Mindset & Values

Andrew Hastie is the opposition defence spokesman and the Liberal member for Canning in Western Australia. He is a former member of the Special Air Service Regiment who has served in Afghanistan, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. 

He wrote an opinion piece in the Weekend Australian on 4 June 2024 titled “War in the next decade is possible. We are not prepared.”  The article suggests Australia is far from ready for any international conflict, but largely because of our values and mindset.  Hastie suggests we have “allowed a culture of relativism to sweep through our schools and universities, denuding us of the essential values that will sustain us during times of trial.”    Values, mindset.

Hastie refers to  Laurence Olivier’s 1944 wartime portrayal of Henry V.  He writes:

The movie was one was one of bright energy, pomp and pageantry, celebrating the English warrior-king. It rallied weary English hearts battered by World War II. Olivier’s inspirational performance of the St Crispin’s Day speech on the edge of battle – “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers” – has had lasting resonance with people. To many, it’s a play about heroic leadership in the face of grave odds.

But Harold Bloom, saw a play about the mastery of power and a leader who is ruthless in the pursuit of his objectives, even if the rhetoric is stirring. Bloom writes that “power keeps its habit through the ages” and so there is much to be learned about leadership, war and statecraft in Henry V.  Shakespeare reminds us that war is ultimately a human enterprise and deeply psychological. He drives this home through Henry as he surveys the French ranks arrayed against him at Agincourt says: “All things are ready, if our minds be so.” Shakespeare’s point is clear: wars are won and lost primarily in the mind

Mindset, values. 

Hastie also discusses the work of CS Lewis, Oxford professor, war veteran and storyteller.

CS Lewis identified this same crisis during World War II. At the University of Durham in 1943, he lamented the subtle yet pervasive attack on objective values in favour of a world view based on subjective feeling.

“In battle it is not syllogisms that will keep the reluctant nerves and muscles to their post in the third hour of the bombardment,” Lewis wrote. “The crudest sentimentalism … about a flag or a country or a regiment will be of more use.”

And concludes:

If we are to prevail in the next conflict – if we are to ready our minds – we must focus on reviving the best elements of classical learning and build young Australians who share a love of country, service and each other.

While the article may be written in the context of conflict, consider the learnings from a business perspective. 

Its extraordinary to me that Shakespeare identified the importance of mindset in Henry V in 1599 and that international best seller, “Mindset” published in 2017 by Dr. Carole S. Dweck, a Stanford University professor is identified as a “truly groundbreaking discovery – the power of mindset”. Dweck notes how a simple idea about the brain can create a love of learning and a resilience that is the basis of great accomplishment in every area.

The way we think shapes our success, our happiness and our relationship with others. Simples.  The way we think about business shapes its success, its resilience and its future.

Peter Debus is a director of PrincipleFocus, a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser.