Andrew Hurt: The Importance of Mindset in the VUCA World

Andrew Hurt, who runs Gazing Middle East, built a long corporate career at Xerox, where he took the business from $24 million to $67 million in three years and won Distributor of the Year. Today he uses Red2Blue across the Middle East with corporate leadership teams, sales organisations, schools and elite young athletes, from Olympic-pathway swimmers to a promising young golfer and an aspiring young footballer.

Structures, skills, mindset

Andrew's interest in mindset began at an early age. "Most of what I learned in terms of resilience and performance was in my formative years, growing up, and going through school and then university," he says.

Long before he came across Red2Blue by name, Andrew was already thinking in terms of ‘structure, skills and mindset,’ the core components behind Red2Blue. “That's what we were essentially working on,” he says of his years leading sales teams at Xerox. “It was a component of performance and continual performance improvement.”

He ran the business built around a single priority plan, with five direct reports each owning one of the business's priorities. "That would be the document we would review each month, mid-month and end of month, to support performance," he explains.

The shared language of Red2Blue 

The Red2Blue language changed how his teams ran meetings. "When there's a lot of chat at the beginning of a meeting, using Red2Blue language ensures people know and understand why they're at the meeting, what the objectives are, and what outcomes are being looked for," he explains. "Rather than half-day meetings, ours would run for only an hour or so, because we had much better cadence." 

The same clarity, he says, sharpened the sales force's forecasting accuracy. The results speak for themselves: under his leadership the business grew from $24 million to $67 million in three years, and his team won Distributor of the Year across the whole of the Xerox world.

From boardrooms to the blocks 

Today Andrew works across a broad range of clients: corporate leadership teams, sales organisations, schools, sports academies and with individual elite athletes.

He has been working with a high performance swimming academy implementing their Red2Blue programme for two years. He has also rolled out Red2Blue out across the oldest and largest KD to Grade 13 education provider in the world. Andrew also coaches young athletes one-to-one, including a rising junior golfer, and an aspiring young footballer. 

It’s the practical shifts he sees that keep Andrew motivated. He cites the example of a student who had a complete loss of control just before an exam. "Using Red2Blue, in the space of a couple of minutes, that person was back on task, ready to focus on going into the exam to do their best." At the swimming academy, swimmers use the framework on the blocks when their mind starts to wander to bring themselves back to focus.

Andrew's favourite example of Red2Blue in action is with one of his young golfers, Immy Hall, who uses three words in her head to reset and take her mind off the score and back to the process: Relaxed; Focused and Confident.

"The important thing about understanding that skill is that it has to be personal," he says. "It has to be something that works for the individual, and something they can practise and use at different times."

Pressure in the VUCA world

What's changed recently in how Andrew’s clients are using Red2Blue, is the sheer weight of uncertainty many businesses are operating under. "We're dealing with pressures now that go beyond the standard scrutiny, expectation and consequences pressures. We're dealing with the whole VUCA world.” 

"The people who are using Red2Blue well, are the ones asking the question: ‘What is it that we can control? Where should we put our attention?’ For me, that's the most powerful part of Red2Blue: control of attention, being present, being in the moment. It's a skill. Even I still have to remind myself to be present, and that comes down to what are the two or three things I can do differently today to move performance forward."

That's led Andrew to reframe how he talks about Red2Blue with corporate clients. "It’s not just about using Red2Blue to support performance, but about the cost of pressure if leaders aren't dealing with it properly," he says. "Leaders are the broadcasters of strategy. It doesn't matter what's written on the walls or in the strategy plan; if leaders are under pressure and making poor decisions, that message delivers itself throughout the whole organisation." 

He cites a Gallop workforce engagement report that shows that stress affects between 48-52% of workers across the MENA region. "If we're using Red2Blue to make sure our people aren't coming in angry and stressed, but feeling good, that changes the whole conversation. In business, it's simple: if you feel better, you do better."

Why Red2Blue?

The reason Andrew recommends Red2Blue over any other mindset or performance programme is its ease of use in any situation. "It's simple. It's a framework, a language and a toolset that allows you to develop mindset as a skill," he says. "Simplicity is sometimes seen as a weakness, but it's also what makes it a toolset you can keep coming back to, to reinforce mindset as a skill." 

Giving back to the next generation

Andrew is particularly keen to support the younger generation. "I think what we need to be giving them is the tools to support the challenges they have, and that's where Red2Blue is so important. The biggest success for me has been getting into schools, and organisations like the swimming academy, teaching swimmers from the learning pool right through to the Olympic podium. Looking at mindset to support young people, and their resilience, matters enormously."

A committed Nottingham Forest fan, Andrew borrows one of his favourite lines from Brian Clough, who, when asked how his side had won the European Cup, simply replied: "We were very good. It's as simple as that." It's become something of a strapline for Andrew's own business. "Helping people to be very good, whatever they want to be good at," he says. "And that links to the simplicity of Red2Blue as well."

To find out more about the work Andrew does at Gazing Middle East click here. To learn more about Red2Blue click here. If you're interested in becoming a partner or you have any questions get in touch!