It's been said that intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but to quickly see how to make them good.

The point here is that even leaders make mistakes.  A great person learns from his mistakes and the greater man learns from others' mistakes.  The surest way for leaders to make mistakes is having a mindset that prevents them from changing and improving.

To remain the same when change is needed is to make a mistake.  Confucius said: "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake."  Too often we have people like that in organisations who continue to make mistakes because they have a mindset that blocks them from positive change.

One of the least understood concepts about people management in the business world is the mindset of people.  In the environment today, the challenge is to increase competitiveness through cost effectiveness, quality, speed of production and delivery, and innovative products and services.

However, how do we get people to improve their productivity in these areas?  Knowing what to improve is not enough.  The bigger challenge is how to get people to want to improve the competitiveness of their organisations and their productivity at work.

To do so, we must change the mindsets of people.  Many people tend to equate mindset with attitude of individuals.  However attitude alone is not enough to explain the many causes of non-performance or resistance to change in organisations.  In fact, attitude is only one of the components that make up the mindset of an individual.

Mindset is a statement of mind which influences the way one thinks, feels and acts towards a situation they face.  A person's mindset is a mental paradigm which has been set due to five influences, BACHA, which stands for Blindspots, Assumptions, Complacency, Habits and Attitude.

The change capability of an individual is determined by how strongly these influences are weighing the individual down.  These factors are important because they will determine the following:
 

• How people see problems
• The way they define opportunities and threats
• The way they assess strengths and weaknesses
• The need they see for change or status quo
• The areas of priority they identify
• The solutions they come up with
• The way they go about changing and affecting change.

The accompanying diagram provides a graphic representation of the components that determine the mindsets of people.

To help us understand the mindsets of individuals, let us first study how each of these five influences tend to block individuals from changing.

Blindspots

A blindspot is a part that one cannot see properly or clearly because something is in the way.  Picture this scenario.  A positive and careful man is driving his car along the highway.  He notices a van in front driving at a slow speed.

He plans to overtake the van.  He does everything right.  He looks at the front mirror, then the left mirror and finally the right mirror.  He notices no vehicle.  So he signals to overtake and steers towards the right.

At the moment, there is a loud honk from a car coming on the right side of his car.  He steps on his brake but is too late as his car hits the other car.

What happened here?  Did the driver have a negative attitude while he was driving?  Was he careless or incompetent?  No, he was positive, careful and competent.  There was a blindspot in all the mirrors, which at a certain angle prevent the driver from seeing an oncoming car.

In the workplace, people also develop blindspots which prevent them from seeing the real situations or issues.  There are leaders and managers who fail to see weaknesses in their departments, divisions, organisations or themselves, and thus, do not see the need to change or improve.

They may fail to see the flaws of their products or services they provide customers.

They rationalize customers' complaints as having "difficult and unreasonable" customers and do nothing to improve things.

Or they may see the fall in market share as a temporary phenomenon due to over-enthusiastic new competitors who would be pricing themselves out of the market.  Blindspots prevent people from being aware of the weaknesses and the problems, thus, ignoring the signals and the threats that come with it.

Likewise, blindspots may also prevent people from seeing their strengths and competency, thus, they miss out in capitalizing on the choices that are available.

There are two types of blindspots.  One is what I call natural blindspot and the other is acquired blindspot.

A natural blindspot may arise because one does not have the information and is not aware of the real problem or issue that exists.  For example, a product engineer who has been working in isolation due to the nature of his work may develop blindspots regarding customer needs.

This may be aggravated as he does not receive any market information and does not mix with marketing staff.

If he received the information, it may not reflect actual situations, as they have been filtered.

An acquired blindspot is a result by which one continuously blocks information or ideas that will help provide a true picture of issues.  Either through pride or arrogance, one may choose to ignore all signals provided and proceed against what is advised, and thus, develop a blindspot that will lead to a "crash" later.

It is not only motorists who crash when they have blindspots; companies whose leaders develop blindspots also "crash" on corporate highways as they drive towards achieving organisations goals.

Assumptions 

Assumptions are views taken as true but are not proved.  In business, many assumptions have to be made as it is impossible to have all information on hand to make a decision.

Organisations make assumptions about competitors, consumers, suppliers, technology, regulations, the economic conditions and the rules of the game in the industry.  Organisations also make assumptions about themselves - the relative strengths of their products, services and competency.

Some assumptions are made upon analysis of available information collected, others upon a group of people, and yet others based on the whims of leaders.

Of course, even the best assumptions made under the most professional analysis and manner ca be wrong as the environment changes.

What was proven a valid assumption in the past may no longer be valid today or tomorrow.  The danger of assumptions is that they may have worked well in the past and people stop questioning them anymore.

This is especially so as many businesses have developed huge success in the past based on certain assumptions about their customers, products, services and technology.
In these organisations, it has become a taboo even to question these assumptions.

These accepted assumptions have often evolved to become dogmas in the organisation.  A dogma is a belief or set of beliefs held by an authority or group which others are expected to accept without argument.  The problem with dogma is that it can become too strong for its own good, especially when things start to change.

All things do not remain constant.  All of a sudden, some components in the environment begin to change but people's assumptions about them remain as before.  People ignore and resist the required change; and this is where the problems of the organisation begin.

Abraham Lincoln said: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.  The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we musts rise with the occasion.  As out case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.  We must disenthrall ourselves."

Complacency

Complacency refers to unproductive and unprogressive content with one's achievements.  Complacency, here a negative connotation, is contrasted with satisfaction because the former discourages more achievement whereas the latter may spur higher achievement.

Someone who derives satisfaction from achieving the target set by his manager may be more motivated to outdo his next target.

However, someone who has become complacent with his performance will tend to take it easy and will achieve a lower level of achievement than before.

An environment that breeds complacency will dull people's sense of urgency to change and improve.  People will develop a sense of comfort towards the status quo as they become content with the company's success.

Success often breeds complacency, and complacency is the starting point of a downfall.

Habits

Habits refer to actions taken by people repeatedly without thinking.  Habits that are developed over the years get ingrained in one's behavior.  People with habits do not assess the purpose and benefits of their actions any more.  They will continue to do things the same way without question.

In fact, they have substituted the need to think with the habit they developed.

A story was told of ancient Egypt whereby a great conqueror came and took over the country.  The first thing he did was to burn all the libraries.  He did this perhaps out of insecurity as he did not want any man to be wiser than him.  All the books of wisdom were burnt.

However, there was one book that was left unburnt.  A man went through the ruins of the library and found this book, The Magic Of Touchstone.

It described the secret of great wealth.  It said: " Go to any beach in the country and should you find any pebble that feels warm; there lies all the pebbles below that will turn into gold."

The curious man believed what he read.  So he set out to find the gold.

Each day he would go to a beach and pick up a pebble; it would feel cold and he would throw it into the sea.  He went through this repeated motions countless times.

He did this for years.  After 10 years, he stumbled upon a beach and he picked up a pebble.  It felt warm, but he threw it into the sea and continued his search.  It had become a habit for him to pick up pebble and throw it into the sea.

After so many repeated actions, he had forgotten the goal of his search.

Many executives are like this man.  They continue to do thing the old way, which are not productive, but their habits prevent them from changing.

Attitude

Attitude refers to the perception one has about something.  A clear way to delineate one's thinking about something is by categorizing whether one's perception or feeling towards something is positive or negative.

Thus, a person can either have a positive attitude or a negative attitude towards something, be it an issue, problem or a change required.

A Harvard Business School study tracking the success of its alumni found that there are four factors for success: intelligence, skill, information and attitude.

The significance of this study lies in the fact that intelligence, skill and information in total only contributed to seven per cent of the alumni's success whereas attitude contributed to 93 per cent.

Attitude is an important component in the mindset of an individual.  Someone with a positive attitude is more likely to achieve productive and successful change than someone with a negative one.

Those with a negative attitude will find every reason why they should not change and this will block them from achieving positive and productive results in their work.

In the march towards productive change, no one can defeat you unless you first defeat yourself.

Victor S.L. Tan is an international consultant and authority on change management.  He is the author of 4 books and the CEO of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He can be contacted at 603-90741129 / 90742219 or email: victorsltan@klscc.com