lands end to john o'groats Archives - Performance Communications

In the last week, the Performance office has been awash with sweat, shower gel and the whiff of competition.

Between Monday January 8 and Friday January 12, the 46 members of our UK office have, collectively, cycled the 874 miles between Land’s End and John O’Groats on an exercise bike situated on one of our two balconies.

It hasn’t just been for the hell of it – although, as it turns out, that may have been a genius move, had it been done purely as a team-building exercise – we have done it to raise money for the TAG Youth Club, a local charity we started supporting last year.

The charity is a wonderful endeavour, providing a safe and engaging environment for disabled young people to take part in activities, meet up with their friends and learn valuable life and social skills. Our aim is to raise £1,500 so that TAG can buy a handrail and ramp for the stage at their HQ in Ham and it has certainly given us all a very warm feeling to be contributing to such a worthy cause.

But perhaps what has given this writer even more of a glow is how the experience has thoroughly galvanised Performance’s UK team in one fell swoop.

It’s been a far more emotionally rousing experience than I think any of us expected. As the week has progressed, the levels of competition – whether between colleagues or simply individuals trying to better their own previous bests – has ramped up significantly.

With each member of the team taking 20-minute stints in the saddle, the general ethos has been to go hell for leather in every case.

And, while the prospect of so much vomit-inducing exercise may have been daunting before the week started, every team member has pushed themselves to improve the distance they’ve travelled on the bike in each stint, as proven by the ever increasing average distances covered as the week went on.

And the level of support, encouragement, motivation and cheerleading has increased exponentially, with many cases of cyclists literally having teams of colleagues screaming them over the line as they charge to set a new PB or benchmark.

Highlights have included the battle that raged all week between our resident semi-pro cyclists, MD Charlie and Account Director Rick. The latter eventually won out, with a stellar effort of 8.8 miles travelled in one 20-minute stint.

Also witness consultant Jane Sheedy, rocking it for the girls by topping the ladies’ leaderboard and becoming the first of the ladies to break the seven-mile mark.

And, of course, the epic 7.8-mile PB from Performance figurehead, Andy Francis, that took us over the finish line.

But, whatever level each team member has cycled at, it’s all counted and everyone has benefitted from the cheers, motivation and celebration of their colleagues, across all account teams.

Apart from the obvious benefit of raising money for our charity, the take-out from the experience should be this. Nothing motivates a workforce more than knowing they are part of one big, supportive, co-operative and successful team.

I’m not suggesting that every small business gets an exercise bike and challenges its personnel to use it. But anything that can be done to engender a true sense of working together, supporting one another and revelling in each other’s triumphs is only ever going to be a good thing for your team.

I have never seen an office so pumped up in the first two weeks of what is, otherwise, the depressing, grey start to the year.

It bodes very well for Performance Communications in 2018.

Andy