Regenerative Performance, not Peak Performance

 Earlier this year at the Global Leadership Summit, James Hewitt, author of "Regenerative Performance," described how to avoid the trap of peak performance. Peak performance is not sustainable, because it's based on effort and optimism. Regenerative Performance, on the other hand, relies on cycles of effort. Anyone who has lifted weights knows rest periods and days off are important.

According to his reported statistics, 73% of people are disengaged, checked out, looking to bail out from their current jobs. 50% are burned out. 90% report that work-life balance, if there is such a thing, is getting worse. So how do we help people tame the push solely for peak performance?

We need to recognize that we have different cognitive "gears": low, medium and high. 

High gear is not multi-tasking. Multi-tasking entails a 40% drop in productivity. Instead we need to know when we're most productive. This was recently described in Daniel Pink's book "When." We might be an early chronotype: early bird, dawn patrol, etc. Or a late chronotype: night owl, red-eye, etc. Most of us don't pay attention to when we should be in high gear, our most focused and productive time.

Medium gear is used for routine tasks and unfortunately it's where we spend most of our time: in-person meetings, emails, videoconferences, etc. Tame the Inbox and the Meeting Schedule. How much has the email, agenda been thought through before we distribute and invite? How much do I/we need outside input? How much does this issue require real-time interaction, such as an in-person meeting or videoconference? What form of communication of the issue or recommendation is best for the recipient(s)?

Low gear is when we can coast, recover, imagine...nap! 45% are sleep-deprived leading to lower IQ, lower EQ and less physically and emotionally safe environments. When low gear time is allowed, burnout drops to 2%, a 96% reduction.

Some religious traditions encourage sabbaths and sabbaticals. Maybe there's a way to incorporate an accumulated hour of low gear "work" for every 7 hours.

A Lot of Examples of Corporate Crises

 In many ways, a recently published book, "The Crisis Casebook" by Edward Segal, is a quick read on how to respond to crises. Segal conveniently summarizes key points from his previous book at the beginning and the end of this book. The bulk is alphabetically arranged summaries of recent crises by different organizations starting with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and ending with [Jeff] Zucker of CNN. (Why this was under Z for Zucker and not C for CNN, I don’t know.) With each scenario, the author describes the crisis, the initial reaction, any later reaction and often advice from different crisis professionals in PR, HR, safety, law, etc. 

The author makes several key points. One is that an organization’s leadership most often doesn’t have the experience, skills or list of resources to deal with a crisis. They’re not hired because they deal with crises; they’re hired because, more often than not, their previous employment stints had avoided crises. Thus, this book is a handy quick guidebook to get a leadership team on its feet in a situation that could affect an organization’s survival, reputation or ability to grow.

If there’s a fault in this book, it’s the over abundance of real-life situations to absorb. How much overlap is there? What distinguishes this example from all others? In some ways, the author seemed to want to highlight situations he or his friends consulted on; it’s not evident Segal did, but the plethora of scenarios seems indulgent.

The last chapter—the 10 R’s of Crisis Management—may be worth the price of the book. And is a useful guide for anyone creating a crisis handbook or contingency plan, which every organization should have. I once had to wing it with regards to what should be covered in such a plan by reference to several publications. This is a handy single reference.

It’s also helpful for property, casualty, cybersecurity and employment practices insurers to use as a checklist for their clients.

I’m appreciative that the publisher provided an advanced copy to review back in May.