Brian Ferguson has spent his career working in high-performance organizations, learning from leaders and decision-makers in national security, the military, and technology. He has used those experiences to build Arena Labs, a company pioneering the field of High Performance Medicine®️. Arena Labs uses state-of-the-art training and technology solutions to bring the science of peak performance, creative mastery, and elite teams to modern healthcare and surgical teams.
Before founding Arena Labs, Brian served in the military as a Navy SEAL and as a civilian in national security working on matters of global security policy. He received an MSc from the London School of Economics and remains involved in several organizations related to the impact of technology on modern life.
Artificial Intelligence, Exponential Thinking, Mental Health, Positive Psychology, Resilience, Change Management, Workforce Up-Skilling
What if learning to sleep better and to manage stress was the key to building and leading world-class organizations in the 21st century?
Exponential technologies are exciting and hold tremendous promise for the future. But, if they come at the cost of human health by creating stress, loss of attention and an ability to be present...what’s the point?
In this talk Brian argues that the single most important trait for a leader to develop in today’s world is the ability to manage attention and physiology. In order to do so, ever leader has to understand a basic set of tools and behaviors that create the bedrock of flourishing: self-awareness, sleep, deactivating the nervous system, and a series of basic science-backed protocols.
As accelerating technology makes the world more complex and unpredictable, leaders are faced with a higher degree of dynamism, unknowns, and change. In order to be effective in such a landscape, any leader must have a highly attuned sense of how to be grounded, how to manage stress, recover, and flourish. Yet doing so is not innate and in a world of distraction, learning to control attention and “inner state” is a seeming superpower.
Brian covers a narrative of how Moore’s Law continues to radically change the landscape of society. And, how that change impacts leaders.
He then offers a specific “Path to Flourishing” that is a hyper-tactical set of tools, resources and behaviors that he learned while working with Navy SEALs, elite athletes, world-class scientists, top surgical teams and a range of high-performing cultures.
Brian provides resources in advance so that participants come prepared with some thinking around their challenges and the tools and protocols most valuable to them. Most importantly, he dives into the scientifically validated tools and protocols that allow any person or leader to feel a
sense of agency to manage stress, adapt and thrive in a changing world. From breathing protocols to understanding the role of sunlight and human relationships, this talk is about flourishing in the 21st century.
Human Augmentation, Mixed Reality, Physical Health, Mental Health, Human Potential, Leading Change, Future of Civilizations
The world is in the midst of the greatest revolution in human performance in our history. Wearable sensors, biometric data, an understanding of stress and sleep...all of us puts us in a place to truly capture what allows a human to thrive. Yet, why is it so had for leaders to feel like they are really flourishing?
Exponential technologies are creating vast promise for modern life. At the same time, most leaders feel tired, stressed and worn down.
How might we use the growing wave of performance technologies as a way to amplify our basic, innate humanity?
In this talk Brian explores how a revolution in human performance and in understanding the human mind and body is reshaping human health, well-being, leadership and longevity.
Brian discusses the challenges presented by accelerating technology and the toll that societal advancement can take on the human system while offering a roadmap of opportunities. He discusses why technology and data make us feel more stressed and the way they’re reprogramming our minds and nervous system. But most importantly, shares the science, frameworks and tools he learned as a Navy SEAL to improve recovery, manage stress, and regenerate.
Through the three archetypes of Superman, the Bionic Woman, and Yoda, Brian explores how sleep science, wearable technology , data and ancient wisdom hold promise to reground us in a sense of presence.
Superman: Given that the single best performance enhancing drug we know is sleep....through this archetype, Brian discusses why the field of “sleep science” is changing what we know about human health, leadership and living a full life. In this archetype, Brian talks through the frameworks and protocols for getting optimal rest and the new technologies that can help us ensure that the foundation of our health – sleep – is optimized.
Bionic Woman: Through this archetype, Brian explores how wearable technology is giving us population level data and insights on human behaviors and what makes us most health and least stressed. He talks through how to think about buying and using a wearable and the data points that matter most.
Yoda: By returning to “ancient rituals” humans in modern life are finding a re-grounding. From yoga to meditation and breathing, the modern world is full of a desire to use our body’s most basic systems as a means of feeling recharged, disconnected and present.
This is a talk that combines the realties of modern technology with the possibility of returning to our most vital human gifts.
Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Strategy, Risk Management, Business Strategy, Innovation and Disruption, Workforce Up-Skilling
In this talk, Brian explores how advanced technology and data have allowed for an era of “precision” in which teams and organizations can be more effective win tactical focus. He shares his experience as a Navy SEAL, watching how the rise of “precision strike” made the battlefield safer. And, how data has allowed precision nutrition and precision training to change the field of professional athletics as well as modern healthcare.
Brian explores the trends that have empowered teams with unprecedented data, decision-making power, and operational efficacy. But in order to do so, a series of conditions have to be in place for teams to harness the potential of precision capability.
Brian discusses 5 key elements of “Building a Precision Team and
1. Knowing What Data to Value
2. Reducing Decision and Cognitive Load
3. Training for a New Age
4. Simplifying Communication
5. Telling a New Story, Others Can’t See
Exponential Thinking, Foundational Concepts, Leading Change, Corporate Culture, Workforce Up-Skilling, Lifelong Learning, Personal Development
In this talk, Brian explores how the best cultures, teams and organizations in the world think differently about technology and change.
He begins with the “First Principles of High Performance” and shares the six principles that make up every world-class team from professional sports and special operations to business:
1. Ethos
2. Communication
3. Standards
4. Trust
5. Physical Body
6. Growth Mindset
Brian focuses on growth mindset, how organization hire, develop and grow leaders as being at the core of excellence.
He begins with examples from his time as a Navy SEAL to talk about how the special operations community had to let go of legacy, to focus on first principles, and learn new skills in the 21st century.
Brian moves through a set of case studies from his work with the world’s top sports teams, creative performers and medical teams to discuss the challenges and opportunities in reimagining culture to not just stay relevant, but flourish.
Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Future of Work, Leading Change, Workforce Up-Skilling, Mental Health, Lifelong Learning
Advanced technology is changing every vertical in society: farming, energy, sports, medicine, the military....And, it’s dramatically changing the teams within them.
In this talk, Brian explores how drone technology permanently altered the battlefield and geopolitics. Yet, in order for drone technology to be effective, militaries had to reimagine how they trained human systems to interact with a “teammate in the sky”.
Yet along the way, the military had to understand “cognitive load” and how much information one person could take in and still make clear decisions.
Brian discusses how the world’s best cultures and the teams he works with in healthcare, elite sports and business are wrestling with best practices to train for a new frontier in human performance.
This exploration discusses specific organizational approaches to training and communication, specifically, how the best teams in the world are investing and training the human system to be self aware and optimize brain capacity for decision making, psychological safety, and creativity.
Human Augmentation, Medicine, Longevity, Human Potential, Personal Development, Mental Health, Physical Health, Leading Change, Culture
Brian surveys the evolving world of human performance – the physical and mental feats increasingly being achieved as a result of exponential technology. He draws on examples from special operations, Red Bull, and performers who are pushing the “super human”. Despite these energizing developments in performance, the fare more powerful of our time is human potential– what we’re capable of in a lifetime. He explores “the age of the democratization of greatness” and how we combine opportunities of accelerating technology to harness “the inspired soul” to optimize our own potential, serve as better leaders, and make deeper impact in today’s world.