It is probably not surprising to anyone who has spent some time on CrossFit’s webpage that the folks at CF HQ (as the cadre of staff employees are generally known) posted this video link. It coincides almost perfectly with how CrossFit has become as successful as it has (in a down economy) and has begun to position itself as a revolutionary leader in the health and fitness industry. The video (nominated for a “Webby” award) is the distillation of the work of Daniel H. Pink, author of the NY Times bestseller, “Drive.” (I haven’t read it yet, but will shortly; Pink’s website is here and links to the book are there).
The fascinating thing about Pink’s video/book, and its central thesis, is that once “money is off the table” (a bit of an inexact statement from the video, but I’ll cut him some slack – comments suggest it’s much more fleshed out in the book) – once money is not the issue, people performing anything above merely mechanical tasks do WORSE with an increase in the monetary incentives (i.e. larger bonus for better work winds up equaling worse performance.) This is (seemingly) completely counter to our entire notion of capitalism. Pink’s discussions, however, about people working for free on things like Linux, Apache, Wikipedia, and other open-source projects bears consideration. And here’s where my experience at, and discussion of, CrossFit comes in.
Pink says that once money is off the table, three factors lead to better performance: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. His explication of why this is the case bears watching – at least two or three times (beginning at the 5 minute mark or so of teh video). There is sheer brilliance in these observations and examples that he gives. And as I watched the video, I was struck immediately by how accurately he was describing CrossFit’s success. The discussion of “transcendant purpose” is a lifetime of wisdom and should be a full-semester course in every business school that offers an MBA. “When the profit motive becomes unmoored from the Purpose motive, bad things happen…” No shit.
All of this hit me at the same time. I was having a discussion with my middle daughter about her future (she’s entering her sophomore year of high school) and I had just (a) watched this video, after (b) sitting through a training lecture by CrossFit’s founder Greg Glassman at a corporate event with a major sponsor and some of its trainees from all over the world. Greg’s lecture was tangential to the video, but the two overlapped on this matter of “Purpose.” I’ve been fortunate as one of CF’s lawyers to get more time with both Greg and Lauren Glassman than most people do – and to offer my counsel on a wide range of subjects. This has allowed me to participate in, and listen to, some of the greatest discussions, “lectures,” and even debates with two extraordinarily successful people who have been sufficiently self-aware and (more than) intelligent enough to distill their success and draw lessons from it.
I tried to pass some of this along to my daughter (and her sisters) by having them watch this video. And discussing it a little bit with them. I know right now it will seem like a bit of gobbledygook, but I hope it will plant the seed of what may become an understanding of not just success – but (as Pink notes) also a recipe for personal fulfillment. Nothing is more satisfying (well, almost nothing) than purposeful work with a good dose of autonomy and an opportunity to achieve some level of “mastery” over it (to continually learn and improve at what we’re doing).
I told Middle Daughter that she should forget about anything else except finding what her passion is (and we can have more than one), pursue that with a single-mindedness that is worthy of religious convert, while still maintaining an open-mindedness for (a) other opportunities, and (b) a self-awareness about a possible wane in interest. That if she could do that, and strive only for excellence at that particular pursuit – money, lifestyle, and all of the rest would take care of itself. As Greg has often said, Markets bring money to excellence (in truckloads – and even if they don’t, it won’t matter), but pursuing money as the primary goal always seems to distract you from the factors essential to achieving excellence. i.e. You wind up with a shitty product or service as a result of cutting costs for higher profit margins. Blind pursuit of money (or the “profit motive un-moored from the purpose motive” in Pink’s video) almost always leads to unethical/illegal/immoral behavior and ultimately failure. Or decreasing quality in products and services over time.
I’ll have a lot more to say about all of this in subsequent posts, but this is a decent start for now.