MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

The focus this month will be on providing participants with a framework to embrace the art of possibility in support of a culture of growth, innovation, co-creation and response-ability. Participants will strengthen their skills in invoking their imagination to think outside the box by focussing on the what and not the how and detaching from the old way of doing things. Participants will become familiar with the cycle of creation from a mindset perspective– that is understanding how thoughts repeated over time become beliefs, how beliefs in turn trigger emotions, and how those emotions in turn drive action or inaction and ultimately the results we are achieving. Therefore, to change results, one needs to change actions which means changing beliefs and the emotions around those beliefs, and fundamentally one’s thoughts. How we do that successfully is by refiring and rewiring the brain (neuroplasticity) by focusing on what really matters from the heart, having a definitiveness of purpose, passionately believing in the possibility, embodying the vision in the present and deliberately taking action on that vision each day. It also means showing up in that expanded state individually and organizationally, internally and with stakeholders. Participants will be introduced to the six steps of R.E.F.I.R.E. to REWIRE by Dr. Sarah McKay that can enable individuals to tap into one’s capacity for brain plasticity and mastery, to change old patterns of beliefs and habits to embody new possibilities particularly when change is deemed important and rewarding. Overall, Month 2 is about understanding why imagination, positive mental attitude and feeling of expansiveness are significant levers to achieving success in transformational change. The case work will draw on the current strategic framework of the organization and ask participants how they are showing up — as leader, manager or employee? Do they have a vision for their role or department’s role within the broader corporate context? Can participants provide examples of definitiveness of purpose for the organization from the perspective of pure potentiality? In so doing, participants will explore the concept of basements and ceilings to extend boundaries. They will also reflect on their current beliefs and emotions around transformation and change in the organization. The workshop will conclude with some initial thoughts on what to include in making the case for new transformational strategies at a conceptual level.

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Objectives

01. Mindset Matters: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Challenging Beliefs: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Unconscious Mindsets: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Fixed vs Growth: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Transformational Philosophy: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Understanding Why: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Prioritize: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. The Influence Model: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Positive Attitude: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Personalize Change: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Transformation Culture: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Transformation Fatigue: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Mindset Matters: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Challenging Beliefs: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Unconscious Mindsets: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Fixed vs Growth: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Transformational Philosophy: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Understanding Why: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Prioritize: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. The Influence Model: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Positive Attitude: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Personalize Change: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Transformation Culture: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Transformation Fatigue: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Mindset Matters.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Challenging Beliefs.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Unconscious Mindsets.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Fixed vs Growth.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transformational Philosophy.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Understanding Why.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Prioritize.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze The Influence Model.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Positive Attitude.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Personalize Change.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transformation Culture.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Transformation Fatigue.

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Introduction

The most recent research in neuroscience demonstrates how to cultivate the proper mindset for driving ongoing transformational change.

Today’s enterprises are under tremendous strain from unprecedented and seismic forces of change in the outside world, such as exponential digital technologies and existential global risks. They will have to transform their people, processes, and goods repeatedly. Leaders in every organization, regardless of size or industry, need to have a “transformation mentality” in order to change quickly. The majority, though, have a “legacy mindset”—not because they aren’t intelligent and successful, but rather because they are.

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Before innovation and business transformation, well-established legacy firms were capable of generating predictable long-term profits. Now, businesses that are unable to continuously change what they do and how they do it will surely collapse, whether through spectacular bankruptcy, mediocre underperformance, or dishonorable takeover. There is no denying the need for ongoing innovation in markets that are VUCA: volatile not stable, uncertain not predictable, complicated not simple, and ambiguous not clear. This is especially true in light of COVID-19 and the climate issue.

The majority of leaders, however, have been shielded from the harsh realities of ongoing evolutionary pressures as a result of decades of success in markets that were predictable, simple, stable, and clear — where prior resources and means allowed well-established organizations to maintain market dominance for extended periods of time. Many leaders have lost access to the creativity and insight necessary to lead transformation not just once, but multiple times in order to stay relevant after being lulled into a false sense of security. Their mentality must first change.

How Mindsets Matter

The mindset of a leader decides whether their organization ignores and rejects the forces of evolution to adapt or metabolizes them into innovations that create value and influence the direction of their industry. Just take a look at companies like Kodak, Nokia, AOL, and Yahoo, as well as Uber, which has ethical and worker issues, and Deliveroo, whose IPO failed due to investor concerns about unfairness and inequality. All of these organizations’ leaders believed that their recent success (in the immediate past) was a guarantee of future success.

Our mindset, or how we sense, feel, think, and then act, is our main source of competitive advantage in today’s rapidly and radically changing situations, and it’s the one thing we can fully control. We cannot rely on “things,” not even the most advanced machine-learning algorithms, to protect our company because every organization has access to the same technology and capabilities. We have no influence over what our customers or our rivals do. A pandemic or a mass extinction are uncontrollable. The only thing we have control over—or, maybe, mastery over—is our mindset.

We can and must take responsibility for our mindsets as leaders. In order to repeatedly reinvent ourselves and our organizations as the VUCA reality takes shape, we must decide to evolve, develop, and mature it over time.

Legacy Mentality

The legacy mindset that has imprisoned so many leaders is molded by the conviction that our ability to survive and thrive in the future depends only on our ability to leverage our power, success, expertise, and best practices from the past. It persists, in part, because VUCA realities can be overwhelming for our brains, which tend to experience pain when things change, become chaotic, or are uncertain. For example, when we perceive a threat, even if we are not physically in danger, our mind’s wiring causes us to fight or flee from sudden changes in our markets rather than approach them with an open mind and heart. When we most need insight and creativity, we lose them.

The legacy perspective leads us believe that doing what worked yesterday – just better, harder, and faster – will be enough to make it large tomorrow because we always want to seem right and feel in charge. We develop a righteous attitude about the leadership behaviors and underlying assumptions of our successful company models. Even when our firm loses competitiveness, its culture deteriorates, and its capacity for innovation wanes, we choose to disregard the need for transformation.

The legacy mindset causes us to project outmoded meaning-making frameworks and narratives onto the rapidly changing reality since we were taught management experiences and theories from a world that was not as digital or disruptive, or complex or chaotic. It smooths out the “anomalies” and “weak signals” that disruption, innovation, and transition inevitably entail. The legacy mindset causes us to cling to outdated beliefs as if they were unchanging facts, while others may have the insight to recognize and the determination to act on those signs.

A Dartmouth business professor named Sydney Finkelstein examined the demise of more than 50 firms. According to him, failures are brought on by “flawed executive mindsets that throw off a company’s perspective of reality” and “delusional attitudes that hold this false reality in place,” according to Why Smart Executives Fail. In other words, top executives unintentionally fostering a legacy mindset are to blame for pretty much every organizational disaster. Because of this, Yale professors anticipate that by 2030, the majority of the Fortune 500 corporations will no longer exist.

The Transformation Mindset

A growth mindset is the conviction that our talents can be developed by “hard work, good strategies, and input from others,” according to renowned Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck. This is a fundamental advancement, but it cannot withstand the rapid changes of the VUCA world. The growth mindset is expanded upon by the transformation mindset. We are aware that our abilities are far from fixed and that we must constantly adapt and evolve in order to match the viciously and relentlessly changing external environment.

A leader with a transformation mentality sees the VUCA world as a never-ending invitation to spearhead transformative change of antiquated goods, procedures, and people. Instead than attempting to ignore, repress, or reject the significant changes in our environment, we attune our entire self to completely engage in them. The fact that we own these changes, even if we did not initiate them, is crucial. By absorbing these changes internally, we may metabolize them into inventions that exponentially increase value.

When it is appropriate, we can continue to make improvements in the way we complete tasks while maintaining a transformation mentality. However, we may also spearhead ongoing changes when flexibility and adaptability are required. The ability to transition between these two equally valuable approaches of problem-solving is at the heart of the transformation mindset.

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Two Different Mental States

It takes more than just intelligence to have a transformational mindset. Recent research has actually shown that when we are creative, our prefrontal cortex, which has long been thought to be the seat of human reason, is really less active than usual. In other words, we are less in control, less focused, and less conventionally brilliant when we are innovating to solve difficulties brought on by the VUCA world!

It turns out that human brain has two quite unique neural networks that enable fundame