Growing a DevOps Mindset

We often think that implementing change in an organisation is mostly about technology. And to be honest, technically it often is quite doable. Engineers usually make things work. They learn new tools, adapt their code, and get stuff running. The real difficulty starts when that change requires them to work differently with others — outside of their team, outside of their comfort zone. That is when it gets hard.

The Firewall Guy

One of the examples that comes up often is cloud migration. A technical shift, sure, but what it often reveals is how deeply siloed organisations still are. Development teams are excited about agility, automation, and speed. But then you run into the security team, who treat the cloud like a traditional data centre. Need a firewall port open? That will take two weeks.

It is not just bureaucracy. It is mindset. “It is what it is” becomes the default. People stop challenging how things are done. Sometimes, it is about control. Sometimes it is fear. Fear of becoming irrelevant. If I am no longer the gatekeeper of the firewall, what is left of my job?

That fear is human. And it gets in the way of change.

Fixed vs Growth Mindset

That reminded me of a powerful framework: Carol Dweck’s concept of the growth mindset. She studied why some people thrive under challenge and others retreat. The difference was not intelligence or skill. It was how they saw effort and failure.

People with a fixed mindset believe their abilities are static. Success defines them. Failure threatens them. So they avoid risk, avoid challenge, avoid looking stupid. People with a growth mindset see ability as something to develop. They embrace challenge. They learn from feedback. They do not tie their identity to the outcome.

It clicked for me. So many symptoms we see in resistant teams come down to this. Status quo thinking. Siloed behaviour. Saying yes without action. It is all rooted in a fear of being wrong, of being exposed, or of being seen as less.

Three Fears That Block Change

Another big inspiration is Patrick Lencioni’s Getting Naked, which talks about three common fears in professional environments:

1. Fear of being embarrassed — not asking questions, not challenging decisions.
2. Fear of losing your job or business — holding back honest input, sugarcoating the truth.
3. Fear of being inferior — avoiding anything that makes you feel less competent than others.

You cannot build a DevOps mindset if these fears dominate the culture. We need to create environments where it is okay to not know. Where people feel safe to ask the “dumb” question. Where mistakes are learning opportunities, not career enders.

Changing Mindsets with ADKAR

So how do you shift that mindset across an organisation? One model I find useful is ADKAR:

• Awareness — Why are we doing this? What is the bigger picture?
• Desire — What is in it for me? Why should I care?
• Knowledge — What do I need to learn?
• Ability — Can I practise in a safe space?
• Reinforcement — How do we recognise and sustain the change?

We often skip straight to knowledge. We flood people with training, tools, and Terraform examples. But if there is no desire, none of it sticks. If there is no awareness, they do not even understand what they are being asked to change. It is like teaching someone how to drive without ever telling them why they need a car.

Trust Before Conflict, Conflict Before Commitment

Changing a mindset is not just individual work. It is team dynamics. Culture. Trust comes first. Only when people trust each other can they disagree, have conflict, and commit together to a new direction. Without that, people hold back. They nod in meetings and disengage afterward.

And sometimes, what sounds like “everybody disagrees” is just the vocal minority. Most people are somewhere in the middle. Not actively resisting, but not moving either. That silent majority is your lever. Focus on them. Support them. Find the quiet influencers and help them step forward. Change spreads faster when it comes from peers, not just from above.

Praise Effort, Not Just Outcome

Maybe the most important thing: praise effort, not just outcome. In school. In parenting. In organisations. If we only reward results, people will not take risks. They will not try new things. They will not grow.

But if we reward effort, curiosity, collaboration, and reflection, we build something much stronger. We create a culture where learning is valued and fear takes a back seat.

That is the DevOps mindset. And it is something we can all grow into.