The Inspired Workplace

It starts at the top. In the Conference Room the large table is flanked with stability ball chairs and a large water-cooler for the company issued personalized refillable water bottles frequently seen everywhere. In the center of the table is a piece of art—a glass cube with many dimensions and colors that reflect and change with the movement of a light somewhere underneath. It resembles a kind of shifting 3-D kaleidoscope.

Meetings here are brief and concise, following a pre-planned outline. They begin with three minutes of visionary slides with accompanying music. You know the kind: like one of those awe-invoking email forwards that you took the time to watch instead of deleting. They’re the kind that remind us of the magnificence of nature and indomitable human spirit. These synchronize brain waves, settle the energies and set the stage for inspired thinking. They also strangely dissipate insignificant issues that have a way of monopolizing time without really accomplishing anything. Invariably, people leave these meetings more energized than before they started and appreciate just how much was accomplished in such a short time. 

Floor after floor of desks are paired with balance ball chairs. Occasionally, a head pops up and down over the cubicle walls as some energized office worker enjoys the vertical mobility afforded with this movement-inducing chair. Along one long wall is a series of standing desks, where many are performing their tasks while standing, or using the optional bar-height stool for when their feet need a rest. In a corner of each floor is a pyramid-shaped glob of metal that turns out to be a stand for dumbbells. Some are missing, only to be seen above the head of one worker and at the ankles of another. 

The fresh scent of citrus permeates the atmosphere, wafting from the break room stocked with fresh lemon and lime wedges next to the water cooler and bowls of fresh fruits, raw nuts and nut mix lay invitingly in baskets. Alongside this is the coffee station that also offers a plethora of herbal and green teas, organic coffee, and stevia—honey or maple crystals as the only visible sweeteners. There’s also a cooler nearby with organic 2 percent milk, containers of fat-free Greek yogurts, and individual raw vegetable trays with hummus displayed invitingly behind the refrigerated glass door.   Three employees are huddled discussing their project while peeling tangerines, sketching venn diagrams and mind-maps on pads, and speaking in quietly animated tones.

Fridays are not exactly dress-down day, but rather “Fitness Fridays.” People are dressed in sharp fitness attire that can almost pass for suits, except much more comfortable. Midday Friday, people are streaming from the building for a brisk half hour companywide power walk, with the only rules being to walk fast and talk with someone you don’t usually work. They return to engage in individual or group brainstorming sessions on things to improve upon, followed by time dedicated to cleaning up the week’s work, organizing for the following week’s new and creative endeavors.

Then there’s the Power-Up room. This is where all levels of management schedule time for monthly creative think-tank sessions. The room is almost chilly when you first walk in and there are no tables or chairs. Instead, there are 12 large machines arranged in a circle: six treadmills interspersed with six stationary bikes all facing each other. Most strategy sessions of all kinds are held here. Like a Sound Of Music moment, just entering this room is energizing.  Hop on the treadmill with your peers, or peddle on the stationary bike, elevate the circulatory system and watch the dynamic brainstorming that pours out from minds energized. Oxygenated blood-flow circulates and creativity is stimulated as ideas flow freely. Everyone looks forward to these inspiring sessions where the best brand ideas precipitate from the sweaty brows and elevated heart rates of all attendees. All leave more energized and positively proactive, charged up and ready for implementation. 

So many corporations and HR departments struggle to figure out how to motivate a devitalized workforce. How to invest in programs that will finally be utilized for the best ROI and health results possible proves challenging. Trying to get people to change is a difficult task because motivation can’t be forced or induced. It must be ignited from the inside out and caught from the spores of corporate culture. It has to enter the bloodstream of the corporation.

What in your company culture is designed to facilitate, encourage and stimulate a fit corporate culture? Executives and management should model what they are motivating employees to do. It starts at the top of each department and division. That’s the only way to truly imbue health and fitness into a corporate culture or a family. 

We’ve all heard of the phenomenon of the Google Plex and corporate environment. Do we resist and perhaps even sort of resent the ideas from this new kid on the block? Kodak resisted change and today, sadly, the legacy of “the Kodak moment” is dead.  Don’t be a Kodak. Be a Google. Be the best reinvention of yourself and your company that you can be because innovation and change are the cornerstones of stability in today’s world.

So where is this utopian corporation? Is it your company or just in my head? If it’s you, can I come and visit and write an article for the next issue on the leaps and strides you are making to help inspire us all?

About The Author

LeAura Alderson is CEO of My Trainer Fitness, publisher of do-it-yourself workouts to-go, which are accessible anywhere fitness for corporate benefits, incentives, and premiums. For orders and motivational presentations, contact:  LeAura@MyTrainerFitness.com – www.MyTrainerFitness.com