The Psychologically Informed Environment (P.I.E)
So a global pandemic consigns you to your tiny flat for 5 months. How do you spend your time in confinement?
Puzzles.
Pub quizzes.
Pray that you are safe and healthy.
Run.
Drink.
Run then drink?
Like me, you may have done all of the above. And like me, you may be one of the gah-zillions of people worldwide who thought it would be a good time to start a podcast.
If you have been following my podcast, Slice of PIE — this diary entry is an attempt to summarise and interrogate some of the key themes that came through in the first season.
The majority of guests on the show have been asked one question at the end:
“What does a psychologically informed environment (P.I.E) look like to you? Or what does it mean to you?”
I transcribed every answer to this question. Then I pulled out common patterns, coded them in to themes, and threw out what I deemed to be obvious or uninteresting (yes, yes, yes, researcher bias etc).
The result was 8 key themes, and here they are:
So where do you start?
Well, summarising the PIE is hard… it is… (1) complex. As Professor Marc Jones pointed out in episode 5…
“in 30 years time or 50 years time, there will still be podcasts about psychologically informed environments…[because] it is…complex”
… and because it’s complex, and context-specific, and changing, and subjective to every person within that environment, another thing that guests were passionate about stressing, was that PIEs should be (2) person-centred. Or as Switch the Play CEO, Leon Lloyd told me in episode 3…
“Tough question…my interpretation of it is linked to our Switch the Play core values.. being person-centered. It’s around the individual, and about how to help them thrive in their environment.”
Leon followed up over email recently to add the following…
“I feel I have a responsibility to try and create an environment catered to the individual moving away from a one size fits all approach”
…Dr. Mustafa Sarkar had a similar definition of the PIE…
“Creating an environment that takes into account the psychological makeup of individuals…and whether that’s people’s emotions, people’s personalities, their past experiences, their cultures, their values, its understanding that the environment needs to take into account… people … for me that’s simply speaking, what a psychologically informed environment looks like… understanding how you as a coach or a manager, can shape the environment that… brings the best out of people.”
…at the heart of this person-centred approach, many of the guests were very passionate about creating environments that prioritised a (3) wellbeing-focus. In episode 4, Dr. Josephine Perry articulated it in the following way…
“I would say a psychologically informed environment would be where wellbeing is put ahead of performance, and when you do that, it usually improves performance. I tend to notice that when you put performance first it usually harms wellbeing, you get burnout, you have a short career and you don’t perform particularly well”
…or as Dr. Jonathan Katz puts it in the final episode of the season…
“I guess in summary, at the centre of a psychologically informed environment there needs to be, what I would call in quotes ‘a human language’ — which promotes the emotional and personal appreciation within the performance setting, rather than treating the performance setting that is — 1) separate from the athlete’s in quotes, ‘rest of their lives’, and 2) dispenses with the view that the athlete must put their sport first at all costs…”
Jonathan followed up over email recently to add the following…
“I strongly reinforce the notion that an athlete’s performance is both driven by and a reflection of who they are as a person. Thus nurturing personal psychological wellbeing underpins and supports their ‘athletic performance’. Further, support and changes to the person’s ‘athletic performance’ also influences who they are as a person. A significant consequence for support provision within the performance environment, by coaches, support staff including sport psychologists, necessarily needs to provide support for the person….not just when they’re winning!”
…and who are we talking about when we say things like ‘person-centred’ and ‘wellbeing focus’. In this context we might assume it is an athlete or performer, but many were keen to stress that (4) supporting the support staff is just as important. Here’s Hannah Stoyel in episode 11…
“I think the psychologically informed environment is one that supports an athlete, no matter if it’s inconvenient, or a coach for that matter, coaches need that support as well.”
So, we’re halfway through the eight themes. We’ve acknowledged that the PIE is complex, and therefore we should be person-centred as we look at it, look to underpin wellbeing as a focus and that this scope includes support staff as well as the performers. Sounds neat and tidy right?
The tough thing with PIEs is that they are constantly changing, therefore you have to be (5) proactive in how you attend to them as they evolve over time. This was beautifully articulated by Helen Davis in episode 6…
“I very much believe that is a collective process, that it also takes time, and investment and effort… and it’s an ongoing process. Because it’s an ongoing process you then have chances to reflect and I believe that reflection allows all those involved in the environment to evolve as they work and move forwards together which hopefully then develops a consistency of approach… possibly through sufficient guidance from effective leadership that can promote that — something I call a proactive culture.”
…as Helen mentions, keeping tabs on this constantly changing and evolving PIE requires effort and investment, but it can also benefit from ongoing (6) evaluation, assessment and feedback. National Research Lead for TASS, Dr. Emma Vickers brought a refreshing research perspective to the PIE…
“For me, it’s an environment that really absorbs and implements research and theory, so it’s about saying ‘okay I want do something to improve this environment so I look at what information is out there in order for me to do that’.
…it needs someone to drive it, and you need to assess what you’re inputting into that system is having an impact. There’s no point testing out a new thing and not finding out whether it’s actually had an impact on the athletes, or the performance or the wellbeing of that population, it constantly needs to be tested.”
…we’re reaching the final stretch here, which is where we get to the benefits of a psychologically informed environment. The ‘so what?’ bit. What are we doing all this for?
When I started the podcast, it was started with a broad aim to discover how performance and wellbeing might be supported across different types of PIEs, but through the podcast journey I’m starting to uncover sub-components of these two broad elements.
One of these, (7) meaning, was mentioned by Professor Marc Jones…
“One thing that I think is interesting… we talk about sometimes being able to learn from different environments, I was always struck by the YouGov survey around meaning in occupations, and that 37% of people work in jobs that they don’t think has any meaningful contribution to the world… and I think that’s really interesting. I know meaning has been explored in psychology… and so I think that’s interesting: purpose and meaning, matter…”
…whilst another component, (8) growth and development, was mentioned many times, and passionately advocated for by Tennis Scotland consultant and LTA performance tutor, Kris Soutar…
“The development of them as a person alongside them as a tennis player — that would be the first thought that would come to me.
If you were doing it as an educational piece…I would be saying to a coach or player — that I don’t care what ranking you get to, I care that you are happy, you are healthy, you are learning and developing. Everything — my core philosophy, in terms of player development, is around those four pillars — are they 1) happy 2) healthy 3) learning 4) developing…”
So there you have it. The PIE.
A (1) complex thing, that benefits from a (2) person-centred approach, and one that underpins with a (3) wellbeing focus, which not only covers performers but encompasses (4) support staff as well… it requires an ongoing, (5) proactive and (6) evaluative feedback loop, which requires time and investment…but it’s worth it, when helping to give performers and support staff (7) meaning and purpose, as well as a sense of (8) growth and development.
A big thanks to all the guests that contributed to this evolving model of the PIE. Follow their social links below to keep up to date with all the great things they are doing in sport, psychology, stress, coaching, transitions, dual-careers, resilience, eating disorders and many, many other interesting areas of inquiry.
If you have any thoughts, comments or reflections on this end-of-season summary, feel free to reach out via email, twitter or LinkedIn.
And if you want to check-out the Season 1 review in podcast form, you can do so on Spotify, Apple and through the website.
Thanks for reading / listening,
Pete.
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