News

Proactive Health and Fitness at ThinkWorks

June 17th, 2009

Ithaca, New York — ThinkWorks founders Derek Cabrera and Laura Colosi knew that changing the world one desk at a time would take revolutionary ideas and great people. During the past year of almost relentless travel and all the early mornings and late nights put in back at the home base in Ithaca, they learned something new: it also requires physical stamina. But who has time to exercise?

ThinkWorks is built on an innovative corporate model Derek created that channels all learning into systems that improve capacity. That's why learning the importance of stamina had to translate into a new ThinkWorks system. Derek and Laura decided to invest in proactive health and fitness not only for themselves but for all of their employees. It's a radical step for a small company to take, and an investment in space, equipment, and staff that they believe will more than pay for itself.

Meet the staff part: Jared Palmer, our new director of Proactive Health and Fitness, is a mixed martial artist and strength and conditioning coach. Like many ThinkWorkers, he has a background in education and spent some time in the trenches with middle schoolers. He holds a Masters degree in Health Education and is certified as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NSCA. This means he's received the more extensive training required to work with athletes.

Though some ThinkWorkers have considered themselves athletes in the past, there hasn't been much recent evidence: they work hard and hardly work out. But under Jared's guidance, each staff member is setting personal goals to increase their strength and physical fitness and changing their daily schedules to include time in the new gym--the next door over from the ThinkWorks office space.

Jared is a firm believer in the impact of physical fitness not only on mental alertness and efficiency, but also on overall emotional and mental well-being. "You can develop your mental capacities in ways that will enhance your well-being and it won't necessarily trickle down to physical health. But when you enhance your physical well-being, you'll also have a corresponding increase in mental well-being."

ThinkWorks employees are notoriously happy in their jobs and put a lot of energy into their work every day. What will it be like when they're also increasing that physical energy and just plain feeling better on a daily basis? It's an experiment the whole ThinkWorks team is excited to be a part of and Jared is thrilled to be heading. He wanted to move into corporate fitness work, but never dreamed of finding a position with such a small company.

Derek can't think of a better way than to start small. "Most companies wait until they're big to provide exercise facilities--never mind a trainer to work individually with all employees. We're doing it now because it's the right thing to do." Derek and Laura see this step as a way to both take care of current ThinkWorkers (themselves included) and maximize everyone's productivity. This is a better response to current growth than hiring more people. Everyone at ThinkWorks expects visible gains in physical wellness, efficiency and alertness, job satisfaction, personal happiness, and general well-being.

See our blog entry on this story.