Tweddle Group Outward Mindset

Beautiful expression of what an "inward mindset" can do.

'Walk a mile in their shoes' - a very compassion attitude towards others. Thank you for posting article, Joe!

"Researchers have built an artificial neuron"

Joel Peterson, a Robert L. Joss Consulting Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business implies that the reason many leadership attempts eventually fail can be attributed to a lack of trust. "Trust is more powerful than power itself," he remarked in a recent article. Thus whether your title is CEO, HR Director, or Sales Manager, your power as a leader does not lie in the position itself, but in your ability to build trust with those around you.

Great article, Joe! Key lesson - "As you strive to value one another and hold each other accountable, the trust you gain will enable unlimited space for innovation, collaboration, and success as a leader."

A genuine dialogue process is one in which people have significantly reduced their propensity to carry hidden baggage. Groups composed of such people create both a shared meaning and a common purpose, and their attitude toward each other is one of mutual respect and service. They communicate clearly because they live clearly; without blame and self-protection, they have the simple desire to help one another in achieving their common goal. When that is their way of being toward each other, productive dialogue always follows.

The Leadership Team of Spandex, the European subsidiary of an American multinational company, had become highly dysfunctional. Team members had become preoccupied with internal politics, had stopped listening to each other, and had become dishonest in their work with one another. According to Spandex President Rod Larson, things deteriorated to the point that the team became totally unproductive, leading to an inability to capitalize on business opportunities or solve organizational problems.

Arbinger's new way of speaking about this same phenomenon-inward and outward mindset-illustrates the same principles. An inward mindset describes a mentality wherein the individual is focused solely on him or herself. Again, akin to being in the box, from an inward mindset others don't matter like I do. We are cut off from and closed to their needs and challenges-their humanity. An outward mindset describes a mentality wherein the individual is focused on collective success and wellbeing. A person with an outward mindset is aware of and alive to the needs, concerns and objectives of others and understands that their needs, concerns and objectives matter.

Here is the Arbinger webinar library.

How well do you take correction?

Think your organization is in tip-top shape? "There's a saying that people don't need a doctor until they're sick," said Sam Whitney, one of the brains behind the Mindset Audit. "One of the problems with an inward mindset is that you don't know you have it. We wanted to develop a tool that could expose organizational mindset really quickly, and would allow people to walk away with an analysis of their score as well as suggestions for moving forward. As soon as you start to see those weak points, you begin to question the virtue of your organization's effectiveness, and that in turn causes you to question your place, and your part in that organizational breakdown. You're revealing a foundational mindset, and bypassing a lot of the common barriers by getting to the core of organizational issues."

Some basics.

But there really is a way to conflict-free collaboration in our individual work lives-that is to say, an environment where individuals feel free to vigorously debate and challenge ideas, rather than "go along to get along." We typically think our ability to work without conflict depends on how others treat us, but Arbinger's work suggests something different: our ability to cut through conflict depends on how we see others. The structure, the nature of real collaboration, is the same at home, at work, or in our communities. And it all begins with mindset.

An outward mindset, however, focuses on being accountable and helping others achieve their goals and to the entire organisation (OUR results), seeing others as "people". This mindset promotes an attitude where the individual is focusing on collective success and the well-being of others by being helpful, responsible, and makes a real impact on the team effort.