“Everyone should have a Jace!” – was a lovely thing one of my colleagues said during my last operational deployment in the Middle East. I was utilising twenty years of RAF experience to help a diverse group of people cope with, and ultimately improve, an obviously stressful working environment. Whilst there the top American commander described me as “the man who is instantly excellent at everything.” Whilst this is touching, it’s not strictly true: excellence comes with hard work and focus. I am lucky; I have an eclectic background and I have been blessed with the sort of brain that tries to understand the fundamentals of everything I encounter in life. My strength comes from applying those lessons to all areas of my life.
My sporting interests (county-level rugby; British Universities and Combined Services track athletics, sub-three hours for the marathon; and ski and sailing instruction) have also provided a raft (no pun intended) of experiences.
Balance your thoughts, emotion & instinct.
I was also lucky to have a strong upbringing in music. In fact, my old headmaster was extremely proud that the scrum in one all-conquering team was built entirely from boys who had been fairies in the Glyndebourne National Opera’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Music is such a powerful medium: singing’s therapeutic benefits to the brain are widely recognised; and the camaraderie required to play in an orchestra, band or choir is immense. This love for music ultimately led to dancing (ballroom and tap) and ultimately the stage.
Several leadership companies use the medium of acting to build team dynamics. The lessons for life and business are there: in-depth preparation, focused presentation, overcoming fears, teamwork, understanding, compassion and dealing with ‘on-stage’ problems to create a faultless performance.
All these things informed my work as a facilitator in RAF Human Factors, Crew Resource Management, and Myers–Briggs Type Indicator have given me a holistic and spiritual understanding of human stressors and the route to stress-free performance.
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
Everyone has a preference in how they like to approach life, receive information and make decisions, and, just like the left-handed child playing tennis right-handed, the realisation that you can adapt to your preferences can bring about confidence and improved competence.
Visualisation / Guided Imagery
Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed just how much the brain affects our overall performance – even theorising that it governs how much fatigue we feel. Visualisation and Guided Imagery can help train the brain to keep up with your physical aspirations.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
We harbour core beliefs on how effective we are; these beliefs are ‘fed’ by Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs). By helping you to identify and deal with these NATs I can help you reshape your core beliefs.
Human Givens
Based on identifying the emotional ‘needs’ that aren’t being met, Human Givens enables people to have a happier and more fulfilling life. It is an extremely powerful and ecological tool and can be used to overcome many ‘brain’ issues including depression, phobias and trauma, addiction, stress, fear of public speaking and problems in relationships.
CRM – Human Factors
The lessons from the airline industry are extraordinarily relevant in normal life. The headline grabbing nature of flying accidents prompted the industry to study human behaviour in stressful situations. The ongoing research has identified many ‘human factors’ that can be applied in so many other situations. Human factors facilitation is about using real life examples as a vehicle for learning about underpinning human frailties.