Scandic Grand Central - Maggie Ibiam
1
12 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Tuesday 5 May 2015 BUSINESS LIFE “I have won a lot of promotions and been at Wembley and won the play- offs, [but] I think, individually, this was the biggest result.” If you follow sport at all, you get used to hyperbole. But this recent comment by Steve Evans, who manages the Rotherham United football team, stood out. He had not won a big trophy or made it to the top of the league. He was celebrating success in a struggle to avoid relegation from English football’s second tier. In effect, Rotherham were euphoric about having survived the world’s biggest annual festival of forced ranking. In forced ranking systems — also known as “rank and yank” or “stack ranking” — a set number or percentage of the worst performing members of a group are put on notice of possible demotion or dismissal after an assessment. Such approaches are the toxic byproduct of performance reviews. I happen to think regular reviews are essential and useful, for both appraiser and appraised, if done well. But plenty of people disagree. The lingering dominion of forced ranking is one reason why. The wild scenes at the end of every football season are a clue to what is wrong with forced ranking. Yes, the joy of the promoted is great to see, and it is hard not to sympathise with the distress of the relegated. But there are darker feelings in play, too. When Brazil tried to introduce a European-style league system, with relegation and promotion, in 2006, it spread doubts among fans about the motives of some football teams in the final decisive matches, the quality of refereeing, and the legitimacy of the whole competition. In 2009, fans of Coritiba tore apart the stadium amid violent scenes after their team was relegated. Mr Evans himself used his moment of relief to pour scorn on a player from one of Rotherham’s relegated rivals who had wished the team ill before their decisive match. You would hardly expect two rival groups of players to co-operate, but within a large organisation, where everyone’s interests are supposed to be aligned, such emotions are poisonous. Infighting between staff, horse-trading before any review, and incentives to lazy recruitment and short-termism are well-documented. Yahoo’s quarterly performance reviews, introduced by Marissa Mayer when she became chief executive, provide the highest-profile recent example of the turbulence created by ranking. Yahoo — which puts employees in one of five “buckets”, from “greatly exceeded” goals, down to “missed” targets — says its system is not a stack rank. But according to Nicholas Carlson’s recent book, the effects were the same. One staff member asked, in an anonymous question-and-answer session: “Why would I help out my fellow designers, or other teams, or share an opportunity when I can just gather them up myself to ensure my job?” Elsewhere, there are signs of reform. Microsoft has moved away from a stack ranking system that was condemned in a 2012 Vanity Fair article. General Electric, under Jack Welch, was the best-known example of a company that insisted on replacing annually the bottom 10 per cent on what Mr Welch called a “vitality curve”. That system has gone at GE, even if its best-known proponent is still advocating it. In his latest book, The Real Life MBA, written with wife Suzy, the former GE chief executive says ranking — he calls it “differentiation” — is the “embodiment of truth-and-trust leadership”. He dismisses its critics as “rabid”. The determined efforts of sports teams facing demotion seems to suggest differentiation can “unleash wow”, to quote the Welchs. End-of- season matches with simple issues of survival at stake certainly entertain the crowds. It is also important to find ways to stiffen staff reviews, which are often burdened by bureaucracy and enfeebled by managers’ inability to give clear feedback to weaker staff. As the perfectionist music teacher in the recent film Whiplash tells a promising jazz drummer: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job’.” But this teacher is shown to be a capricious bully, who pushes players to the brink by forcing them to compete for a place in his band. At work, tests have shown that fear shuts down our ability to absorb information passed on in a career appraisal and undermines long-term performance. Forced ranking may motivate footballers but — forgive me if I froth at the mouth a little here — it is quite the worst way of getting the best out of your staff. [email protected] Twitter: @andrewtghill M any people — from corpo- rate litigants to divorcing couples — have had to sit down to negotiate with adversaries they might once have wanted to blow out of the water. For Sergio Jaramillo, the contrast is not entirely metaphorical. Four years ago, when this polyglot classics scholar turned security expert was Colombia’s vice minister of defence, the army was trying to blast Farc guer- rillas out of their jungle redoubts. Now, as high commissioner for peace, Mr Jaramillo sits across a table every day from those same Marxist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, trying to make peace. It is a lesson in how to negotiate with bitter opponents. “You need to be incredibly aware and lucid. So it is useful sometimes to read challenging things that keep you sharp, like difficult poetry, Rilke or Mallarmé,” says the 48-year-old. “It sounds funny but it helps you find new angles.” Finding new angles is one of Mr Jara- millo’s specialities. Dressed in brogues and an Oxford shirt, he has the other- worldly air of an Oxbridge don, Indeed, he is a classical Greek, philosophy and philology graduate of Cambridge, Oxford and Heidelberg universities. But neither Mr Jaramillo nor his task are otherworldly. “Peace,” as Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian presi- dent, has said, “is harder to wage than war.” Several attempts to end Latin Amer- ica’s longest running insurgency, which has claimed over a quarter of a million lives, have failed. Success would transform Latin Amer- ica’s third-biggest economy and benefit the region. Both Havana and Caracas encouraged Farc to the negotiating table. Ending its involvement in drug smuggling could slow the flow of cocaine through neighbouring Venezuela. Mr Jaramillo is widely credited as the intellectual author of the negotiating strategy. Enrique Santos, a prominent journalist and the president’s brother, has called him, “our secret weapon”. “First of all, you have to have a plan. You need from the very beginning to have the clearest vision as possible of where you want to get to,” he says. But then “you need to be quite flexible tacti- cally, but firm strategically”. This approach, keeping your eye on the main prize, emphasises the differ- ence between negotiation and debate. The former is about “trading conces- sions”, as Henry Kissinger once put it, to reach common ground; debate, by con- trast, is about winning outright. Preparation is essential. Backchannel talks began three years ago, following initial contact with Álvaro Uribe, the previous president. Mr Jaramillo was then vice minister of defence. “As Sun Tzu would say, study your enemy,” he says. “I had studied the Farc quite thoroughly and spoken to hun- dreds of demobilised members, so I have a reasonably good idea of what makes them tick . . . they are very cun- ning and wily negotiators.” Wide reading, and lessons from suc- cessful peace processes in South Africa and El Salvador, have helped; so too advice from other peace negotiators, such as Jonathan Powell, the British civil servant who led the Good Friday agree- ments in Northern Ireland. Colombia’s breakthrough came in September 2012, when the govern- ment and the Farc announced after seven months of secret talks that they had agreed a road map. Points to be covered included a place for the guerrillas in Colombian poli- tics, an end to the Farc’s lucra- tive drug trade, war crimes and victims’ reparations, and finally an end to the conflict. Just as important, though, were the topics left out, such as any discussion about the capitalist versus Marxist orientation of the Colombian economy. “Talks-about-talks are in some respects more important than talks because that’s when you are defining the playing field,” says Mr Jaramillo. “It was incredibly tough.” The format has since followed that common to other difficult negotiations. They would take place in a “hothouse”, far from prying eyes and media atten- tion, in this case Cuba. Whatever took place outside would also not affect the talks inside; an agree- ment often stretched to breaking point, as in April when Farc troops killed 11 soldiers and President Santos was booed at public events by Colombians who felt he had kowtowed to the rebels. To estab- lish trust, there would also be full trans- parency with full confidentiality. And, “nothing would be agreed until everything was agreed”, a process which allows both sides to explore possible compromises without commitment until they saw the final picture. Mornings are spent thrashing out points around a table, breaking off after lunch to prepare for the next day. But quasi-backchannel conversations remain important too, with pairs or trios breaking off for informal talks. Mr Jaramillo calls this the 2+2, or 3+3 process. Mr Jaramillo exudes a calm authority in keeping with one of the basic rules of negotiation, which is to never lose your temper, except on purpose. But at times, in conversation, he slips into a brooding mood. The complexities of his role are tortu- ous: there are the negotiations them- selves; also domestic political consider- ations and international human rights law and diplomacy. “It’s about patience and persever- ance,” says Mr Jaramillo “We work all the bloody time.” In many ways Mr Jaramillo was built for the role: as a PhD student in Ger- many he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the eastern bloc’s transition from communism. An ancestor, also a philologist, wrote Colombia’s 1886 con- stitution, which endured a century. Today, he sometimes thinks wistfully about returning to the classics. But for the moment there is unfinished work to do. “The difficulty now is that we are truly facing the endgame, everything is very complex . . . It is a struggle.” An insight into negotiation from Colombia’s peace talks Sergio Jaramillo’s work offers a lesson in dealing with a bitter opponent, say John Paul Rathbone and Andres Schipani Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Below: Sergio Jaramillo, commissioner for peace Main photo: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images Yahoo’s quarterly reviews show how employee ranking causes turbulence Relegation fear works on the pitch but not in the office In true Scandinavian style, the coffee bar of the Scandic Grand Central — the flagship of a Swedish brand — is an uncluttered and stylish spot. The hotel itself is an imposing 1880s building, but its interior — from the 391 rooms with their wooden floors and low lighting to the comfortable communal spaces — is functional and modern. The Scandic Grand Central is located in Norrmalm, which was once the old publishing and printing district of Stockholm, on the crossing of Kungsgatan and Vasagatan — streets bustling with inner-city commuters and tourists. The hotel is blocks from the city’s main train station and near the offices of Google, Swedbank and KPMG. Its café, which serves wine as well as tea and coffee, sandwiches and pastries, is a favourite of Internet software specialists, and banking professionals. Because it provides the perfect centrally-located base, it is a popular choice for lengthy debriefs with clients and mid-morning business catch-ups. It also handy for shoppers. The coffee shop’s interior is decorated with a blend of colourful Moroccan-style floor tiles, industrial wall tiles and exposed railings in a rose gold finish. High tables and stools are positioned around a bar area. The additional communal seating resembles an upscale canteen. Maggie Ibiam Great place to meet Scandic Grand Central Where Kungsgatan, Stockholm WiFi Yes Plug sockets Yes Espresso SKr23 Open 8am-4pm; weekend: 10am-6pm Privacy points AAEEE Few forms of exercise are as natural as running. Young children manage to learn how to run without any special training and, as we enter adulthood, running remains an often unconscious activity. However, for people who like to run as a sport, especially in middle age, nasty side effects such as pain in the knees, twinges down the side of the leg, and painful cramping in the foot can make you wonder whether you are running correctly. The first person to publicly question our natural style of running was a British runner, Walter Goodall George, who trained as a chemist in the 19th century. Mr George invented a famous running exercise called the 100 Up, which many runners still use today. It had the virtue of training runners to land on the balls of their feet rather than their heels. When jogging became a fashionable form of exercise in the 1970s, shoe manufacturers raced to provide cushioned shoes to help weekend athletes deal with the impact of pounding out miles on concrete roads. In an earlier column, I wrote about how padded shoes can help save runners’ knees. But there is another way that might prove beneficial to runners who are still suffering agonies. Taking their cue from Mr George’s work, a number of sports scientists have looked at running to see if the method can be improved. Christopher MacDougal, author of a book called Born to Run, has championed the running method used by Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians; another school follows a method loosely based on t’ai chi chuan, a form of Chinese martial arts, and yet another technique is called the Pose method, which was invented by a Russian track coach named Nicholas Romanov. Although these styles employ different postures, they all state that heel striking, which most of us do when running, is bad for your body. “Pain is a sign that you are doing something wrong,” says Mr Romanov, who now lives in Miami, Florida. “It means that you are deviating from nature’s way of doing things, which has evolved over millions of years.” Mr Romanov, who has written a book, The Running Revolution: How to Run Faster, Farther, and Injury- Free – for Life, and holds running clinics in locations around the world, says that his Pose technique can reduce common injuries. There are some scientific studies which back up the idea that by changing the way your foot strikes, you can reduce the impact forces on your knee joints. Of course, this force is now transferred from your knees to your ankle and foot, which Mr Romanov asserts are better equipped to absorb the shock. The Pose technique is best learnt from a teacher, who can explain what each individual runner is doing wrong. In short, the Pose method not only has you landing on you forefoot, but also shortens your stride considerably from the days when you were heel striking. Romanov’s method uses gravity — you simply fall forward after landing — so there is no appreciable effort on the part of the runner. Changing habits can be devilishly difficult because they are deeply ingrained. I was able to change my foot fall by running barefoot on a treadmill for several weeks before I even tried on the street. But if you suffer from aches and pains after running, as I did, learning a new technique could be the key to saving your knees. [email protected] The fit executive Is heel striking a problem when you run? CHARLES WALLACE The following are tips distilled from Talking to Terrorists: how to end armed conflict by Jonathan Powell, former Downing Street chief of staff under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and founder of Inter-Mediate, an NGO that promotes dialogue and conflict resolution. 3 Build trust and get to the bottom line quickly 3 Know what you want. As Seneca wrote: “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable” 3 Never lose your temper: anger is one of the great prevailing sins of argument and also its largest stumbling block 3 It is important to have a process and to keep plodding on; progress begets progress 3 Make it as hard as possible for the other side to walk out without looking as though they are in the wrong and putting the chance of peace in jeopardy 3 The more people in a room, the less successful the negotiation may be 3 Cleverness is stupidity; outwitting the other side only undermines trust 3 Have a timeframe. Endless negotiations are pointless 3 Have a plan but remember Mike Tyson’s advice: “Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the mouth” The art of negotiation Andrew Hill Onmanagement Tips ‘ ’
-
Upload
maggie-ibiam -
Category
Documents
-
view
71 -
download
1
Transcript of Scandic Grand Central - Maggie Ibiam
12 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Tuesday 5 May 2015
BUSINESS LIFE
“I have won a lot of promotions andbeen at Wembley and won the play-offs, [but] I think, individually, this wasthe biggest result.” If you follow sportat all, you get used to hyperbole. Butthis recent comment by Steve Evans,who manages the Rotherham Unitedfootball team, stood out.
He had not won a big trophy or madeit to the top of the league. He wascelebrating success in a struggle toavoid relegation from English football’ssecond tier. In effect, Rotherham wereeuphoric about having survived theworld’s biggest annual festival of forcedranking.
In forced ranking systems — alsoknown as “rank and yank” or “stackranking” — a set number or percentageof the worst performing members of agroup are put on notice of possibledemotion or dismissal after anassessment. Such approaches are thetoxic byproduct of performancereviews. I happen to think regularreviews are essential and useful, forboth appraiser and appraised, if donewell. But plenty of people disagree. Thelingering dominion of forced ranking isone reason why.
The wild scenes at the end of everyfootball season are a clue to what iswrong with forced ranking. Yes, the joyof the promoted is great to see, and it ishard not to sympathise with thedistress of the relegated. But there aredarker feelings in play, too.
When Brazil tried to introduce aEuropean-style league system, withrelegation and promotion, in 2006, itspread doubts among fans about themotives of some football teams in the
final decisive matches, the quality ofrefereeing, and the legitimacy of thewhole competition. In 2009, fans ofCoritiba tore apart the stadium amidviolent scenes after their team wasrelegated. Mr Evans himself used hismoment of relief to pour scorn on aplayer from one of Rotherham’srelegated rivals who had wished theteam ill before their decisive match.
You would hardly expect two rivalgroups of players to co-operate, butwithin a large organisation, whereeveryone’s interests are supposed to bealigned, such emotions are poisonous.Infighting between staff, horse-tradingbefore any review, and incentives tolazy recruitment and short-termismare well-documented. Yahoo’squarterly performance reviews,introduced by Marissa Mayer when shebecame chief executive, provide thehighest-profile recent example of theturbulence created by ranking. Yahoo— which puts employees in one of five“buckets”, from “greatly exceeded”goals, down to “missed” targets — saysits system is not a stack rank. Butaccording to Nicholas Carlson’s recentbook, the effects were the same. Onestaff member asked, in an anonymousquestion-and-answer session: “Whywould I help out my fellow designers,or other teams, or share an opportunitywhen I can just gather them up myselfto ensure my job?”
Elsewhere, there are signs of reform.Microsoft has moved away from a stackranking system that was condemned ina 2012 Vanity Fair article. GeneralElectric, under Jack Welch, was thebest-known example of a company that
insisted on replacing annually thebottom 10 per cent on what Mr Welchcalled a “vitality curve”. That systemhas gone at GE, even if its best-knownproponent is still advocating it. In hislatest book, The Real Life MBA, writtenwith wife Suzy, the former GE chiefexecutive says ranking — he calls it“differentiation” — is the “embodimentof truth-and-trust leadership”. Hedismisses its critics as “rabid”.
The determined efforts of sportsteams facing demotion seems tosuggest differentiation can “unleashwow”, to quote the Welchs. End-of-season matches with simple issues ofsurvival at stake certainly entertain thecrowds. It is also important to findways to stiffen staff reviews, which areoften burdened by bureaucracy andenfeebled by managers’ inability togive clear feedback to weaker staff.
As the perfectionist music teacher inthe recent film Whiplash tells apromising jazz drummer: “There areno two words in the English languagemore harmful than ‘good job’.”
But this teacher is shown to be acapricious bully, who pushes players tothe brink by forcing them to competefor a place in his band. At work, testshave shown that fear shuts down ourability to absorb information passed onin a career appraisal and undermineslong-term performance. Forcedranking may motivate footballers but— forgive me if I froth at the mouth alittle here — it is quite the worst way ofgetting the best out of your staff.
[email protected]: @andrewtghill
M any people — from corpo-rate litigants to divorcingcouples — have had to sitdown to negotiate withadversaries they might
once have wanted to blow out of thewater. For Sergio Jaramillo, the contrastisnotentirelymetaphorical.
Four years ago, when this polyglotclassics scholar turned security expertwas Colombia’s vice minister of defence,the army was trying to blast Farc guer-rillasoutof their jungleredoubts.
Now, as high commissioner for peace,Mr Jaramillo sits across a table everyday from those same Marxist rebels ofthe Revolutionary Armed Forces ofColombia, trying to make peace. It is alesson in how to negotiate with bitteropponents.
“You need to be incredibly aware andlucid. So it is useful sometimes to readchallenging things that keep you sharp,like difficult poetry, Rilke or Mallarmé,”says the 48-year-old. “It sounds funnybut ithelpsyoufindnewangles.”
Finding new angles is one of Mr Jara-millo’s specialities. Dressed in broguesand an Oxford shirt, he has the other-worldly air of an Oxbridge don, Indeed,he is a classical Greek, philosophy andphilology graduate of Cambridge,OxfordandHeidelberguniversities.
But neither Mr Jaramillo nor his taskare otherworldly. “Peace,” as JuanManuel Santos, the Colombian presi-dent, has said, “is harder to wage thanwar.”
Several attempts to end Latin Amer-ica’s longest running insurgency, whichhas claimed over a quarter of a millionlives,havefailed.
Success would transform Latin Amer-ica’s third-biggest economy and benefitthe region. Both Havana and Caracasencouraged Farc to the negotiatingtable. Ending its involvement in drugsmugglingcouldslowtheflowofcocainethroughneighbouringVenezuela.
Mr Jaramillo is widely credited as theintellectual author of the negotiatingstrategy. Enrique Santos, a prominentjournalist and the president’s brother,hascalledhim,“oursecretweapon”.
“First of all, you have to have a plan.You need from the very beginning tohave the clearest vision as possible ofwhere you want to get to,” he says. Butthen “you need to be quite flexible tacti-cally,but firmstrategically”.
This approach, keeping your eye onthe main prize, emphasises the differ-ence between negotiation and debate.The former is about “trading conces-sions”, as Henry Kissinger once put it, toreach common ground; debate, by con-trast, isaboutwinningoutright.
Preparation is essential. Backchanneltalks began three years ago, followinginitial contact with Álvaro Uribe, theprevious president. Mr Jaramillo wasthenviceministerofdefence.
“As Sun Tzu would say, study yourenemy,” he says. “I had studied the Farcquite thoroughly and spoken to hun-dreds of demobilised members, so Ihave a reasonably good idea of what
makes them tick . . . they are very cun-ningandwilynegotiators.”
Wide reading, and lessons from suc-cessful peace processes in South Africaand El Salvador, have helped; so tooadvice from other peace negotiators,such as Jonathan Powell, the British civilservant who led the Good Friday agree-ments inNorthernIreland.
Colombia’s breakthrough came inSeptember 2012, when the govern-ment and the Farc announced
after seven months of secrettalks that they had agreed aroadmap.
Points to be coveredincluded a place for
the guerrillas inColombian poli-tics, an end tothe Farc’s lucra-tive drug trade,
war crimes and victims’ reparations,and finally an end to the conflict. Just asimportant, though, were the topics leftout, such as any discussion about thecapitalist versus Marxist orientation oftheColombianeconomy.
“Talks-about-talks are in somerespects more important than talksbecause that’swhenyouaredefiningtheplaying field,” says Mr Jaramillo. “It wasincrediblytough.”
The format has since followed thatcommon to other difficult negotiations.They would take place in a “hothouse”,far from prying eyes and media atten-tion, inthiscaseCuba.
Whatever took place outside wouldalso not affect the talks inside; an agree-ment often stretched to breaking point,as in April when Farc troops killed 11soldiersandPresidentSantoswasbooedat public events by Colombians who felt
hehadkowtowedtotherebels.Toestab-lish trust, there would also be full trans-parencywithfull confidentiality.
And, “nothing would be agreed untileverything was agreed”, a process whichallows both sides to explore possiblecompromises without commitmentuntil theysawthefinalpicture.
Mornings are spent thrashing outpoints around a table, breaking off afterlunch to prepare for the next day. Butquasi-backchannel conversationsremain important too, with pairs ortrios breaking off for informal talks. MrJaramillo calls this the 2+2, or 3+3process.
Mr Jaramillo exudes a calm authorityin keeping with one of the basic rules ofnegotiation, which is to never lose yourtemper,exceptonpurpose.Butat times,in conversation, he slips into a broodingmood.
The complexities of his role are tortu-ous: there are the negotiations them-selves; also domestic political consider-ations and international human rightslawanddiplomacy.
“It’s about patience and persever-ance,” says Mr Jaramillo “We work allthebloodytime.”
In many ways Mr Jaramillo was builtfor the role: as a PhD student in Ger-many he witnessed the fall of the BerlinWall and the eastern bloc’s transitionfrom communism. An ancestor, also aphilologist, wrote Colombia’s 1886 con-stitution,whichenduredacentury.
Today, he sometimes thinks wistfullyabout returning to the classics. But forthe moment there is unfinished work todo.
“The difficulty now is that we aretruly facing the endgame, everything isverycomplex . . . It isastruggle.”
An insight into negotiationfrom Colombia’s peace talks
Sergio Jaramillo’s workoffers a lesson in dealingwith a bitter opponent,say John Paul Rathboneand Andres Schipani
Members of theRevolutionaryArmed Forces ofColombia.Below: SergioJaramillo,commissionerfor peaceMain photo: LuisAcosta/AFP/Getty Images
Yahoo’squarterlyreviewsshow howemployeerankingcausesturbulence
Relegation fearworks on thepitch but not inthe office
In true Scandinavian style,the coffee bar of the ScandicGrand Central — theflagship of a Swedish brand— is an uncluttered andstylish spot. The hotel itselfis an imposing 1880sbuilding, but its interior —from the 391 rooms withtheir wooden floors and lowlighting to the comfortablecommunal spaces — isfunctional and modern.
The Scandic GrandCentral is located inNorrmalm, which was oncethe old publishing andprinting district ofStockholm, on the crossingof Kungsgatan andVasagatan — streetsbustling with inner-citycommuters and tourists.
The hotel is blocks fromthe city’s main train stationand near the offices ofGoogle, Swedbank and
KPMG. Its café, which serveswine as well as tea andcoffee, sandwiches andpastries, is a favourite ofInternet software specialists,and banking professionals.Because it provides theperfect centrally-locatedbase, it is a popular choicefor lengthy debriefs withclients and mid-morningbusiness catch-ups. It alsohandy for shoppers.
The coffee shop’s interioris decorated with a blend ofcolourful Moroccan-stylefloor tiles, industrial walltiles and exposed railings ina rose gold finish. Hightables and stools arepositioned around a bararea. The additionalcommunal seatingresembles an upscalecanteen.
Maggie Ibiam
Great place to meet
Scandic Grand Central
Where Kungsgatan, Stockholm WiFi Yes
Plug sockets Yes Espresso SKr23
Open 8am-4pm; weekend: 10am-6pm Privacy points AAEEE
Few forms of exercise are asnatural as running. Youngchildren manage to learnhow to run without anyspecial training and, as weenter adulthood, runningremains an oftenunconscious activity.
However, for people wholike to run as a sport,especially in middle age,nasty side effects such aspain in the knees, twingesdown the side of the leg, andpainful cramping in the footcan make you wonderwhether you are runningcorrectly.
The first person topublicly question ournatural style of running wasa British runner, WalterGoodall George, who trainedas a chemist in the 19thcentury. Mr George inventeda famous running exercisecalled the 100 Up, whichmany runners still use today.It had the virtue of trainingrunners to land on theballs of their feet ratherthan their heels.
When jogging became afashionable form of exercisein the 1970s, shoemanufacturers raced toprovide cushioned shoes tohelp weekend athletes dealwith the impact of poundingout miles on concrete roads.In an earlier column, I wroteabout how padded shoescan help save runners’knees.
But there is another waythat might prove beneficialto runners who are stillsuffering agonies. Takingtheir cue from Mr George’swork, a number of sportsscientists have looked atrunning to see if the methodcan be improved.
Christopher MacDougal,author of a book called Bornto Run, has championed therunning method used byMexico’s TarahumaraIndians; another schoolfollows a method looselybased on t’ai chi chuan, aform of Chinese martial arts,and yet another technique iscalled the Pose method,which was invented by aRussian track coach namedNicholas Romanov.
Although these stylesemploy different postures,they all state that heelstriking, which most of us dowhen running, is bad foryour body.
“Pain is a sign that youare doing somethingwrong,” says Mr Romanov,who now lives in Miami,
Florida. “It means that youare deviating from nature’sway of doing things, whichhas evolved over millionsof years.”
Mr Romanov, who haswritten a book, The RunningRevolution: How to RunFaster, Farther, and Injury-Free – for Life, and holdsrunning clinics in locationsaround the world, says thathis Pose technique canreduce common injuries.
There are some scientificstudies which back up theidea that by changing theway your foot strikes, youcan reduce the impactforces on your knee joints.Of course, this force isnow transferred fromyour knees to your ankleand foot, which MrRomanov asserts arebetter equipped to absorbthe shock.
The Pose technique isbest learnt from a teacher,who can explain what eachindividual runner is doingwrong. In short, the Posemethod not only has youlanding on you forefoot,but also shortens yourstride considerably fromthe days when you wereheel striking. Romanov’smethod uses gravity — yousimply fall forward afterlanding — so there is noappreciable effort on thepart of the runner.
Changing habits can bedevilishly difficult becausethey are deeply ingrained. Iwas able to change myfoot fall by running barefooton a treadmill for severalweeks before I even triedon the street. But if yousuffer from aches and painsafter running, as I did,learning a new techniquecould be the key to savingyour knees.
The fit executive
Is heel striking a problemwhen you run?CHARLES WALLACE
The following are tips distilled fromTalking to Terrorists: how to end armedconflict by Jonathan Powell, formerDowning Street chief of staff underPrime Minister Tony Blair, and founder ofInter-Mediate, an NGO that promotesdialogue and conflict resolution.
3 Build trust and get to the bottom linequickly
3 Know what you want. As Seneca wrote:“If a man knows not to which port hesails, no wind is favourable”
3 Never lose your temper: anger is oneof the great prevailing sins of argumentand also its largest stumbling block
3 It is important to have a process and to
keep plodding on; progress begetsprogress
3 Make it as hard as possible for theother side to walk out without looking asthough they are in the wrong andputting the chance of peace in jeopardy
3 The more people in a room, the lesssuccessful the negotiation may be
3 Cleverness is stupidity; outwitting theother side only undermines trust
3 Have a timeframe. Endlessnegotiations are pointless
3 Have a plan but remember MikeTyson’s advice: “Everyone has a planuntil they are punched in the mouth”
The art ofnegotiation
Andrew HillOnmanagement
Tips
‘
’
MAY 5 2015 Section:Features Time: 4/5/2015 - 15:59 User: provans Page Name: BizLife, Part,Page,Edition: LON, 12, 1
