Ah, those classic sixties song lyrics never fail to serve us well when we ponder the makeup of successful leaders and followers. Kenny Rogers’ first big time band had a hit song with the memorable line, “I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.” A most valuable and essential skill is the ability to be present and aware of what “condition we are in” especially when we are facing the proverbial saber tooth tiger of modern times: stress. Mankind has always faced threats of one kind or another, and apart from those in combat or law enforcement work all of us on a daily basis deal with real or imagined threats. Whether it be a sense of vague uneasiness or a coworker leaning over a meeting table and shaking an angry finger in our face, stress, confrontation, and conflict have been and will continue to be facts of both our professional and personal lives. And our condition can jump from copacetic to apoplectic faster than a minnow can swim a dipper. That is even faster than a New York minute.
In “Eloquence” Ralph Emerson wrote, “We boil at different degrees”, so it serves us well to know and understand our personal Richter scales since knowing as much will better prepare us to keep a cool head whether we’re negotiating a contract or measuring the height of a pasture fence with an angry bull breathing down our neck. More often than not, cool heads prevail. While I’m not certain who created the color coded system for determining one’s psychological condition (some say it was the late, Jeff Cooper), they are in order from least focused to most stressed: White, Yellow, Red, Gray, and Black.
The differences between Condition White and Yellow are more psychological than physiological. Condition White is generally described as a place where one is helpless, vulnerable, and in denial. Prior to being consumed by a wolf, sheep are typically used as good examples of Condition White. Condition Yellow is a level of basic alertness and readiness. All predators including dogs live in a perpetual state of Condition Yellow and readiness while seasoned soldiers and law enforcement officers have learned to be relaxed but aware of what and who is around them. They are neither paranoid nor irrationally fearful just aware and paying attention. Developing the skills to live in a state of Condition Yellow can pay off by not being knocked off your game by unpleasant surprises. Perhaps this is part of what was meant in the Bible by the phrase, “Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves”.
Condition Red, on the other hand, is when things begin to heat up both literally and figuratively. According to research by Grossman and Siddle, one’s heart rate typically runs in the range of 115 to 145bpm. However, heart rate can vary from one individual to another due to various factors not the least of which is how one has trained and prepared for serious situations. The better the training the one can handle high stress situations. The experts tell us in Condition Red “our complex motor skills, visual retention time and cognitive reaction time are all at their peak” as we are at our “optimum survival and combat performance level”. On the upper levels of Condition Red it’s not unusual for someone to experience physiological effects such as beginning to lose fine motor skills. If you’ve ever been in a car accident and had to sign your name or fill out a report afterward you probably remember how difficult it was to write with a steady hand. Your fine motor skills had left the building about the same time your driving skills caused your car to leave the highway.
If one hasn’t seriously trained and prepared for high stress situations, moving into the areas of Conditions Gray and Black one can experience a serious deterioration of performance and, ultimately, a catastrophic breakdown of physical and mental performance. The good news, which you have probably been waiting to hear, is we have the ability to “inoculate” ourselves to the debilitating effects of an ever-increasing heart rate and stress. Some have called it “stress acclimatization”. Ron Avery puts it this way, “With the proper training and requisite conditioning and practice, we can achieve skills that others think impossible.” Firemen work to inoculate themselves against fire, lifeguards to heavy surf, and sailors to flooded compartments since the fate of the ship may depend on their ability to stay focused and make repairs. On a less dramatic scale, the stress and challenges presented to leaders, business professionals, and workers can be effectively managed by studying, training, conditioning, and preparing for the inevitable attack of that make believe saber tooth tiger lurking just behind the conference room door.
Originally published in Beaumont Business Journal, Heat And Humanity Column
