Inside the Arena: Building a Culture of Performance on the Front Lines | AFN Fireside Chat with Arena Labs

In this powerful AFN Fireside Chat, Matt Sitter (CEO of AFN) is joined by Brian Ferguson, Founder & CEO of Arena Labs, and Jackie Pen, Head of Clinical Performance, to explore how we can reimagine frontline healthcare through the lens of high performance, data, and human resilience.

Arena Labs is pioneering what they call High Performance Medicine—equipping clinicians with the same science-backed tools traditionally used in elite fields like athletics, the military, and the performing arts. The goal? Not just to prevent burnout, but to help clinicians flourish.

Key Insights from the Conversation:

🔹 Why Healthcare Needs Performance Tools

Brian poses a provocative question: Why don’t we give doctors and nurses the same coaching and recovery training as elite athletes or military leaders? The stakes are just as high—yet medicine has long ignored stress science and recovery strategies. Arena Labs aims to fix that.

🔹 Personalized, Asynchronous Coaching at Scale

Jackie explains how Arena's platform meets clinicians where they are—delivering bite-sized, data-driven coaching in the flow of their day. With wearable tech and smart messaging, coaching is no longer a luxury for the few but a scalable solution for many.

🔹 Predictive Performance vs. Reactive Fixes

Brian and Jackie emphasize that burnout is not about weakness—it’s about systems that demand everything. Arena’s tools don’t just measure stress—they use biometric and psychological data to predict and prevent it, helping institutions reduce medical error while improving ROI.

🔹 Culture Change Through Conversation

What happens when 200+ clinicians in a system start openly discussing recovery, sleep, and well-being? Jackie shares how large cohorts are shifting team culture—not through mandates, but through shared language and normalized performance conversations.

🔹 Behavior Change Is Subtractive, Not Additive

Both speakers highlight that meaningful change often starts by removing friction rather than adding complexity. Jackie emphasizes the importance of small, personalized wins, while Brian describes how even an 8-week intervention can create lasting performance impact.

🔹 The Power of Data Without Surveillance

Arena protects clinician privacy while giving hospitals de-identified insights into team performance. As Brian puts it, “We’re operationalizing physiology.” From shift lengths to staffing models, Arena’s data illuminates human systems that were previously invisible.

This session is a must-watch for:

• Healthcare leaders and clinicians navigating burnout

• Executives seeking culture transformation through performance

• Coaches, educators, and technologists interested in behavior change at scale

• Anyone passionate about building human-centered systems

  
  

🎧 Watch the full conversation and explore how high performance is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.

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