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“The key to business success is to put your chimp back in the box” Dr Steve Peters

The London Business Forum convened in the newly refurbished Leicester Square Theatre, eager for insight from the intriguing world of sport psychology. The purpose of the event – to understand how winning mindsets are developed in sport, and how these lessons can be applied to business. The authority - Dr Steve Peters, Team GB’s sport psychiatrist who helped the cycling team smash all records in Beijing.

Former forensic psychiatrist Dr Peters took to the stage with a self-assured air, strolled to the lectern and warned “I’m used to dealing with Psychopaths… I will find you!” He then stated his key intention: to challenge our perceptions of ourselves and introduce us to the factors crucial for success in both the business and sport’s world. Surprisingly, Dr Peters finds it highly amusing that he is now hailed as a sport and cycling ‘guru’; he has only ridden a bike once in twenty years. However, he claims this is inconsequential; his techniques work if you’re a human, cyclist or psychopath. The key is to understand the individual, their beliefs, drives and behaviour.

Dr Peters’ introduction to British cycling came through former pupil, and now head coach, Dave Brailsford. His initial meeting was cloaked in secrecy, and wouldn’t have been out of place on BBC One’s Spooks. Having been handed a one-line message in a brown manila envelope, his instructions simply told him to take his passport, head to a station and wait for a man under a large clock. He was promptly whisked to Switzerland where his mission became apparent - to help Vicky Pendleton overcome demons that were seriously threatening her career. Within 12 months she had secured Gold at the World Championships.

Dr Peter’s central premise was that the key to success is in understanding our own brains. We need to realise that there is no truth, only opinion. Then we can start making real advances. All humans have several innate dynamic drives which tend to be different for men and women. Peters argued that one of the biggest challenges we face is the need to reconcile our personality in our various roles (e.g. parent, friend, boss, subordinate, spouse). Whilst we may purport to be a different person at work than at home this is not the case.

To illustrate the influence of the brain on our behaviour Peters drew upon the Hominidae: a group made up of chimps, orang-utans, gorillas and humans. Humans dominate because of several characteristics, some of which the others have but not all:

• A desire to learn
• Collaborative behaviour
• Working for others
• Speech/an ability to communicate
• A desire to teach

And most crucially….

• Control of impulsive behaviours - if there is someone in your organisation who can’t do this, get rid of them!
• Control of Emotions

In spite of the above characteristics our brains remain remarkably similar to those of our distant ancestors, and, Peter’s argued, we still have areas that, when activated, adversely affect our behaviour and chances of reaching peak performance. Therefore, the key to success in business, is to “control your inner chimp” as it has a personality that has nothing to do with you. Once you realise which beliefs/behaviour are driven by you and which by the chimp you can choose your emotions and establish greater control over your outcomes.