I’m delighted to speak to Prof Elaine Fox this week. Elaine is the Head of School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide. Prior to that Elaine was at The University of Oxford for 12 years where, up until very recently, she ran a research lab and team. Elaine’s background is in cognitive psychology. More recently she has undertaken research around emotion, specifically how we react to different situations, as well as in mental health research.  She is also director of her company Oxford Elite Performance which she co-founded with her husband to utilise scientific research in psychology and cognitive science in order to optimise high performance in sport, the military, and business.

Drawing on her 25 years of scientific research, Elaine has just released her brilliant new book “Switchcraft: Harnessing the Power of Mental Agility to Transform Your Life” in which she shares her step-by-step guide to what she calls ‘Switchcraft’: the set of skills we need to navigate a complex and uncertain world.

In her work coaching top athletes, military leaders and business professionals, she has seen that it’s the people who know how and when to switch between different approaches – people who have an agile mind – who achieve the best performance.