If you’re envisioning crates of Red Bull
as another means of motivating per-formance,
then you might just be on to
something. Author, journalist and di-rector
of research for the Flow Genome
Project, Steven Kotler, has just released a
new book on the science of what he calls
ultimate human performance. In The Rise
of Superman, Kotler combines meticulous-ly
researched neuroscience with real-life
stories of professional athletes’ experienc-es
with flow and tremendously heightened
performance. HR Professional caught up
with him at his ranch in New Mexico,
where he extrapolated on how ultimate per-formance
applies to our working lives.
WHAT IS FLOW?
When psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmi-halyi
first pioneered the term flow in the
early 1990s, he defined it as the psychol-ogy
of optimal experience. He discovered
that when individuals are actively engaged
in using their capabilities or skills in the
service of meeting a defined goal, they ex-perienced
flow more often and were more
productive and satisfied with their lives.
Flow, or being “in the zone,” happens when
we engage our skills with a challenge on
an ever-increasing trajectory. This leads
to an amplified sense of mastery and self-efficacy,
leading again to an increase in the
skill-challenge ratio.
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
Investigating human performance is not
a new pursuit. Many disciplines, from ar-cheology
to psychology, have researched
performance for over 100 years. Much of
what we know about human performance
stems from various early evolutionary
processes, such as learning to hunt as a
group and in cooperation with other car-nivores.
Later studies began to look at
how society functions and how individ-uals
functioned within systems, such as
organizations.
In the last 25 years, we have seen a huge
leap forward in what we know about hu-man
performance. Why? Neuroscience,
according to Kotler. He discusses how
neuroscience and neurobiology allow us
to “peek under the hood” to see the actual
chemical transformations taking place as a
person learns a new task and, under cer-tain
circumstances, experiences flow. We
now have the ability to work backwards
and figure out what is triggering the state
of flow.
THE BEST POSSIBLE VERSION
OF OURSELVES
Kotler delves deeply into the flow expe-riences
of sports athletes. Their ability
to make critical decisions mean the dif-ference
between life and death, making
mastery of flow a necessity. Neurobiology
shows us the specific neurochemical
changes happening in the brains of ath-letes
during a flow experience. As these
athletes move through the stages of flow,
their focus tightens and the brain stops
multi-tasking; concentration is total and
decision-making is near perfect. The doors
of perception narrow, allowing the athlete
to assimilate and apply incoming informa-tion
with more speed and accuracy than
non-athletes.
feature
Accelerating
Performance
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRP
THE INGREDIENTS
FOR SKILL MASTERY
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ SEPTEMBER 2014 ❚ 25