When we operate from an outward mindset, we see our teammates as people working toward the same goal. Rather than being self-focused, we focus on others and take their needs and objectives into account. It is only by being outward that we recognize our own impact.

By the Arbinger Institute | January 04, 2022

Every few years, a video of adorable children pushing toy shopping carts circulates on social media. The video is from a child development study called, “The Development of Body Self-Awareness,” popularly referred to as “The Shopping Cart Study.”

The design of the study was simple. Researchers attached a small mat to the back of a toy shopping cart and directed toddlers to push the toy cart toward their parent. To move the cart, they had to grab the handle, which meant they would step on the mat. Stepping on the mat with their body weight prevented them from moving the cart.

Younger children struggled to move the cart. Their feet stayed planted on the mat while they pushed or shoved or climbed until they eventually gave up. Older children, having cognitively developed self-awareness, were far more successful. They were able to look for the source of the problem and recognize their part in the dilemma. They looked at their feet, stepped off the mat, and approached the problem in a new way. They understood that to move the cart, they had to move themselves.

The shopping cart was not the problem. Standing on the mat was the problem.

In our organizations, we are always pushing figurative shopping carts. We each grab our part of the handle as we work together toward common goals and objectives as teams, departments, divisions, and companies. When we struggle to achieve results, we get frustrated and look for the source of the problem. Often, it leads to assumptions and labeling of other people. Asking questions like:

Who is standing on the mat?

Don’t they know they need to get off the mat?

Who isn’t pushing as hard?

Who is pushing the wrong direction? Who is getting in our way?

Who could be pressed to push harder?

The source of the problem feels obvious. It’s them!

Like the younger children in the study, we don’t look at our own feet. When we operate from an inward mindset, we focus on our own results and objectives. Others are obstacles to blame, vehicles to use, or irrelevancies to ignore in pursuit of what we want to achieve. There is no need to look for our own contribution to the problem because others are the problem. Our feet stay firmly on the mat. The cart stubbornly refuses to move.

When we operate from an outward mindset, we see our teammates as people working toward the same goal. Rather than being self-focused, we focus on others and take their needs and objectives into account. It is only by being outward that we recognize our own impact.

The outward mindset unlocks the level of collaboration organizations must have to achieve important objectives. When applied systematically, each person pushing the cart works with an awareness of what others are trying to accomplish and adjusts their efforts to be the most helpful.

When we turn outward, we recognize our impact and change our behavior.
We step off the mat.
The cart moves.

Feeling stuck? Let us help you get unstuck and reach your organization’s potential.

Source: Moore, C., Mealiea, J., Garon, N., &; Povinelli, D. J. (2007). The Development of Body Self-Awareness. Infancy, 11(2), 157–174. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2007.tb00220.x