Pressure and performance: finding your sweet spot

In his book, Peak Performance Under Pressure: Lessons from a Helicopter Rescue Doctor, Dr Stephen Hearns guides the reader through the relationships between performance and pressure, and how these may lead us into three performance states:

You may find yourself in one or more of these performance states depending on how you control the pressure. Hearns offers the reader insights and techniques with which to do this by dividing the discussion into four main categories: the pressure pump, pressure control, pressure testing and pressure relief valves.

The pressure pump moves the pressure through an organisation. Various internal and external factors can dictate the amount of pressure. Subsequently, how an organisation and its employees manage and deal with this is important.

At a strategic level, this relates to how leadership is delivered and whether a culture of sustainable pressure is supported. Hearns writes that this in turn should promote values, respect, clear objectives and expected standards. At an operational level, we can see how high-functioning ambulance clinicians can be supported within an organisational culture like this. It is also possible to recognise how individuals or groups may enter a state of disengagement or indeed frazzle, if the pressure pump is poorly controlled.