James Hewitt – The Key to Sustainable High Performance [FULL KEYNOTE]

[00:00:00] Well good afternoon Helsinki. It is an incredible privilege to be here today [00:00:21] speaking with you and I have an important question to ask you. What is the [00:00:27] key to sustainable high performance? But before then I feel compelled to explain [00:00:35] what I'm wearing on my head. This is an EEG headset. During today's presentation [00:00:41] I'm going to be using it to record my rhythms of stress and focus. Later in the [00:00:46] presentation we'll return to that recording and see what we can learn but [00:00:50] until then I'd ask you to shift your focus. I'll tell you how this all began. [00:00:56] Fifteen years ago I was a full-time racing cyclist. I'd moved to France to [00:01:01] pursue my dream of becoming a professional cyclist and it was then that [00:01:05] my passion and interest in measuring and improving human performance first began to [00:01:10] grow and accelerate. Unfortunately my cycling career didn't quite reach the [00:01:15] heights that I hoped but I returned to the UK, I studied sports science and [00:01:20] eventually set up my own coaching business. During this time three [00:01:25] important things happened. Three important things which were driven by the [00:01:30] fact that many of my clients were actually amateur road cyclists but they had very [00:01:35] demanding jobs as well. They were finance professionals and solicitors and [00:01:39] architects and for some reason outside of their very demanding jobs they also [00:01:44] pursued very challenging cycling events. The first thing that happened was that I [00:01:49] became fascinated with knowledge work. I started to wonder what was going on [00:01:54] during my clients' work day. Second, I started to use tools and frameworks from [00:02:00] sports science to try and understand knowledge work better. And finally I had a [00:02:06] revelation. I realized that knowledge work is an endurance activity and that [00:02:13] inspired a lot of my work and research today. I'm actually doing my PhD at the [00:02:18] moment looking specifically at knowledge workers and their daily rhythms of sleep, of [00:02:23] stress and of cognitive performance. So what is the key to sustainable high [00:02:32] performance? Well if you're among the 79% of people who checked their smartphone [00:02:39] within 15 minutes of waking up this morning, I'm afraid you haven't found the [00:02:42] key. If you're among the 42% who admit to using email in the bathroom, I'm afraid you [00:02:49] haven't found it either. You know, the average knowledge worker is interrupted [00:02:54] once every 11 minutes. We check in on communication tools once every six minutes. [00:03:03] What do we do at the end of that demanding day to relax? Well maybe we sit on the [00:03:09] sofa, we put something on the big screen, we watch TV but we seem incapable of [00:03:14] watching TV in isolation anymore. We have to switch between that big screen, our [00:03:18] smartphone and our tablet computer, an average of 21 times per hour. We're never [00:03:26] resting. We're rarely focused. We're always on. But we can't always be on. And this [00:03:38] truth is particularly apparent in endurance sport. I'm going to share some ideas with [00:03:44] you from endurance sport that I think apply equally well to the endurance activity of [00:03:49] knowledge work. You see, in endurance sport, you have to be careful to apply your effort in [00:03:54] the right place at the right time to avoid being exhausted. And anyone who engages in any kind [00:04:01] of endurance sport is probably familiar with the idea of intensity zones. Simply put, imagine there are [00:04:07] three intensity zones. A low intensity zone, where if you're a cyclist, you can ride slow for a long time. [00:04:13] A medium intensity zone, where we can ride at a moderate pace for a medium amount of time. And then, [00:04:20] a high intensity zone, where we can ride very fast but only for a short amount of time. And we use these [00:04:26] intensity zones to create a plan for physical endurance. I'd like to introduce you to a cyclist that I've been [00:04:33] working with for a few years now. Her name is Claire Jones. She's a master's road cyclist. By day, [00:04:39] she's a finance professional. Outside of her work, she pursues demanding cycling events. And in [00:04:44] particular, she's been targeting an event called the Etap de Tour. Each year, it provides the opportunity [00:04:51] for amateur cyclists to ride a stage of the Tour de France just a few days before the professionals. [00:04:56] In 2017, we were convinced that the route suited her particularly well, particularly that final climb [00:05:03] to the cold Isoard. So we created a plan for physical endurance based around those zones so she would be [00:05:10] at her best for that final climb. Claire's aim was to finish in the top 20. So after the event started to [00:05:20] look at the data, Claire finished the event in just under seven hours. She expended 4 and a half thousand [00:05:25] kilojoules of energy. That's equivalent to 14 and a half cheeseburgers. But unfortunately, she was way [00:05:31] outside her target. She only finished 54th. I said I'd look into the data to see what I could find. It was [00:05:38] quite revealing. She made some efforts early on when she should have taken it easy and it compromised her [00:05:43] performance when she should have been at her best. Basically, she put her effort in the wrong place at [00:05:48] the wrong time. She didn't rest where she was supposed to. She followed someone else's rhythm instead of her [00:05:56] own. But Claire isn't the kind of person to give up. She decided to go back in 2018. However, this time, [00:06:04] she was very clear about where to focus effort. She knew very clearly where to take some rest. Perhaps [00:06:11] most importantly, she was committed to find and follow her own rhythm, paying attention to when she [00:06:18] was at her best. Claire finished the event in just under seven hours, expended a similar amount of energy. [00:06:25] But as soon as I looked at the data, I could see that the performance was very different. [00:06:29] She performed at her best for that final climb. In fact, she finished way inside the top 20 target. She was [00:06:36] actually third in her age group. It was her best result in the attack ever. I think there are three lessons [00:06:42] that we can take from this endurance cycling performance that apply equally well to the endurance activity [00:06:49] of knowledge work. These are, we can achieve better results for similar effort if we apply the effort in the [00:06:57] right place at the right time. Secondly, we need to be disciplined to rest and recover, even if we don't [00:07:06] feel like it. Finally, perhaps most importantly, we need to find and follow our own rhythm, pay attention to [00:07:15] when we are at our best. But we're fortunate because cycling performance is quite easy to measure. In contrast, [00:07:22] cognitive performance is a bit more challenging to record. We rarely consider rhythms in cognitive [00:07:29] performance. But whether we consider those rhythms or not, cognitive performance actually varies by [00:07:34] about 20% during the average day. Around 20% of the population, you might call these people early birds, [00:07:41] experience this variation as a peak, a valley and a rebound. These people generally prefer mornings. [00:07:49] Another 20% of the population, you might call these people owls, they feel at their best in the evening, [00:07:55] later into the day. They experience their day as a rebound, then this valley followed by a peak. [00:08:02] Another 60% of the population, that's somewhere in between. But whether you're an early bird or an [00:08:07] owl, actually these three phases have distinct characteristics. That peak is the best time for focus, [00:08:14] for analysis and productivity. That valley is the best time for rest, for recovery and reflection. [00:08:22] And that rebound is a great opportunity for those menial tasks and the switching work that characterises [00:08:28] at least part of most knowledge workers' day. But we're not paying attention to those rhythms. [00:08:35] And this is a problem because we're likely limiting our cognitive performance as a result. And this is perhaps [00:08:40] even more of a problem because human cognitive capabilities are going to become an increasingly [00:08:45] important differentiator in the future of work. In most occupations, 30% of the work could already be [00:08:53] automated. But as a human performance scientist, I'm fascinated with that other 70%. The 70% that is [00:09:01] likely to be characterized by our most human capabilities, capabilities such as complex problem solving, [00:09:08] collaboration, creativity. But these capabilities, they will not be expressed at their best with our [00:09:17] current ways of living and working. These capabilities are the output of a rested and focused brain. [00:09:27] Perhaps the real danger isn't the machines and artificial intelligence are going to start working more [00:09:32] like humans. It's that we humans will keep trying to work like machines. We can't always be on. [00:09:44] We need more human rhythms of work and rest, being clear about where to focus effort, [00:09:49] knowing when to rest, finding and following our own rhythm. Optimize. Don't maximize. Dr. Aki Hintzer, [00:10:02] the founder of Hintzer Performance, shared this quote with me early on when I joined the company, [00:10:05] and he had a big influence on my career. And in fact, this quote has inspired much of my research. [00:10:12] Recently, I conducted a study to try and understand more about what optimal work could look like in the [00:10:18] context of knowledge work. To do this, I recruited 100 knowledge workers. I tracked them for 14 days, [00:10:25] and during that time, I looked in particular at these daily rhythms in sleep, in stress, [00:10:31] and in cognitive performance. You should be able to see this graph which shows these daily variations in [00:10:38] cognitive performance on average. But I was actually interested in what is driving these variations. [00:10:45] Well, it turns out, perhaps unsurprisingly, that stress and sleep are some of the biggest drivers of [00:10:50] cognitive performance. And while I'd love to dig into the data in more detail, the summary is: [00:10:55] people who follow rhythms of work and rest both feel better and perform better. If you're too [00:11:04] stressed and you're sleep deprived, it's unlikely that you're performing sustainably. What a surprise. [00:11:12] Did you know that after 18 hours of wakefulness, that's equivalent to working from 8am to 2am, [00:11:17] your cognitive performance is equivalent to being legally drunk in most European countries? [00:11:24] Inadequate sleep may be costing the Nordic economy 18 billion euros per year. [00:11:32] It's estimated that work-related stress could be costing the European economy 136 billion euros, [00:11:39] and work-related stress may be responsible for one-fifth of staff turnover. We can't always be on. [00:11:49] Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this presentation, I'd be recording my own brain activity, in particular, [00:11:54] my levels of stress and focus. And if this demonstration works, in a moment, I'm going to show you that [00:11:59] recording, I'm going to switch workspaces, and we'll see what we can find out. [00:12:06] Okay, take a look at that red line. See the peak in stress at the beginning of this demonstration? [00:12:14] Take a look at that yellow line, continuous rhythms in focus. [00:12:20] Take a look at the bottom window that actually shows the recording from early on in the presentation. [00:12:26] There's one thing that I want you to take away from this demonstration. It's this: [00:12:31] Even during what is perhaps the most demanding 15 minutes of my speaking career so far, [00:12:38] I couldn't always be focused. Thankfully, I couldn't always be stressed. [00:12:48] Now, perhaps you don't wear one of these EEG headsets routinely, but are you aware of your rhythms? [00:12:55] Do you work with them? Do you work against them? Do you ignore them completely? [00:13:01] We need a framework to plan for cognitive endurance. And inspired by that simple structure to plan for [00:13:09] physical endurance in endurance sport, based on those zones, I came up with a plan, [00:13:14] a plan for cognitive endurance that I call cognitive gears. So imagine for a moment, there is a low [00:13:21] cognitive gear that's characterized by times of rest, recovery, and reflection. There is a medium [00:13:29] cognitive gear and a high cognitive gear characterized by times of focus for analysis and productivity. [00:13:36] But think for a moment about that medium cognitive gear, those menial tasks and the switching work [00:13:42] that characterizes at least most of knowledge workers' days. If you think about your average day [00:13:49] in the context of those three gears, how do you spend your time? The majority of us find that we [00:13:56] spend most of our day stuck in a cognitive middle gear. A middle gear that is characterized by being [00:14:04] caught in pseudo work and switching, feeling stressed and on someone else's schedule, pulling our phone [00:14:09] out at every opportunity that makes it harder to switch into high gear and down into low gear when [00:14:13] we really need to. So what's the solution? Because our schedules feel packed, we've got back to back meetings, [00:14:20] we're answering phone calls in the middle of the night. Well, I think it begins quite simply by making a [00:14:26] perfect an enemy of good enough. And maybe start with an experiment. This could be an experiment that [00:14:34] you do at an individual level. It could be an experiment that you do at an organizational level. [00:14:40] But whatever the case, as we approach the finish line today, I'm going to share some practical ideas to [00:14:46] take this theory and put it into action. The first ideas are for that high cognitive gear, [00:14:52] where to focus your effort. Begin by scheduling that high gear work with the peak in your day. [00:14:58] Pay attention to when you are at your best. During this time, experiment with working 25 minutes on, [00:15:05] five minutes off, rather than checking your communication tools once every six minutes. [00:15:10] Engineer an environment for focus. As leaders, we have a responsibility to engineer an environment [00:15:16] for focus for our teams, which minimizes distraction and interruption. For that low cognitive gear, [00:15:23] when to take a rest. We'll begin by scheduling rest and reflection for the valley in your day. [00:15:29] Remember, the most effective breaks are active, social and natural. Go for a walk with someone that you [00:15:36] like. Look at the trees. Once upon a time, I think it was called a lunch break. [00:15:42] Finally, sleep seven to nine hours per night. As leaders, try to create an environment and rhythm [00:15:49] that means your team, on average, can sleep seven to nine hours per night, because sleep is one of the [00:15:53] most effective performance enhancers that we have available. And for that middle cognitive gear, [00:16:00] how do you find and follow your own rhythm? We'll begin by putting some boundaries around those [00:16:05] switching tasks. Synchronize those menial tasks with the rebound in your day. And don't be among the 79% [00:16:13] of people who start their day by checking their email, because starting the day with email is starting [00:16:19] on someone else's schedule. Adequate sleep, manageable stress, could result in 10 to 15% better cognitive [00:16:28] performance. Improving employee well-being is estimated to result in productivity improvements [00:16:35] of 19%. If individuals who slept under six hours started to sleep adequately, it could be worth 13 [00:16:42] billion euros per year to the Nordic economy. And the effect on the individual could be real focus, [00:16:50] reduced stress, enhanced recovery. Well-being is set to become a business value of strategic importance. So what is the key [00:17:03] to sustainable high performance? Well, I actually think there are three. The first is to be clear about where to focus [00:17:11] your efforts. Secondly, it's to be disciplined about when and where to rest. And finally, perhaps most importantly, [00:17:22] find and follow your own rhythm. Pay attention to when you are at your best. Knowledge work, [00:17:32] is an endurance activity. It's an endurance activity. Thank you.