Every organisation has a dominant mindset, a mental attitude, that impacts every aspect of it. This mindset determines how an organisation and its people interpret and respond to different situations – and so at times of change, its significance should not be underestimated.
If the dominant mindset has been forged during difficult or uncertain times, when the workforce feels apathy, negativity or trepidation, it can derail even the most sophisticated and meticulously planned of transformation projects.
Identifying the mindset of your organisation and making efforts to shift it is, then, critical to the success or failure of any change programme.
Mindset as a point of leverage
Renowned scientist and systems analyst Donella Meadows famously observed that there are places within every complex system (be it a business, a city or an economy) where “a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything”.
Meadows, whose own research focused on the environmental limits to economic growth, proposed a scale of places to intervene in a system, ranked from least to most effective. At the top – the point where a small shift can make the greatest change – Meadows put “the mindset or paradigm out of which the system arises”.
Taking control of your business’s mindset – in other words, intervening at the most effective point of leverage – can both help support and sustain your transformation programme and have positive outcomes that extend far beyond it.
Drift or drive?
At Ludic, we have defined two directions in which the mindset of a business can travel: either drifting towards stagnation and decline or driving towards new possibilities.
Changing gears
Ludic’s cloud-based consulting, learning and engagement methods and tools focus on making the most of the opportunities offered by the digital realm to help organisations turn drift to drive. Our research and experience in this area have identified four main points of influence where you can make small changes and see big differences:
1. Role model leaders Choosing and developing leaders who exhibit the qualities, ways of working and mindset you wish to promote.
2. Motivating narratives Harnessing the power of storytelling to shape the dominant mindset and engage your people.
3. Generative models Exploring new ways of injecting skills and abilities into your workforce.
4. Recognition and reinforcement Clarifying how individuals’ work contributes to organisational goals and rewarding desired behaviours.
Find out more about how Ludic’s next-generation consulting solutions can help your business shift its dominant mindset from drift to drive, dramatically improving performance and rebuilding trust and credibility.
