When Abandoning is the Best Decision



Shizo san quickly recognized the orange taste in his mouth, it was a strange orange salty taste though. He was exhausted and could not well remember where he was. His eyelids weighted like two stones but managed to open them enough to realize he was in a room. There were two blonde-haired gentlemen staring at him. He quickly closed his eyes to try to understand the where and the why.

Shizo Kanakuri, born in Tamana (Japan) in 1891, was one of the two Japanese athletes in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. The first ever Japanese expedition to the sports festival. He was a marathon runner and an incredible 1911 mark in the Japan trials had catapulted him into the big Swedish event. The trip from Japan to the Nordic country had taken 17 days, first by boat to Russia and then by rail through the Tran Siberian route to the final destination. These had been two difficult weeks of training, first running laps around the boat and second running on the Russian rail stations every time the train stopped. Upon arrival he felt sick. Not the best preparation for the 42.2km race.

He was obviously not at home. Yes, he was in Europe for the Olympics. For the marathon. The one he had promised everybody to win for his country’s pride. His feet were hurting. His morning decision to wear tabi (traditional shoes) for the race had not worked well. The skin was burning, and it was difficult to find a muscle in his body that did not hurt. He now remembered what had happened. Right after km 21, he had probably collapsed as he was running across a field strip where a party was taking place. That glass of orange juice and then silence...

The day of the marathon, July 14th 1912, was particularly hot for Stockholm. Some reports mention 30 Celsius (86 F) whilst other set the temperature closer to 40C (104 F). These temperatures are not allowed today in official competitions (you may remember that the Marathon of the last World Championships in Qatar took place in the evening). To make things worse, hydration was quite limited during the marathon as at that time it was thought that sweating made a person more fatigued. As a result, more than half of the 68 participants did not finalize the race, one died, and one went missing.

Shizo san was totally embarrassed. He was going to be the disgrace of his family and his whole country. Continuing the race was not a choice as he had been unconscious for a while and his legs would not be able to bring him to the end goal. He was abandoning in deep pain and shame. There was no other option.

Shizo Kanakuri somehow managed to get a train back to Stockholm and then a boat to Japan. He did not inform anybody in Sweden and went missing in that country for approximately 50 years. In 1962 a Swedish journalist found out he was alive, and he had participated in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics. He was tricked to come back to Sweden in 1967 and once there, convinced to finish the marathon he had started 54 years earlier, setting the record of the slowest marathon ever ran.

Most of those who have attempted to run a marathon (or any similar experience) fight throughout the race with the temptation to abandon, especially as the mind clouds with the effort. This decision has the duality of being both a no go (after so much training) and a quick and easy way to kill the suffering. Sometimes as a leader you also have this feeling in the development journey of a direct report. You are both exhausted and feel you have reached a dead end. However, both continue wasting each other’s time for hierarchical or obligation reasons. Abandoning, like Shizo san did in the Olympics, is probably the best solution and the leader is the one that must trigger it or at least openly question about it. But better doing it by having a good conversation than disappearing like the first ever Japanese Olympic marathon runner did!

-    -  Do you feel you are wasting your time in your development talks with any of your direct reports? 
    - Have you thought if any of them feel they are wasting their time in this exercise?
    -  What are you going to do about it?



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