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How to Escape Functional Fixedness
By Yasmina Khelifi, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, PMP
Do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset as a project manager? How do you avoid “functional fixedness?” Learn more in this month’s article from PMI!
Key Takeaways
- Seek reverse mentoring.
- Listen to diverse voices.
- Take roles at work—or outside it—in different areas.
When you begin to work in project management, you have much to learn and need to build credibility and trust with stakeholders. You are alert to new things, new behaviors, and the need to continuously improve.
Yet you may become overconfident about your project management competencies as the years pass. You may develop comfortable routines. You may fall into what psychologists call functional fixedness, a cognitive bias that sometimes prevents you from thinking of novel or creative solutions to problems.
How can you get trapped in functional fixedness?
It may sound counterintuitive because we have more information at our disposal these days at work and on social media: reports, posts, or lessons learned from organizations or individuals.
When I studied at university, the information came from the internet, printed books, or professors. Nowadays, we have all the materials and content to learn new things. However, because we are overwhelmed, we narrow down the content based on our interests. And we may become entrenched in the same areas.
It is essential to remain open to other industries, knowledge, content, and people.
How do you escape functional fixedness?
- Seek reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring (also known as upward mentoring) is a professional development practice where a less experienced or junior employee is a mentor to a more experienced or senior colleague. The goal is to tame your ego. You will gain new perspectives that will help you to interact with your younger team members. If you feel intimidated, you may begin with small steps: Ask the young intern to review your slide deck and ask you questions, or repeat your presentation in front of them.
- Listen to diverse voices. You may have a young intern or colleague close to retirement in your projects. Or perhaps you are a technical project leader who has to collaborate with the marketing department. All have valuable inputs to give you. All can help you discover new horizons. You may have former university friends who work in other industries; talk with them to understand their challenges and how they solve them.
- Take roles at work—or outside it—in different areas. You may not have a remarkably diverse workplace. Look for communities or activities you can get involved in to immerse yourself in a different environment. You can define what “different” means for you. Differences can embrace social, economic, or academic backgrounds, along with ages, countries, cultures, genders, etc.
On the contrary, you may be in a diverse workplace, but you don’t take the time to talk genuinely with your colleagues to learn more. Have one-on-one breaks with some of them to exchange information.
Regardless of your situation, once you experience a new situation (that you naturally find or intentionally look for), observe how you feel:
- What do you like about the situation?
- What do you find disturbing?
- What are you learning?
Making efforts to remain open will protect you from functional fixedness. What strategies do you use to embrace novelty?
