The Iconic Seth Godin shared threads of ‘gold’ yesterday in his blog, on what often goes wrong when we have our assumptions challenged; when we shut down contributions and feedback from others. How we loose. How everybody looses. 

How we respond to being challenged can be a block to how we grow, and the depth of our contribution to whatever we’re working on.  

One antidote is to acknowledge why we do this, and lean into the ‘Growth Mindset.’; the belief that you can cultivate and improve upon your abilities through practice and effort.

Inevitably this  involves stepping out of our our habitual ways of doing things and into the growth and stretch zone.  For you that might mean facing an underlying lack of confidence, or fear of loosing control. For me it’s both of those…and more.  

The mindsets I’m continually practicing and we explore with students in our Engagement Academy Programe, definitely help me to step into the stretch and growth zone.

It’s hard work to remind yourself to practice these mindsets; yet it rescues us us from our siloed thinking; flipping us into the infinite potential of collective creativity. 

We win. Everyone wins, buys in, gets behind us and becomes part of the story. 

Here are some the students and I have found invaluable:

• Lean into a mindset of exploration and experimentation;

• Focus on human values and the value of diverse perspectives to see things differently and learn. 

• Create a culture where everyone’s ideas count; Seek out processes for creative collaboration and contribution.

• Don’t fall in love with your first idea or solution or an idea you haven’t shared for feedback. Breakthrough ideas take time, many iterations, many  brains and sparks, disruption; moments of serendipity. 

• Show many incomplete ideas for feedback and input.
  
• Encourage assumption storming as the norm to craft clarity and unlock new thinking. 
  
• Embrace a culture of reflection and feedback for generous community learning. 

• Embrace challenge and failure as an opportunity to learn. ‘Do it, reflect, do it better’

• Be authentic and open … ‘I hadn’t seen it that way…that’s interesting… let me reflect…tell me more…

• Use ‘Yes! And’ (Yes! And building on that..) instead or ‘No but…’, which shuts down exploration and new possibilities… 

The days it doesn’t go well. I reflect. Self awareness and how you impact on others is so key.

People appreciate your honesty and authenticity when you share your gremlins and challenges. We’re human. We lead through being human.

Building a better future takes many brains. Innovation is a team sport. 

Unfortunately our education system primes us largely to work alone; to get it right first time, then flog ourselves if we don’t come first. (Or get ‘ a first’ for those at university.) We focus on performance and perfection, rather than collective potential.

I’m practicing too. Personal change is hard. it’s what the real work is…challenging your assumptions about yourself, your process and your interdependence with others, to make truly amazing things happen. 

It’s an age where we urgently need to learn together, to draw on everyone’s little spark of genius for collaborative action across business, education and civil society.

Self awareness, a growth mindset and our willingness to be challenged on assumptions will probably be our biggest contribution to the breakthrough thinking, ideas, products and services that make a difference and sustainable change.

We’re all a ‘Work in Progress.’ 

As my mentor and friend @meganmacedo says. ‘Keep doing your work.’

Curious to explore…?

Mindset ‘Nudger’ for your fridge door here

Growth Mindset brainfood here. https://www.mindsetworks.com/science/Impact

Lancaster University Students can lean into these mindsets at the Engagement Academy here https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-in-progress/engagement-academy/

Seth’s blog ‘Defensive/Offensive/Actual’ below. His posts are short than mine; which are a process of sense-making. His are pure, nimble wisdom.
https://seths.blog/2022/01/defensive-offensive-actual/