Business Fatigue is real. And it seems that it is all anybody is talking about. “Hi, how are you? Oh, 
good, but I’m exhausted” must be repeated about 5 billion times a day in the course of new normal business conversations. It is clear to most that the COVID-19 Pandemic has also been the greatest accelerator of business change we have ever experienced. The global economy is shifting at the speed of light toward a new model of interaction and engagement that thrives on less physical contact and less friction in systems. In the good old days, getting from point A to point B through air travel presented a lot of friction to the system (not to mention the human body and travel budgets). When you think about it, jumping from Zoom room to Zoom room with the touch of a button is pretty frictionless in comparison.
So, if this new disrupted model is built on a foundation of less contact and less friction in the system, why is it that everyone is so “exhausted”?
Think about the paradoxes we face as the summer is ending and the busy fall season is just about upon us:
- Employees working remotely don’t have hour-long commutes and aren’t traveling for business, but we all seem to have less time than before!
- We have more tools and more options for collaboration than ever before, yet working with others and getting things done feels more overwhelming than ever!
- Leading and living in the matrix is easier to navigate by setting up a video call (everyone is working from home so there aren’t as many excuses anymore), yet people feel more stressed and feel like they have less control inside the matrix.!
I know there are hundreds of articles, blogs, and stories, about Business Fatigue being published daily and I totally understand and empathize with people who feel they are approaching complete burnout.
However, I am going to take a slightly contrarian perspective from those who share simple advice such as take lunch breaks and end Zoom calls 5 minutes early. I will share that history tells us we all must look to other sources of information and best practices to deal with the issue of Business Fatigue.
An interesting body of information and best practices I suggest exploring comes from the world of elite athletic training.
After doing some research, I wanted to share and present some thoughts about Business Fatigue and some suggestions derived from athletic training that maybe can help.
Below are some ideas on what elite athletic training teaches that perhaps can be used to fight Business Fatigue:
| Elite Athletic Principles |
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Adaption - Over time, the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level. This adaptation results in improved efficiency, less effort, and less muscle breakdown at that level. Unfortunately, once you reach that peak, there is no further performance improvement. That is why elite athletic training includes finding intense instances of training that is 150% of normal performance. |
How can we find intense instances of training in the business world which will then provide for less stress and increased knowledge? Business Acumen and Leadership Simulations! A 2-3 hour virtual workshop spread over a few days or weeks will increase both intensity and skills and if done or a regular basis could reduce fatigue. |
Recovery - The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover. Both short periods like hours between multiple sessions in a day and longer periods like days or weeks to recover from a long season are necessary to ensure your body does not suffer from exhaustion or overuse injuries. Athletes often neglect this. At the basic level, the more you train the more sleep your body needs. |
After intense days of work, and intense days of training, it is critical to get sleep. Just like you schedule meetings, schedule sleep. You have more control over your schedules than ever before, so use that power. Schedule sleep-in days between intense days. |
| Reversibility - If you discontinue application of a particular exercise like running five miles or bench pressing 200 pounds 12 times, you will lose the ability to successfully complete that exercise. Your muscles will atrophy strength density will reverse. You can slow this rate of loss substantially by conducting a maintenance/reduced program of training |
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In summary, I am suggesting there are great parallels between elite athletic training and the post-pandemic Business Fatigue most people are feeling. One potential way to reduce business fatigue is to mimic elite athletes by engaging in intense training followed by proper rest and sleep. Business Acumen and Business Leadership simulation workshops could be the perfect solution to drive the training and resulting reduction in fatigue.
