My team loves to give me grief about how much I talk about my Peloton (if you’re not familiar, click here and no, we don’t get any kind of kickback from promoting them, but if you want a discount code, ping me!). So, I’m going to ask your indulgence here. I’m going to “fan-girl” a little, but I promise it will be worth it and hopefully inspire you to do the work to ensure your corporate culture is one of inspiration, innovation and productivity.
With 20+ years in startup manufacturing, I have to admit I’m a big admirer of the Peloton product, the concept, the execution. But for our purposes here, I want to focus on how much I admire the company’s corporate culture. If my anecdotal experience (and that of the many friends I’ve made in the Peloton community) is any indication, when it comes to corporate culture…
…Peloton is getting it right
The evidence of an amazing corporate culture is the people of Peloton. Each staffer – the instructors who have the celebrity-cult-of-personality status required to make the Peloton ethos successful, the salespersons hawking bikes in the storefront, the receptionists who check you in for class, the production team who makes the TV magic happen, even the cleaning team who changes over the studio between the “live” filmed rides that stream to millions of bikes – seems to genuinely enjoy their Peloton workplace. Again, anecdotal evidence, but when two days after your first studio ride, you walk back in and a member of the production team recalls the settings on your bike and makes the adjustments for you, you know someone, somewhere is imparting excellent customer care lessons.
Please realize, they offer this level of service knowing many people make a visit to “the mothership” a part of a trip to NY, and, quite frankly, these visitors may never return. Most are “fan-girling” the experience in a big – and potentially annoying – way.
But instructors patiently pose for pictures. Staff gladly take the photos for you with a smile.
All listen to each rider’s personal stories of how a fitness program on a bike-to-nowhere has changed their life. They even shed a few tears with you and make sure to tell you if you keep showing up, they’ll keep showing up because stories like yours make their jobs better. (They even chuckle good naturedly at expressions of joy – those like the snort-squeal combo my friend and fellow Peloton fan-girl might have uttered when she spotted one of her favorite instructors in the lobby.)
They display none of the New York cynicism, dismissiveness or outright eye rolls I’ve experienced in other fitness studios around the big city, but rather go out of their way to make you feel welcome.
But an homage to Peloton’s corporate culture isn’t the real the reason I write this. I write this because of…
…your corporate culture.
One of the things we’ve experienced at Big O in our young life as a company are genuine expressions of desire from corporate leaders to make their corporate culture better.
(Note I said expressions of desire.)
But when it comes to actually doing the hard work of enacting the practices needed to do that, the excuses start:
- “We don’t have time.”
- “Our resources are so limited.”
- “We didn’t realize there was an actual curriculum to be implemented. We just can’t do that right now.”
And we’ve given these clients the data. The data explicitly says “you can’t attend a workshop and expect the work you do here to yield authentic, ongoing change.” You have to make creative practice a part of your company’s culture. You have to give your employees the time to do it. You have to practice by leading and doing the creative practices yourself. And you have to make it something you believe to be effective in getting your supervisors, colleagues and team to believe.
So what does this have to do with an in-studio-ride I did at NY’s Peloton “mothership”?
Well, two things offered to me by Denis Morton, one of my favorite instructors. I’ll share the first now, and the second in part two of The Courage to Change (courageous leadership)
Now, looking at Denis, don’t be fooled. As you can see, Denis is the definition of a handsome face. He has an exquisitely, classic Greco-Roman look. He has the expected build of a combination yoga, strength and fitness instructor. Were it the renaissance, statues would be molded into his likeness.
So naturally, he is also extraordinarily bright and profound. No really. Don’t be fooled into thinking he is just a pretty face. He’s got an extraordinary knowledge of exercise physiology, he has an incredibly eclectic and deep knowledge of music and to top that off, he is thoughtful and manages to tell real stories and provide motivation that inspires. (See, I told you I was going to fan girl, but again, I beg your indulgence. Hang with me a bit).
And in my live ride at the Peloton studio in NY a few days ago, I was fortunate to be a beneficiary of two important ”Denis-isms.” They’re two I feel have a direct correlation to what we are trying to do at Big O to help impact real changes in corporate culture.
The first Denis-ism was so simple, yet really profound. He said:
“There are two things in life that everyone wants to have, but nobody wants to go and get, education and fitness. You know, I want to be brilliant with a six-pack…
…can I do that from my bed?”
(which is when I snort-laughed through my sweat).
Corporate Culture change is a practice – not a workshop
That’s the thing about corporate culture. We all want to have a corporate culture where people are jazzed about coming to work. We want a place where creative innovations are world changing. We want to believe we work for a purpose above and beyond profits and dividends – but also while having large profits and dividends.
And we want it now. Instantly. From the comfort of our beds.
“Hey Big O, we want to be inspired can you do that in a single workshop?”
And I’d love to say we could. But that would be like me saying I lost 50 pounds from one Peloton class. And you can pretty easily believe me when I say that didn’t happen.
Sure, I would love to have the level of fitness I’ve attained since getting on this “bike to nowhere” from one class. But it’s taken me 250+ rides, a new attention to my eating, a dramatic reduction in adult-beverage consumption, a commitment to challenges and competitions between other Pelo-enthusiasts riding with me and against me on the leaderboard, from around the world.
And it’s something I “practice” day in and day out, 95-99% of my days. Every day I ride. Most days, I ride twice. And I supplement rides with yoga, dance classes, strength training (making real change to your body at 51 ain’t what it was at 28).
It is a practice. It is a habit. It is daily work.
And so is the implementation of creative practices that will truly improve your corporate culture.
And, let me remind you – as we teach in our workshops. Real, measurable data shows that corporate culture improvements come from engaging in creative practice to the tune of productivity, sales and profit increases from 17-21%.
But you can’t lay in your bed to get the benefits of creative practice.
You have to commit to the practice. You have to do the work.
We’ll talk more about that work in installation #2 of “the courage to change.” We hope you’ll tune in!
Meanwhile, check out Big O creative services at www.bigocs.com/IWantBigOs