Achieving Peak Performance

Key Issues
Most organisations now accept that continuous change and transformation has become the norm in a globalised economy and the pressure to deliver in this environment is having a major impact on business performance in addition to impairing the health of employees. Responsible organisations accept this and have both a desire and ‘duty of care’ to act. 

The issue for these companies is that there have been few interventions that can be objectively shown to make a positive impact and even less that can be sustained in the long term.  In short, companies have struggled to find a solution to what has become a major obstacle to business performance in the 21^st century.

Numerous scientific studies have shown that excessive pressure directly impacts the internal physiological processes of individuals. This impact upon the internal processes undermines performance, reduces perceptual clarity and directly impairs personal performance.

The Way Forward

Peak Performance Programme
In collaboration with the chief scientific experts and the most senior business leaders in Shell, BP, Unilever and Hewlett-Packard, our programme Peak Performance, has been tested and proven with over 6,000 staff at all levels.

The Peak Performance programme is based upon breakthroughs in understanding borne from collaboration between cardiologists, system theorists and neuroscientists.  This resulted in the development of technology that is capable of identifying and tracking the internal physiological conditions that disable performance.  In addition this research has also characterised the conditions required to flourish under pressure and therefore succeed in complex and competitive situations and markets.

The Programme teaches a number of techniques that allow people to consciously alter the quality of the internal electrical signals sent to the brain.  Changing these internal signals enables individuals to maximise intellectual ability through a process called cortical facilitation.  Cortical facilitation can be measured through well established cognitive performance testing methods.

Executive Health Assessment & Coaching Programme
In addition to the Peak Performance programme, at the most senior levels our team of doctors deliver a highly confidential one-on-one Executive Health Assessment and Coaching Programme.  This programme uses state of the art medical technology that can predict longevity and risk of major disease.  It can also detect the early signs of any dysfunction long before routine medical investigation identifies a problem or before any symptoms arise.  In partnership with the London Bridge Hospital we are able to integrate this programme with other leading edge medical interventions if necessary.

Evidence of Impact
Our programme goes beyond the theory of behaviour management and has been shown to deliver measurable improvements globally in personal performance, staff turnover, personal health and thereby organisational effectiveness.  The major differentiator of our programmes is that their impact can be measured and improvements sustained in the long-term.  All of the data detailed below has been generated in collaboration with Shell, BP and Unilever working closely with their own scientists and medical practitioners.

Subjective Data
Table 1: Improvements in Well-being before, six weeks and six months after training.
(Percentage of individuals responding to the top two of five possible answers)

Objective Data
a.)   Blood Pressure. High blood pressure affects one in four adults and is considered one of the most important public health issues facing the industrialised world.  The Peak Performance programme has been shown consistently to reduce blood pressure.  The size of this effect is double what an exercise programme normally delivers and if it were repeated across the entire population it could reduce the incidence of stroke by approximately 50%.

Figure 1: Blood pressure data before and 3 months after training (sample size 78)

b.)  Heart Rate Variability (HRV).  This is a very sophisticated measure of health.  It has repeatedly been shown to be a very powerful predictor of all-cause mortality and underpins human performance and vitality.  The scientific literature suggests that HRV should remain stable over time, with 3-5% deterioration per annum.  The significant improvements in HRV following the Peak Performance programme in those that used the tools represents not only a reduction in health risk but also a significant improvement in energy and vitality.

Table 2: Percentage change in HRV eight weeks after Peak Performance programme

We have also published data, in peer-reviewed scientific journals, on how training in Peak Performance improves hormonal and immune function.

Impact on Cognitive Performance
We continue to research the impact of this training on cognitive performance.  For example, our non-profit division recently published data demonstrating a year’s improvement in reading and maths performance in school children taking exams after just three weeks of practicing the techniques taught.  We have also demonstrated a significant improvement in reaction times in individuals trained in Peak Performance compared to controls (Figure 2), a fact that may have relevance to safety performance. 

In a more recent study, with one of the world’s largest FMCG companies, we demonstrated a significant improvement in accuracy during a discrimination task and significantly improved spatial working memory under increasingly difficult demands (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Improved Reaction Time before and after training (sample size 30)

Figure 3: Improved Spatial Working Memory before and after training (sample size 25)

Summary
Working in close collaboration with the scientific and business professionals within our client companies, we have addressed the limitations of conventional behavioural training.  Our programme delivers the fundamental drivers of performance, enabling demonstrable benefit to be measured simultaneously in health, well being, cognitive and business performance.  Our programmes can be run as a stand-alone or integrated into a company’s ongoing training process.  As industry now has to operate in a more complex and demanding environment, solutions are available to enable individuals and teams to perform at a much higher level, whilst maintaining a balanced lifestyle.