Friday, February 13, 2015

An Accelerated Mind

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo

Human minds are perhaps one of the most powerful but mysterious things in the universe, as they continue to imagine and invent things for changing the world; the fact is that the world now becomes more advanced, complex and dynamic than ever, while certain types of mindset may start lagging behind, to put the other way, the "crazy" mind in industrial age becomes the new normal with digital speed; while the normal mind in industrial era becomes out of dated at digital era. So, should people now accelerate the mind shift to adapt to the change shaped by themselves? What are those open and accelerated mind needed in 21st century?

1. Fixed to Accelerated Mind


Fixed mindset refers to those who approach the work with fixed mindset-the assumption that their abilities were innate and not subject to change; while accelerated or growth mind refers to those who solve problems or target the goals with growth mind- the belief that their ability level was nothing more than a snapshot in time and eminently changeable as they continued to learn and develop.


  • The Accelerated Mind is Digital Mind: In the industrial era, fixed mindset is OK to survive as the business and world are slow to change; however, at age of digitalization, knowledge is only clicks away, growth mind is strategic imperative to adapt to the changes, and accelerated mind is needed to match the digital speed. The speed in organizations is determined by:
-The speed of transactions
-The speed of decision making
-The speed with which new ideas are created
-How fast ideas are brought to market
-The velocity of capital flows
-The speed which information and knowledge flows through the economic system.
-The speed talent employees learn the new knowledge.

  • Enforce the strength and unleash the potential: Fixed mindset sticks to the old way to do things while accelerated mind enjoys new thinking, though it doesn't mean the talent with accelerated mind should compete for everything, rather, it means one needs to stay focus, set discipline, enforce the strength and unleash the potential; it means to understand human’s difference and pursue uniqueness. And accelerated leadership is authentic, audacious, adaptive, aggressive when necessary—these business leaders have what we call the accelerated mind.

2. Silo to Connected Mind



Either business or world are transforming from siloed functions, sum of pieces into a hyper-connected whole, thus, one’s mind  also needs to be shifted to think differently and holistically. At the digital era, what we need is not just a faster speed, but a hyper-connected ecosystem. The digital philosophy comes from a worldview that looks at the world as one. It's a holistic view that sees the world as interconnected and interdependent and integrated. The silo which blocks the speed needs to be cursed because people who should be sharing information and helping each other to delight the customer are fighting each other for influence, power and glory. How to shift from a silo to connected mind though:
  • Shape the new thinking boxes: Optimize the whole, not the separate silos. Silo thinking tends to hinder any efforts to systematically reduce operational complexity. Without a cross-functional, end-to-end perspective across the entire enterprise, managers tend to focus on their own functions or departments. This silo thinking is a source of process complexity and speed block.


  • Shape the collaborative mind to achieve win-win-win: Don't let the power of your organization move to another organization that has learned the secrets of collaboration, connectedness, and cooperation. The time it takes work to flow through the organization needs to be shorter. By working with the people who actually do the work, significant improvements are possible which is a win-win-win: Win 1- The customers get better service. Win 2 -The costs of inefficiency are reduced. Win 3 -The workers take ownership of the process and business.

3.   Exclusive to Inclusive Mind

To speed up and accelerate digital transformation, companies should capture collective insight, analyze all critical, cross-functional processes, connect divergent factors at business ecosystem in decision making and business strategic planning. Inclusiveness is the lever. Inclusiveness is the quality of the organizational environment that maximizes and leverages the diverse talents, backgrounds, and perspectives of all employees. Diversity in the global context can be defined as visible and invisible differences, cognition, thinking styles, experience, culture etc.


  • Hard-Wire Diversity into Your Business: Collective mindsets are connected and accelerated than any single mindset. The world becomes more inclusive: At digital era, the business functional border, the company border, and even the profession border are blurred; indeed, the world becomes more inclusive, admit of the inclusion of a wide variety of specializations under one umbrella.  


  • Inclusive leaders have the inter-disciplinary knowledge and empathetic cognizance; always capture insight and substance, rather than look at things on the surface; always put other people’s shoes on, understand perspectives different from their own, and build networks with people outside of their organization.


Mindset is everything. Human’s mind is the most valuable thing to shape every progress, but also the root cause of all mankind problems, it’s time to accelerate your digital mind; from closed to open; from silo to holistic; from exclusive to inclusive and reawaken your limitless potentials.

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