The Mindset Most in Need of Changing is Often Your Own

As leaders, we often find ourselves wanting to shift the mindset of our teams. If we could just get them to change the way they see things, we could really drive the change we seek. Experience has taught me that the journey often begins by looking inwards and challenging your own mindset first. The truth is that often times the mindset most in need of changing is your own. 

There are many powerful benefits that come from having the change start with you. By shifting your own perspective, you often discover new insights that can accelerate progress against your goals. In addition, you role model for your team how to go about changing one’s mindset. But getting out of your own head can be challenging. Here are three ways that can help you look at the world with a different mindset: 

Follow Me Homes

As the old saying suggests: in order to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, you must first remove your own. Every journey begins with empathy, and at Intuit, we have built this into our culture. Employees are challenged to be pioneers and entrepreneurs, and to ground their innovations in deep empathy for the customer. As a result, everyone conducts Follow Me Homes with their target customer, whether they’re internal or external. The objective is to observe customers going about their daily tasks, which may or may not include using your product or service. We metaphorically “duct tape our mouths,” and keenly observe the challenges they face, the pain points they encounter, and the moments that delight them. These moments are revealed through a furrowed brow, a frantic note scribbled on a Post-It, or a simple grin as they complete a task. It sounds simple, but it is a remarkably powerful tool in shifting perspective and viewing the world through the eyes of another. No matter what line of work you are in, it’s vital to find a way to see the world from the point of view of those you serve. Walk a mile in their shoes.

Shadowing

Another useful technique is to immerse yourself in another environment by being a “shadow” to someone you admire – a peer, a mentor, a successful leader or domain expert – and observing how they navigate the ups and downs throughout the day. The best results occur when the person you are shadowing does not plan a special day, but instead, allows you to observe them in a “typical day,” complete with twists and turns. Again, the goal is to look for surprises – those moments when you can imagine how you might behave if the decision or interaction was occurring in your business, but the leader chose to do something else. At the end of the day, ask why they chose the path they did. By asking the person to reflect more deeply and unpack the root cause for why they chose a particular path, you’ll discover something you may wish to bring back and try.  

Benchmarking Best Practices

Another way to change your mindset is to look outside for inspiration. I often joke that it used to be called plagiarism, now it’s called benchmarking. We use a technique at Intuit where we ask individuals seeking to drive change inside our company to first look at what they’ve learned from others outside the company. A practical way to do this is to ask for three examples of how others outside our industry are solving the same problem, and what we can learn from them. We also ask individuals and teams to share at least three ideas they considered before pointing to their final recommendation, and in doing so, to explain why they eliminated the other two options. The point of the exercise is to challenge ourselves to seek outside inspiration before narrowing in on one direction.   

Adaptability in today’s fast-changing world is a critical capability we must all develop. Most change journeys begin with changing mindsets, and oftentimes the mindset most in need of changing is your own. Try these techniques to see what works for you, and if your experience is similar to mine, you will be amazed at what happens!