Move Your Body, Move Your Brain

Every now and then we talk here about the importance of physical fitness for your employees. If you can, try to allow your people some time to incorporate physical activity into their work day. We are not talking about creating Olympic athletes here, but simply trying to get people out of the workplace for a while in a way that will make them more productive later.

One well-known belief underlying this is that physical activity releases endorphins, and endorphins stimulate creativity. From your point of view, then, there is an obvious benefit to having people go for a run or head to the gym midway through the day. You want to get the most you can out of your team, so give them a chance to re-energize themselves and bring their best back to the office.

Frankly, just getting out of the office and away from other distractions (phones, laptops, etc) can help people clear their minds and tackle problems with a fresher perspective. When you are stuck at work it is easy to fixate on one solution to a challenge, but once you get out you can more easily see other options.

(a note to everyone who goes to the gym: PLEASE leave your phone in your locker. It’s hard to get away from distractions when you take those distractions onto the gym floor. Also, you’re hogging the machines while you sit there WhatsApp’ing. Thank you.)

There is also the chance that your employees might get out there together, giving them something in common besides the office and helping to build the social capital that makes for a more effective organization.

More and more firms are subsidizing gym memberships; some bigger companies even offer an on-site gym. You might not be able to go that far, but simply allowing folks to get out and get active as part of their workday can be a big help.

And we are not just saying this because our Chief Teaching Officer, Dr Will, ran yesterday’s Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon.