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This article was taken from the February 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
Technogym
Keep staff physically active
Cesena
When executives gather for a meeting in the new Antonio Citterio-designed Technogym "wellness village" and factory in Cesena, north-eastern Italy, no one sits on a Vitra chair or glides about on a Herman Miller Aeron.
Instead, they sit on a fabric-wrapped "wellness ball" -- an elegant version of the ball your personal trainer would recommend. That's because Nerio Alessandri, founder and president of the gym-equipment manufacturer, wants staff to live its mission of bringing "wellness" to the world -- at the same time optimising their own health. "We have 800 balls here [instead of chairs]," he explains in the 60,000m2 HQ, inaugurated last September by Bill Clinton and Italian president Giorgio Napolitano. "Everybody uses them. We have the medical evidence about the benefits."
These benefits, Alessandri says, come down to the constant motion that the balls force upon those sitting on them. "On the ball you don't have stability, but you have hours of training every day. You keep moving constantly. It also benefits your neurological system." Back pain, he claims, can clear up within two weeks of using the balls.
Admittedly, Technogym is obsessively focused on its wellness mission: staff have a mandatory two-hour lunch break, during which they are encouraged to use its vast on-site gym. But what if they want to use a normal office chair? "You can," says Alessandri. "At first staff didn't want to change. But now they don't want to go back."
For more ways to work smarter, check out the following stories
Commune with nature: Selgas Cano
Be agile, no matter how big you are: Government Digital Service
Embrace a four-day week: Treehouse
Build your own social network: Lockheed Martin
Network by shared experiences: Honey Club
Structure open knowledge-swaps: IBM
Create a managerial algorithm: Google
Build a P2P bonus system: Zappos
Use Jedi mind tricks to get results: Robert Stephens
Revitalise through nutrition: The Chemistry Group
Discard short-term thinking: Unilever
Buy shares in your clinets: Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal and 's Baggers
Network your restaurant: Nordstrom
Get rid of your bosses: Valve
Design on demand: Nordstrom
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
