Abundant Mentality Can Transform Your Company To Greatness
When I was in the advertising business at Young & Rubicam many years ago, we were divided into brand groups that would compete against each other for the best idea. We would work hard to come up with insights in collaborative teams of three people. We would then come together and present our ideas to the management supervisor and/or creative director who would bestow their judgments on the ideas from each brand group. The process worked to an extent, but it created a competitive environment filled with jealousy, political intrigue, and favoritism. In my opinion it wasn’t always a level playing field that was based on meritocracy. I always wondered how it could be improved upon if we all worked on the same idea together.
When I went into the consulting business at Accenture there was very little consensus or collaboration over how we came up with ideas. It was mostly done through hierarchical structures based on the culture of “partner rules”. Your ideas were as good as where you were on the totem pole. If you were a low level associate the chances of your idea bubbling to the top was not ever likely. The only way your ideas ever saw the light of day was if a partner was a good leader, teacher and mentor and would bring you along and help you grow your ideas as if they were his own. More often than not, that was not the case.
It wasn’t until I came to Arthur D Little and was introduced to the concepts of “abundant mentality” that were promulgated by Peter Senge from MIT, in his pivotal book “The Fifth Discipline” in the late 90s. In it, he promotes the idea that when a group collectively works through abundant mentality they can produce much greater and more highly effective solutions than an individual can on their own volition. For instance, if you have a great idea, and I have a great idea, and we put those two ideas together and build upon them through shared values and approaches; we can construct a much greater opportunity and solution.
When I learned about this principle it was as if a lightbulb went on. Why didn’t more companies (especially marketing and communication companies) harness this collective strength of ideas to build greater communication platforms and messaging? After I left Arthur D Little, I formed Inward Strategic Consulting, and abundant mentality became the bedrock foundation for obtaining internal buy-in and acceptance within the organization.
The benefits are clear. When an organization institutionalizes abundant mentality as a business process it will excel and stand out from their competition and will become an employer of choice. It also helps accelerate internal buy-in, adoption, socialization and approval by reducing procrastination, approval timelines, and even time and money.
Institutionalizing abundant mentality requires the following traits:
- Articulated, clear direction/strategy and shared vision
- Facilitated workshops
- Multi-voting teams
- Productive conversations that close gaps
- Elimination of political agenda
- Collective recognition and rewards
- Building consensus
- Creating a culture of meritocracy for the team
- Team driven problem-solving
- Eliminating silo mentalities
- Minimizing hierarchical structures, and fiefdoms
A great idea can come from anywhere. Embrace abundant mentality where multiple ideas collectively can contribute to one great idea that changes the playing field. Don’t stand for “not invented here”, or political one-upmanship. Work hard for the best idea and give it room to breathe.