Performance is not a trait.
It is a system.

Your performance runs over eight links. Under pressure your level sits at your lowest link and not at your highest.

Take the diagnosis First read the system

32 questions · 15 minutes · no account

The eight

One of these eight is holding your line down.

Read them through. At one of them something will catch. That is almost never the link you are already working on.

HPC-01IdentityYou are not your mask, no matter what you say HPC-02RoutinesYou keep agreements with others. With yourself you negotiate HPC-03GoalsYou think you are setting a course. Drifting feels the same HPC-04HealthStarting your day tired is normal. It is also your ceiling HPC-05MindsetMindset is the filter you judge through at critical moments HPC-06MotivationYou wait until you feel like it. That waiting is the link HPC-07CommitmentMotivation gone, discipline gone. What is left is perseverance HPC-08Error skillsA mistake lands. The next move decides what it was

You will not pick the lowest one yourself. The link you feel is almost always the one that is costing you the most effort, and that is a different link from the one that is lowest.

Measure which of the eight is yours

Waiting for the light is a decision too.

27
Years in the field
2019
Model established
7
Environments tested
8
Links
32
Items in the diagnosis

In short

  • How you perform is a system of eight links and not a separate skill.
  • As soon as the pressure rises your lowest link sets your level. One link above the rest gives you no jump.
  • The eight come from elite unit training, where they sat inside every lesson without ever being named.
  • Between 2019 and 2026 they were written out into one model, with a decision rule and an instrument.
  • You get eight separate scores and one system score, equal to your lowest link.

Where to start

Begin where it is stuck.

01 The Human Performance Code. Eight links, one code. These eight are what you work on. Where they sit together is your code, and that is what you improve. With the diagram, all eight and why there are eight. Decode your code 02 Seven environments Special operations, close protection, crisis management, elite sport. Seven environments where the same eight code links surfaced again and again. See the environments 03 Five situations Five situations where people get stuck, and which of the eight links sits underneath each one. See the situations 04 What is measured How the eight links are measured, what a score means and where the measurement stops. Read the instrument 05 What it does Three shifts that follow from working on the lowest link. None of them motivational. Read what it does 06 Origin Where these eight came from. Twenty-seven years in the field, and the moment it became a system. Read the origin 07 Evidence and limits What each link rests on in research, and where the evidence stops. Including what has not been shown. Read the evidence 08 The man behind the code Who built the eight, and where they were tested. Plus every appearance, publication and broadcast since 2013. Read about the maker 09 The Performance Pulse Podcast With Pieter-Jan Swaning. Conversations with people who had to deliver under pressure, and what actually happened. Listen to the podcast 10 The book The full system is being written out as a book. In preparation. Also who built the model. Read about the book 11 The diagnosis Thirty-two questions, fifteen minutes, eight separate scores and one system score. No account. You see where your line is held down. Take the diagnosis

Seven years of notes. Eight links are what was left.

De voorkant van de white paper, Presteren onder druk is geen talent The cover of the white paper, Performing under pressure is not a talent

WHITE PAPER

Performing under pressure is not a talent.

Why more effort no longer pays off, and where the real problem lies.

After this paper you will know:

  • which layer gives way first for you and how to measure it.
  • why working harder does not solve it and where your effort does pay off.
  • which single step to take tomorrow, written out for each component.

18 PAGES · 20 MINUTES READING · FREE

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