When a culture is bad, there are really only two options if you plan on staying. (Leaving is always an option.)
You can try to change the culture, or you can become the culture. That is kind of it. I thought about this while I was on the road and visited an LA Fitness.
Because of my travel, I have a pass that allows me to use any LA Fitness location worldwide. You can tell a lot about the “culture” of a place within a few minutes if you’re paying attention. One of the key indicators is the cleanliness of the gym and whether people return the weights to their proper place. This might seem like a small thing, unless you see a 100-pound dumbbell, which only a few people can lift unassisted, left where it shouldn’t be.
Instead of getting in a good workout, you waste time searching for the right weights. I even noticed that the employees weren’t making any effort to put weights back in their proper place; instead, they were placing them wherever there was space.
That kind of thing bothers me to no end.
I caught myself thinking, “Why do I even care?” and started putting weights back wherever I found space. Why even try? Then I saw someone, probably over 80 years old, looking around for a weight they couldn’t find, and I felt immediate guilt. It’s already hard to go to the gym at any age; every little inconvenience becomes another excuse not to go.
So I made a decision: I started looking for the correct place to put each weight. If something was in the wrong spot, I’d move it and return it where it belonged. I even noticed someone watching me and doing the same. I’m not pretending it became a huge pay-it-forward moment, but one person did something different, and that might have been one more than before. All I knew was that I didn’t want to become what annoyed me most.
Years ago, I watched a video about a principal who noticed all the garbage in front of her school. People would walk by it and complain about how bad the school and culture were. So she started picking up every piece of trash she walked past. There was more than she could possibly clean up alone, but she didn’t need to do it all. Others started picking up garbage, too. Eventually, people didn’t need to clean up anymore because they stopped throwing trash on the ground in the first place. That really was a pay-it-forward situation.
Through her example, the culture changed. One person at a time.
You can either be shaped by the culture you enter, or you can shape the culture you want to see.
Honestly, you might not ever be able to change it on your own, but don’t let it turn you into something you don’t want to be. What one person sees can change who they become.
Change the culture.
Become the culture.
Your choice.
