The Sauna Strategy: Detoxify Your Business
Saunas have long been an integral part of Scandinavian culture and a quintessential part of life. Why? Because it’s so cold due to their large coastal exposure and lack of sun in the winter? Or because they are too lazy to exercise and figure this is a way to “cheat the sweat?” Both are valid guesses and hold some truth, but anyone who has properly used the sauna for more than a couple of weeks in a row knows the real answer.
Saunas PURIFY. They DETOXIFY (i.e. remove toxins – harmful substances – from your body).
Saunas achieve this amazing feat through sweat. At this point, any athlete is scoffing and thinking to themselves, “I sweat way more through playing sports, why would I ever need a sauna? I already sweat everything out of my body!” This is a common misconception…that there is only one type of sweating. In reality, the workout (aerobic) sweat is meant to cool your body down from activity and therefore “pores out” (yes that’s a pun!) until your body is cooled off. The sauna sweat is caused by your core body temperature rising due to the rising external temperature. This really opens your pores and encourages profuse sweating – often even for a while after you leave the sauna. This profuse sweating helps your body flush out toxins that have built up.
Any healthy business needs to “detoxify” its business on a regular basis. How to define “regular” depends on the number of employees and the overall growth of your business. How do you “detoxify?” Is it through quarterly assessments? Or through team-building exercises? Through client feedback reviews? Or peer reviews?
No.
Those are all important, but they do not “raise the temperature” enough to remove the toxic employees and any toxic aspects in your business’ culture.
Why is the day-to-day “hustle and bustle” of the office and regular client interactions not enough of an indicator? If your employees are “rocking it out” and “breaking a sweat” due to how hard they’re working, doesn’t that purify the team?
No. It forms the team. It trains and conditions the team. But it does not purify. Regardless of how hard your team works, they are only breaking a sweat like an athlete in a sport. This is what they train for and part of their expected performance.
You “raise the temperature” by putting your employees in uncomfortable, stressful, time-sensitive situations. None of these situations are an HR violation, but instead challenge each employee’s paradigm, skillset, and virtue.
Most people’s true self, their virtues (or lack thereof) “pour out of their pores” (say that 10 times fast!) when they are heavily stressed. Like sweating in a sauna, any toxins residing within will be expelled when an employee is in a stressful situation for a long enough period. The employee does not have time to “fake it” or overthink what to say or do, instead must simply “react.” Is this reaction virtuous and positive? Someone you want as a part of your team and forming your business’ culture? Or is their reaction visceral and toxic?
Infrared Sauna manufacturers recommend sauna sessions of roughly 40 minutes every other day for best results and optimal health. You and your leadership team will need to decide what the best course of action looks like for your optimal business health!
