Ahead of a talk in Auckland, neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman talks about translating what he learned in Formula One and All Black Rugby into everyday advice - including an online audit. Plus, his Einstein movie in the works.
As a young Auckland University applied mathematics grad, Kerry Spackman (now 57) helped to develop new electronic measuring equipment for precisely monitoring a car's performance.
The legend goes that he and colleagues had burned through around $1 million developing their product when Spackman traveled to the US to pitch it to Ford executives.
Three-times Formula One champion Jackie Stewart happened to be visiting the company at the same time. Stewart asked Spackman if he could solve a tricky problem with a car's telemetry data that was baffling his team. The New Zealander could and over the next few years he high-tech testing for F1 teams including Stewart Grand Prix and Jaguar (the team that became Infiniti Red Bull Racing).
Spackman worked on optimising cars for each Formula One circuit - work that took him visiting the RAF and Nasa as sought the best way to model the complex aerodynamics of F1 cars.
Along the way, he became fascinated with the "man-machine interface"; how drivers brains worked in the high pressure, high speed racing environment. He gained a PhD in neuroscience, studying how the brain computes and measures distance.
But ultimately, it's been in sports psychology where Spackman's gained the most profile, notably in being contracted to hel gee up the All Blacks, and support staff, after the team was knocked out of the 2007 World Cup through to its 2011 victory.
It happened by accident, he tells NBR. During his Formula One days, a driver - whom he won't name - came to him and said he was having a crisis of confidence. "I’ve read through any self-help books and none work," Spackman recounts the drive saying. The Aucklander plowed through the literature, too, and it full of what he calls snake oil an repackaged ideas. He set about creating his own manual of psychological tools and techniques that could help the driver, and gave it to him as a printout. It did the trick, Spackman says - and the driver told him he should publish it. That book became Spackman's The Winner's Bible: Rewire Your Brain for Permanent Change, published by HarperCollins in 2009.
"So many self-help books focus on rules, like The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; I’m more about tools than rules," he says.
Today, Spackman spends around half his time at AUT University's Millennium Sport Institute, where he continues to advise high-performance athletes, including current All Blacks.
A lot of the rest of his time spent in the UK, where he's working to get an Einstein biopic off the ground. Spackman wrote the script, which covers the years 1905 to 1921, in part against the background of World War I.
Spackman - not a man to do things by halves - describes it as the Shawshank Redemption meets Dr Zhivago. An A-list UK studio and a top producer are interested in the project he says, and local investors have come onboard.
And the balance of the neuroscientists time is spent on The Winners Bible, and related work.
He can charge up to $10,000 a day to advise top sports stars or celebrities. On March 22 he's giving an all-day seminar at AUT University, for the (relatively) more accessible price of $370. The theme is is "Business lessons from Formula One,'' and Spackman tells NBR the all-day format will include personalised advise for participants - or specfic problems with their companies.
"There's no other business as competitive as Formula One. It's like having an annual review every fortnight," he says.
And for those in the cheap seats, Spackman is offering an online audit. The service is free to sign up to via his TheWinnersBible.com website. The concept is simple, but effective, he says. You invite friends and colleagues to leave constructive criticism, which is then summarised into an anonymous report - which costs $9 to access. Spackman says people, who often cling to outdated comments made about them by teachers or family years ago, typically learn something surprising about themselves - such as a recent participant who was unaware they constantly cut people off in conversation. "She was shocked," he says. "Socially, her life totally changed." Sometimes simple, low tech feedback is all you need to make a difference.
