By Doug Turner

Which comes first, the attitude or the environment?

Are corporate environments created from the attitudes and thinking of the people that are in them or are the attitudes of the people shaped by the environment that they are working in?

While the answer is “both”, in light of the challenges facing the workplace, I would like to examine the situation where people’s attitudes are indeed created by the environment—particularly as they relate to concepts of scarcity and abundance.

A story I heard recently showcases the attitude of abundance, albeit far from the workplace. It was the story of a five-year-old boy who wanted to empty his piggy bank to give the money to the family of a classmate at school who was in the hospital, very sick with cancer. While it was his to give, I think this captures the attitude of abundance with brilliant clarity. I think that at the most basic level we learn our attitudes from the people around us—parents, peers, media and managers.

In this light, it is indeed possible to affect and change behaviour in people by creating the correct environment.

Daring Greatly to Win-Win
A lot has been written about the attitudes of abundance and scarcity. Perhaps most notably, Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People includes the habit of thinking ‘Win-Win’ that is derived from an attitude of abundance. More recently, in Daring Greatly, Brené Brown contrasts attitudes of scarcity and abundance and the effect this has on people’s behaviour.

These works, and others, primarily deal with how an individual can change their own attitude; as such, it would be tempting to conclude that here is very little someone else can do to change someone’s fundamental attitude. However, this brings us back to the very first question at the top of this article.

If we go back to the little boy with the piggy bank and draw a connection to the workplace, what becomes apparent is that it is indeed possible to create an environment that is conducive to creating feelings of abundance (or scarcity), quite independent of what somebody’s fundamental attitude may be.

Abundance Requires Leadership Trust
So, why is this important? When people are deciding whether or not to trust those people around them, including their leaders, one of the key elements is their ability to assess the intentions of those people. They need to feel comfortable with the “why” when somebody is, for example, raising a new idea.

People wonder whose interests are being served. Does the person who is making the suggestion really have the best interests of the organization (team, group, corporation) at heart, or are they out for their own gain? What is their agenda?

Adding to a Zero-Sum Game
How they make this assessment depends to a great extent on whether the general feeling in the organization is one of scarcity or abundance. Often people feel there is not enough “good stuff” (i.e. money, recognition, advancement, rewards, praise, camaraderie) to go around, and everything good is gained at some one else’s expense.

This is commonly described as a “zero-sum” game, where the figurative pie being divided is never big enough to satisfy everybody; if somebody gets more, somebody else will have less. This gives rise to a guarded and competitive environment that does little to further an organization’s innovative potential.

On the other hand, if people can be made to feel there is enough pie for all, this competitiveness gives way to collaboration wherein everybody is comfortable in the knowledge that they can and will get their appropriate share. When this holds true, people are less concerned with criticizing, competing, and other self-serving behaviours.

Abundance Recognizes Opportunity
When a new idea is being proposed, those who live with this attitude of abundance will generally interpret the intent of the proponent as being positive, and they will trust that the person is acting genuinely. This permits news ideas to be welcomed and assessed in a healthy way.  When ideas can be suggested, discussed, and accepted and rejected without anybody feeling threatened or devalued, the mindset of abundance reveals itself as the primary driver of innovative potential.

Moreover, when people feel comfortable that new ideas are welcome and their input is favourably received and rewarded, this creates a self-sustaining loop of positive potential; natural creativity is endorsed, empowered, and the quantity and quality of new ideas increases.

Alternatively, when scarcity is what grounds the workplace mindset, it does just that, and to a halt where innovation is concerned.  That such feelings of scarcity and the resulting fear seem to be so prevalent in the younger workers today is unsurprising, as their ‘abundant’ expectations run into the antiquated ‘reality’ that puts an overriding focus on competition.

Competition Courts Bad Behaviour
Competition can be a good thing and bring out the best in people, but when there is an over-emphasis on competition, or a perception of competition where there is none, then it becomes unhealthy.

Peggy Klauss, in her book BRAG! How To Toot Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, details how to combat many destructive and manipulative workplace behaviours—such as people taking credit for the work of others, excessive sucking up to the boss, and unduly promoting oneself at the exclusion of others. Such behaviours are symptomatic of a scarcity-minded workplace, where people have adopted the ‘necessary’ tactics to survive.

Leading the Shift: Recognizing Rewards
So how can leaders today encourage the shift from an attitude of scarcity to an attitude of abundance? HR and other business leaders must pay close attention to the kind of behaviours that are, or are perceived by staff, to be rewarded. While is important to portray an attitude of abundance in everything we do, it is in the praise of others that we can be more generous.

Simple rewards like public recognition of an achievement in a meeting of peers, or a gift certificate of nominal value can be very effective at demonstrating that there is indeed, “Enough to go around.” While this may appear at first to be an untenable approach in the face of current financial constraints and budget cuts. It must be remembered that some of the most effective tools for recognition and reward involve little or no money at all.

Publicly and frequently acknowledging, praising and rewarding people all goes a long way towards reinforcing the an environment of abundance in the workplace. It is particularly effective if staff are trained in the elements of win-win situations and accept that this type of behaviour is encouraged and rewarded. This in turn leads to more positive responses based on people’s assessments of intent and a higher level of trust in the workplace. Both attitudes and environments are created at the same time, thus resolving the “chicken and egg” conundrum.

To ensure those attitudes and environments are conducive to innovation, a focus on abundance can keep an organization from becoming another casualty of scarcity.

Doug Turner, MSc, MBA is a leadership and executive coach at True Balance Coaching.

(PeopleTalk Spring 2015)