Ep 142: Human Durability
“He was still standing in direct line of fire when he was risking his life to save mine. Bullets are whizzing around us, but he stabilised me in 10 minutes in the brick line of fire. And in the analysis afterwards, he says he doesn't know how my heart didn't stop. All the textbooks say it should have stopped. The only reason he believed that it didn't stop, was because I had never read those textbooks.”
TIME STAMP SUMMARY
01:43 Getting shot 14 times
04:49 Human durability
15:29 The 5-phase model on human durability
19:01 Avoiding burnout
Where to find Derrick McManus?
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/derrickmcmanus
Website https://www.derrickmcmanus.com/
Who is Derrick McManus?
Derrick McManus was a South Australian Police officer operating in the elite Special Tasks And Rescue (STAR) Group. He held specialist skills as a sniper, diver and was trained by the military elite Special Air Services Regiment (SAS) in counter-terrorist tactics. This is a physically, mentally and emotionally demanding environment. It is an extreme, potentially overwhelming, VUCA environment in every way.
Derrick’s team had been tasked to arrest a high-risk offender. He was obviously not very keen on being arrested. He fired 18 times in less than 5 seconds and hit Derrick 14 times. Derrick was then lying on the ground bleeding for 3 hours prior to his rescue. It was also anticipated that Derrick would suffer massive post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and be in psychological therapy for decades after such a massive traumatic event.
Three months after the shooting, Derrick had a single appointment with the Director of the Adelaide Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies – an international expert in traumatic stress. Derrick defied all odds and amazed everyone when he was immediately psychologically cleared to go back to full duties with the elite STAR Group (obviously his physical injuries took much longer).
Derrick had proactively prepared himself physically, mentally, AND emotionally for the challenges he could expect as a result of the choices he had made. He took responsibility for his actions and for all possible consequences. This format has been developed into the model for Human Durability and forms the basis of the philosophies within the Australian Centre for Human Durability.
Derrick has been a speaker and trainer on the international speaking circuit for the past 20 years. He’s presented to audiences of 7 people to 4000 people, 5-year-old students to staff/team leaders to executives/CEO’s through to retirees. Derrick provides the insights and the tools to go beyond resilience to durability and create sustained optimum performance. He will show you how to create greater success for your people, leaders, and the organization.
