Red2Blue CEO Martin Fairn talked to The Guardian's football reporter, Rob Draper, about why 'outcome pressure' limits our ability to think clearly - and why now is the time for Arsenal to Zoom Out.
With the Premier League title race reaching its decisive stage, an article by The Guardian’s Rob Draper examined why “a slick, relaxed Manchester City seem to be relishing chasing down Arsenal, while their opponents, burdened by legacy and history, have stumbled and look uninspired.”
With the Premier League title race reaching its decisive stage, an article by The Guardian’s Rob Draper examined why “a slick, relaxed Manchester City seem to be relishing chasing down Arsenal, while their opponents, burdened by legacy and history, have stumbled and look uninspired.”
The piece draws on Kahneman and Tversky's Nobel prize-winning Prospect Theory to explain why teams in the lead often become paralysed by what they stand to lose. To understand what's happening to Arsenal, Draper interviewed Gazing Red2Blue CEO Martin Fairn.
Drawing on Gazing Red2Blue's experience working with the British Army, Martin explains the concept of ‘outcome pressure’ and how decision-making deteriorates the closer you get to the objective: "One hour in, it all feels pretty relaxed. As they go through the night and get closer to the enemy, there's more jeopardy and decisions are harder.
“The question is, how heavy does the context and the associated pressure weigh on your shoulders? And are you diverted and not able to think clearly, or are you able to maintain agile thinking?“
Martin goes on to explain what outcome pressure does to a team psychologically: “Outcome pressure limits our ability to think clearly. Either you over-engage – ‘we have to fight to win, to save our lives’ – which can flip over into frantic stupidity, or there’s passivity, where you just freeze and people disappear. They’re playing but they’re off the pitch. You start to just feel the weight of being in the lead. And that’s exactly what’s happening with Arsenal now. It gets called choking and various things like that. It just means you feel the weight of being favourites because you’re closer and closer.”
The solution, Martin says, is not to ignore the significance of the moment but to reframe attention entirely: "The Zoom Out moment says we are not where we are by mistake. We're at the top of the league because we've competed and delivered results consistently through the season." It is precisely this kind of agile, present-focused thinking that Red2Blue mindset training develops – and precisely what Arsenal, right now, appear to be missing.
Read the full article in The Guardian here.
Read the full article in The Guardian here.
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