It’s not easy to summarise the wonderful work of Chris Argyris. His work on mindsets, namely the Unilateral Control mindset and the Mutual Learning mindset, seems particularly difficult to summarise – and yet it’s so vitally important to anyone who works with other people.

Here’s my latest attempt, at approachable wording for the two mindsets.

Unilateral Control:  (common, and counter-productive)

“Guess what they’re thinking.
Don’t trigger negative emotions.
Get them to do what you want”.

Mutual Learning: (works better)

” Test assumptions (about what they’re thinking)
Share valid information.
Seek well-informed agreement.”

(In this context, “unilateral” simply means “one sided” and “mutual” means “we’re all in this together”. )