Spring Cleaning in Your Business and in Your Thinking

Key Takeaways:        

• People and organizations need to engage in spring cleaning (getting rid of outdated practices, policies, thinking) in order to move forward. Eliminate chaos, clutter, outdated thinking. 
• We must retain five mindsets: Purpose. Courage. Awareness. Inclusion. Integrative Thinking. 

A number of you likely follow Korn Ferry, CEO Gary Burnison’s “special edition” leadership insights. If so, you probably track with his philosophy of putting people first and relying on high emotional intelligence to make good decisions.

In a recent post, Burnison recounted childhood memories of spring cleaning. The analogy was something I remembered well from my youth (washing walls, hanging pillows on the clothesline, beating couch cushions outside and more). His insight focused on two particularly useful approaches to embracing change and moving toward greater impact in this new year. In brief, Burnison suggested that it’s time to clear out the outdated, pre-pandemic thinking and move forward by embracing specific mindsets.

Here’s what he says must go: chaos, clutter, outdated thinking.

Burnison labels these items as “junk that takes up the space we need to grow.” He says we must remove clutter, restore a sense of order and be open to ushering in new opportunities. His number-one item on the disposal list: “complacent inertia of conventional wisdom that keeps people and organizations stuck in ‘that’s the way we do things around here.’”

But note, these items are fairly easy to intellectualize, but hard to make happen. We need a deep cleaning… that fresh spring air… to open the space for new perspectives.

Next, Burnison outlines what we must keep: the five mindsets: purpose, courage, awareness, inclusion and integrative thinking. 

He labels these as crucial mindsets based on Korn Ferry’s latest research (hundreds of thousands of executive assessments). These are the non-negotiables in a forthcoming post-pandemic world. Burnison notes: (quoting)

• Purpose is the reason behind everything we do — the bridge from what we’ve been to what we will become.
• Courage — not having “no fear,” but rather to “know fear” — as we embrace continued ambiguity.
• Awareness — as we shift from “me” to “we.”
• Inclusion — it’s a behavior: leading the many, while at the same time understanding the perspective of all.  
• Integrative thinking — sculpting a mosaic, rather than only chipping away at the individual tiles.

Are you willing to tackle this spring cleaning task? I’m going to try. And I’ll be inspired by memories from my childhood tasks that — looking back — were quite formative in my growth and development.

Thanks, Mamaw and Papaw. Your spring cleaning discipline helped me more than I can ever say.

For additional reference / reading:

Burnison, Gary (March 21, 2021). “Spring Cleaning.” Korn Ferry marketing correspondence.

For the complete “Special Edition” leadership advice series.