ENERGY FOR LIFE – HITTING THE SWEETSPOT
A Presentation Skills Brighton course focussing on managing stress, energy, time and delivering greater personal and professional satisfaction…
Course Objectives:
- Working more efficiently
- Resting more deeply
- Playing more pleasurably
- Satisfying the customer…
Course background and philosophy:
“When stress goes up the IQ goes down”
Trauma Team – The Royal London Hospital
But how do we hit the energy ‘sweet spot’ consistently? The United States military has done much of the best research in the area of performance and stress management… In the typical 8 hour workday most people can expect to experience 4 or 5 periods of peak energy when they are at their best in making decisions, planning and implementing whatever they have to do. There are also 4 or 5 periods of corresponding lower energy during which errors, avoidable errors, can occur. The Army Department of Behavioral Biology focussed primarily on human error at all levels of performance ranging from radio, computer and security operations, navigators and pilots. They found that targeted rest breaks dramatically reduced mistakes, accidents, stress-related disorders and… costs.
Flat Earth?
A widespread unquestioned belief is that we have two states of consciousness – flat, low energy, sleep and high energy wakefulness. Most organisations hope that their staff will deliver at least 8 hours of constant high energy productiveness during the working day. Most people, if we are honest, do not function that way.
Round Planet!
In fact both states of consciousness vary in a regular wave pattern of approximately 90 minutes:
- A 90 minute period of deep non-dreaming sleep alternating with a similar period of REM dreaming sleep.
- Daytime consciousness varies in the same way with periods of high alertness, an energy peak, and drowsiness, an energy trough, at either end of the 90 minute cycle.
Reducing illness and employee turnover…
Does all this really work in practice? Victorinox, makers of the iconic Swiss Army knife, implemented a programme based on similar principles in 2002. The result? They consistently hit the energy ‘sweet spot’ resulting in a 40% reduction in ‘overload’ illness and an employee turnover of less than 2%…
The aim of this course is to help participants to plan their working day in such a way that they make the most of their energy peaks and troughs. This approach creates maximum benefit for the individual and the organisation they work for. These benefits are ultimately reflected in a higher standard of customer satisfaction.
The Trough is a Treasure Trove…
The energy trough is frequently viewed as being the enemy to productivity but… approached in the right way it is a supreme ally to creativity, innovative thinking and is the launching pad to peak performance.
Relaxed Alertness – An Angel with Two Wings
The Angel is the autonomic i.e. ‘automatic’ nervous system which regulates all bodily systems including our peaks and troughs of energy…
- The ‘sympathetic’ wing of the nervous system energises, protects and builds our energy up to a peak.
- The ‘para-sympathetic’ wing governs rest, recovery, sleeping, digestion and bodily repair.
- A balanced beating of the the two wings leads to the energy sweet spot i.e. a state of relaxed alertness.
The course will draw on this research and a selection of other tools to help participants:
- Understand the 2 branches of their human nervous system
- Creating strategies for you to function from relaxed alertness
- Recognise natural rhythms – surfing the troughs and peaks of natural energy variations
- Avoid and reduce stress
- Maximise performance and health
Energy for Life – Morning 1
- Confidentiality agreements – what happens in the training room stays in the training room.
- Participant Introductions
- Explaining the background theory of the course
- Flagging up the course structure…
State Management – Alive Relaxation and peak performance
Identifying individual stress and peak performance triggers. Introducing the tools to reduce stress and maximise performance:
- Deep rest – the semi-supine active resting position
- Postural landmarks applied to daily work activities
- Restful exercise e.g. a walk in the park
Energy for Life – Afternoon 1
Dealing with difficult situations – applying the tools to stress trigger points. Transforming stress triggers into performance triggers.
Eureka! The Archimedes Effect:
- How to use the energy trough to your positive advantage.
- Harnessing the unconscious mind to identify creative solutions and opportunities.
- Stress and your customers: Your energy sweet spot and how it transfers to the customer.
- Using the tools of automatic testing to reduce stress within client/partner operations e.g. letting the testing tools free up human time so that human, manual, intervention has maximum leverage.
“Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. ”
Archimedes
Preparation for Morning 2:
Delegates will prepare a group presentation in which they demonstrate (walk their talk) and teach the stress and performance management tools to an imaginary audience of colleagues, friends and customers.
Delegates will identify their own peak performance triggers and give the other participants instructions to ‘fire’ and reinforce these triggers during performance.
Energy for Life – Morning 2:
- Walking the talk – learning through teaching:
- Delivering the group presentation to imaginary colleagues, friends and customers.
- Debrief – what have delegates learned from the course?
- Which tools will they use to implement the sweet spot in their daily life?
Energy for Life – Afternoon 2:
Individual coaching with Alan Mars