Build Great Teams With Takeaways From Fitness Communities

Being a functional fitness gym member for 4 years I noticed that, in contrary to the Navy Seal inspired business coaching, the fabric of that community is not the elite. It’s regular people wanting to be the best possible versions of themselves.

Team WOD at my gym, a.k.a. the best place on Earth: CrossFit Elektromoc, Warsaw, Poland. We are businessmen, parents, managers, academics, experts, nurses, doctors, firefighters, students, programmers, coaches, writers, soldiers. Our affiliate makes us better people, despite challenging circumstances in our lives.

June 9, 2020 update: I strongly distance myself from the statements of the CrossFit Inc. CEO in the midst of the fight against systemic racism. Fitness communities I visited all over the world have always been the embodiment of welcomeness, inclusivity and kindness. I do not and will not accept ignorance, idleness, or lack of recognition and support for those who are struggling. Any reference to CrossFit in this post is a reference to the wonderful spirit of those communities, not the words of a single person.

I’m in awe of those who took a firm stand against racism and discrimination, and I stand with them.

#BlackLivesMatter

I work day-to-day with cross-functional teams in the tech industry. We build digital products in an ever-changing environment, where companies compete over ideas, customers, revenue, at a furious pace. We are uncovering better ways of developing software, which are simple to understand but difficult to master, often horribly misunderstood by our business stakeholders, yet very powerful, when done right.

Some analogies between military and business operations are quite accurate, but after all, the modern workplace shouldn’t be soaked in the fog of war. The ways of the CrossFit community are also an on-point reference on how to build strong, lasting, and superbly agile teams at work.

What happened in Santa Cruz, California

CrossFit is a fitness program, a social movement and a business (relatable, right?). It started in California in the year 2000, and now has around 13 000 affiliate gyms in 120 countries. In 2018, nearly 430 000 people participated in the CrossFit Open, a worldwide celebration of fitness, and a qualifier to the Crossfit Games. Among them, 48% were women.

As a sports endeavor, apart from nurturing a vast elite of competitive crossfitters, it focuses on the well being of the body and the mind, healthy eating, tackling chronic disease. It’s all wrapped up in a no-bullshit rhetoric — off the carbs, off the couch. It creates an egalitarian environment for people of all shapes and sizes to celebrate their journey to be a little stronger and better every day.

The organization offers great support to public service, including all sorts of armed forces, both as a part of their physical routines, as well as honoring their sacrifices. It is also a fertile ground for NGOs that build on top of the CrossFit philosophy, such as OUTWOD by the OUT Foundation. During the 2018 Games season, they teamed up with CrossFit’s CEO to announce that transgender athletes will be able to register to compete by gender identity which is a step aligned with the IOC ruling on the same matter.

I just couldn’t resist drawing a parallel between my industry and the sports world. Here’s what I learned, and what I think tech companies can learn from CrossFit, Inc.

Diversity means safety and inclusivity

We know the buzz. Companies should hire more women to be successful. In fact, they should hire the right amount of X and things will skyrocket. It’s not that simple though. I once told my boss that the moment we openly include increasing the percentage of female employees into our hiring policy (his idea), no woman would ever want to work with us. His face asked for explanation.

If you are a white heterosexual male, you have probably never thought about it. If you are not, the reality is that the most prominent thing you want from a place you work or work out at is safety. You want to be treated equally, and be recognized and respected as a team member. Not as a piece of promo content or an improvement to company stats.

People at work, whether it’s deploying new code to production, or lifting twice their bodyweight, need psychological safety and support to perform at their best.

CrossFit responds to the needs of people that do not feel safe at the gym (you’d be surprised how many) by creating an environment where everybody is appreciated for their engagement and hard work, and respected regardless of their fitness level, age, race, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Compete with the best version of yourself

CrossFit is a community sport. It’s also highly competitive. In fact, the company reiterated their philosophy in 2019 and stated that the mission shouldn’t circle so much around The Games.

So, Games aside. When the workout at your local gym starts, everybody is equal to the time spent sweating and reps performed. CrossFit classes are designed in a way that celebrates effort and gives each person a chance to face the workout with proper technique, scaling (not all of us snatch 100 kilos). It includes everyone on the whiteboard.

The competition spirit originates from a healthy and supportive environment. Nobody is left behind, the last ones get the loudest cheer. Finishing last is not a sign of weakness. It’s a manifestation of strength to endure and get the workout done. Shaming is for losers.

In business, that cheer is the key difference between inspiring leadership and a recipe for burnout.

Rest day is as important as the workout

This is bigger than CrossFit and gets a lot of traction in the entire fitness industry. The best programs, diets, therapies, and not surprisingly — business processes, practices, frameworks — have one thing in common. They work if they are sustainable. They manifest results if you can follow them without turning everybody’s life upside down. People who are forced to eat only 1000kcal a day quit their diets. People who worry every single minute about their work quit their jobs.

Rest is vital for optimal performance, both physically and psychologically.

It’s 2019, and above all things, the work is: online, remote, flexible (even when it’s not, just pick up your smartphone). For most, it is also not the only meaning of their lives. Yet, many companies expect everyone to be the competitive athlete, and even them have rest time in their schedule.

Hard work pays off. But putting in the work does not mean you have to qualify for championships every day. But it does mean to be courageous, open, committed, give your best, and also take good care of yourself. Companies that actually live by those values (examples: Basecamp, Netflix, Codility), and encourage their teams to take time off, rest, make space for their passions, nurture the most productive of work cultures.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast

Google performs tons of research within their organization (re:Work with Google) to determine where the best processes originate from, what drives the best managers, what constitutes the best teams, and how to double-down on those qualities to make work a better place. According to their findings, psychological safety and support, understood as having a safe space to take risks and to be vulnerable, is the absolute foundation of high performing teams.

The researchers found that what really mattered was less about who is on the team, and more about how the team worked together.

There are many more shared values between the tech world and fitness, like being accountable, getting things done, doing meaningful work (ever wondered why they don’t say anything about looking slim, but so much about being capable of doing awesome things with your body?). The point is: the science of work culture and community building has gone far beyond catchy slogans.