Is Peak Performance Possible?

Written by a human, for humans, always.

Every leader wants peak performance from their teams.

You do not just want people working...

You want them excelling...

Driving the organization to new heights...

Contributing meaningfully to making that happen.

But...

Here is the question that leaders are not asking...

Is peak performance possible?

Not in the "theoretical" sense where everyone can always attain some level of peak performance...

Rather...

Is it possible in the current psychophysiological reality of the teams and the overall workforce ecosystem that currently exists?

This is one of the greatest problems for leaders.

They "assume" that peak performance can just "happen"...

Like switching on a light.

The problem...

Is that this is simply not how reality works.

Worse...

So many leaders have actually failed to see "real" peak performance in their workforce for so long...

That their expectations are completely skewed...

And what they "think" is performance...

Is actually a downward trend that is frequently happening so slowly that they are unaware of the coming consequences...

Until something crashes into chaos.

The truth is...

That peak performance is very rare in the workforce today...

And there are a multitude of factors that are actually making peak performance impossible to attain.

So...

What is actually needed for peak performance to be possible?

The first is that peak performance cannot exist alongside burnout.

From a psychophysiological perspective on productivity...

Burnout is the complete opposite end of the spectrum from flow states...

And only in deep flow states are we capable of reaching 100% of our productivity potential.

If you look at the research...

Someone who can consistently get into deep flow states is, on average, five times more productive than the "average" employee...

And...

Someone who is stuck in burnout is, on average, four times less productive than the "average" employee...

Meaning that if our productivity potential in deep flow states is 100% of our productivity potential...

Then our productivity potential in burnout is 5% or less, and yes, you can go into negative productivity in burnout, which is common.

(I put "average" because studies determining these averages have been done at different times, and therefore "average" is not technically the same between these studies. If we look at overall productivity statistics, the averages have decreased between the flow research and the burnout research, which implies that the gap is actually larger than this, potentially significantly larger, but we will stick with what information is currently available.)

Now here is the bigger challenge for leaders...

Studies indicate that 80% of the workforce is currently in different stages of burnout (because burnout is a scale that goes from bad to significantly worse)...

And also, according to the research...

It takes "at least" 3 weeks to fully recover from light burnout...

And potentially over a year of dedicated recovery (both active and passive recovery) for worse versions of burnout.

What this means...

Is that often the "bumps" in productivity that leaders see...

Are really only a percentage point or so of actual improvements in productivity...

Not actual peak performance.

On this factor alone, we could say that peak performance is not actually possible in most workplaces.

But there are other psychophysiological issues at play.

For instance...

Flow states are high-energy (Mg-ATP) states.

We need enough bio-energy to get into and stay in flow states.

Without enough of this energy available...

You maintain flow states for significant periods of time, if you can get into them at all.

The problem here...

Is that most people are chronically suffering from energy (Mg-ATP) deficits in the body...

And the greatest source of sustained energy is quite literally unusable due to mitochondrial damage.

If the mitochondria cannot sustainably create energy (Mg-ATP)...

Flow states are either going to be short, inconsistent, or unattainable.

It is that simple.

But we still have other factors to consider.

For instance...

Neurocardiological influences in the workplace.

Our hearts generate the body's largest electromagnetic fields...

And those fields are able to transmit information about our current psychophysiological state.

Not only this...

But this information can be understood by the neurons in our hearts.

If you have ever walked into a room and, without any logical reason you could think of, felt like something was wrong...

That was likely your neurocardiology at play, detecting something wrong with someone else's psychophysiological state.

But it actually goes further due to something called Entrainment...

Where in the interactions of these electromagnetic waves can actually "pull" people into similar psychophysiological states.

Now, this "could" be beneficial for leaders...

If they understood how to entrain their workforce into calm and peace.

But most people are unaware of this feature of their psychophysiology...

Have not trained it...

And therefore, most often, get "pulled" into states of distress, panic, frustration, and worse...

Especially in the workplace.

All of this is counterproductive to the goal of peak performance.

Even if you had an individual who could get into true peak performance...

They may actually end up being held back by the others they are surrounded by.

If you do not have a workforce that is naturally in more states of calm (true internal calm, not just the perception of calm externally)...

Or individuals are not trained in how to prevent themselves from becoming entrained into distress...

Then this will likely become a real and significant barrier to attaining peak performance in the workplace.

What else should leaders consider?

The nervous system.

Now, contrary to popular belief...

Our bodies have neurons all over our bodies...

And those neurons have multiple groups that make what I call "Cognition Systems"...

Each able to interdependently think and make determinations of how to act...

Which can supersede the brain's ability to determine our actions.

The nervous system is one of these systems.

Specifically, its goal in how it utilizes neurons is to keep track of anything that "could" be potentially harmful...

Regardless of whether it is "actually" harmful, it only needs to be "perceived" as "potentially" harmful by the nervous system.

What it keeps track of is known as "aspects"...

Which can be just about anything from a feeling to a color, taste, sound, smell, and more.

Any of these can be stored in the nervous system in what are known as Memory Capsules.

When we encounter something "similar" to an aspect that has been stored in a Memory Capsule of the nervous system...

It can trigger the nervous system to use survival instincts.

Now...

If our goal is peak performance...

It requires us to utilize faculties of our brain that cannot be used when these survival instincts are activated.

If a Memory Capsule is triggered...

You have now blocked out a person's ability to attain peak performance.

Here's the double-edged larger problem...

For most people, these Memory Capsules have been built up over a lifetime...

Which means that these instinctual reactions cannot be separated between "work" and "home" lives...

And that anything that "resembles" an aspect within a Memory Capsule can be added to the Memory Capsule and trigger it in the future.

So...

Say someone has a history where their parents abusively yelled at them when they were younger...

And a Memory Capsule begins to store "raised voices" as a potential threat...

And as a leader, you have been trained to raise your voice as a sign of confidence in what you are saying during meetings.

You may have inadvertently triggered an individual's Memory Capsule to cause them to go into an instinctual survival mode...

And you did not intend for that to happen...

And they know that you have no intention of doing any sort of harm, logically, in their brain...

But it does not matter because the nervous system is utilizing a different set of neurons with different goals and a different logic...

Which is superseding the logic of the brain.

This is a far more common problem than most people realize...

And most people are carrying around years and decades of Aspects from their upbringing, school lives, former workplaces, relationships, and more.

The nervous system is not trying to "separate" one group of potential threats from a different group...

It is simply accumulating different categories of different potential threats, real or perceived, whenever and wherever they occur in our lives.

If you are unaware of these...

You may end up doing more harm than good...

And if individuals do not learn how to resolve these Memory Capsules...

They may react in what appears to be illogical ways from a brain perspective...

But is extremely logical from a nervous system perspective.

We can continue from here, though.

Another area that leaders should be aware of is Embodied Cognition.

Essentially...

The quality of our movement has a direct correlation with the quality of our capacity to think and perform in every area of life.

When we can move more easily, more fluently, in different ways and across different forms of terrain...

We think and perform better.

If we begin to move with more difficulty, struggle with more rigidity, narrow the types of movements we engage in, and avoid certain types of terrain...

Our thinking and performance will deteriorate.

Many workplaces end up discouraging movement of any type...

Which ends up working against businesses...

As humans spend around a third of their lives in businesses...

And their bodies slowly decay...

Causing their thinking and performance to also deteriorate.

Is this an exhaustive list of potential problems that prevent peak performance in the workplace?

No.

But there may be a question that some leaders ask at this point...

Is this not an individual's responsibility to take care of?

What do these have to do with leaders?

Here's the reality...

As a leader, you are not just in charge of giving work directions...

You are in charge of cultivating an ecosystem where peak performance can actually occur.

This question would be like saying...

Hey, I'm a gardener, and the quality of the water, soil, and tools I use are not responsibility...

And neither should it matter what the pests are doing in my garden...

I am just here to put the plants in place and give them whatever water there is.

Wrong.

You "can" garden like that...

But do not complain when the pests destroy plants, the weeds choke them out, the soil deteriorates, and the water you use kills the plants you were tasked to grow.

You are not in charge of a machine as a leader...

Just watching to see if a gear breaks and replacing it.

You are leading a living, breathing ecosystem that consists of real people with real challenges and real needs...

And if you fail to treat these human beings as humans...

Then you will get Hypo-Human performance...

And those humans will stop being able to perform as you need them to in order to get the results that you are seeking.

Do not be surprised when you fail to get peak performance if you are not designing a business ecosystem where peak performance is possible.

You can treat these as things that are not your problem...

But it will mean that you will fail to actually get any significant results as a leader.

Instead...

It is much wiser to realize...

That psychophysiology can be used to your advantage...

If you design a workplace that actually understands how human psychophysiology works...

A Regenerative Legacy Business Model.

Think about it like this...

Currently, most workplaces are psychophysiologically trapped at 5% or less productivity potential in their workforce...

Which frequently dips into or stays in negative productivity.

What would happen if you actually designed a workplace...

Where the psychophysiology of the workforce even just allowed for "average"?

You could get closer to 4x more productivity...

Or have people reach 20% of their productivity potential.

Instead of minor bumps in productivity that come occasionally and decrease frequently...

You suddenly have a workforce that is outpacing every other competitor by significant margins.

That also begins to allow people to have a "chance" to get into flow states...

Which could then multiply these results significantly further.

This is why leaders should consider whether peak performance is possible in their organization today...

Because the reality is that it is not possible in most places.

But...

That means there is a gigantic opportunity for the leaders who realize the importance of designing a Regenerative Legacy Business...

And...

Accessing the full psychophysiological potential of their workforce.

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