The Mindsets

Our learning philosophy is based on the innovative International Masters in Practicing Management, founded by Henry Mintzberg, Jonathan Gosling, and their colleagues, and described in Henry's book, Managers not MBAs. Thoughtful reflection on natural experience, in the light of conceptual ideas is the most powerful tool we have for management learning.

All our management topics can be categorized around the five "Managerial Mindsets" as described by Gosling and Mintzberg in their Harvard Business Review article "The Five Minds of a Manager". In this way, a series of CoachingOurselves topics can be used to deliver a program, providing a balanced approach to management.

The mindsets were developed around the nature of a manager’s work. Everything that effective managers do is sandwiched between action on the ground and reflection in the abstract. Action without reflection is thoughtless; reflection without action is passive. All managers have to find ways to combine these two mindsets – to function at the point where reflective thinking meets practical doing.

But reflecting and acting about what? First, about collaboration – getting things done cooperatively with others. And of course all of this has to be rooted in the appreciation of current reality, which is the worldly mindset. Finally, in order to harmonize these mindsets people must subscribe to a certain rationality or order, thus the analytic mindset.

Action Mindset
Analytic Mindset
Collaborative Mindset
Reflective Mindset
Worldly Mindset