Reprinted in this month’s issue of Harvard Business Review, and originally published in that publication’s November 2005 issue.

An interview with Dr. Benson by Bronwyn Fryer

Managers apply pressure to themselves and their teams in the belief that it will make them more productive. After all, stress is an intrinsic part of work and a critical element of achievement; without a certain amount of it, we would never perform at all.

Yet the dangers of burnout are real. Studies cited by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) indicate that some 40% of all workers today feel overworked, pressured, and squeezed to the point of anxiety, depression, and disease. And the problem is getting worse, thanks to intensified competition, rapid market changes, and an unending stream of terrible news about natural disasters, terrorism, and the state of the economy. The cost to employers is appalling: Corporate health insurance premiums in the United States shot up by 11.2% in 2004—quadruple the rate of inflation—according to survey figures from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Today, the American Institute of Stress reports, roughly 60% of doctor visits stem from stress-related complaints and illnesses: In total, American businesses lose $300 billion annually to lowered productivity, absenteeism, health-care, and related costs stemming from stress.

So the question is: When does stress help and when does it hurt? To find out, HBR senior editor Bronwyn Fryer talked with Herbert Benson, M.D., founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Benson has spent more than 35 years conducting research in the fields of neuroscience and stress. He is best known for his 1975 bestseller, The Relaxation Response. He first described a technique to bring forth the complex physiologic dance between stress and relaxation, and the benefits to managers of practices such as meditation, in “Your Innate Asset for Combating Stress” (HBR July–August 1974). His most recent book is The Breakout Principle (Scribner, 2003) with William Proctor.

Benson and Proctor have found that managers can learn to use stress productively by applying the “breakout principle”—a paradoxical active-passive dynamic. By using simple techniques to regulate the amounts of stress one feels, a manager can increase performance and productivity and avoid burnout. In this edited conversation, Benson describes how managers can tap into their own creative insights, boost their productivity at work, and assist their teams to do the same. He is quick to acknowledge the large part Proctor’s thinking has played in the ideas he discusses here.

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