The Magic of Mindsets

Simon Berger from Unsplash

In development and diplomacy, programmes and processes are set up with a view to improving the world.

And yet, in complex systems outcomes aren’t delivered by organisations or programmes, rather

outcomes are emergent properties of systems

That means they emerge from the interplay of multitudes of factors and actors.

If we can’t directly control outcomes, where does that leave us?

While this may leave us momentarily deflated, feeling disempowered to deliver results, a shift in mindset allows us to view our role as stewards or facilitators of emerging outcomes.

In fact, research and experience from LearnAdapt shows that the people who manage delivery in FCDO are instrumental in creating conditions that allow outcomes to flourish.

How do the people that manage delivery best steward outcomes?

Programmes that are best able to create outcomes have someone managing delivery who champions and enables learning, and creates space for the work to adapt in response to what’s been discovered.

There are many mechanisms (formal modes of setting expectations such as annual reviews and results frameworks) that can support or undermine the ability to learn and adapt. (There are several LearnAdapt guidance notes you can refer to with tips for how to set up mechanisms). While these are really important, we have found that their influence depends a lot on mindset.

Your mindset is a collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape how you show up in the world. It’s got a lot to do with your way of being. Your mindset is something you can shape, and it in turn shapes how others react to you.

So while some mechanisms may be fixed already, or feel outside of your control, your mindset is yours for the taking, and it makes a huge difference.

Here’s how your mindset can build a virtuous cycle that creates the conditions which will allow outcomes to flourish.

Everything you see in italics is taken straight from the new ‘FCDO culture toolkit’.

Learn together

When we are trying to create change that leads to outcomes we don’t know in advance what will work. This means we need to try things, learn and adapt. The main job of people leading adaptive programmes and portfolios is to hold space for different actors in the system to come together, share experiences and make sense of what has been happening.

Mindset: curiosity, openness and acceptance of ‘failure’

How to practice learning together:

• Create space for joint learning sessions with people you fund
• Explore emergent learning that goes beyond a logframe
• Be humble and vulnerable, to build psychological safety
• Be kind, respectful and compassionate to build trusting relationships
• Work in the open, be transparent and share your own learning
• Celebrate when minds (and actions) have been changed
• Draw on the expertise, insight and diverse perspectives in and beyond the room

Build trust

Learning together encourages and enables empathy to be built between everyone involved, and creates the feeling of working towards a shared purpose. When we learn together we also get to know our partners as full, rounded human beings. This changes the relationship from reporting to participating, and building rapport and trust.

Trust is a key asset in the system. When there’s trust, people feel more able to admit when things are not going well, they can voice hunches or gut instincts and suggest new ideas.

Trust doesn’t just happen, it grows incrementally when we realise we can trust someone’s judgement. To build trust, be transparent about the rationale for decisions — share the thinking and your judgement. Humans crave certainty, so become predictable.

Mindset: openness, transparency, humility

How to practice building trust:

• Create space for collective learning and reflection
• Get to know each other — spend a few minutes checking in at the start of a call
• Be intentional about including people
• Share your decision making process
• Celebrate success
• Work iteratively
• Become predictable — no nasty surprises please!

Create autonomy

Relationships built on trust enable autonomy for those working on the ground. When power and decision making sits with people who can see change and opportunities emerging, our work is much better able to adapt. They are trusted to respond to the ever-changing needs and opportunities of the people they serve and the contexts in which they work.

When we create autonomy we are agile in our approach and use of resources, alert to emerging opportunities and challenges and open to change.

Mindset: Low ego, empowering, coach-like

How to practice creating autonomy:

• Share power and responsibility
• Refuse the limelight, share (or don’t take) credit
• Let go of some decision making to empower others
• Prioritise trust and learning over control
• Build and nurture relationships
• Demonstrate trust in your teams ability by encouraging them to give it a go (your confidence will brush off on teams)
• Set guardrails so you can be confident

Enable adaptation

Autonomy for teams working on the ground enables them to adapt their work to the constantly changing context. Adaptation is more than being responsive to changing contexts but an intentional approach to test, learn and adapt to this learning.

Being intentional in experimenting is a way of probing the system, ready to sense and respond. What is working? What is not? What unintentional consequences are there?

This process of innovation or experimentation is what provides the fodder to learn together. Swarm around the information that emerges, be curious and ask questions about what you see, and then create space for the next iteration of experiments to emerge.

Mindsets: adaptive, curious, collaborative

How to practice enabling adaptation:

• Encourage and reward innovation (which is inherently risky!)
• Be agile in approach and use of resources
• Be alert to emerging opportunities and challenges
• Be open to change and realistic about results
• Build on energy you notice
• Draw on diverse perspectives

As you can see, the person leading the programme is instrumental in signalling a shift in the purpose of adaptive programmes as a champion of learning so that outcomes are seen as the product of complex systems.