How PI Diagnose helped Club16 surface cultural gaps and spark lasting change.

Background

Client: Club16 Trevor Linden Fitness featuring She’s FIT!

Location: British Columbia, Canada

Industry: Fitness & Wellness

Consultant Partner: Tom Johnston, Talent Optimizer Group

PI Modules Used: Diagnose, Hire, Design, Inspire, Perform

The Opportunity

In 2011, the late Chuck Lawson partnered with NHL legend Trevor Linden to build a fitness brand rooted in trust, alignment, and purpose. Together, they grew Club16 Trevor Linden Fitness into one of British Columbia’s leading gym networks. But as the company scaled, the culture lagged behind.

Despite strong financial performance, signs of internal tension were growing:

• Teams were misaligned and operating in silos.
• Communication gaps and unclear roles created friction.
• Employees felt undervalued, disconnected, and unheard.

What had once been a tight-knit, mission-driven company was beginning to feel disconnected. While growth metrics remained solid, people metrics were starting to slide.

President and Co-founder Chuck — whose leadership and vision were instrumental to the company’s growth and whose legacy continues to guide Club16 — knew something had to change. He brought in Talent Optimization consultant Tom Johnston to help.

The Solution

With Tom’s guidance, Club16 leadership mapped next steps to their desired results and their core values: Transparent, Energetic, Accountable, and Member Focused (or TEAM).

• Refining their mission and vision
• Restructuring certain teams
• Revisiting their hiring process to stem attrition
• Resolving issues around role clarity and overlap
• Redesigning compensation

To meet those goals, Club16 leveraged the full PI platform:

• Design: To clarify reporting structures and realign leadership
• Hire: To build better role fit and reduce costly turnover
• Inspire: To improve communication and build leadership trust
• Perform: To drive accountability and align day-to-day work with goals

Perhaps the most telling aspect of Club16’s adoption of PI tools is its shelf life. The leadership team recognizes Talent Optimization is a continuous process — a journey of improvement that never totally stops. 

To get better, Club16 had to take a long, hard look at itself. 

One of the first exercises Tom undertook with the Club16 team was a PI Diagnose employee experience survey — a deep dive into the company’s inner workings, where staff sentiment and grievances were laid bare. The leadership team absorbed feedback on what they were doing well and where they could improve.

Before launching the survey, Tom got buy-in from the top. Chuck and Trevor were committed, and recognizing their willingness to take critical feedback and use it to get better, the rest of the executive team was onboard. 

The feedback revealed some employees felt disconnected, uninformed, and undercompensated.

PI Diagnose helped them put data and specifics to their general feelings of discomfort. Seeing feedback in real time, from real employees, crystallized what exactly they needed to improve upon — and what actions they could take.

“You can always get better,” said Chuck.

To that end, they conducted a second annual employee engagement survey, to make sure they were progressing in the right direction. The results speak for themselves, with an all-around increase in scores.

They also got qualitative feedback from employees at the Town Halls validating all the progress that has been made. Some team members recently said their key takeaways were, “The communication and how valued we all are as a TEAM,” “Our vision, mission, and how to execute on our plans,” and “just being able to improve and further develop our business.”

The Results

The measurable outcomes below reflect the full impact of Club16’s transformation — powered by Diagnose, but driven by a comprehensive journey across all five PI tools. Diagnose was the catalyst that set everything in motion, surfacing the insights needed to realign the company around its people and culture.

• $2.2M+ saved in annual turnover costs
• 12% EBITDA growth
• 2x increase in retention compared to prior years
• Employees cited “clarity on vision” and renewed excitement in Town Halls

As Chuck states, they recognize the proof is in the payoff: “The return on investment separate and apart from my peace of mind is that we’ve started paying people better. …Those people are happier. And as far as PI goes, we’re doing better, we don’t have to interview as many people for jobs. Our retention of our people right now is about two times what it used to be.”

“I think everyone in our group felt that we could get a lot better… that was probably the biggest piece for me — getting the right people in the right seats. And I think we’ve come so far on that,” said Trevor.