Oxford Place

Academic Research

Oxford Place was founded upon our expertise in performance coaching.

Although we now offer a full range of 1:2:1 coaching interventions, in certain instances we do still utilise our proprietary methodology which is based on the academic study of coaching for superior performance.

There are four methodologies which have been scientifically proven to be the basis of increased performance in both sporting and business environments. These methodologies (below) form the basis of our approach to ‘Performance Coaching’ interventions and are the basis of our lecture courses at the University of Cambridge.

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The four key scientific disciplines we employ include:

  1. Psycho-Cybernetics
  2. The Flow State
  3. Cognitive Auto-suggestion
  4. Cognitive Neuroscience

Psycho-Cybernetics
The science of Psycho-Cybernetics is a synthesis of several proven psychological and physiological processes developed by Dr Maxwell Maltz over a 29-year period. The technique is derived from the work of mathematician Dr Norbert Wiener. In 1949 Dr Wiener published ‘Cybernetics’, in which he reasoned that the feedback mechanism he had developed for use in missiles to preclude error could be applied to human behaviour. He deduced that man could use this same mechanism to unerringly thrust towards his goal. The modern-day application of psycho-cybernetics is an extraordinarily powerful tool which enables people to change their mental image of themselves and accomplish their most ambitious goals.

The Flow State
The Flow State is complete, single-minded motivation in which an individual or team has a deep focus on nothing but the activity at hand. This mental state of operation is one in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement and success in the process of the activity. In the Flow State, the emotions are not just contained and channeled, but positive, energised, and aligned with the task at hand. This state is the key to peak performance in all fields of human endeavour. The esteemed Hungarian Psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is credited as the architect of this concept which, coincidentally, is also connected to a human being’s intrinsic state of happiness. A flow state can be entered while performing any activity, although it is most likely to occur when one is wholeheartedly performing a task or activity for intrinsic purposes.

There are three conditions that are necessary to achieve the flow state:

  1. One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals. This adds direction
    and structure to the task.
  2. One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at
    hand and his or her own perceived skills. One must have confidence that he or
    she is capable of doing the task at hand.
  3. The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person
    negotiate any changing demands and allows him or her to adjust his or her
    performance to maintain the flow state.

The most successful business people, from entrepreneurs through to traders, employ the flow state at times of their greatest insight, performance and productivity.

Cognitive Auto-suggestion
Cognitive Auto-suggestion is a discipline derived from the work of Emile Coué, whose groundbreaking 1929 publication, “Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-Suggestion” was instrumental in creating ‘Applied Conditioning’ as a psychological performance methodology. The essence of cognitive auto-suggestion is that by repeating words or images as self-suggestion to the subconscious mind, one can condition the mind, and then the conditioned mind will produce an autogenic command when required.

Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience is a vital component in our understanding of the mental aspects of Peak Performance in the 21st Century. The latest developments in this field from leading experts such as Paul Wheelan at the University of Wisconsin and the Brown Foundation for Human Neuroimaging have proven that we are only conscious of 5% of our cognitive activity. Oxford Place’s methodology enables our clients to access the greater part of their minds to focus at both a conscious and a deep unconscious level on the attainment of specific business goals.

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