Today, GCC launches the biggest event in its 12-year history – almost 400,000 participants from 1,500 organisations in 185 countries are set to participate this year. But how – and why – did the world’s most engaging health and performance program start…?

Herb Elliott was once among the fastest human beings on earth. An Australian Olympian, he was lightning on the Running track and broke two world records in two different events – including a sub-four-minute mile.

So it was an uncharacteristically still moment that inspired the mission that got the world moving; a conversation over a cup of tea.

Founder and President of GCC, Glenn Riseley recalls, “We were drinking tea and I commented that Australia seems to punch above its weight when it comes to athletes.

“Herb said, ‘You’d think that. But the miniscule number of people who represent our athletes in the world is one thing; our broader population is not replicating that in any way’.

“Then he said something I’ll never forget:

‘We are only one generation away from not being able to field a globally competitive workforce’.”

Glenn says this comment stunned him. The thought hung in the air for a minute. And then the running legend quietly said, “You’re an ideas man – go fix it”.

The mission begins.

This was the catalyst that sent Glenn on a quest.

“I started attending conferences and Expert after expert was talking about the problem: the epidemic of diabetes; that heart disease is the Biggest killer; that sedentary lives are taking over from smoking as the biggest cause of death.

“Everyone was yelling “FIRE!” but no one thought to go get a bucket of water.”

At the time, Glenn was running an advertising agency so he and partner John Hillier pooled the talents of their creative team and came up with some ideas.

“We knew we had to bring things to life and make it interesting if we wanted to engage people. You can’t bore people into change; you have to excite them into change.”

The biggest barrier, he said, was people had lost belief in themselves.

“I was talking to people who were unhealthy, overweight and leading lives that had put them in poor physical, mental and social shape, and it became clear we needed to work on changing their perception of themselves,” he said.

“A common theme was that these people didn’t believe they could be healthy or do what was necessary to be healthy. They had stopped believing in themselves. Most of them had stopped moving.

“Talking to relevant experts, the thing I figured out was that if we could get people focused on one central thing it was to get people to move.”

From this seedling of an idea sprouted the simple yet engaging concept that became the GCC.

Trial by fire

Glenn said the real test of the GCC concept was taking it to some of the country’s biggest employers.

“The minute I stepped into their offices. They instantly got it,” he said.

“Business gets a bad rap. But in many ways GCC is a business that’s been Built by business and it’s been built off the back of CEOs who say, ‘People are our biggest asset’ and they stand by it and do something about it.

“So we rolled the dice, built the web site and developed a scientific Program. We didn’t really know if it would work but we got 2,500 people in the first year.”

Twelve years on, the GCC has changed the lives of more than 2 million people in 185 countries. It continues growing every year as part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Not bad for an idea that started over a humble cup of tea with an Aussie legend.

If you missed GCC's May 25 event, it’s not too late to register for September

Other popular posts...