An exact definition of Human Performance Optimization is like the abominable snowman: never captured and witness details vary. However, two of my colleagues and I mounted an expedition to capture the slippery beast and published a paper in the Summer 2009 Air and Space Power Journal entitled “Managing the Human Weapon System: A Vision for an Air Force Human-Performance Doctrine.” We laid out for full public view three aspects of human performance: sustainment, optimization, and enhancement. Human performance sustainment maintains defined target performance levels throughout a career; optimization efficiently uses limited human resources through the process of Human Systems Integration (HSI); and enhancement takes the human beyond established and sustainable performance thresholds, most commonly through science and technology research.

Why, you may ask, should I care about a human performance yeti? Well, unless you have been living in a 1950s nuclear fallout shelter, you can appreciate the rapid advances in technology, from iPhone 4 to cars with integrated GPS, computers, and Bluetooth. In the military, advanced technology coupled with complex, network-centric systems places high demand on physical and cognitive resources while maintaining situational awareness. If, for example, demand has sapped a fighter pilot’s cognitive reserve, the mission may have to be aborted, or the weapon may miss the target, or, even worse, there may be nothing but a smoking hole in the ground. So it’s vital to integrate the human into systems, to define human performance capabilities in order to sustain the warrior throughout a career, and to assess them periodically to make sure they are still up to performance standards. To that end, the Military Health System plays a critical role in maintaining superior performance.

But there is a lingering problem: the military services are desperately in need of sound human performance doctrine and human performance practitioners. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the MHS paradigm must shift to one of human performance rather than a health model. Although health is a prerequisite for performance, the presence of health does not guarantee performance. We excel in caring for the wounded warrior – now we must excel in sustaining, optimizing, and enhancing the warrior. Through performance enhancement research, human systems integration, and a health system that sustains human performance, the American soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine can effectively and efficiently execute the mission.

Listen to Col. Brown discuss Human Performance Optimization on the Dot Mil Docs podcast.