To think, Or not to think!

The Five Steps to a Winning Mindset by Damian Hughes

Got a confession to make – I found it really hard to write this post. I have stewed over it for a while, 10 pages of notes and all (think notebook size A5 pages) and I just couldn’t put pen to paper (metaphorically speaking). Last week, Damian Hughes gave a talk at Manchester Metropolitan University on his newly published book with the same name. I was lucky to be there if only to be able to listen to him and tap into all that knowledge he has amassed over the years researching leadership in sports. I tried my hand at networking and succeeded – details were exchanged although the lines of communication have not been activated (yet). I should also give a special mention to MMU. Thanks for the pizzas, pakoras, samosas, spring-rolls, brownies, carrot cakes – and for the takeaway box.

But before I wax lyrical about the food, let’s talk about the other good stuff – the talk. Damian is the author of bestsellers like Liquid Thinking, Liquid Leadership, The Survival Guide to Change and Change Catalyst. For starters, I didn’t know who he was before the talk (case in point: I googled the titles of his book before I wrote this). The talk was advertised on Eventbrite. I found the title intriguing and wanted to find out more.

I know next to nothing about sports. I would say that I’m generally indifferent to sports – I’ve watched a few football matches here and there (I even went to a live Manchester City game once out of convenience and peer pressure). When it comes to football, I’ve even spent an afternoon watching YouTube videos about racism in the sport. I have also watched a few tennis matches when I happen to catch Wimbledon on the television (I know a couple of people who are obsessed). The same goes for the Olympics. When it’s on I like to watch cycling and the track and field events. The point is I don’t vehemently hate sports – there are some people who are positively allergic. I suppose I’ve always looked at sports as benign and ‘healthy’ competition (racism, football hooliganism and other issues aside) between people and, by extension, countries (keeping in mind that World Cup season is almost upon us). It’s definitely a lot better than cyber wars, hot wars or even cold wars.

I didn’t go to Damien’s talk expecting to improve my knowledge of sports (I did pick up a few bits by osmosis). What I liked is that he made his thesis very accessible and practical (not surprising given the title of the book) even though all the case studies he used were from the world of sports. The session itself was very interactive and he encouraged audience participation. There was this funny incident where he invited an audience member on stage to look at a £10 note and answer a few questions afterwards. He wanted to demonstrate our inability to concentrate/focus given that our brains are hardwired to look for shortcuts and other simple cues with which to view and understand the world. What followed was this back-and-forth between him and the audience member as he tried to convince her that the new £10 notes are real (she didn’t think they were as she hadn’t used one before). It felt like it was lifted directly off a sketch (insert name of a funny comedy show here). In the end, Damien gave her the money (partly to prove it was real but also as a gift for being a good sport). This goes to show it pays to be bold. I was kind of / sort of jealous because I had almost raised my hand when he asked for a volunteer. Well, as the saying goes, you snooze you lose.

As for the substantive bits of the talk which inspired the title of this post, the only way I can do justice to what was said and what I learned on the day is to contextualise with the case studies he used. Brace yourself, this will be pretty long. But before I launch into it properly, I just want to commend him for doing something really amazing at the end of the talk. For the contrarian minds in the audience, he wanted to walk in their shoes and see things from their perspective. Let’s face it, psychology gets a bad rep as a science and, by and large, theorising about human behaviour (including our leadership styles) can be pretty anecdotal. With that in mind, he read out this note he had written beforehand to summarise how his audience was feeling. He assumed that we were in denial and doubting what he had said and, as a result, the statements were mostly negative. He did a second reading of the same note. This time around he read it backwards and the meaning was completely transformed. Rather than having doubts, he asked us to be open-minded and responsive to new ideas.

Damian had used a similar metaphor at the start and towards the end of the talk. Legendary coach and boxer Freddie Roach, who he interviewed for his book, had asked him to draw a coffee cup when they met (something he did with all his players apparently). Even though it’s three dimensional, Damian drew a flat object showing just one side of a coffee cup. Freddie confirmed that this was the norm with most people he asked to do the same thing. He then told Damian to think about drawing the cup from a different angle, such as a bird’s eye view from the top. In pretty much the same way, Damian invited us to set aside our presumptions and consider things from a new angle. This can be difficult based on what we now know about how our brains are programmed. It will take time but there are steps (five of them actually) that can help you along the way.

What are these five steps you ask? If I have piqued your interest so far, stay tuned for the next instalment. Remember that I’m trying to do the concise thing with individual posts.