“When a coach says ‘You have the wrong mindset,’ that’s an excuse for not doing the job properly.”
(Richard Seidl)
Today I want to take on one of the biggest bullshit bingo words in business: mindset.
Although that already takes us to the core of the problem. Here I am, about to tell you what’s right and what’s wrong. And that’s exactly the nonsense behind it. There is no wrong mindset. Anyone who accuses their team of having one isn’t living their own values.
But let’s take it step by step. Recently, in a round of consultants and coaches at a client, an agile coach suddenly said: “My team has totally the wrong mindset. You just can’t work with them.” Ouch. That’s harsh. And it exposes two problems in our “industry”:
Problem 1: There Is No Wrong Mindset
That’s right. A mindset simply is. No more, no less. It’s neither wrong nor right. We’re all shaped by what we’ve experienced, always and everywhere. One mechanism at work here is the reality loop: we have an experience -> draw our own conclusions -> update our beliefs and so on -> look at the world through these new glasses and filters -> and have new experiences.
Loops like this one run back and forth all day long. Add feedback effects, significant emotional events and daily business on top.
And out of this whole mix comes what we call a mindset: the way we look at the world.
We can talk about whether a mindset helps in a given situation, on a project or for ourselves, or whether it gets in the way. But even here there’s no black and white. Because up to now the mindset has worked for us, otherwise we wouldn’t have it.
If we want to change it, fine. But accusing someone of having the wrong one is neither respectful nor helpful.
Problem 2: Walk the Talk
For me, the second problem is even more striking. In the agile bubble we like to present ourselves as deeply value driven: openness, feedback, tolerance, appreciation, communication, personal responsibility and so on. Put it all together and things get really nice and agile … at least as long as everything goes the way a certain coach imagines. For some, the fun stops fast when things don’t go their way. When a team doesn’t develop as planned, or when it has its own way of communicating. That’s where some coaches are done with openness, appreciation and personal responsibility.
And it ends with “You have the wrong mindset.” To me, there’s too much dogma behind that, and none of it is agile. Because in agile, there’s no “this is the right way.”
Disclaimer: Of course there are plenty of other coaches, and I don’t exclude myself from falling into the trap of complacency. It’s a problem all of us in coaching and consulting share. We should keep reminding ourselves that wherever there are people, things get human.
How to Change a Mindset
There’s no quick fix, of course. In the end, changing a mindset comes down to a very individual process:
- Get an impulse
- Try something out
- Have an experience and evaluate it
- Learn and integrate (or not)
And that takes time. In my experience, the focus lies on steps 2 and 3: trying things out and having experiences. And we do far too little of that. We talk and talk in dailies, retros, meetings and workshops, run how-is-everyone-feeling rounds, assessments and interviews. We’re busy, but we don’t actually DO anything. And that leads to stagnation.
Put people at the center instead of methods and frameworks, with all their sensitivities, fears and wishes. In my view, that’s what makes agile work.
But that’s just my truth ;-)
