IHRSA EUROPE UPDATE European Perspective
IHRSA’s 13th Annual European Congress took place in October in Madrid, Spain. Kristen Walsh reports on the event, which had a record attendance of over 600 delegates from 39 countries and six continents
I
HRSA’s 2013 European Congress got off to a flying start with futurologist Magnus Lindkvist’s keynote – ‘When the Future
Begins: Trendspotting, Future-Tinking & the Attack of the Unexpected’ – which received a standing ovation. Lindkvist urged the attendees to create
rather than compete. He noted that in the health club business, as in other industries, we tend to copy what’s being done well by other clubs. Tis saves energy and facilitates our way of living, but it also causes problems for our businesses, which all tend to look the same. Lindkvist noted three mistakes that
he believes clubs make: mistaking what’s urgent for what’s important; feeding problems and starving opportunities; and pursuing uniformity rather than diversity, harmony rather than friction. We should actively pursue friction, argued Lindkvist, because change happens when we’re disagreeing with one another. He added that a clear sign you’re doing
something creative is when someone else hates it. When you invent a new way of doing things, you will be criticised and people will think your ideas are crazy.
He offered a framework for creating
rather than competing: • Look for secrets: Quoting the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, Lindkvist said: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” Ask yourself what important truths do very few people agree with you on? According to Lindkvist, that’s where the opportunity lies.
• Experimentation: An increasing focus on risk management is phasing experimentation out of companies. Make a list of 50 dangerous things to try over the next year.
• Failure-cycling: IKEA recycled the idea for its business from one that failed for another company in 1940.
• Patience and persistence: Odeo launched Twitter in 2006. Nothing happened for three years – then it caught on. “Te very same idea can be a failure
early on but a success later,” Lindkvist added. “Stop reading news. Forget doom and gloom. Tink about how you’ve already changed the world in terms of fitness and health. Don’t just compete – create! Be brave – others will follow.”
Leadership During her general session entitled ‘Top Service Culture: A Key to Success from the Inside OUT’, Carla Carvalho Dias spoke of the importance of alignment, using the analogy of a symphony. Dias, the founder of both Visão Integrada
and Portugal’s Top Service Academy, explained: “Just as a company is divided into departments, an orchestra is divided into sections, each of which has a leader. Te leader plays a little louder than the rest so they can hear and follow. Tese section leaders are akin to middle managers.” A conductor, meanwhile, must allow each
musician their own creativity: “The conductor has the full picture and must allow musicians some flexibility – it’s their music too. Allow them to take risks during rehearsals so there’s time to make the music better for the show.” She added: “People think in different ways
– they play music in different ways – but we must align them behind what we’re trying to do, what music we want to play.” In his presentation entitled ‘Leadership:
Having Your Team Follow the Vision’, speaker Justin Tamsett encouraged attendees to look outside of the industry when trying
NEWS
Alongside the seminars, there was plenty of time for groups of delegates to get together and discuss and debate key issues facing the health and fitness industry
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Alison O’Kane Giannaras, associate vice president of international operations, speaking at IHRSA Europe
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital January 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
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