Steve Evans, the manager of the Rotherham United football team, called their recent success in avoiding relegation from the English second division the biggest result of his career, even though they did not win a major trophy. Forced ranking systems in organizations, where the worst performers face possible demotion, are toxic and lead to infighting among employees who are supposed to have aligned interests. While the emotions around relegation in football are entertaining for fans, forced ranking is not an effective way to motivate employees and get the best out of staff in organizations.

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.
andrew.hill@ft.com
Twitter: @andrewtghill
M
anypeople—fromcorpo-
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.ForSergioJaramillo,thecontrast
isnotentirelymetaphorical.
Four years ago, when this polyglot
classics scholar turned security expert
wasColombia’sviceministerofdefence,
the army was trying to blast Farc guer-
rillasoutoftheirjungleredoubts.
Now,ashighcommissionerforpeace,
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.
“Youneedtobeincrediblyawareand
lucid. So it is useful sometimes to read
challenging things that keep you sharp,
likedifficultpoetry,RilkeorMallarmé,”
says the 48-year-old. “It sounds funny
butithelpsyoufindnewangles.”
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,
OxfordandHeidelberguniversities.
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,havefailed.
SuccesswouldtransformLatinAmer-
ica’s third-biggest economy and benefit
the region. Both Havana and Caracas
encouraged Farc to the negotiating
table. Ending its involvement in drug
smugglingcouldslowtheflowofcocaine
throughneighbouringVenezuela.
Mr Jaramillo is widely credited as the
intellectual author of the negotiating
strategy. Enrique Santos, a prominent
journalist and the president’s brother,
hascalledhim,“oursecretweapon”.
“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“youneedtobequiteflexibletacti-
cally,butfirmstrategically”.
This approach, keeping your eye on
the main prize, emphasises the differ-
ence between negotiation and debate.
The former is about “trading conces-
sions”,asHenryKissingeronceputit,to
reach common ground; debate, by con-
trast,isaboutwinningoutright.
Preparation is essential. Backchannel
talks began three years ago, following
initial contact with Álvaro Uribe, the
previous president. Mr Jaramillo was
thenviceministerofdefence.
“As Sun Tzu would say, study your
enemy,”hesays.“IhadstudiedtheFarc
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-
ningandwilynegotiators.”
Wide reading, and lessons from suc-
cessful peace processes in South Africa
and El Salvador, have helped; so too
advice from other peace negotiators,
suchasJonathanPowell,theBritishcivil
servant who led the Good Friday agree-
mentsinNorthernIreland.
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
roadmap.
Points to be covered
includedaplacefor
the guerrillas in
Colombian poli-
tics, an end to
theFarc’slucra-
tivedrugtrade,
war crimes and victims’ reparations,
andfinallyanendtotheconflict.Justas
important, though, were the topics left
out, such as any discussion about the
capitalist versus Marxist orientation of
theColombianeconomy.
“Talks-about-talks are in some
respects more important than talks
becausethat’swhenyouaredefiningthe
playingfield,”saysMrJaramillo.“Itwas
incrediblytough.”
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,inthiscaseCuba.
Whatever took place outside would
alsonotaffectthetalksinside;anagree-
ment often stretched to breaking point,
as in April when Farc troops killed 11
soldiersandPresidentSantoswasbooed
atpubliceventsbyColombianswhofelt
hehadkowtowedtotherebels.Toestab-
lishtrust,therewouldalsobefulltrans-
parencywithfullconfidentiality.
And, “nothing would be agreed until
everythingwasagreed”,aprocesswhich
allows both sides to explore possible
compromises without commitment
untiltheysawthefinalpicture.
Mornings are spent thrashing out
pointsaroundatable,breakingoffafter
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.
MrJaramilloexudesacalmauthority
in keeping with one of the basic rules of
negotiation, which is to never lose your
temper,exceptonpurpose.Butattimes,
inconversation,heslipsintoabrooding
mood.
Thecomplexitiesofhisrolearetortu-
ous: there are the negotiations them-
selves; also domestic political consider-
ations and international human rights
lawanddiplomacy.
“It’s about patience and persever-
ance,” says Mr Jaramillo “We work all
thebloodytime.”
In many ways Mr Jaramillo was built
for the role: as a PhD student in Ger-
manyhewitnessedthefalloftheBerlin
Wall and the eastern bloc’s transition
from communism. An ancestor, also a
philologist, wrote Colombia’s 1886 con-
stitution,whichenduredacentury.
Today, he sometimes thinks wistfully
about returning to the classics. But for
themomentthereisunfinishedworkto
do.
“The difficulty now is that we are
truly facing the endgame, everything is
verycomplex . . . Itisastruggle.”
Aninsightintonegotiation
fromColombia’speacetalks
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
Relegationfear
worksonthe
pitchbutnotin
theoffice
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
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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.
fitexecutive@ft.com
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.
3Build trust and get to the bottom line
quickly
3Know what you want. As Seneca wrote:
“If a man knows not to which port he
sails, no wind is favourable”
3Never lose your temper: anger is one
of the great prevailing sins of argument
and also its largest stumbling block
3It is important to have a process and to
keep plodding on; progress begets
progress
3Make 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
3The more people in a room, the less
successful the negotiation may be
3Cleverness is stupidity; outwitting the
other side only undermines trust
3Have a timeframe. Endless
negotiations are pointless
3Have 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
‘
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