The Unconscious & High Performance

Part 1 – Performance, Pain and Projection: How the Unconscious Plays A Key Role in High Performance Environments

This article is the first of 3 parts exploring the role the unconscious can play in high performance environments, what to look out for and how to address it. However, before getting into the meat of the topic, a few disclaimers are probably in order:

Disclaimer #1 – I am not a psychologist and am not trained in psychoanalysis. However, I will be using terms from those realms. This is not intended as appropriation of these noble disciplines. I am merely passing on my understanding of how some of the key constructs show up in the worlds I have operated in.

Disclaimer #2 – Talking about the unconscious is not a concept readily embraced by all and, in the wrong room, one can find oneself being relegated to the level of credibility of a horoscope writer or Tarot card reader. However, as I hope to demonstrate, the topic is backed by significant rigour and depth and I believe is overlooked in many environments.

Disclaimer #3 – My observations are based primarily on high performance sport but, as is so often the case, I believe there are parallels across many high pressure environments.

So, with cards on the table, we can start to unpack the unconscious. Arguably, there is nowhere better to start than with the scholarly words of Carl Jung:

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”

This is typically framed in the context of an individual person, but let’s consider what this means on an organisational level. Essentially, humans and groups of humans will be heavily directed by unconscious drivers. This will affect how they act within your system. Unless you have acknowledged and understood that, there will be many patterns of behaviour (much of it dysfunctional) which occur in your world but which you are unable to understand or affect. When considered in these terms, hopefully the unconscious starts to feel more urgent and less like naval gazing.

Let’s take a further step back to understand why these things happen, particularly in certain worlds. Human beings are generally keen to avoid pain. Even the thought of potential for pain can be uncomfortable (anxiety) and so we try to avoid the threat of pain as well as pain itself. Naturally, these fears remain whether we are acting as “us” or within our organisations. If a situation is low risk and a person has a high degree of control, then all is well. However, this is pretty much the antithesis of a high performance environment. Whilst the term is used to describe many different worlds, typically the stakes are high, the outcome is uncertain, and control is far from absolute. Houston, we may have a pain problem.

In order to tame this disruptive intruder, we need to understand its patterns of behaviour. First of all, pain is highly agile and can move around easily. For an individual wishing to rid themselves of pain this may seem like good news. It can be pushed elsewhere, and the world feels better and less painful. Clearly though, that is not good for the system that the pain is being manoeuvred within, not to mention the recipient. There is a sting in the tale too, as just because you have been able to push pain away doesn’t mean it’s not coming back the same way, sometimes with interest (pain can also grow as well as move).

One of pain’s chief preliminary tactics deployed in order to facilitate this mobility around an organisation is splitting. This is a common phenomenon whereby an individual is reduced to a simple caricature of themselves. Splitting results in the complex and conflicting nature of a person being overly simplified to a single character trait or motivation. I often think of this as being like the Mr Men books. People are reduced to wax crayon versions of themselves such as Mr Angry or Miss Useless. The same habit is often applied to whole teams or departments, sometimes even external organisations. I’m sure that in reading this, numerous examples from your own life will come to mind. The real danger in this lazy mindset is that it lays the foundation for the transference of pain as the recipient becomes a perfect shaped receptacle. This transference of pain is known as projection and is so common it has become part of everyday language.

Projection is much more than simply an abstract concept and can be very real for the recipient. So much so that it can frequently lead to countertransference whereby the other person’s feelings are felt as if one’s own. Think about the last time you were in the close company of a tense or agitated colleague. The chances are you left that encounter feeling a measure of those same emotions yourself.

To bring this to life, consider the following scenario: A senior leader in a high performance environment is the focus of many invested colleagues. It is common that this individual, in varying degrees, will be held up either as a potential hero or the cause of any ills being suffered. Of course, the reality is almost certain to be far more complex and nuanced than this but that is not always comfortable. Therefore, the splitting of this person into either hero or villain can provide some relief. However, regardless of whether hero or villain, the recipient of these projected feelings will surely be aware of them. What happens next can be one of a number of outcomes. All too commonly though, the countertransference of emotions results in inevitable overspill. The reservoir cannot contain the emotions of the masses and they must be pushed elsewhere. High stakes, uncertain outcomes and low levels of control will only multiply this further. Those close to the leader, or in their eyeline, are likely to find themselves quickly receiving the overspill. Very quickly pain has become highly contagious.

So far, we have considered how the unconscious avoidance of pain and anxiety can lead to splitting, projection and contagion of that pain, particularly within high performance environments. In part 2 we will look at some of the unconscious dysfunctions which teams fall into that leaders need to be mindful of…and rest assured, in part 3 we will start to look at some solutions.