I blogged a couple of days ago about our holiday parties being a means to develop culture. Well, they are just one of several and the healthier one – that is starting to consume big chunks of my time – is athletic competitions.

We have put together a FirstRain team for the Napa Vineman Aquabike race in August 2008. It is entirely voluntary and none of us (employees) has done anything like this before. The Aquabike is a swim/bike race – a triathalon without the running – swimming in the Russian River and biking up and down hills in the Sonoma Valley.

Our team is a great cross-section of (fun loving or crazy – who knows) employees. We have:
– 7 from New York and 7 from California
– plus 2 spouses (both of whom are serious athletes so they’ll probably wipe the floor with us)
– plus 1 customer (a triathlete who kicked me to start this project in the first place)
– 6 of the 17 are women
– 6 of the 17 are over 40
– 7 of the 14 employees are from sales, 4 from operations, 3 from G&A (yes, we’re the overhead contingent)

We plan to train together as much as we can in the Spring/Summer, compete together and definitely celebrate together afterwards. Several of our employees who did not want to sign up are still planning to come and cheer us on – and I’m sure we’ll need their encouragement.

Culture is about how you interact with each other every day; what kind of team you form; how people support one another through challenges. So a race like this will bind us even tighter (assuming we survive it!).