“Where the head goes, the body follows”

April 17, 2023

Apparently this (the title) is a Ryan Holiday quote. (He wrote a somewhat famous book: “The obstacle is the way.”)

Today I want to talk about the OPPOSITE. Well, kind of.

Many of us believe that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” NO, no, I did not really mean that. Just teasing. Although no doubt I got the attention of some people. (The hungry ones, I guess.)

Many of us think that if you can convince the MIND, the actions will follow. Change the mind, that will change the behavior.

This is a famous saying by Confucius:

“Tell me and I will forget; Show me and I may remember; Involve me and I will understand.”

Which is a way of saying: Changing the behavior will change the mind. The opposite of changing the mind first.

I heard that one here . This is Ivar Jacobson’s site. On this site I particularly recommend the scrum_cards, here.

Ivar’s comment is slightly different. Get them playing games with Scrum cards, and by this activity, you can get them to buy-in to Scrum. You can get the mindset to change.

Rather clever. Look at the cards, imagine playing a game. See what you think.

BTW, here is a discussion of possible “games” with the cards,

I was also reminded recently of Katzenbach and Smith’s book: The Wisdom of Teams.

I searched and went to this page / site.

As you move down the page, you will notice a quote by Jon Katzenbach:

“Start with changing behaviors, not mindsets.” And the rest of it:

Start with changing behaviors, not mindsets. It is much easier
to ‘act your way into new thinking’ than to ‘think your way into new actions.’
Recurring and consistent performance results from behavior change will
lead to lasting changes in the way people feel, think, and believe in the long run.

Wow! The lightbulb went on for me.

Kinesiology! The moving body. Where the body goes, the head follows.

If you are ready for a bit of fun, here’s a little video: The Rider, the Elephant, and the Path.