The rise of the knowledge athlete

It’s 3pm and I’m at my desk, devouring a journal paper. We’re talking dense and complex, but I’m doing it as though I’m simply flicking through a fashion magazine. This is no usual afternoon. Typically my mind is wandering at this time, it gets distracted, I’d usually have to re-read sections and then decide it’s time for something sweet. So what’s new? Could it be the mitochondrial health supplement I’ve started taking? Or perhaps it was the Lions Main capsules I had this morning, or maybe that two-minute cold shower?

Whatever that magic sauce might be, a new breed of person is studying it. Experimenting on themselves not to increase productivity but rather to boost creativity. In my work as a trend forecaster and coach I’ve come across these individuals and researched their techniques. I’m not the only one who’s curious. These behaviours are catching on. 

These are the 'knowledge athletes'. Under the radar now but look across any department or specialism (not just the one labeled creative) and you might spot one. As work adapts over the next decade to become more focused on idea generation, problem solving and dealing with fast moving, novel situations, it's this individual who will be key to business success. 

A knowledge athlete has fine-tuned their daily work routine. They track the impact of body work and movement, diet, their environment, social connection and even spiritual practices on their ability to think creatively, access mental agility and enter flow states. A host of new products and services are designed to fuel the upgrade from knowledge worker to knowledge athlete. Many of these health and relaxation techniques that traditionally existed in opposition to work are now being seen as integral to it. Here’s a window into these new behaviours and why they are gaining traction now. 

Why it matters

Creativity not productivity will increasingly define the competitive edge because AI will have generative work covered. Companies will need free thinking to stand out. The World Economic Forum recently conducted a survey to determine the skills required in the future workplace. Interestingly they weren’t computer science or number crunching. AI has that covered. It’s softer skills such as ‘creativity, analytical thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership and curiosity.”

As Margaret Heffernan, five times CEO and author of Uncharted: How to map the future, told me when I interviewed her earlier this year for this piece of work with The Future Laboratory and HSBC: “Everyone thinks we’re ill-prepared for the coming technology. Certainly we’re ill-prepared for the social disruption that it can cause. But we’re very, very, unprepared for how much more imaginative companies are going to have to be to compete. The more the technology eliminates generic repetitive work, the more you need people to use that technology in a more interesting way.” 

Forces are stacked against creativity right now which makes it hard for an employee to let their imagination run free. It starts in education where standardised tests encourage students to memorise and aim for that one right answer. Singapore has made efforts to overhaul it’s education approach but most other global nations are failing, on average across OECD countries only 50% of 15-year-old students could think of original and diverse ideas in the context of simple imagination tasks or everyday problem-solving situations according to a recent Pisa Survey. Creativity is a muscle, if it’s not being practiced at school, leaders and employees will have to exercise it at work. 

Focus on work states not work places 

Mental state is key to doing your best work. Whilst the knowledge athlete has probably tried cognitive health supplements and may have dabbled in micro doses of LSD they’ve now moved onto devices like the Neurovizr which projects flashing lights onto the eyes to create a mesmerising experience said to relieve mental overload and boost focus. It’s the perfect precursor to the next team ideas session. If that session is happening in London, they’ll pop by the Dreamachine too (for the fully immersive version—similar concept but in a highly curated setting with enveloping playlist too). Said to trigger the much prized, alpha brain waves, Knowledge Athletes are well versed on the associated health benefits and their impact of alpha waves on the imagination.

Work retreats expand the mind

Future work locations and work retreat venues will offer a menu of mind expanding experiences, not as perks but as fundamental as good wifi connectivity or gender pay parity. Flussbad by Slow is an example of what the future work campus might look like. Situated in Berlin, the team describe it as ‘the healthiest possible working environment’ part of which is a subterranean temple style building to be used as a conference area. Flussbad promotes taking a break every 45-minutes inviting people to walk barefoot on the grass or trampoline for two minutes between meetings because of the direct impact this has on creativity.

Smarter about Collaboration 

During the pandemic I trained in a psychographic tool, the Smart Collaboration Accelerator, designed by a team at Harvard who spotted that whilst collaboration is often the goal, it’s hard to implement. Why? Because people are people, we have different ways of working, different strengths and behavioural traits. Some of our traits enable effective team work and others are blockers. The Knowledge athletes that I have coached have taken the Smart Collaboration assessment and brought their teams through the program, they’re noticeably comfortable talking openly about their traits and how they work best. 

Mastering relationships 

They are also working on the part of themselves that feels socially awkward. Most people experience a degree of anxiety in social situations. For many it can be managed, for others it can be crippling. The knowledge athlete is curious about nootropics to overcome this. They’re currently sipping the recently launched SENTIA Gold which is designed to help socialising—perfect for the next work social. “The drink is based on a blend of botanicals that stimulate GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), the relaxing chemical in the brain that helps you calm down. Having low GABA makes you slightly anxious and we know social conditions create anxiety,” explains, SENTIA Spirits co-founder and esteemed scientist, Professor David Nutt. Knowledge Athletes are good at giving themselves just the right dose so their GABA levels ensure they are in the sweet spot, primed for conviviality just when they need it. 

The future of work is likely to be more polywork, it’s a bit like polyamoury, but instead of multiple lovers, you’re in a relationship with more than one employer. One in five Gen Z workers globally are already engaging in poly-employment according to a new report from Deputy, The Big Shift. It takes a certain kind of person who can feel at ease across this many work relationships, able to listen and adapt to various needs and dance in the moment. The knowledge athlete isn’t necessarily a natural, they’ve trained up on it, working on their social fitness via services like the new Peoplehood @Work (incidentally from the founders of Soul Psycle), which offers virtual and face to face sessions to ‘share communication skills’ and ‘boost social wellbeing’.  

Find your why

Toxic work cultures will only go so far before there is high turnover, burnout and eventual demise. The Baidu PR fiasco earlier this year was a hard lesson on the true value of a supportive work culture. Baidu SVP Qu Jing commented on the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, that “dedicated employees should do 50 straight days of business travel, who cares about your personal life,” amongst other similar posts. Public outrage followed, Baidu lost $769 million in share value in one day and, unsurprisingly, Qu Jing lost her job. 

The personal matters when you want to find your mojo, harness your passion to do good work. Knowledge athletes have done work on themselves, they’ve looked inside and they know what their values are and as much as possible, are aligning work to them. Globally, 39% of Gen Zs and 34% of Millennials have turned down employers that do not align with their values according to Deloitte. Knowledge Workers are experimenting with alternative practices like breathwork in order to strip back to their essence and reveal what really matters to them. Acknowledging values isn’t always about taking the high moral ground, it can also be around feeling heard, having someone think about your working conditions, a boss who takes time for future career visioning with you to plot out where you want to go. 

Too much effort?

Now this might all sound like too much effort, can’t we just clock in and out as we’ve always done and deliver what’s required? If enhanced creativity is the goal then this kind of detachment won’t get you there, it might also make you unwell. 33% of women and 25% of men in a recent Gallup poll said they are almost always burned out, right now. The current model isn’t working. Generative AI will have a dramatic impact on how we work over the next ten years. 

Social media in China is popping off with reference to the bad ‘smell’ of work, ‘ban wei’, meaning work smell, refers not only to the stench after a day at the office: bad coffee, stale cigarette and that slightly cloying, sweaty smell but also to the negativity in the air that accompanies uncertainty or promises that never materialise. That dissatisfaction has a tendency to linger and slowly chip away at an employee’s sense of confidence and self-efficacy. It’s the stuff of burnout too. This is part of the reason why I’m a coach, to help people get out of that fug and find fulfilment again.

Knowledge athletes are worth watching because they have washed off that bad ‘work smell’ by training on ways to approach work with an expansive mindset. Those who can tap into joy with work find it triggers a positive feedback loop. It creates a positive sense of one’s ability, allowing easy access to meta-cognition and creative thinking, over and over again. 

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Cultural Insights expert Miriam Rayman is also an executive coach and founder of the trend consultancy, Now Then.