Learning from experience and experiments
By Julia Powell, Project X Partners
These past few weeks, I have been reminded of the value of adopting an agile mindset to better accept and respond to the uncertainty and change that surrounds us.
An agile mindset involves thinking through how you can understand what’s going on in the environment, identifying the uncertainty you’re facing and figuring out how to adapt as you go along. For me, launching and building a new business and balancing a relentless schedule of home-schooling (not withstanding the increased volume of general housekeeping resulting from the entire family being based at home all day!) has required significant adaptation in my working practices, oodles of effort and a growth mindset!
Mindset theory is based on the work of the psychologist Carol Dweck who distinguishes between ‘Fixed’ and ‘Growth’ Mindsets. In simple terms, a fixed mindset comes from the belief that your qualities (personality, intelligence, character) are set in stone or ‘fixed’ whereas those who adopt a growth mindset believe that you can continuously develop and improve your qualities through the application of effort and learning from your experiences.
Recently, I have found myself exploring the intersections of Agile and Growth mindsets – in particular, the shared view that failure is a starting point for learning and experimentation, and the value both mindsets place on continuous improvement. In turn, this has led me to ask the question, how can we develop our growth mindsets, be agile, confront the uncertainty and embrace the challenge and disruption we are all facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic? In the spirit of supporting others, I’m sharing my experiences and lesson’s learnt, alongside some top tips:
Experiment! - fail fast to learn fast
I, like others, have had to adapt my working practices during the lockdown - I am no longer able to commit to working full days whilst balancing the demands of home-schooling. I’ve experimented with a variety of approaches to do both (many unsuccessfully!) but through experimentation I have learnt that I can be productive working in short bursts of focused activity throughout the day (mainly in the mornings!) and that rigid schedules set by school don’t work for me or my family.
We’ve explored and experimented with agile tools/ methods which have helped us all visualise, self-organise and learn together - from our kitchen fridge kanban board to our daily retrospectives - we are continuously adapting and improving how we navigate our way through the weeks ahead together. Most importantly, we are viewing all the times we’ve ‘failed’ at completing home-schooling and work deliverables as opportunities to learn and apply what we’ve learnt ready for the next time. A practical tip to help with this is to change your vocabulary and replace the word ‘failing’ with ‘learning’.
Be curious, commit to learning and self-improvement
Those who adopt a growth mindset consider themselves a ‘work in progress’ and will view the ‘lockdown’ experience as an opportunity to self-improve and upskill themselves.
As a psychologist, I am curious to understand both the leadership traits and behaviours, and the corporate value systems that will drive organisation success post the pandemic. In this regard, we at Project X Partners are using the time now to actively research and learn from how our clients, partners and communities are reacting and adapting to the current crisis so we can continuously deliver insight and value to the business’s we support as we move forward.
On an individual level, I have personally found it useful to explore: What are the skills I need to further develop that are going to be in high demand as we emerge from this crisis? What resources can I leverage to build these skills? Who in my network can I reach out and talk to and learn from? Which communities can I join to support me in my self-improvement drive? For me, honing my skills in delivering engaging People & Culture content through virtual/ online channels is a key area of focus. A practical tip that has helped me is learning to take pride in not being the ‘finished article’ - I am a work in progress!
Inspire and be inspired by others
Finally, inspired by the Mantra - 'Never waste a good crisis!' - I have taken the opportunity to enrol on many of the virtual learning sessions that are being offered in the People & Culture community which has been great to connect and learn and upskill as we move forward - this has further inspired myself and my Project X Partners co-founders to explore how we can give back to those needing support through our Project Xtra services - more to come on this.
What are you doing to adapt? I would love to hear the experiences and views from my network…
Originally published on LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-from-experience-experiments-julia-powell-cpsychol
