Time to Adjust Your Work Mindset
April 12, 2006 — -- This week we are going to talk about the "mindset" you bring to work each day. It might be more crucial than you think.
What is the context that you bring to work each day? What's your personal way of seeing the world that influences your problem-solving and decision-making at work? I think a worker's mindset is one of the most important, and least talked about, issues in today's workplace.
Why? Because I think most of us go to work each day with the wrong mindset. To fix that, it's best to understand the different types of attitudes and think how they might affect you at work.
Here are the five most common mindset "M's" that I see in today's workplace, along with a few of the problems that are associated with each.
1. MOTIVATION. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is the landmark title from Dale Carnegie that says everything you really need to know about motivational management. Carnegie was a master salesman who created the fundamental techniques of handling people (don't criticize, condemn or complain; give honest and sincere appreciation and arouse in the other person an eager want). Unfortunately, what is pure gold in the hands of a master like Carnegie is often distinctly unmotivating in the hands of a novice.
2. MILITARY. Max Weber believed that the most efficient way to get a job done was through a rule-driven, impersonal bureaucracy. His most influential book title tells you everything you need to know about his world view -- "The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." It's easy to make fun of Weber's rules. But look around your workplace and you'll see that the only thing more resilient than a cockroach is a bureaucracy. Ironically, even the U.S. military is encouraging the troops to show more creativity and initiative these days.
3. MACHINE. This is one of the most popular ways to look at work. With proper fuel and maintenance, work will work like… well… a machine. The "father" of the machine mindset at work is Frederick Taylor. For example, he broke down the process to make Ford's Model T into 7,882 steps. He then determined that of these steps, 715 could be done by men with one arm and 10 by blind men. The only problem is that Taylor's world really has no place for creativity or intelligence. Oops.
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