In collaboration with the HR team of a large IT service provider, this chapter relates to a study of fifty individuals who have been identified as high performers by their employer and the search for indicators and patterns of sustainable high performance.

The research design consisted of initial interviews at a virtual day, attendance of 2.5-day off-site coaching workshops and up to 60-minute follow-up interviews. During the workshop days, 24-hour heart rate variability (HRV) measurements were collected – a well-established biomarker of well-being, strain and recovery. As HRV data are difficult to analyze without contextual information, interviews, focus-group sessions, participatory observation and debriefing interviews were combined in order to contextualize the quantitative measurements and involve the participants in the interpretation and sense-making of the findings.

The methodological goal of this chapter is to demonstrate how orchestrating, improvising and performing a mixed-method study has been essential to validate, augment and complement quantitative data. The study results depend on the ability of the researchers to skilfully and empathetically engage with the interviewees and to engage them as participants in the interpretation of their data and thus as co-producers of meaning.