The Entrepreneurial Mindset | Human-Centered Change and Innovation

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers, M.D.

Most doctors, scientists, engineers, business school grads and lawyers I’ve taught don’t have an entrepreneurial mindset. There are lots of reasons why, some of which have to do with how they are chosen by their respective educational establishments. After all, you don’t get accepted to medical school because of your intense creativity. You get accepted, primarily, because of your GPA ,your performance on a standardized test, the MCAT, and how you perform in your scripted interviews.

Here are some mindset maps from Kevin Johnson:

Instead, when it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship, they have this kind of frame of reference:

The entrepreneurial mindset is a state of mind interested in the pursuit of opportunity with scarce, uncontrolled resources. The goal is to create user defined value at various multiples of the existing competitive offering through the deployment of innovation.

Some describe “character” as a combination of personality, which is mostly fixed at a certain early age, and mindset, which is malleable. Character is fate.

Attitudes and motivation are what separates someone with an entrepreneurial mindset from another. The field of postive psychology has shown with overwhelming evidence that happiness creates success, not vice versa. Shawn Achor, in his book The Happiness Advantage, gives us a guided tour of the postive psychology field. noting that happiness is a positive emotion in three measurable components: pleasure, engagement and meaning. He states that happiness is the joy we feel striving after our potential. More imporantly, mindsets can change in humans from negative to positive. Consequently, happy people are primed for creativity, imagination and innovation.

Innovation starts with the right mindset and happiness makes it easier to see things clearer as well as the possibilities.

Some have described the Innovator’s DNA. Here are the amino acids that make up the genetic code.

Others note characteristics of the entrepreneurial mindset:

Entrepreneurial mindsets derive from entrepreneurial behaviors that are part of an entrepreneurial culture. Consequently, finding entrepreneurial champions to demonstrate the mindset to others is an important tactic in changing a culture.

True innovation in sick care is rare. Ideas and inventions rarely create substantial multiples of user defined value and can be counted on one hand. Antibiotics. Anesthesia. Clean water. Transplantation.

Wonder about inconsistencies and anomalies instead of dismissing or explaining them away.

Wonder about coincidences that seem promising.

Give freer rein to curiosity, spending more time speculating about implications of events or ideas that aren’t on the main path we are pursuing.

Be alert to unexpected connections between ideas.

Notice leverage points that might help when we get stuck – alternative ways to move forward when our usual problem-solving methods aren’t working. Instead of simply making sure projects are progressing at a satisfactory pace, supervisors can ask employees more in-depth questions: How has your understanding of the project changed? What has surprised you? Are you tempted to change the project goals? If the employee responds that nothing has to be rethought, this may indicate that the person isn’t adopting the In/Stance. Confusions and conflicts may offer opportunities for gaining insights. Employees may have misconceptions of different ideas about how things work– Investigate these inconsistencies, as they may lead to insights.

Learning is about unlearning. Like every change, it requires unfreezing , changing and refreezing.

Of course determining how many of the roughly 900,000 active docs have an entrepreneurial mindset depends on how you define it and the instrument you use to measure it. Since few, if any, have done that, including search and placement firms, there is really no valid way to know.

Here’s an article that covers the landscape and attempts to measure the entrepreneurial mindset. Basically, personalities are fixed, but skills can be learned.

Personality Scales

Independence: The desire to work with a high degree of independence (e.g., I’m uncomfortable when expected to follow others’ rules.)

Preference for Limited Structure: A preference for tasks and situations with little formal structure (e.g., I find it boring to work on clearly structured tasks.)

Nonconformity: A preference for acting in unique ways; an interest in being perceived as unique (e.g., I like to stand out from the crowd.)

Risk Acceptance: A willingness to pursue an idea or a desired goal even when the probability of succeeding is low (e.g., I’m willing to take a certain amount of risk to achieve real success.)

Action Orientation: A tendency to show initiative, make decisions quickly, and feel impatient for results (e.g., I tend to make decisions quickly.)

Passion: A tendency to experience one’s work as exciting and enjoyable rather than tedious and draining (e.g., I’m passionate about the work that I do.)

Need to Achieve: The desire to achieve at a high level (e.g., I want to be the best at what I do.)

Skill Scales

Future Focus: The ability to think beyond the immediate situation and plan for the future (e.g., I’m focused on the long term.)

Idea Generation: The ability to generate multiple and novel ideas, and to find multiple approaches for achieving goals (e.g., Sometimes the ideas just bubble out of me.)

Execution: The ability to turn ideas into actionable plans; the ability to implement ideas well (e.g., I have a reputation for being able to take an idea and make it work.)

Self-Confidence: A general belief in one’s ability to leverage skills and talents to achieve important goals (e.g., I am a self-confident person.)

Optimism: The ability to maintain a generally positive attitude about various aspects of one’s life and the world (e.g., Even when things aren’t going well, I look on the bright side.)

Persistence: The ability to bounce back quickly from disappointment, and to remain persistent in the face of setbacks (e.g., I do not give up easily.)

Interpersonal Sensitivity: A high level of sensitivity to and concern for the well-being of those with whom one works (e.g., I’m sensitive to others’ feelings.)

It would be interesting to apply this to a physician population and compare to the general one.

Teaching and learning entrepreneurship is as much about nudging students to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset as it is teaching skills, particularly if they are narrowly focused on creating a business.

But, how do you reframe a mindset? Here are some tips on how to do it.

If we are to innovate our way out the the current “health” care system mess, we need to identify those with an entrepreneurial mindset and turn them loose on the most wicked problems that beset us. Marginalizing, stifling or channeling them into a limiting culture is a terrible waste of a mindset.

Image credits: Nina Angelovska, Pixabay

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