It is so pervasive that it resembles Adam Smith’s invisible hand, undermining all efforts to take risks and cope with uncertainty. The experimental mindset allows leaders to recognize their instinctive reactions to avoiding risk and uncertainty and to adopt a “test and learn” approach.
The final one explored, the open mindset, is about recognizing that an uncertain world makes us feel vulnerable and defensive—managing new types of talent, the challenges of diversity, technologies we will never truly fully understand.
An open mindset is about creating individuals list of armenia cell phone numbers teams and organizations that remain alert to the outside world, changes and are therefore more accepting and open to continuous transformation.
Is mindset an innate trait or can it be developed through training and collaboration with people and companies?
It is important to clear up the confusion about what we mean by mindset. In most people's minds, the term is understood more unconsciously than consciously. That is why we often talk about different things when we use the word.
Mindset, as we understand it, can be shaped and developed at a neurological level. It is not about skills, personality, IQ or behavior. It works with these aspects of ourselves, but it is an internal sense-making system that allows us to understand and make meaning in the world. Everyone has access to its development.
What role does technology play in achieving the right mindset, given the rapid development of artificial intelligence?
Technology is forcing us to understand how uncertainty affects our reactions. ChatGPT came out three months ago and completely changed our thinking about how AI will affect the workplace. AI suddenly became a concrete threat instead of an abstract one.
It also forces us to rethink what human value adds in an increasingly automated world. Even with the incredible power of quantum computing, there are few things that only humans will be able to do in the foreseeable future.
The first is sensemaking. Although you can ask your AI assistant questions about the world, only you, with 90 billion neurons, know what's happening in rich context. Only you can generate creative solutions from this incredible complexity; AI can't do that.
The second is creative problem-solving. The database in the AI tool is fixed. It can be generative, but it can't solve problems like a human. The third thing is that we have to make decisions based on moral reasoning, which we shouldn't leave in the hands of AI.
Finally, we need to create, shape and maintain valuable relationships in which we can exchange value both at work and at home – mutual help, trust and love.
AI can't do that. It's going to sit on our shoulders like a tool, like a talking parrot, helping us navigate the world and speed things up. But those four sources of human value that I mentioned are what mindset can help us empower.
In your book you talk about emotions and how they are misunderstood. How can we use emotions to make better decisions?
For 2,000 years, emotions have been seen as the antithesis of logic. They have been seen as innate responses to threats and opportunities that are supposedly beyond our control. In this image, we lose the ability to act when we experience overwhelming emotions; we lose rationality.
Scientists have overturned this view of innate emotions, replacing it with the theory of “constructed emotions.” We construct emotions to understand ourselves in the world, primarily to understand our metabolism, the state of our “body budget.” This opens up a different understanding of what emotions allow us to know. Negative emotions are a signal that a basic human need is not being met. When we begin to read our emotions in this way, we more quickly come to the truth of the situation.
Emotions are therefore part of the spectrum of logic. They provide us with an understanding of what is happening to us, unfiltered by the biases and justifications of our mental reasoning. Listening carefully to our feelings tells us when we have insufficient resources (we are tired, hungry, need to go to the bathroom) that, if not met, will trigger an emotional response of resentment.
When we feel diminished in the eyes of others, listening attentively to feelings of judgment and defensiveness prevents negative responses. Similarly, unappreciated feelings of lack of clarity, connection, and motivation also lead to counteracting responses.
Why should we learn to recognize emotions?
In our research labs, we ask people to describe how they feel. Most people use between four and seven words to describe all their emotions. This limited vocabulary reflects the embarrassment many of us feel about talking about how we feel—something that our parents, schools, and workplaces have encouraged us to do until recently.
If you describe every negative feeling as anger, you don't understand how you really feel or what needs it signals. Maybe you don't feel angry, maybe you feel frustrated, embarrassed, maybe a hundred different words. The more subtle and detailed your language is, the better you understand what's going on.
There is a significant correlation between emotional detail and people's health. People who are better at describing what is going on inside them receive better help, diagnose themselves and their needs, and communicate better with others.
What are “meta-emotions”?
Meta-emotions are a relatively new field, mostly studied since the 1990s in children. They are like metacognition, which is thinking about thinking. So it's about thinking about emotions, feeling emotions.
For example, you scold your child because you're mad at them, and then you feel guilty for being mad - guilt is a meta-emotion. If you're not aware of the meta-emotion (i.e. the feeling of guilt), you create loops of dysfunctional behavior. And this has been studied in alcoholism, where people can't tell the difference between emotion and meta-emotion, which makes it impossible for them to quit drinking too much.
Extremely important. Emotions play a significant role in a nonlinear world because more of our challenges are uncertain. To make progress, we cannot simply accept uncertainty, throw ourselves off a cliff, and hope we learn to fly. We must balance rationality with conviction.
The only way to do that is to create an emotional belief that breaks down uncertainty. This is based on the work of Robert Burton and others who recognize that certainty is not a rational process. It's an emotion—we feel certain. And that feeling gives us a sense of agency and commitment to action in the face of uncertainty.
While a new strategy or transformation can involve a lot of first-time action and create fear and anxiety, the meta-emotion is excitement and a sense of purpose because it’s the right thing to do; we will learn and grow.
