The Outward Mindset: How to Change Lives and Transform Organizations

“Leaders fail,” Paul explains, “by coming in saying, ‘Here’s the vision. Now you go execute what I see.’ That’s just wrong in our view of the world.” Continuing, he says, “Although leaders should provide a mission or context and point toward what is possible, what humble, good leaders also do is to help people see. When people see, they are able to

Although an inward mindset in one person does not cause others to respond with an inward mindset, it does invite others to respond in kind. The challenge is how to respond with an outward mindset when those we work or live with invite the opposite.

A manager who wants her team to exhibit more of an outward mindset can lead that effort by building with them an implementation plan of consistent outward-mindset strategies and actions. For example, given that lateral awareness is a key indicator of mindset (as discussed in chapter 10), the team might decide to devote five minutes of every team me

Mulally pointed to ten BPR rules he had posted on the wall of the room3: • People first • Everyone is included • Compelling vision • Clear performance goals • One plan • Facts and data • Propose a plan, “find-a-way” attitude • Respect, listen, help, and appreciate each other • Emotional resilience … trust the process • Have fun … enjoy the journey

“What kind of metric,” one team member asked, “would show us our impact and not just our output?” “What impact do the people want?” another responded. “What are they hoping clean water will do for them? If we had answers to those kinds of questions, maybe we could figure out what we should be measuring.”

Ironically, the most important move in mindset work is to make the move one is waiting for the other to make.

Think about the times in your life when you have felt most alive and engaged. Who and what were you focused on in those moments—on yourself or on something bigger that included others?

Then ask questions that might spark ideas about what adjustments might be helpful: What can we do to help others understand how we value and appreciate them? What can we do to more fully understand others’ viewpoints and concerns? What trappings of leadership currently exist in the organization? Which of these trappings and differences make good bu

We see in the CFS2 story how an outward-mindset approach can mobilize an entire company to work on behalf of its customers—not just to provide a product or service but to enthusiastically innovate to meet the customers’ needs and help them achieve their own objectives. Inward-mindset people and organizations do things. Outward-mindset people and or