptoms.
- Provide a baseline for future comparison.
Testing Does Not
- Explain every symptom by itself.
- Measure every nutrient or biological process.
- Replace medical evaluation when one is needed.
- Turn a single number into the full picture of health.
The Value Is in the Pattern.
A more useful picture comes from combining multiple sources of information rather than relying on one symptom or one laboratory number.
Testing is not about chasing perfect numbers. It is about gaining useful information that can help someone better understand their individual nutritional and biological picture.
If testing helps us identify nutritional clues, what are the nutrients we're looking at?
Next, step into the Nutrient Science Center and meet the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that help support the chemistry of everyday function.
Nutrient Science Center
Step into the classroom to explore vitamins, minerals, amino acids, nutrient relationships, and the larger chemical story behind everyday function.
Meet the Nutrients.
This classroom is your interactive nutrient learning center. Choose any nutrient lesson to review common food sources, established biological roles, nutrient connections, and documented signs or research associations related to low status.
You do not need to review every lesson. Explore what catches your attention.
Choose a Nutrient.
Select a category, then choose any nutrient to open its learning profile.
Select a nutrient
ExhibitWhat It Does
Common Food Sources
Food sources will appear here.
Works With
When Levels Are Low
Documented deficiency signs or carefully described research associations will appear here.
Learning Note
Select a nutrient to explore.
Start With an Experience.
Research and documented deficiency patterns connect some nutrient states with common experiences. These overlaps are one reason symptoms alone cannot identify a nutrient imbalance.
Choose an experience above.
You'll see examples of nutrients with documented deficiency signs or research associations in that area.
Nutrients Become Part of a Much Larger Chemical Story.
Vitamins and minerals participate as cofactors and regulators. Amino acids can become building materials and precursors. Together, they participate in pathways involved in cellular signaling, metabolism, and brain chemistry.
So what happens when these raw materials and cofactors enter the brain's chemical signaling systems?
Brain Chemistry Lab
Step inside to explore the chemical messengers, networks, and biological systems that participate in mood, focus, motivation, resilience, and performance.
Your Brain Speaks Chemistry.
Neurons communicate using chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. These signaling systems participate in movement, learning, alertness, sleep, mood, attention, and many other aspects of brain function.
Here, we'll start with everyday experiences, then look at the neurotransmitter systems that help participate in them.
How Do You Want to Feel or Function?
Choose an area below. You'll see several neurotransmitter systems that commonly participate, plus practical food and movement connections that support overall brain health.
Focus & Attention
Focus depends on coordinated activity across many brain networks. Several neurotransmitter systems participate in attention, learning, arousal, and task engagement.
What systems participate?
Multiple neurotransmitters contribute to the experience.
Commonly Involved Messengers
What You May Notice
Practical Connections
Food Pattern
Movement & Daily Rhythm
Ten Chemical Messengers + Cortisol.
Select a messenger to see some of its established roles. This collection includes neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and hormones because all of them participate in the broader chemistry of how we feel and function.
Select a neurotransmitter.
You'll see established roles and the dietary precursor or nutrient connections that participate in its pathway.
Nutrient & Precursor Connections
Select a messenger.
Food Sources for Those Nutrients
Select a messenger.
Other Influences on the System
Select a messenger.
Brain Chemistry Is a Network.
The same neurotransmitter can participate in several experiences, and the same experience can involve several neurotransmitter systems. That is why simple labels like “dopamine equals motivation” or “serotonin equals happiness” miss most of the biology.
Food supplies many of the raw materials used throughout these pathways, while movement, sleep, light exposure, stress, learning, and social experience influence the nervous system and hormone systems in different ways.
Next, we'll move from brain chemistry to the everyday food environment where many of those raw materials begin.
Food for Mood Market
Step into the market to explore how whole foods supply nutrients and how everyday food choices connect with energy, mood, focus, metabolism, and brain function.
Food Is More Than Fuel.
Food supplies amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, fiber, and energy that the body uses throughout metabolism, cell signaling, hormone production, and nervous-system function.
This market is about understanding those connections, not labeling foods as “good,” “bad,” or as treatments for a particular mood.
Today's Market
Explore where the raw materials for everyday chemistry come from.
Choose a Stall.
Each stall highlights a different way food contributes raw materials or metabolic context to the systems we've already explored.
Protein Counter
Amino acids are raw materials.
Common Food Sources
Provides / Contributes
Chemistry Connection
Context Matters
Start With How You Want to Feel.
Choose a goal, then build your plate around protein pace, carbohydrate timing, and color direction. Each choice changes the biological context of the meal.
1. Choose Your Protein for Pace
Protein source and the food matrix can influence digestion speed, amino-acid delivery, satiety, and the overall pace of the meal.
Protein quality is influenced by amino acid composition, digestibility, and the food matrix. Animal and plant proteins each bring different strengths, limitations, and accompanying nutrients.
2. Choose Your Carbohydrate Timing
Carbohydrate type, fiber, processing, and the rest of the meal can influence how quickly glucose becomes available.
3. Choose Your Color Direction
Choose the color family that best matches the emphasis you want for this plate.
The Same Food Can Land in a Different Biological Context.
Food does not act in isolation. Timing, meal composition, energy needs, physical activity, sleep, medications, health conditions, and individual physiology can all change the response.
Timing
Meal timing and the length of time between meals can affect hunger, glucose availability, and endocrine responses. There is no single schedule that fits everyone.
Composition
Protein, carbohydrate, fat, fiber, and portion size alter digestion and post-meal physiology in different ways. Mixed meals create different responses than isolated nutrients.
Demand
Physical activity, heat, illness, sleep loss, stress, growth, pregnancy, aging, and many other circumstances can alter energy, fluid, and nutrient needs.
Food Gives Us the Raw Materials. But Needs Still Differ.
People absorb, use, store, and respond to nutrients differently. Diet patterns, health status, medications, life stage, nutritional screening, and individual biology can all change the picture.
Next we'll look at nutrition and supplementation without assuming that more is better or that everyone needs the same thing.
Nutrition & Supplementation Studio
Step into the studio to explore vitamins, minerals, amino acids, liquids, powders, capsules, and other forms of supplementation through a purposeful, informed, and personalized lens.
Supplement With a Reason.
Supplements can be useful tools, but they are most effective when they address an actual need and are selected thoughtfully.
Start with food. Consider nutritional screening when more information is needed. Use professional guidance when supplementation becomes more complex.
How Should We Think About Supplementation?
Choose a station. Each one answers a different question about whether, how, and when supplementation may be appropriate.
Do I Need a Supplement?
The first question is not “Which supplement should I take?” It is “Do I actually need additional support?”
Food First — Explore a Nutrient
Select a nutrient.
Common food sources will appear here.
Where Screening Fits
Symptoms alone cannot reliably tell you whether a nutrient is low, adequate, or excessive. Nutritional screening and professional assessment can provide additional information when deciding whether dietary changes are enough or whether more targeted support should be explored.
The Form Can Matter.
Different supplement forms may differ in convenience, stability, tolerability, dissolution, and bioavailability. A specialized form is not automatically better for every nutrient or every person.
Absorption Helpers & Barriers.
Nutrients do not function in isolation. What you take, what you take it with, and when you take it can influence absorption, tolerance, and utilization.
May Support Absorption
- Vitamin C + nonheme iron: vitamin C can improve absorption of plant-based iron.
- Dietary fat + vitamins A, D, E, and K: these vitamins are fat-soluble and are absorbed with dietary fat.
- Appropriate meal timing: some nutrients are better tolerated or absorbed with food.
- Appropriate formulation: the chemical form of a mineral or nutrient may influence tolerability and bioavailability.
Potential Barriers or Competitors
- Coffee and tea: polyphenols can reduce absorption of nonheme iron when consumed around the same time.
- Mineral competition: large supplemental doses of some minerals may interfere with absorption or balance of others.
- Certain medications: some medicines can alter nutrient absorption, and some nutrients can alter medicine absorption.
- Digestive conditions: stomach acid, intestinal health, surgery, and other factors may change nutrient absorption.
Interactions Matter.
Supplements can interact with medications, health conditions, and other supplements. “Natural” does not mean interaction-free.
Supplement + Medication
- Vitamin K can affect the action of warfarin and related anticoagulation management.
- Calcium, iron, and magnesium can interfere with absorption of some medications when taken too close together.
- Some botanical supplements may affect drug metabolism, blood pressure, blood glucose, sedation, or bleeding risk.
- Medication use can also influence nutrient status in some situations.
Supplement + Supplement
- High zinc intake over time can interfere with copper status.
- Calcium and iron can compete when taken in larger supplemental amounts at the same time.
- Multiple products may contain the same nutrient, creating accidental duplicate dosing.
- Combining several products can make it harder to identify what is helping, what is unnecessary, or what is causing side effects.
Professional Guidance Matters
Before beginning or substantially changing a supplement routine, consider a nutritional screening and review your medications, existing supplements, health conditions, and dietary pattern with a qualified healthcare professional. Professional guidance is especially important when using multiple products, managing a diagnosed deficiency, taking prescription medication, or dealing with a significant health condition.
Nutritional Needs Are Personal.
Select the factors that could influence someone's nutritional needs or response to supplementation.
Individual context matters.
Nutritional needs can be influenced by many overlapping factors. Select several above to see why generalized supplementation does not always fit the individual.
Supplementation Works Best When It Is Purposeful.
Food provides the foundation. Supplements may provide additional support when appropriate. Screening can provide more information. Professional guidance can help connect the pieces.
The goal is not to take more. The goal is to use nutrition and supplementation appropriately for the individual.
Mood & Performance Lab
Step into a calm, restorative space and explore practical ways breathing, movement, sound, vision, attention, and sensory input can influence how you feel and function in the moment.
Your Brain Is Always Listening.
Your brain does not wait for you to schedule a reset. It is constantly responding to what is happening around you and inside you.
Breathing. Movement. Vision. Sound. Light. Attention. Social interaction. Each one sends information through the nervous system.
Simple techniques cannot control a neurotransmitter like a light switch, but they can influence the biological systems involved in relaxation, alertness, attention, engagement, stress response, and recovery.
Dial It Down or Turn It Up.
Sometimes the goal is calm. Sometimes the goal is energy. Pick the direction that fits the moment.
Relax & Reset
Explore breathing and calming sound techniques designed to create a quieter physiological environment and support recovery.
Engage & Activate
Explore gentle visual and movement-based techniques designed to increase sensory input, attention, and engagement.
Sometimes You Do Not Need More Energy.
Sometimes you need less noise, less tension, and a little room for the nervous system to settle.
Guided Breathing
Slow, intentional breathing changes respiratory patterns and can influence autonomic activity and perceived stress.
Sound & Stillness
Sound, rhythm, attention, and environment can influence perceived stress, emotional state, and the experience of relaxation.
Sometimes You Need a Spark.
Movement, rhythm, posture, visual attention, and sensory input can change how alert and engaged you feel in the moment.
Gentle Lateral Eye Movement
A brief visual-attention activity using comfortable side-to-side eye movement. The goal is gentle sensory engagement, not strain.
Victory Clap
A brief activation exercise combining posture, coordinated movement, rhythm, and sensory input to create a stronger engagement cue.
How Do You Feel Now?
There is no “correct” answer. The useful information is noticing whether the technique changed anything for you.
Your response is information.
Sleep, nutrition, stress, medications, health status, environment, and individual physiology can all influence how a technique feels.
Food provides raw materials. Nutrients support the machinery. Breathing, movement, vision, sound, light, and attention provide additional signals. Human performance reflects how those systems interact, not any single input by itself.
Your Performance Passport
Complete a destination to unlock its badge. Collect all seven destination badges to earn the Performance Plaza badge.
How to Explore
Use the kiosk to move through Performance Plaza and return here at any time to review your progress.
Your Performance Exploration Summary
This is a reflection of the interests and experiences you selected while exploring Performance Plaza. It is designed to help you notice patterns and identify topics you may want to explore further.
Topics You May Want to Revisit
This summary is educational and reflective only. It does not diagnose a nutrient deficiency, medical condition, mental health condition, or determine whether testing or supplementation is appropriate for you.