Delivery: The Last Mile in Human Performance Optimization
Booz Allen Hamilton’s Tactical Athlete Leadership Board met to conclude 2020 to discuss best practices and challenges in collecting data in training programs. With the understanding that it is vital for the military to continue advancing human performance and training protocols, board members from across the industry, who are experts in sensor technology, coaching, and data science, came together because of the benefits of collecting data from today’s warfighter can:
When we need to change a warfighter’s behavior by trying to build new routines in training, sleep, or nutrition, we need that individual to buy into the advice. In the field of human performance, new tools are available to collect and analyze biometric data and determine how warfighters can optimize their fitness and performance in the field. It’s frustrating to know this data may unlock new opportunities to enhance current training protocols or evolve out-dated practices, but without the right methods and tools to deliver this information, the message is lost.
Delivery is the last mile of human performance optimization. It is a skill many trainers recognize when they see it done well, and they know when trainers or coaches miss the mark. In January, the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board convened to discuss best practices in delivering human performance data and insights to warfighters. There was a powerful consensus among leadership board experts that more data will drive the behavioral change coaches to look for. Those with experience in the field, however, pointed to the art that complements the science. Data needs to be delivered with context. Warfighters need to know the why.
Warrior’s Edge - Dr. Janell Macauley: “Delivering information or creating a new behavior starts at the top. If warfighters see the leaders they respect doing the thing they want done, it’s almost implied that the data is right -- that this works. Leaders need to create that culture and really use this new information to change their leadership model and carve out time for training. Give it the attention it needs.”
USC Center for Body Computing - Rob Faulk: “It’s no different than professional sports. If the warfighter delivering the information has been at the top of his or her game for fifteen to twenty years, warfighters respond to that. If you have that Tom Brady-like leader saying ‘this works for me’ soldiers fall in line and pay attention to the data.”
Booz Allen Hamilton - Joshua Hockett: “I always try to show how the results of the data collection and analysis can either 1) remove a pain point (failing, losing, getting hurt, missing promotion, burn out, feeling literal pain etc.) or 2)increase the odds of moving closer to and reaching a desired goal (winning, land starting spot, hit new record, mission success, mission effectiveness, adapt quicker).These factors land well with military leadership every time: show how the data collected and analyzed can help save money(directly), manpower, time, lost efficiency, and prevent expenditures in indirect costs (injury/death/drop outs).”
The consensus is: it matters who distributes the information, and it matters when and how often this data is delivered to establish routine and culture.
Experts know this is no small task. The grind of daily operations and the uncertainty of deployments shake schedules and can dramatically change environmental conditions. However, a number of experts on the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board argue that positional data, skills data, and remote training technology will have a dramatic role in preparing next-generation warfighters.
The leadership board spent time discussing the importance and impact of cognitive training exercises performed within the realm of virtual reality (VR). New VR tools are giving warfighters the feedback to adjust their approach to certain missions, and the repetition to practice skills that are too difficult, too costly, and often too dangerous to simulate in the field. Other leaders pointed to the ability to sync wearable data with digital displays to gamify warfighter behavior and reward them for achieving goals and different biometric thresholds.
The recent Tactical Athlete Leadership Board made clear there is little desire for more data. So many warfighters and leaders are swimming in data. The military craves synthesis and focuses on which metrics should be prioritized and why. “Just because you can measure it, doesn’t mean you should.
The Tactical Athlete Leadership board will meet again in March to start honing in on workstreams that aim to define and prioritize the data warfighters should collect, analyze, and deliver. The challenges to changing behavior are real, but powerful new opportunities to optimize warfighter performance are within reach.
About the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board:
Tactical athletes train to navigate and achieve situational awareness within complex and dynamic environments whether it’s for advantage and safety on the mission front lines or game-time decisions. To ensure readiness through peak physical and psychological performance, Booz Allen and Sports Innovation Lab have partnered to advance our tactical athlete paradigm.
Together, we're convening a board of leading experts in sports performance, technology, and science, to draw on and codify innovations about the ways that elite athletes train, compete and recover.
What is the Tactical Athlete: A tactical athlete is an individual with the cognitive and physical ability, mental agility, and tactical skills to excel and win on the battlefield.
Vision: Be the driving force behind a new model for what it means to improve the life of the tactical athlete.
Mission: Bring together visionaries, trailblazers, and leaders in the human performance space to publish research, create thought leadership, and bring together an interdisciplinary approach redefining the industry.