2003 IMTA Proceedings - International Military Testing Association

106
THE HILLENBRAND PEAK PERFORMANCE PROGRAM
The Peak Achievement Trainer is an integral part of the Attention Control Training
program at the Center for Enhanced Performance. Dr. Csoka purchased his first Peak
Achievement Trainer at the recommendation of Dr. Nate Zinsser, the psychologist who currently
runs the Attention Control Training program. Dr. Csoka has recently created a very similar Peak
Performance Center at the executive offices of Hillenbrand Industries, a Fortune 1000 health care
company. He has created enough value there that all 22 of their top executives have completed
the 20 session training session, doing about one session a week. Response to the program was
overwhelmingly positive. These executives have returned voluntarily for many additional
sessions, primarily using the Peak Achievement Trainer’s ConAlert protocol, and the program is
being expanded to 39 more executives. They have ordered Trainers for their top executives. Dr.
Csoka states “Training attention control begins the entire process of developing peak
performance, in the military and elsewhere. The Peak Achievement Trainer provides an
excellent tool for developing enhanced skills in focus and concentration. We have been working
with business executives at a Fortune 1000 company on their attention skills as part of a broader
peak performance training program that is an integral component of their leadership development
program. By providing business situations and scenarios as input for the Peak Achievement
Trainer, we have been able to demonstrate measurable improvements in their ability to attend in
crucial meetings, engage in critical performance appraisals with employees, and deliver
exceptional presentations. The Peak Achievement Trainer provides the critical feedback during
attention control training needed to develop this skill to a level equal to what elite athletes have
been able to achieve.”
The change in the ability to concentrate of the group of Hillenbrand executives after five
sessions of Peak Achievement Training is shown in Figure 2. The two cones on the left show
how long they could hold the concentration line below 30 during the pre-test, while the last two
cones are the post-test data. They were given four trials during each test. The first trial is shown
on the left, and the best trial is shown on the right. During the pre-test, the first trial averaged 19
seconds, ranging from 10 to 40. The first trial in the post test was more than twice as long, 44
seconds, with the range running from 25 to 65 seconds. The best trial average almost doubled
from 65 seconds at the pre-test to 128 seconds at post test. The ranges were 18 to 180 and 48 to
220, respectively.
THE MISSING COMPONENT OF MILITARY TRAINING
Dr. Csoka and I believe that there is a missing component of military training. Learning
the optimal sequences of concentration, alertness, and microbreaks is as integral to skill
development as having the correct cognitive information at the right time. A high quality
training experience should produce sequences of focus and alertness that are very similar to those
in the real battle.
Dr. Csoka further states “The applications for direct attention training in the Army are
almost endless. Both the individual soldier and the crew weapons systems involve highly
45 th Annual Conference of the International Military Testing Association
Pensacola, Florida, 3-6 November 2003