Making Your Mind-set More Flexible

ByABC News
April 18, 2006, 2:11 PM

April 19, 2006 — -- Last week I discussed the top mind-sets that we bring to work. For those of you who like things defined, here goes -- mind-set is "a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you interpret and respond to situations."

Most of us bring some habits to work regularly. After doing a lot of interviews and research, I came up with five. What I like to call the Five Ms: machine, military, motivation, measurement and entrepreneurship. OK, that last one is not an "M" word. I put it in because that is one of the problems with mind-sets -- they tend to lock us in to a limited way of viewing the world.

According to your votes, the mind-set that you most often bring to work is machine. Thirty-five percent of you chose it. Next was military, with 27 percent, followed by motivation, the choice of 17 percent. Measurement (15 percent) and entrepreneurship (6 percent) filled the fourth and fifth slots.

Each of these mind-sets served a purpose at one time. The problem is that they tend to live on long past the point at which they continue to provide value. Take the top response, machine. A smooth-running machine is a very effective metaphor for running a business. The problem? Machines don't do so well when it comes to creativity and initiative. And those are two things that most businesses can't do without today.

In addition, all the mind-sets share two basic problems. First, they tend to struggle when it comes to handling complexity. A new competitor, a worker shortage or a lawsuit against your company aren't things that any of the "five Ms" can really cope with. The problem is that today's workplace is all about complexity.

But there is an even bigger problem -- control. All these mind-sets do best when there is a heavy hand running the show. And that heavy hand may have helped make the trains run on time 60 years ago, but today many businesses are starting to realize that the brains of their people are a terrible thing to waste. So rather than trying to produce a certain result from people, more organizations realize hey have to create a place where the best efforts can flow out of people.