How to avoid scarcity thinking

This article is written by Rell DeShaw, a manager within the Government of Canada, and an occasional blogger

Covid-19 has taken so much from so many of us that it can be difficult at times to avoid looking at the world through the lens of what’s either lacking or missing.

With such moments comes the risk of falling into what is known as scarcity thinking.

Put simply, scarcity thinking is the zero sum notion that whatever you get I cannot have, and vice versa. In other words, there simply isn’t enough to go around. Some will inevitably get just enough or more, while others will go without.

Shifting our mindsets from scarcity thinking to its opposite, abundance thinking, is of course the happier option. This is more than a glass-half-full perspective on things. It’s also a science-backed way of advancing collectively in hard times.

The spiral of scarcity thinking

Scarcity thinking can be especially damaging when paired with downward spiral thinking, as discussed in ‘The art of possibility’ by teacher and communicator Benjamin Zander and psychotherapist Rosamund Stone Zander. I would describe the spiral that happens here as taking scarcity thinking to its extreme, reaching the most dire conclusion.

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Take my friend, an award-winning chef. When she is asked for her recipes, she gives them out freely. It is possible to react to this gesture with scarcity or downward spiral thinking, reaching the conclusion that by giving away her secrets, others will stop going to her restaurants. They’ll probably even see a buck in stealing her recipes and opening their own competing restaurants, and before you know it, she’ll be out of a job.

But if my friend sees the same gesture through the lens of abundance, the story suddenly changes. In this scenario, having people see her recipe cards might make them appreciate the degree of effort it takes to replicate her unique dishes. This would generate admiration for her as a chef, rather than a desire to recreate her work at home. Her customers would soon realise that though they are curious to know how she does it, they’d ultimately rather she did it for them.

Leaving aside extremes, I have been hard-pressed to find examples of situations that turned out as badly as I had feared in the moment.

Admittedly, this mindset shift isn’t attainable through rational deduction, but rather a leap of faith. So why make the leap? To answer this, I refer you to Adam Grant’s incredible book ‘Give and take’. Drawing on research-backed examples, it supports abundance thinking by linking generosity to success. Grant argues that by leading a life that is strongly concerned with rewarding others, a person is more likely to succeed themselves, provided they stop short of giving to their own detriment.

How then are we to embrace an abundance culture in the workplace?

Give more of what you want

Though counter-intuitive, you might consider how to give more of what you need. Do you feel like your work culture is losing its civility? A habit of a former boss of mine which I like to borrow is to send as many emails as I can with a “Good morning” or “Thank you” in them. I now often see this language mirrored by others.

Even politeness can be considered a luxury in times of stress. You can reverse that mentality with a few seconds and a few extra keystrokes.

Think about the long game

Scarcity thinking has also been characterised as extreme short-term thinking with a focus only on the negatives in the present moment. Though significant loss can be devastating, avoidance of risk, of thinking big or of taking chances, ignores the fact that we are generally more resilient than we think we are when confronted with severely inhibiting events. The long term effects of most of our losses and worries are overblown in the present moment.

When researchers checked in with both lottery winners and persons who had been through a catastrophic event (e.g. someone who had lost both legs in an accident), both groups returned to their original base levels of happiness within a year of these incidents.

On a practical level, you might consider using the 10/10/10 rule. Ask yourself if the issue you are fretting over will matter in 10 minutes. How about in 10 months, or even 10 years? This has been a powerful perspective shift tool I use frequently. Almost every time I invoke the rule, I exhale with relief, because I see that the consequences of that thing, be it a mistake or a difficult exchange, will not last the test of time. This too shall pass.

Remember to do a reality check

I often check in with myself to examine long-term outcomes after periods of great worry or actual loss. Leaving aside extremes (such as sudden deaths), I have been hard-pressed to find examples of situations that turned out as badly as I had feared in the moment. As a result, I have been able to recalibrate the extent to which I allow myself to worry about them.

Be a time-stretcher

One of the managerial styles I most admire is the one that makes people who have limited time seem carefree in person. You can think clearly around them and any meeting with them is more productive than if you were getting cut off, or were panicked about wasting their time. Now, especially when I am feeling frantic, I redouble my efforts to slow things down and receive colleagues’ questions with patience and a kind manner.

Though I’ve argued that the lens through which we view trying circumstances need not be one of scarcity, I don’t want to suggest that concerns to do with objective deprivation aren’t worthy of serious attention. Rather, I want to suggest that challenges our brains often interpret as zero sum may in fact benefit from being flipped, and so might produce more possibilities, more resources, and happier outcomes than we see at first. — Rell DeShaw

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