by Norman Halls, contributor
Of all the mental tools we have that may help us perform better; our mindset about our abilities may be one we pay less attention to. In decision theory and general systems theory, a mindset is a set of assumptions, methods, or notations held by one or more people or groups of people, one which does not allow for new situations. It’s our inclinations or beliefs about a host of things such as our belief in our abilities. It’s difficult to outsmart your mindset. “So it’s important to raise your awareness of your mindset. This can help you understand the impact it might have on your actions, so that you can start changing your mindset if you so choose. We differ in our beliefs about our abilities. Some people believe that their abilities are malleable, others believe they’re fixed.” wrote Carol Dweck, Stanford University psychologist. Cultivating a growth mindset may help you focus more on your desired goals. It may influence your motivation and could make you more readily able to see opportunities to learn and grow your abilities.
Having a growth mindset means that you believe your qualities, skills and traits can be changed. You believe that experience and practice count for a lot more than your heredity. You might think about all the things you’ve learned during your life – and all the times you’ve started off as a total beginner only to become really good at something. In the growth mindset, you stop worrying so much about failure. “Success” means that you learned something – even if the outcome wasn’t perfect. You want to be better at business, so you take risks and try something new. Not everything you do succeeds and sometimes you lose a bit of money – but you quickly learn what does and doesn’t work. The growth mindset isn’t about positive thinking or kidding yourself. It’s recognition of how the brain really works – how new connections are being made all the time, new pathways forged, new memories stored. It means understanding that people aren’t born as great athletes or musicians or business gurus – they become that way through constantly challenging themselves to go a step further.” By Carol Dweck, Stanford
The workplace has changed significantly over the last half-century due to information technologies, mainly due to automation of existing processes. Accounting systems are a necessity, while lean and six sigma are driving improvement. What will be the cost of such change and what can be done to prepare for it? Business will no longer be thought of as operating as usual. A focus will be placed on both the speed at which information can be passed through the organization and the importance of that information. Systems will be developed to increase the rate at which information passes, while the importance of information will become the deciding factor in the marketplace. In order to remain competitive, organizations will need to incorporate more information technology while developing a greater understanding of the importance of information and how it relates to workflow and productivity.
Focus and diversification are often presented as a choice. You can have one or the other. Which strategy is right for you? It’s an unfortunate question that puts most companies on a time-wasting merry-go-around. For every CEO who touts his/her strategy to create a laser-focused company, there’s a successor waiting in the wings to launch a new era of growth and expansion. And for every CEO attributing strength and stability to his/her company’s wide-ranging portfolio, there’s a successor waiting to usher in a period of profitability and retrenchment. Using this definition of focus, there are only two reasons to diversify. The first is to use your company’s way of creating value and its distinctive capabilities to generate new avenues for profitable growth. This is what Berkshire, Danaher, and UTC are doing whenever they acquire a new business. They are not doing it for the reasons that too many other companies diversify: to enter “attractive” markets in order to improve their financial profile (higher growth rate, better margins, or lower volatility of earnings). This is financial engineering, not strategy, and it always leads to lack of focus.
There are a number of businesses that are very capable to progress into the 21st century cutting edge. Businesses falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and people’s digital skills and thinking aren’t keeping up. The computer electronics involvement has kept businesses from moving ahead of their competition in some instances. Today the cash register is more than holding money. Today’s register can track inventory. Carrying too much inventory ties up capital that otherwise could be used to invest in your business or to pay bills. Too little inventory can mean you do not have enough products to sell and you lose revenue. Computerized registers with bar codes readers, allows you to keep track of sales as well as the number of items you have on hand.
It’s time for an upgrade to build the businesses into the 21st century. First having individuals equipped with 21st century human digital skills and a digital mindset is a real positive feature. This drives the future of the organization. Discover new ways to drive new innovation and change into a prominent business.
