You got to be focused on what you are doing when you possibly could have a fist or foot coming at you.  We spar and do walkthroughs with partners which improve our techniques.  A co-worker does ju-jitsu which is a lot more contact than we have.  You have to be focused on your task and evaluate your openings to maximize your techniques when sparring.

In business, you do the exact same thing.  Focus on your project and watch for openings where you could drastically improve tasks.   When we get new business in, we may be working with people who have lost the work.  This puts a very high stress level on the working relationship including times when the people you are working with will be laid off due to the loss of the business.

From our side, we focus on the work and watch for any way to improve our work on our side based upon how they are willing to give us the data.  We must succeed and work in a way the client needs us too due to we will have a relationship with them for years to come.