Your Growth is in Your Hands, Err Minds

Self Improvement

July 3, 2021

Min

Your Growth is in Your Hands, Err Minds

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Example H2

Goodhart’s law says “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”

It is wise to remember this law when you reflect on your growth in work life, it is even wiser to reflect on how your mind is growing with the changing world.

So in today’s Habits for Thinking, I want to bring your attention to your own growth. And, to the fact that your growth is driven by your habits. The ability to learn, unlearn, embrace failure and success with the same feeling are all a part of the ability to develop a growth mindset.

To illustrate, the feeling of what you miss, like the one mentioned in the above tweet, here is a description of what are the qualities that a Stripe Manager is looking into while hiring product managers:

“We want technical product managers, strong product instincts, lead by influence, channel multiple points of view. At Stripe, we look for not just smart people but quick people. You will do well if you’re very, very agile. Being able to ingest a lot of complexity and then find a path of clarity through that. Quick-thinking, quick-acting people do really well here. We also want people who will not be held back by a lack of somebody handing them a checklist of all the steps to go through. Being able to thrive in ambiguity. You may have something in mind, but you go talk to customers and learn something totally different. People who are fluid with that will do very well.”

The business expects quick thinkers, doers, playful with ideas etc. This can only be achieved when the business leaders and people think of their own growth. Growth will come from developing the right habits. When you have nurtured habits to become an innovative thinker, problem solver, decision maker, you become a quick thinker too.

L&D (Learning and Development)teams across organisations focus on getting training that serves an immediate need like customer service, team building, leadership needs etc. To develop agile mindsets of people is not a focus yet across most organisations. The mindset shift is a continuous process through habits and ideas. Here are three popular and a baby new concepts that work on habits and ideas and growth thinking.

This week, on habits for thinking, think about your own growth.

Design Thinking:

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.
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—TIM BROWN, EXECUTIVE CHAIR OF IDEO

Design Thinking is a process for innovation of products or services. There are dedicated teams in corporate culture designated to run the process. But, the beauty of design thinking is the ability to develop a mindset for empathy, team brainstorming, problem solving etc.

Note: If your organisation has a Design Thinking team, ask your L&D team to get you to learn from them.The process will introduce you to a lot of new ways of thinking.

Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

You may have read his book, his writing,workshops etc. Here are the seven habits for a quick reference:

Be Proactive
Begin with the End in Mind
Put First Things First
Think Win-Win
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Synergize
Sharpen the Saw

The last habit in the list encourages continuous improvement and renewal professionally and personally. Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual. Here are some examples of activities:

Atomic Habits by James Clear:

I haven’t read the book Atomic Habits, Here is the latest review from a reader taken from Atomic Habits website: Three major takeaways from this book are:

An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is small and easy to do and is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.
Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

SHIFT: Simple Habits & Ideas for Forward Thinking

I have referred to my extensive experience, my Design Thinking skills and my learnings through research, reading and observations to author SHIFT. A collection of fifteen habits and ideas, SHIFT is designed to develop a growth mindset. It keeps you at the centre with the work process on one side and your own learning from people and communities around you on the other side. Each habit is continuously sharpening the saw.

Simplicity is the key because habits need to become a part of life, habits to make your work process better, habits to channelise your creative energies, habits to develop new ideas and habits to make decisions. If one thinks that one knows it all, try this one: Improve

The idea is not to plug in the course here, the idea is to make you realise that you are a sum of your choices and habits. While Design Thinking gives you ideas, Stephen Covey urges you to sharpen the saw, Atomic Habits shows you the path on how to adopt it, SHIFT suggests which ones to take up and how it will impact.

Measure your personal growth with the right yardstick, or someone will comment, “Do you have a mind?”

Decoding Design Thinking, Stephen Covey habits, Atomic habits and Habits for Thinking

“Oh, she has a mind too!” This is a comment hard to understand by the new age workers in the new age companies like startups and technology driven ventures. I still feel offended about it. It was nearly eight years into my work life then, not too many years, but considered young for a role designated as Director – Strategy and Marketing. I was young, much younger to the lady in conversation. She headed an outdoor advertising agency and had proposed an alliance concept to our company. In one of the meetings, where I joined the Managing Director’s office midway into the conversation, I must have made some comments. I don’t remember what she had proposed, I don’t remember what were my comments, but memory is weird, I remember the sofa she sat in, the angle her body was tilted to and obviously her sarcastic tone that said, ‘she has a mind too’. And, my boss had smiled, “Yes, she has a mind.” I don’t know if his smile had a hint of pride, ultimately he had appointed me.

Having a mind, a working mind, was a matter of surprise. Having a mind means clarity of thought, the ability to simplify decision making matrices, having a mind means creative thinking, having the ability to handle people and comments without losing focus. In 2008, when this comment had happened, younger people were viewed as interns, novice at workplaces. Now, younger people are the ones seen with the knowledge. Nobody passes such comments anymore. Senior people, with years of experience, accept the younger generations’ mindful approach sometimes easily, sometimes with a pinch of salt. This is not because they do not know, this is because they lag the pace of the technological growth that their mind has been challenged to.

Let me ask you a question. How do you measure your growth in work life? Designation at work, salary raise every year, bonuses, etc.? It is ironic, the higher up you reach in your organisation, the fewer options are available to you to grow.

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