A Team Approach

As a Les Mills Instructor, you may have noticed recent changes in choreographer titles – from ‘Program Director’ to ‘Creative’ – with more people now credited with contributing to the program.

Historically, one or two people were solely responsible for the choreography and music, but in recent years there's been a shift to working in creative ‘teams’. Creatives now work across multiple programs, collaborating and sharing their expertise. This approach has been designed to ensure longevity in the programs, explains Diana Archer Mills.

“Our plan in Group Training has always been to create multi-generational Creative Teams because, as Jackie says: 'What happens if the plane crashes, who's making the next release?' The sentiment is put forward jokingly, but the concept of sharing intellectual property and developing pathways to upskill the next generations is essential for our products to thrive and evolve. And this happened organically with KB [Kaylah-Blayr Fitzsimons-Nu'u] in BODYSTEP™, myself in BODYBALANCE™ and Jax [Jackson Fuafiva Osborne] in BODYATTACK™.

“But the biggest catalyst in making this a reality across the board came a few years ago, when we were in a phase of hiring a remarkable group of individuals — from Summer [Bradley], KB, Meno [Thomas] and Bianca [Ikinofo] through to Ben Main. Khiran [Huston] came on for her work in the Agile space then Vili [Fifita] followed to work across multiple projects in innovations and Group Training.

“We created and ran a 'choreography school' and discovered that several hires had huge creative talent. Once we'd all been working within teams, and delighting in the success across the board, it was the most obvious time to remove the hierarchy and shift the titles to reflect what everyone is doing now: each and every one of our Program Directors is exploring and winning in other creative areas.

“Rach [Newsham] is back in the dance space, Dan [Cohen] is coaching more teams and working heavily with People & Culture, Mark [Nu'u-Steele] is on several teams, creating new workouts and presenting new formats. Lisa [Osborne] is also utilizing her incredible expertise in weight training and cycle, bringing insight into many of our strength offerings and exploring presenting the cycle programs. Glen [Ostergaard] continues to innovate and create wonderful new products (with his team) like LES MILLS PILATES™. And the wonderful Kylie Gates is stepping into Creative spaces — choreographing in LES MILLS CORE™, LES MILLS PILATES, and broadening her role into dance and the Limited Edition teams.”

Read on to discover why, and how this approach can help you fill your classes!

KEEPING THE WORKOUT FRESH AND SURPRISING

One benefit of having multiple people in the room is more diverse thinking, says Glen Ostergaard. “I was heavily influenced by a book called Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed. He argues that having a team approach to a project – rather than an individual – creates a better outcome because you have all these different perspectives in the room.

“I like a certain kind of music or certain moves, and that’s what showed up in the final workout when it was just me working on BODYPUMP™. But when it’s just you, or you and someone else, you’re working in an echo chamber where your views are continuously celebrated and reinforced. The great thing about this new approach is that we now have a variety of perspectives on the workout – which is more representative of our customers.”

Mark Nu’u-Steele believes the team approach brings a welcome freshness to each release. “Nothing changes for the better if nothing changes. The process of peer review and feedback from those Creatives who aren’t immersed in the program is invaluable when it comes to creating new content. It’s so useful to have outside eyes looking in.”

HAVING THE BEST MINDS IN THE ROOM

One advantage of the team approach is that people are chosen to input according to what they can bring to the table, says Kylie Gates. “People are placed in projects according to their specific strengths and skills. For example, Ben Main is now involved in LES MILLS CORE because of his obsession with functional training and background in personal training. These skills mean he can suggest fresh, innovative movements for each release.”

“We now have multiple people inputting at each stage of the creative process, according to their expertise,” notes Summer Bradley. “This ensures the releases are the best they can be from start to finish.”

MUSIC THAT APPEALS TO MORE PEOPLE

When it comes to group training, there are few topics more divisive than the music. While it may be impossible to please everyone all the time, having a wider team of people inputting into the music selection means the final playlist is more likely to appeal to a wider audience, says Khiran Huston. “Music is at the heart of what we do. Without music there isn’t choreography and — more importantly — there isn’t feel. Collaborating with new ears within the creative teams unlocks new levels of inspiration, energy and excitement when we're choreographing your favorite workouts.

“The music selection process takes months and months. As a creative music team, we listen to hundreds and hundreds of songs each quarter across all programs. When listening, we always keep the program's essence forefront of mind — it's really important that we maintain the DNA of the program whilst injecting new energy. The songs we select need to bear repeatability whilst invoking emotion each time you play them in your clubs.

“The way people are exposed to music has completely evolved — gone days where you tuned into Top of the Pops or the Top 50 countdown. A song or artist that might be completely new to one person could be extremely loved and well known to another!  This means we need to expose ourselves to many different types of music to collate the very best from around the globe.”

Gandalf Archer Mills agrees: “The team vibe has permeated many different areas of the creation process, but the music selection has specifically benefited. It seems so obvious now – it used to just be this one person, and that one person has a sound that they like and they live in a world of music that is one person wide. But when you add other people to the process, it completely changes the possibilities.

“I remember when I started asking for track lists from Bianca [Ikinofo] for BODYJAM™ years ago and it really stretched my taste and was kind of outside my comfort zone. You get this newness in the sounds because people are putting forward their tastes from the music world – what they’re getting on the Spotify algorithm, the concerts they go to, the DJs they listen to. And it just brings an incredibly wide diversity of sound.

"As a team, we’ll sit down and be like, okay, this is gonna be the two, and this three is a really mainstream sound so let’s throw in this really quirky and sideways track in the four that none of us have ever heard before because Meno found it and he's got this really wild and incredible taste in music. So we’ll try it and it might be amazing or it might be terrible, but let’s just see how it goes.”

MORE EFFICIENT WAYS OF WORKING

With more programs being added to the Group Training suite, it’s more logical for people to collaborate in teams rather than working in silos, says Khiran. “I’ve always worked collaboratively. I come from a Scrum Master/Agile Coach background, so this evolution in ways of working at Les Mills made sense to me.

“Working as a team unlocks new levels of creativity, efficiency, and overall product quality and care. It’s powerful to see intergenerational, diverse, passionate people working together toward a shared goal and vision of getting people fit, healthy and feeling happy when they choose to exercise with us.

“By de-layering hierarchy and evolving to a horizontal approach, we’ve encouraged fresh ideas and a culture of innovation which is really important in the fitness industry. We’re living in an era of knowledge at your fingertips, where people can now access workouts from anywhere. As trends shift and change, working as a team allows for agility.”

KEEPING PACE WITH INDUSTRY INNOVATION

As Instructors can attest, the fitness industry is forever evolving. Les Mills bears a responsibility to ensure the programs it delivers to Instructors reflect current trends and service what members are looking for, says Khiran. “We know we’re in an industry that requires evolution and innovation to ensure we’re delivering the very best group training experiences to our Instructors and movers.”

Bianca Ikinofo adds: “Working in a collaborative environment is key to innovation. Having a mix of people who offer different expertise, perspectives and experiences really shapes each release – whether that’s through clever layering, a slight musical change or a unique movement. For me, this shift has been incredible and it better equips us to create more magical moments for the end participant.”

OPPORTUNITIES FOR CREATIVES TO BRANCH OUT

This approach has opened up new opportunities for the Creatives in other parts of the business, adds Dan Cohen. “It’s been fantastic to support other programs and move beyond the operational and managerial responsibilities typically associated with the Program Director role. Transitioning into this way of working allows for better time management and can open up new career pathways, potentially leading to roles in higher-level creative direction, brand strategy, or innovation, expanding our professional horizons beyond the program-specific focus. It’s allowed me to spend more time in the VR space, coaching, and my role supporting teams' performance across our global business.”

A BETTER END WORKOUT

The sum of all the different parts creates a better overall class, says Glen Ostergaard. “At the end of the day, the workout is now way better. I used to produce good BODYPUMP classes, but it’s better now because of the variety of music we select and the different ideas in the room. It was a bit hard in the beginning because it was a big change. But now I definitely see the value in this approach. It’s a more complicated process that requires more work, but the end product is much better.”

Vili Fifita concurs: “It’s great working in a collaborative team. We all have so much love and care for the programs, meaning we’ll always do our very best to produce amazing workouts for people. Our goal is to change the world through fitness with amazing Les Mills programs!” 

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