The hack mindset
‘A hacker is someone who always assumes that one part is broken.’ John Wilshere, Founder of Smithery.
Simply put, hacking is about observing a condition, finding the gap, shifting the dial and implementing focused adjustments, to make things better.
History has many example of hackers. Florence Nightingale was a hacker. While she was treating injured soldiers during the Crimean War, she discovered that most of the soldiers who died, did so not from their initial wounds but from infection or diseases they acquired in the hospital. As a result, she made sure that everyone working there washed their hands and kept everything clean; this led to a dramatic decrease in fatalities.* These sanitation reforms greatly improved the lives of soldiers, and widespread adoption of Nightingale’s hygienic practices vastly reduced mortality rates of humanity.
Context and environments are becoming more disrupted, elastic and multi-modal; old constructs once trusted are breaking down. In this “new” world, rather than do what you did last time, ask, ‘What needs to shift to make this better?’
A hacking mindset can be cultivated by building the conscious habit to look at situations and challenges from a different angle. It is time to bring curious enquiry or the hacking mindset into your professional life. This approach (and the results) will invariably reframe discussions, underpin assertive commercial and operational approaches and inevitably, set up new progression pathways.
An impactful way to navigate agile environments is to continually shift ‘the norm’. The truth is, there is no norm and the future is under-imagined. So, in this ever-evolving environment, there is a need for heightened resilience, creative adaptation and for divergent ways of thinking. From this perspective, a great approach to activate impactful, responsive change is for you and everyone in your cohort to become hackers – why don’t we start now?
Share your hack?
*Daniele Fiandaca – What do Florence Nightingale, graffiti artists, and Sir Brailsford have in common? The answer might just revolutionise your business…2019
