The Locus of Control

“To become genuinely productive, we must take control of our attention; we must build mental models that put us firmly in charge” - Charles Duhigg

Introduction:

According to experts, you should seek to build a culture of controlled and considered decision making to channel and craft the creativity and dynamism of your team. Failure to do so could lead to the company going "out of control", scope creep will be common, there will be a lack of coherent strategy and opportunism will cause your focus to blow around with external factors. So how do you drive and keep focus, the answer is a culture of an internal locus of control, which I'll explain further below.

The following post is inspired at it's core by Charles Duhigg's book Smarter, Faster, Better, which explored psychological factors in high performing teams from the military and technology companies.

Here are 8 key takeaways as to why and how to change your culture to an internal locus of control. 👊

1. What is locus of control?

Put simply, locus of control is the difference in focus between what you can control "Internal Locus", and the things outside of your control "External Locus". Being "in control" is it's around accepting the things externally and applying your efforts/agency and the efforts of your team to have success in whatever circumstances bring.

Focusing on the picture above - navigating the river, the sportsman will observe the water and make progress through the gates and goals through applying effort in different directions, sometimes he will fight the current and progress will be hard, but his effort will enable him to achieve the goals. This is a good example of an internal locus of control.

The converse is that the sportsman takes measure of his results only in the speed he achieves, and only applies his effort aligned to the current, no matter where it takes him - perhaps to somewhere dangerous, he doesn't observe the water, measure or identify strategic goals, he doesn't go through the gates and he only rides with the flow. When he hits rocks, it is the fault of the current for taking him there, when the canoe sinks, it is not his fault but was fate. This is an example of an external locus of control.

2. What is this like in startups?

For founders, running a startup with a focus on an external locus of control can feel like a divine force, serendipity and fate have a hand in everything you're doing. Opportunities appear and must all be valuable and pursued, fate has handed them to you.

The risk is that you were actually throwing spaghetti at the wall, and some stuck, people are coming because they admire you or your creative work - not necessarily because it makes sense for them to be a customer. You could be building a fan-base, not a customer-base, and while valuable, this is not conducive to rapid scaling where you meet wider customer needs and values effectively.

The external locus is a maniacal trap, full of ego and a game of blame, it's not a culture conducive to efficient scaling or strategising.

Forming a focus on the internal locus of control can change the game, drive strategy and planning, and enable a scalable enterprise and proactive team.

3. So what's an internal locus of control?

If your team and your company is "in control" - you're measuring, considering, discussing and applying your agency to make decisions and apply effort and resources in different directions - event sometimes fighting the current and doing things that are difficult.

Measuring, understanding, strategising, building KPIs around key customer values and looking to identify uncertainties that need effort to uncover them. These are the tenants of an internal locus of control.

4. How does this relate to ValRes® frameworks?

ValRes® takes the approach to look to use what you know or can predict to measure, consider and discuss your go-to-market approach. You seek to learn about customer's receiving value, and find groups of customers that can receive a high value from your innovation. You also seek to find customers that are willing to change their behavior to overcome their problems - you'll use data to measure this. Then you'll go on to understand your uncertainties, and set out a plan to evidence your assumptions, or prove them wrong - resulting in a change in strategy and approach.

In the context of the sportsman, ValRes® takes the approach to observe the water, plan your effort and measure what you can while you traverse the river. Noting where there are uncertainties and seeking to challenge assumptions as you go, replanning where you got them wrong.

5. How can you bed an internal locus of control into your culture?

“A salesman with an internal locus of control will blame a lost sale on his own lack of hustle, rather than bad fortune.”

To drive internal locus, focus on data, measurement, information, decision and strategy. Collect the assumptions driving the strategy and be prepared to prove them right or wrong.

Create a culture where failure is tolerated, and effort rewarded.

“Telling fifth graders they have worked hard has been shown to activate their internal locus of control, because hard work is something we decide to do. Complimenting students for hard work reinforces their belief that they have control over themselves and their surroundings.”

6. How do you keep external locus thinking out?

“We praise people for doing things that are hard. That’s how they learn to believe they can do them.”

External locus thinking includes concepts like luck and fate, try to avoid citing them. If you win a big deal it was because of the effort put in that needs recognition and reward. Reward the efforts, not the attainment, especially when the efforts are put into something hard.

Try to avoid calling people talented, talent is often seen as something we don't have agency over, instead highlight the effort they put in to honing their skills and applying themselves to the goals of the company.

Rebuff someone applying blame by asking people to consider how they could have applied their effort to support or improve the situation. Reward those that apply effort to support others.

“unless we practice self-determination and give ourselves emotional rewards for subversive assertiveness, our capacity for self-motivation can fade”

7. Where can I learn more?

Smarter Faster Better, by Charles Duhigg - part of our reading list

Sign up for one of our ValRes® workshops