Transitioning from Scarcity to Abundance

We’re familiar with the idea that your mindset shapes the results in your life. The same principle applies to organizations.

In her work at The Clearing, consultant Joy Langley helps clients develop an abundance mindset in service of driving positive outcomes. Here, she explains how a scarcity OR abundance mindsets affect organizations and what leaders can do to facilitate the latter.

Scarcity & Abundance Mindsets

Examining the concept of a scarcity mindset reveals a belief in limited resources and an inability to adequately provide for oneself or others. Conversely, an abundance mindset perceives the world as abundant in resources, possibilities, and time. These contrasting mindsets significantly influence our professional lives, and in my experience at The Clearing, I’ve witnessed a diverse array of implications in the workplace and with clients stemming from both.

As a management consultant, I believe in the importance of mindset when advising clients. Much of my approach has its genesis in the book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Matters So Much, in which a scarcity mindset is defined as operating from a place where one feels that they don’t have enough – whether that’s time, funding, skills, resources, or information. For example, employees may fall into a scarcity mindset amidst rounds of layoffs in which communications are inadequate, wondering how they’ll complete their duties with reduced resources, how they’ll meet deadlines, or whether their job is next.

We can liken this to the Facts, Stories, and Beliefs PRIME, in which beliefs shape the facts we listen to and the stories we tell about them. No matter how you label it, a scarcity mindset can be disastrous for an organization. Using our example above, if layoffs have people mired in a scarcity mindset, productivity may suffer and employees may look for another job as a way out.

There are plenty of case studies that support the value of an abundance mindset and risks of a scarcity mindset. Here are two that illustrate how different organizations handled a situation similar to our example around layoffs.

The CEO of gaming company Nintendo once took a 50% pay cut to avoid layoffs, believing a fully staffed Nintendo would rebound from a downturn more quickly. That’s an abundance mindset. Alternatively, OpenAI’s board fired its CEO, only to reinstate him after it became clear that it could result in a mass defection by employees. That’s a scarcity mindset.

What strategies can individuals and organizations utilize to shift towards an abundance mindset and more importantly maintain it? 

Let’s explore this further, but before delving in, we’ll illustrate how scarcity mindsets generate effects both significant and subtle.

How Scarcity Affects Individuals, Teams, & Organizations

When we think about the implications of scarcity, we often think about the individual first, but it can ultimately affect entire teams, organizations, and industries. Let’s start small. Take, for example, a toddler acting from a place of pure ID. They’re tired, so they tantrum. Similarly, when an adult doesn’t feel secure in their job, scarcity starts to manifest and impact the person’s behavior. They may close themselves off, stay in their lane, and do the bare minimum – sometimes referred to as ‘quiet quitting.’

However, these individual actions typically have an impact on the team. Ultimately, if one or two people on a team are operating with a scarcity mindset, they can derail progress as they shut down and cease communications. If we move even further up the line, to the whole organization, you’ll discover that such teams end up being a ‘resource suck,’ requiring an imbalanced amount of attention and inward-facing effort to address the issues they create.

Further up still, to industry at large, the COVID pandemic gave us a prime example of how scarcity mindsets can play out at a macro level. Worried about falling revenues, some firms sought to protect themselves financially by imposing a hiring freeze or stopped matching employee IRA contributions. Others bought long-term, experienced employees out, laid off their workforce, and encouraged early retirement from that same cadre of long-term, experienced employees. The overall message was one of protecting resources – often with a short-sighted view. Here’s an example.

Maybe one of those firms that sought to stop losses through a hiring freeze effectively eliminated their college recruitment program, which means they now don’t have a pipeline of younger workers. Focusing on the short-term without seeing the long-term implications is the unfortunate result of a scarcity mindset, and its impact can be long-lasting.

Strategies for Supporting an Abundance Mindset

How can individuals shift from a scarcity mentality to one of abundance? Below are a selection of strategies I deploy when working with clients to help support such growth:

• Invest in people. Look to the Human Resources team for support, and make a statement by investing in people. People thrive when they understand the ‘why’ within the company context and are aware of the resources available to them – from training support to paid time off.
• Foster collegiality. Create an environment where people understand one another using a tool like the CliftonStrengths Assessment. It goes a long way in creating a sense of abundance in resources when people within the organization can relate to one another in ways beyond job responsibilities.
• Promote wellness. Wellness takes many forms, but it is important in driving positivity, which is where abundance thrives. Wellness includes basics like paid time off and healthcare, but it also means, for example, ensuring employees feel comfortable leaving early on days they had to come in early. When people feel comfortable that their employer trusts them to work their allotted hours and get their work done in that time they feel empowered. Empowered employees are typically more positive employees.
• Honor the human. Creating a team charter agreement can help get the best out of a team, ease anxiety, and make people feel comfortable with available resources – all critical to fostering an abundance mindset. For example, a charter helps create basic agreements such as how off-hours phone calls and emergency texts are preferred to be handled. It could be as simple as, “As a program manager, I commit to texting you before I call,” which can eliminate the panic someone may feel if they receive a call from their supervisor in the middle of a weekend family activity. That simple act can allow an employee to excuse themselves for privacy and transition to a work mindset before taking the call. Clear communication engenders a sense of trust, and trust engenders abundance.

Whether you’re at the helm of a multinational corporation like Nintendo or overseeing a regional sales team, it’s crucial to acknowledge those instances when the allure of scarcity threatens to sway your decision-making. Take the time to assess such situations with a perspective geared toward abundance, as it could be instrumental for your organization’s success. By prioritizing genuine engagement, embracing human-centered leadership, and valuing the people within your company and beyond, you’ll naturally cultivate an abundance mindset.

If you’re interested in discussing how to foster abundance and enhance success within your organization, feel free to reach out anytime—I’m eager to explore the opportunities with you.