The Changemaker’s Toolkit | ‘Scarcity captures the mind’: moving from scarcity to abundance
On 12 January, I’m leading Together Culture’s first live-taught, online course called Develop an Innovation Mindset. It’s the first in a four-part series of courses that we’re calling The Changemaker’s Toolkit.
Mindset tools, you ask? It may sound the most wishy-washy of all our courses. The courses that come later in the year - collaborative team development, co-creative facilitation, community design - may seem more concrete.
However, what and how you think is the foundation for any type of change emerging.
The past few months, I’ve been working on my doctorate thesis proposal (yes, one day I aim to be a doctor of changemaking). It led me to re-read the work of Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir on Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough.
The idea is that we all experience scarcity at times in our lives, and far too many of us live in chronic scarcity. Scarcity come in many different forms. We can experience a scarcity of friendship, of love, of money, of food, of time - the list is endless.
What Mullainathan and Shafir researched was: how does scarcity affect how we think? As they say, ‘scarcity captures the mind’. It causes us tunnel vision - we can’t see the forest for the trees. We have a shortage of bandwidth. Meaning, we use our cognitive energy and abilities to focus on the scarcity problem. Which means, our tired and myopic brains make poor decisions and we don’t have the energy for ‘executive function’ - how we manage and organise our thoughts. Go on, try to resist the temptation of a piece of chocolate cake when you have limited bandwidth. Studies show it becomes FAR more difficult.
When our mindsets get stuck, we get stuck.
We’re not intellectually fluid. We are challenged to see things from different perspectives. We have difficulty holding the idea that multiple things can be true at the same time and finding the way through. We don’t see new possibilities when making decisions and revert to whatever is in front of our noses.
The more we recognise the patterns of our own minds, the more we can lean into a toolbox to help us move from scarcity to abundance – to see new possibilities and get beyond our tunnels.
The keys to moving beyond change theatre sit in a toolkit that helps us develop the mental habits of dwelling in possibility. We can use them solo and we can use them with teams, families, communities.
So, if you’re ready to turn frustration into fuel and become the impactful changemaker you are then please join me on 12 January to develop skills that enable you to:
See Yourself as an innovator (or changemaker!)
Set Boundaries that build deep trust
Turn tension into creativity
Decide with confidence in uncertainty
Turn up for these five co-learning sessions to start your journey to become a more impactful changemaker - at work, at home, in your community.
Small is all, the group is strictly limited to ten learners. Register today!
I can’t wait to learn and change with you,
Heather
Develop an Innovation Mindset facilitator
The next Together Culture Changemaker’s Toolkit Cohort starts on 12 January. Book your place at www.togetherculture.com/1-innovation-mindset
Want to learn more? Join our Instagram Live Q+A on 8 January, 5 - 5.20pm (GMT) for a conversation with course facilitator Heather Thomas. Visit @togetherculture.cambridge in the Instagram app to set a reminder.
