Agents of Good Will

So, if you’re familiar with any of my year-end ramblings, you know that I harbor a unique level of disdain for New Years Resolutionists, those high-minded morons who clog up the gym every January and don’t taper off until their willpower peters out sometime in early March. It might surprise you then, to know that I joined a gym about ten months ago, determined to engage in a one-year “experiment” (not a resolution).

The good city government of my hometown had spared no taxpayer expense in building one of the finest recreation centers in North Texas. It includes a giant gymnasium with multiple basketball courts, encompassed by an upstairs rubberized walking track, and accompanied by one of the best weight and workout rooms I’ve ever seen. Better yet, it opens at 9:00AM, filtering out all those dedicated early-morning bodybuilders and catering to less buff, semi-retired folk like me.

A few months after the rec center opened, my non-resolution was to join the gym at the bargain rate of $20 per year and begin riding the stationary bike for forty-five minutes every weekday morning. The goal was to see whether all that torture would effect any change in my blood pressure and/or improve my girlish figure. I’m happy to announce that the former has been a clear success while the latter remains a work in progress.

The question is, “How has a feeble-minded, commitment-phobic codger like me maintained ten full months of an engagement that clearly cuts into my coffee drinking and bagel eating hours?” The answer is simple. I like the people there. In particular, there are two guys who are at the gym almost every time I show up. Their names are Bill and Bob but I think of them as “The Agents of Good Will”.

These guys have learned the name of every person who shows up on a semi-regular basis. They’re both always upbeat and make a point of greeting (by name) everyone who gets within ten feet of them. Although I’ve conversed with them for most of a year and although I know their names, I know nothing of their politics, religious beliefs, or even whether or not they drink single-malt scotch.

So, how can two semi-strangers I know so little about, impact my visits to the local gym so positively? They’re just good people; that’s all. Actually, that’s not really all. The truth is that their upbeat, positive attitude is rubbing off on other folks around the gym and now, people I’ve never met, come up and ask my name and strike up conversations. All I know about any of those folks is that they’re there to do the same thing I’ doing and they make my mornings better.

What If?
So, what if you had people like that working in your organization? What if they impacted the atmosphere so significantly, that all those crabs who work for you began looking forward to coming to work? What if they influenced fellow workers to leave all the B.S. out in the parking lot and work together to be successful at whatever you’re paying them to do?

If you hired a Bill and a Bob to work in your organization, even if they didn’t actually do any work, I bet they’d make you more profitable. Or YOU could work on becoming your organization’s own Agent of Good Will and revolutionize your own corporate culture. On top of the improved bottom line, imagine the enhanced relationships you might cultivate.

Think I’m making this up? Come on down to the rec center one weekday morning around 9:00 and I’ll introduce you around. Just don’t wait until New Years or it will be overrun by resolutionaries.

A meeting of great minds who think alike