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The scientific way to higher performance

Flexible Minds rests on the view that organisations are comprised of people, and people emit behaviour.  The way, therefore, to improve performance is to look at altering people’s behaviour.

Our approach is based on ‘relational frame theory’ (RFT).   Developed out of experimental psychology using high-integrity studies under laboratory conditions,  this looks at the context in which individuals determine their actions in given situations.  The theory stresses the interactions that people have with their inner self and social context as well as their  verbal behaviour and language as key influences on how they choose to behave.

The full theory was first published in 2001, with over 100 published experiments and many more published articles since.  RFT is now scientifically recognised as a major step forward in our understanding  of human behaviour.   Furthermore, many specific articles have been published on the application of RFT for the workplace, including a special edition of the respected ‘Journal of Organizational Management (2006).

‘Acceptance and commitment’ training

RFT is often applied in the form of what is called ‘acceptance and commitment training’ (ACT) and this is what Flexible Minds uses.  It is a unique and challenging view of how to achieve behaviour change which alters the very ground rules of most Western, traditional thinking about human  performance.

The approach uses the idea of ‘mindfulness’ – a mental state of awareness, focus and openness - which allows an individual to engage fully in what they are doing at any given moment.  In this state, the individual makes room for and ‘allows’ any difficult or unhelpful thoughts and feelings but does not let them have any significant impact and influence on what he/she does.

There is no attempt to control or manipulate a person’s feelings or thoughts that happens with existing psychological methods like positive thinking and visualisation, which often have only a temporary or very short-term effect.   In contrast, our approach does not set out at all to control  a person’s feelings and instead focuses on their behaviours and how these serve the achievement of specific desired goals or values.

Psychological flexibility

Flexible Minds is all about increasing an individual’s  ‘psychological flexibility’ – the ability to accept feelings and emotions on the one hand and simultaneously focus on and adapt their behaviours to suit the specific demands of the specific situation they face and goals they want to achieve.  The more skilled a person is with such flexibility the greater will be their levels of performance, wellbeing, and sense of fulfilment and vitality.

The effects of psychological flexibility have been scientifically studied and statistically verified.  Using a published, psychometrically validated test, we have specifically shown that increases in psychological flexibility are linked to significant improvements in performance  This has also been correlated in published research..

These scientific principles can be extended into both work design and leadership to provide a fully scalable model for an organisation to adopt for the systematic improvement of performance.

This is why we call Flexible Minds the ‘science of higher performance’ !