CHAPTER 4

WHAT THE SLOW MOVEMENT?

So, does the Slow movement hold the answer to our current and future productivity woes? Is it truly a social force to be reckoned with? Is it a legitimate tactic for refining a person’s ambitions and skills, or is it merely a refuge for those who cannot handle the pace of business?

My belief is that the concepts behind the Slow movement do offer promise, but as long as they continue to run smack into the collective high-speed mentality of most North American business people, there will be no progress, and worse, no perceived need for its philosophy. The mindset that embraces speed and advancement has been fueled in the United States by over two centuries’ worth of the pursuit of independence, progress, and personal freedom. Slightly younger countries (constitutionally speaking) such as Canada and Australia hold similar collective desires. Nor is the “old world” immune to the pressures of speed. Some companies and organizations in Spain, for example, have actually tried to eliminate the centuries-old tradition of siesta, replacing it, in some instances, with fast-food lunch vouchers in order to a) remain more accessible to the 24/7 marketplace and b) fit into the new commuting schedules of households with two working parents.

As the global economy continues to both advance and diversify, the pressure on working professionals to do more with fewer resources, to remain accountable to their worldwide customer base, while simultaneously staying ahead of their competitors, will only become more intense. The collective reaction to all this will be to want to hurry up, not slow down.

Negative stress that accompanies such pressure is what causes the damage, both for individuals and the companies for which they work. As I described in Chapter 1, it’s the difference between walking fast because you like to and walking fast because you have to. When people or companies react and increase their pace because they have to, they move into the emotional territory where fear and anger live.

FEAR AND ANGER AS A REACTION TO PRESSURE

When a person feels fear, he experiences an increase in energy brought about by the release of adrenalin into the bloodstream. This also increases his blood pressure, and both together are intended to help him either avoid trouble or get out of its way quickly. However, these reactions are soon tempered by a separate branch of the autonomic nervous system called the parasympathetic system, which seeks to bring the state of hyper-arousal back down to more normal values. People are not built to stay in this heightened state for long periods, just as we’re not built to sprint marathons every day. We just can’t.

It is interesting to note that the physical stresses brought on by fear and anger differ markedly from those brought on during another high-intensity situation: strenuous, enjoyable exercise. The reduction in blood-pumping efficiency does not happen during periods of eustress (positive stress). Exercise, though vigorous, is still a form of relaxation, akin to walking fast because you like to. The difference, in terms of experience between what the body feels when angry or fearful, compared to what it feels during times of enjoyment demonstrates the wide scope of physical and mental repercussions that must be understood if we are to live healthy and productive lives. No place better illustrates these repercussions than urban Japan.

KAROSHI

The Slow movement started in Japan in reaction to a very real problem known as karoshi, translated as “death by overwork.” Real death, not just disillusionment or boredom. We’re talking about hard-working professionals, in their 30s, 40s, or 50s with no obvious signs of illness who one day simply keel over. There are two primary causes of death through karoshi: the first is heart attack and the second is stroke. Both are brought on by a noxious mix of overwork, stress, and pressure.

Since the first official case in 1969, Japanese officials have tracked all cases of karoshi, primarily because of its grave implications for the Japanese workforce, but also, I would suggest, with an eye to the growing number of lawsuits being brought forth by grieving families of the deceased. The Japanese Ministry of Labor regularly publishes statistics on the spread of this affliction.

Japan was, and still is, a fertile breeding ground for karoshi. For decades, its work culture expected that no worker was to leave the office at the end of the day until everyone was finished, usually well after 8:00 p.m. An average of two hours of unpaid overtime per day was expected and was dutifully given. It was all about “face time.” It was also expected that colleagues join each other for drinks after work where, within the tightly constrained cultural atmosphere of urban Japan, small talk, gossip, or criticism could be expressed and conveniently excused as “the alcohol doing the talking.” Millions of exhausted Japanese businessmen, in later decades to be joined by exhausted businesswomen, would then squeeze themselves into packed commuter trains, returning home late in the evening to grab three or four hours’ sleep before starting the ritual again. Japanese professionals who have kids routinely use the services of extended-hour daycare centers and overnight nanny services, but even the population of overworked parents is dwindling. Japan’s birthrate is plummeting, and the cause is directly linked to overly long work hours.¹

It’s not as if the Japanese consciously desired to become workaholics and absentee parents. It was simply the result of a combination of elements, including tradition, economic expansion, ambition, and necessity. These created the circumstances for such an impossible workload to take root. For a while it seemed like a good thing. But there are some in Japan who have started to question this commitment to death-in-harness and have begun to express a desire for the adoption of a less hasty lifestyle. The answer, they believed, was to adopt and practice the principles of Slow.

The Japan Consumer Marketing Research Institute (JCMR) published, and continues to publish, a series of reports that shows how some of their country’s consumers are indeed consciously shifting to a “slow life” consumer lifestyle. The JCMR, which advises national and international companies on trends and business opportunities in Japan, identifies, for example, how some Japanese males in their 40s and 60s are now leading the downshift into the “slow life” consumption pattern.

Certain towns have gone as far as to take revolutionary steps in aid of the Slow movement. The prefecture of Iwate, for example, located in northern Japan, re-elected its governor, Hiroya Masuda, in 2004 for a third term on a platform of “pro-relaxation” with 88 percent of the votes cast. Says Mr. Masuda:

In Tokyo, people are chased by speed, and life consists of working, eating, and sleeping … Here, I want people to go home early in the evening, take a walk with their family, and talk to the neighbors.²

Iwate’s achievements are interesting, and its coastal countryside is beautiful, but it remains to be seen whether the approach to slow adopted there has universal appeal. Much of the interest in the area, indeed much of the traffic into and out of Iwate, seems to come from stressed Tokyo-ites, eager for a rare weekend of rest and relaxation, but compelled to return to their own city’s harried streets come Monday.

Kakegawa, further south, declared itself a “Slow Life City” in 2002. Located south of Tokyo, it aimed to become a city that promoted a comfortable lifestyle and relaxed state of mind, not only with regard to the pace of work and food, but also to “slow industry,” in which competitive production was maintained with ecologically friendly approaches to industry and economic development. Kakegawa, like Iwate, is a beautiful place to visit but would you really want to live there? These are small, and not overly prosperous towns, after all. Do they represent the turning tide in terms of the global approach to slow? Perhaps not by themselves, but they have friends.

THE SLOW CITIES MOVEMENT

There are many other towns and small cities around the world that have joined with Iwate and Kakegawa to embrace the Slow movement. Together they form a collective, under the banner “Cittaslow” (pronounced chit-a-slow), a made-up pseudo Italian-English term meaning “slow city.” The goal of Cittaslow is to draw global attention to towns and administrations that have undertaken steps to restore historical centers, boost the use of recyclable containers in public structures, promote the greening of private and public spaces, and encourage car-free zones. It’s largely a European movement, and its website, www.cittaslow.net, is accessible in both English and Italian.

It would be very easy for those comfortable with the culture of speed and wary of change to dismiss the Cittaslow concept as rather provincial, even quaint, given that all of its founding cities are far from economic powerhouses. But therein truly lies the beauty of the Slow movement and its own sort of simplistic sophistication. More and more people are realizing that enduring the trade-off of having to work 80 hours a week simply to maintain a lifestyle within the boundaries of a major metropolitan area is no longer the only choice. They are discovering that there are other, less expensive, less demanding, more enjoyable ways to live.

Carl Honoré, author of the definitive summary of the Slow movement, entitled In Praise of Slow, highlights the simple math that often gets obscured by the fog of high-speed workaholism:

As it turns out, people who cut their work hours often take a smaller hit financially than they expect. That is because spending less time on the job means spending less money on the things that allow us to work: transport, parking, eating out, coffee, convenience, food, childcare, laundry, retail therapy. A smaller income also translates into a smaller tax bill … some workers who took a pay cut in return for shorter hours actually ended up with more money in the bank at the end of each month.³

Consequently, it makes sense for smaller towns to embrace the movement without fear. They have discovered an alternative richness to life, other than just money or corporate power, which more and more people are starting to see as both attractive and practical.

**THE SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT**

Perhaps the most famous of the Slow movements is the Slow Food movement, also an international organization, whose aim is “to protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenization of modern fast food and life.”⁴ Centered in Europe, and particularly active in France, the movement encourages not just the purchase of organic and locally grown foods, but also the pleasure of taking time to eat. The French have always been famous for their passion for rich and elaborate food, yet as Mireille Guiliano, CEO of the champagne company Veuve Clicquot, and author of French Women Don’t Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, explains, there are better approaches to maintaining or losing weight than becoming obsessed with diets and deprivation. A lot, she says, simply has to do with eating right, exercising well, and enjoying life.

Okay, I’m sure there are a few overweight women and men lurking in the cafés of Paris and Nice, but much of the success of this philosophy has to do with a traditional approach to dining, a far less hurried one, that many people in France enjoy. They take the time to savor the meal, to review its presentation, to take note of its many flavors, and, while dining, they enjoy passionate conversations or arguments. They talk as well as eat. This gives their digestive systems more time to receive and process the food, without being forced to literally pack it away as body fat. In addition, a good intellectual discussion, even a satisfying argument, helps stimulate endorphins and other activators in the brain, setting the stage for a productive, alert afternoon, even after consuming a substantial meal with wine.

That’s all very nice for all people over there. The French get to eat, the Italians get to walk across their city squares, and the Japanese get a chance not to die quite yet. But what does all of that have to do with people in North America and other speed-obsessed centers of business? Well, have a look again at a significant fact hidden within Mme Guiliano’s description above. She mentions how her attitude to eating provides a better approach to weight loss than diets and deprivation do. What she demonstrates with that statement is that there are often better tactics than the merely obvious. When it comes to food, the obvious and expected approach for North Americans is to diet, which results in cravings, cheating, and shameful feelings. Diets seldom work for long since they go against the natural tendencies of the body, and in many cases the weight simply returns. But since dieting has been with us for decades now, it is accepted as the social norm. Mme Guiliano’s approach, however, is to continue to eat, but to eat in a measured, slower way. This, she shows, achieves greater progress, a more stable, natural approach to weight management without cravings, and is also much easier.

So it is with Cool Down. The purpose of this book is not to repeat what Mr. Honoré and Mme Guiliano say in their books, but to show that the same unconventional approach that they so eloquently describe can be successfully implemented within the North American work culture. By doing things differently, rather than completely depriving yourself of them, alternatives appear. It would be foolish for example, to wrestle a wireless PDA away from its addicted owner. It would be dangerous, also, to suggest that no calls or emails should ever be answered after hours. These things are too close to the comfort level of busy professionals, and the withdrawal that they would feel would cause them to return to their current habits. That’s not what Cool Down is about. Instead it’s about revising those habits, to ensure that the trivial does not get pulled along with the truly important, and that conscious awareness of the value of every moment is constantly assessed and accounted for. Ultimately, this demonstrates that not only is slow an easier route, it is actually more effective and productive.

SAY IT AIN’T SLOW

One of the major liabilities of the Slow movement is the word itself. The word slow is anathema to the mentality of business upon which the North American economy professes to be built. The term triggers a bias; many view it as bad. It connotes unproductive activity, reduced energy, coming in second or third in competitions. Negative concepts spring quickly to mind, such as work-to-rule job action, or retirement (forced or otherwise), or of being old or old-fashioned. In the minds of ambitious people, slow paints a picture of uselessness, frustration, and a laid-back counterculture approach to life. It brings to mind images of traffic jams, of dot-matrix printers buzzing away, line by line, and of old people standing patiently in a queue at the bank to pay their phone bills. None of these has a strong appeal to ambitious inhabitants of the working world. But this again is because the term slow has, to this point, been framed mostly within the context of non-productivity.

However, there is another perspective. Slow can mean productive. It can also mean making money. More and more companies are seeking to redefine slow, to integrate it so as to be better aligned with healthy, profitable business practices, in which flexibility, balance, and life issues rank as highly as corporate ethics and transparency and product quality. Throughout this book, I profile successful executives who have discovered and implemented the power of slow in their own ways. There are many companies that have started to take the plunge.

Alcan

In 2003, Montreal-based aluminum producer Alcan Inc., in an attempt to stem the tide of high employee turnover due to burnout (people were working seven-day weeks, 13 or 14 hours a day), implemented a “work-life effectiveness strategy” that included mandatory no-work hours, as well as on-site experts in work-life balance. Alcan’s executive had recognized that employee burnout posed a bigger long-term threat to its business than the short-term cost of encouraging staff to slow down.⁵

Since this book is about the nuts-and-bolts of how Slow might work within the context of business, I found the greatest significance of the Alcan story to be the commitment made by senior management, not merely to endorse the program, but also to act as role models. They have insisted their staff practice “no-work” weekends and out-of-office lunch breaks, and they then balance this out by urging employees to focus on “essential” rather than “important” tasks, to avoid working late.

AstraZeneca

On a recent visit to the Canadian head office of global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Inc., I was pleased to observe the extent to which workplace health had been so thoroughly incorporated into their community. Employees informed me that, yes, they were actually encouraged to use the extensive health and exercise facilities and that this was allowed even during the workday.

As Anna Blake, AstraZeneca’s Manager of Employee Wellness, told me, “It’s important to have an HR policy supporting Work-Life Balance. Employees have their core hours between 10 and three. Some start early or leave late, and they can also juggle around their lunch.”

One of the unique and fascinating things about AstraZeneca’s approach is the instructor-led exercise sessions. The instructors are volunteers—AstraZeneca employees—who have been trained to deliver the exercise classes. Anna pointed out, “There’s a lot of companies who, when they talk about wellness they talk about having a committee. We think it’s more important to get them actively involved in it.” The “them” in this case referred not only to the main-line employees but the vice-presidents too, many of whom play on the company’s hockey team.

AstraZeneca’s multi-dimensional commitment to wellness covers more than just exercise; it also deals with social and psychological issues. In addition to the exercise facilities, they also offer cooking and watercolor classes. They even have their own art gallery to display their employees’ creativity.

Companies and their senior executives are recognizing the difference between working full-out, and working smart. In a sense they are catching up to their computers. It has always intrigued me that for many of the companies I visit the most comfortable room in the workplace is the server room. It is usually air conditioned, clean, and always well looked after. It makes sense, after all, because that’s where the computers live, and without them, the company could not run. Some organizations are now recognizing that the same standards can promote optimal human functioning. They have seen that although wireless technology allows employees to work from anywhere and at any time, this has not resulted in proportionate increases in productivity. Busy-ness does not equal business.

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Renault (France) and Nissan (Japan), was interviewed by Fortune magazine for the article How I Work. He describes the superhuman effort it takes to keep up with his workload, given that he has to travel to opposite sides of the world regularly each month. Yet with all that he has to do, he still points out the value of cooling down:

It is also important to take a distance from the problem. I do not bring my work home. I play with my four children and spend time with my family on weekends. When I go to work on Monday, I can look at the problem with more distance. I come up with good ideas as a result of becoming stronger after being recharged.⁶

What a marvelous demonstration of the power of cooling down. Even with the pressure of running two companies half a world apart, Mr. Ghosn applies conscious control to maintain equilibrium between his work and his recuperation/family time. He demonstrates that far from being a passive act, cooling down is about actively creating perfect balance.

Remember Esperanto? Memori Esperanto?

Esperanto is a language that was designed to be the lingua franca of the world. Developed in 1880 or thereabouts by a Polish ophthalmologist, Dr. Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof, it still exists, with an estimated 10,000 to 100,000 people using it regularly, mostly in Central Europe and parts of post-colonial Africa. It’s not exactly heard regularly in coffee shops on Main Street in North America, but it’s well known enough that you can order an Esperanto add-on for Microsoft Word.

The reason why Esperanto never really took off has more to do with one of its own greatest accomplishments: It is borderless and cultureless. It has no official status in any country, and it has no true roots within any group or society. It was invented out of a theoretical concept, and then introduced to a diverse group of peoples. When an organic thing such as a language has no roots, it stands little chance of growing. When it also lacks the opportunity to be nurtured, it has little chance of surviving. Esperanto still exists, in pockets here and there, but it will never be able to outpace the growth and continued natural evolution of languages that live and breathe. It is said, for example, that 50 years from now, the English language as it is spoken today will be very different, as words, terms, and tonality from other dominant languages become part of it. However, the roots of English will still be evident, just as the Germanic, Latin, Norse, French, and Sanskrit roots of today’s English are still visible beneath the surface, and the language will continue to be used. It has a purpose and it has practicality.

This is how I see the problem facing the Slow movement. Business people in North America see slow as a kind of Esperanto term. Useful for someone else, and perhaps even useful here, but it is not in keeping with the culture of speed and progress. People find it hard to acknowledge the damage that high speed and long hours are doing to them. Some may be looking for an escape, but others believe the current pace is necessary for survival. So our challenge is to make the idea of slowing down sell itself, through practical tips and a demonstration of its payoff. Only then can the roots begin to take hold.

The first step, I believe is to refrain from calling this approach slow, and instead use the term cool. The word cool is one of the most popular terms in the Western world, and one that spans cultures and generations effortlessly. It evokes more positive feelings than does slow, and connotes a greater sense of control and achievement. The question now, is, should you embrace the Slow movement through cooling down? The following chapters aim to demonstrate practical ways in which doing so can improve and maybe even save your life.

KEY POINTS TO TAKE AWAY

• The concepts behind the Slow movement can work well, but they need to be explained in order to win over the current mindset of the North American business community.

• When countries or companies react impulsively and defensively to the pressure of a changing world economy, they start down the same destructive path as individuals who feel stress or anger.

• Karoshi refers to “death by overwork,” and can be seen as a catalyst in the development of the Slow movement in Japan.

• Cittaslow is a collection of towns around the world that have embraced slow ideals. (www.cittaslow.net)

• The Slow Food movement encourages people to purchase organic, locally grown foods and reintroduces the pleasure of taking time to eat.

• One of the major liabilities of the Slow movement is the word itself, which is anathema to Western business.

• Cool is a better term since it connotes positive control.

**HOW TO COOL DOWN: USING SLOW IN DAILY LIFE**

The Term Slow

• What does slow mean to you?

• What does it mean to your manager?

• In what ways could you positively apply slow to your workplace?

• How might slow affect productivity and sales?

• What might slow add to your life?

• How could you redefine slow and sell it to your manager and other stakeholders?

• What might slow do to improve customer relationships, product quality, service, and accuracy?

**The Slow Movement**

• Visit www.cittaslow.net just to have a look.

• Visit www.slowmovement.com to have a look.

• Use the News Alert feature of Google to keep tabs on other companies (perhaps your competitors or customers) who are embracing principles of the Slow movement.

• For more information on the Slow movement itself, pick up a copy of In Praise of Slow, by Carl Honoré.

Eating

• How often do you get to take more than 20 minutes for lunch during a workday?

• Since it takes 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain to stop eating, how do you think a slightly longer lunch might affect your diet and health?

• What are you prepared to do to act on this?

Role Models

• Ask your friends and colleagues about their companies’ use of slow.

• Do they have good or bad examples?

• How might these be used as part of your pitch?

Mentors

• Seek out a mentor who has practiced slow in his/her own business. Invite her to have a coffee with you. Learn what has worked for her and what has not.

“Japan’s Long Work Hours Linked to Declining Birthrate, Government Says.” MainIchi Daily News, October 10, 2006.

Moffett, Sebastian. “Unprosperous Japanese State, Egged on by Its Governor, Goes Slow and Likes It.” The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2004; Page A1.

Honoré, Carl. In Praise of Slow. Random House Vintage Canada (June 2004), p. 201.

Source: Slowfood.com

Gulli, Kathi. “All Work, No Play, No More: What Happens When a Company Orders Its Workers to Slow Down.” Macleans, June 15, 2006.

Murphy, Cait. “Secrets of Greatness: How I Work.” Fortune Magazine, http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/02/news/newsmakers/howiwork_fortune_032006/index.htm

WHEN THOUGHTS GET OBSCURED,
ANSWERS SUDDENLY APPEAR
IN THE SKY’S BLUE FACE.