More Than a Workout: Building Connection Through Shared Commitment
In almost every organization, there’s a familiar challenge: how do you engage people in a way that actually sticks?
At Springbach, that question comes with an added layer. The team is fully remote and primarily made up of consultants, each working across different clients, schedules, and day-to-day realities. There’s no shared office, no built-in moments of connection, and very little that naturally pulls everyone into the same experience at the same time. This makes the idea of consistent, organic engagement even more challenging…and even more important.
Holly Kozminski has seen this dynamic play out across teams and organizations for years. And over time, she’s noticed a pattern: engagement doesn’t come from asking people to “connect more.” It comes from giving them something simple, visible, and shared to commit to.
That idea is what shaped Witness the Fitness.
It started long before Springbach
Before bringing this idea to Springbach, Holly saw similar patterns across different organizations she worked with. There were different teams and different environments, but the same underlying truth: people want to engage. They just need something that feels worth showing up for.
In some organizations, that showed up through access to an on-site gym. But the value wasn’t really the gym itself, it was what it created: a consistent, low-barrier way for people to build habits and, more importantly, experience something together.
When people had a simple outlet—and when they weren’t doing it alone!—connection followed.
That connection also created something less expected: perspective.
As one team member shared: “I've had plenty of days where I have said to myself: ‘You deadlifted 315 pounds this morning... Why are you worried about a little presentation or meeting?’ It can provide a great perspective on what we view as ‘hard’.”
Another team member put it even more simply: “I'm not healthy and don't really exercise, so I really need this channel.”
That honesty is part of what makes initiatives like this work. The goal isn’t perfection or performance. It’s creating a space where people feel comfortable showing up however they are.
What is Witness the Fitness?
Witness the Fitness is Springbach’s take on that idea: a monthly, team-wide health initiative designed to make healthy habits visible, flexible, and shared.
The structure is intentionally simple.
Each month, participants earn points for showing up and sharing something that supports their well-being. That might be:
going for a walk outside
cooking a meal they’re proud of
completing a workout
or doing something small that contributes to their health
The focus isn’t on outperforming others, it’s on participation.
That shift removes pressure, lowers the barrier to entry, and makes the experience sustainable, especially in a consultant environment where time is limited and priorities are constantly shifting. At the end of the month, there’s a small prize. But the real momentum doesn’t come from the incentive, it comes from the visibility and consistency the challenge creates.
And despite different client engagements and constantly shifting schedules, participation has remained steady more often than not—something that doesn’t happen by accident in a fully remote, consultant-driven environment.
While Witness the Fitness existed at Springbach before Holly joined, she helped build on that foundation and brought a clear intention to it: making healthy habits visible, shared, and part of the culture, not something people feel like they have to do on their own.
But this isn’t really about fitness
On the surface, Witness the Fitness looks like a wellness initiative, but in practice, it’s something more foundational. It’s a simple system that makes participation visible and shared across a group of people who don’t naturally overlap in their day-to-day work. And that’s what makes it work.
The things people share aren’t always major milestones. Sometimes they’re deeply personal goals. Sometimes they’re small victories that might otherwise go unnoticed.
One team member shared: “I know my addiction to my phone is dumb and a waste of my time. For the next two weeks, I am not going to look at social media before 10am and not after 7pm.”
Another celebrated a hard-earned accomplishment: “I completed my first handstand walk yesterday! Still a long way to go to master them!”
And sometimes, the channel becomes a place to celebrate wins completely outside of work: “Since I shared this last year, I have to share again this year. My competitive indoor volleyball team won our league last night — our second year in a row! The fun thing about this team is that we all came in as free agents not knowing each other. Best ‘rec’ team I’ve ever been on!”
When someone shares a walk they almost skipped, a goal they’re working toward, or a habit they’re trying to improve, something small but meaningful happens. People see each other and the work they’re putting in. Conversations start. The distance between individuals working on completely different client engagements gets just a little bit smaller. Work becomes more human.
And over time, that consistency creates connection. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most effective way to build engagement isn’t by asking for more interaction, but by creating something people actually want to show up for. And when that happens—even in a fully remote, consultant-driven environment—it tends to show up in more places than you expect.
