“It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ."
- Sir Rodger Bannister
Why ThreeFifty9?
On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister broke through the four-minute barrier at an astonishing three minutes, fifty-nine and four-tenths of a second. Runners had been chasing the goal for nearly 70 years! The elusive four minutes had always beaten them.
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However, 46 days after Bannister's success, John Landy, an Australian runner, broke the barrier again, in 3 minutes 58 seconds. Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier, and the tide began to change. Today over a thousand runners have conquered the challenge.
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Two Wharton School professors researched the learnings of the four-minute mile and its application to business. In their book, 'The Power of Impossible Thinking', Yoram Wind and Colin Crook, assessed Bannister's achievement and emphasised the mindset behind exceeding the goal rather than the physical achievement.
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They acknowledged that so many runners smashed the four-minute barrier after Bannister, there wasn't a sudden growth spurt in human evolution, no specialist engineering creating a new race of super runners. What changed was the mental model.
Bannister made the impossible possible; it changed mindsets and challenged limiting beliefs.
That's what we do at Threefifty9. We help clients focus on their mental game, share innovative people solutions, and embrace the challenge. We work collaboratively with you, drawing on our combined skills, experiences and strengths to create transformational changes in performance.