THE GROWTH MINDSET

THE GROWTH MINDSET

WHAT DOES THE GROWTH-MINDSET EVEN MEAN?

When Carol Dweck was a graduate student, in the early 1970s, she became interested in students and their attitudes about failure. What she noticed was that while certain students shook off failure and moved on, other students seemed devastated by even the slightest setbacks. After studying the behavior of thousands of children, Dr. Dweck coined the terms fixed-mindset and growth-mindset to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence. To sum up the findings: Individuals who believe they can develop their talents (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth-mindset. They achieve more than those with a more fixed-mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. When entire companies embrace a growth-mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive far greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation. In contrast, people at fixed-mindset companies report more of only one thing: cheating and deception among employees, to gain an advantage in the talent race.

TWO POLAR OPPOSITES

Debbie Millman once said, “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve… Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…” these words reflect what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success.

One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider being our personality. A fixed-mindset assumes that our character, intelligence, and creative ability are static givens which we can’t change in any meaningful way, and success is the affirmation of that inherent intelligence, an assessment of how those given measure up against a fixed standard; striving for success and avoiding failure at all costs become a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled. A growth-mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure not as evidence of unintelligence but as a heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Out of these two mindsets, which we manifest from a very early age, springs much of our behavior, our relationship with success and failure in both professional and personal contexts, and ultimately our capacity for happiness.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE GROWTH-MINDSET

Dr. Carol Dweck found out from her research they were three common misconceptions of the growth-mindset.

1. I already have it, and I always have. People often confuse a growth-mindset with being flexible or open-minded or with having a positive outlook — qualities they believe they’ve always had. She called this a false growth mindset. Everyone is a mixture of fixed and growth-mindsets, and that mixture continues to evolve with experience. A “pure” growth-mindset doesn’t exist, which we have to acknowledge to attain the benefits we seek.
2. A growth-mindset is just about praising and rewarding effort. This isn’t true for students in schools, and it’s not true for employees in organizations. In both settings, outcomes matter. Unproductive effort is never a good thing. It’s critical to reward, not just effort, but learning and progress, and to emphasize the processes that yield these things, such as seeking help from others, trying new strategies, and capitalizing on setbacks to move forward..
3. Just espouse a growth-mindset, and good things will happen. You can’t argue with lofty values like growth, empowerment, or innovation. But what do they mean to employees if the company doesn’t implement policies that make them real and attainable? They amount to lip service. Organizations that embody a growth-mindset encourage risk-taking, knowing some risks won’t work out. They reward employees for important and useful lessons learned even if a project does not meet its original goals. They support collaboration across organizational boundaries rather than competition among employees or units. It commits them to the growth of every member, not just in words but in deeds, such as available development and advancement opportunities. And they reinforce growth-mindset values with concrete policies.

Even if we correct these misconceptions, it’s still difficult to attain a growth-mindset. One reason is we all have our own fixed-mindset triggers. When we face challenges, receive criticism, or fare poorly compared with others, we can easily fall into insecurity or defensiveness, a response that inhibits growth. Our work environments, too, can be full of fixed-mindset triggers. A company that plays the talent game makes it harder for people to practice growth-mindset thinking and behavior, such as sharing information, collaborating, innovating, seeking feedback, or admitting errors.

COMPANIES CAN ACTUALLY PROFIT FROM THE GROWTH-MINDSET!

The burning question is always, “can an organization, like an individual, have a fixed or a growth-mindset? If so, what are the effects on the organization and its employees?” Since 2010 Dweck and three colleagues — Mary Murphy, Jennifer Chatman, and Laura Kray — have collaborated with the consulting firm Senn Delaney to answer those questions.

To explore company mindsets, the researchers asked a diverse sample of employees at seven Fortune 1000 companies about the extent to which they agreed with various statements — for example, “When it comes to being successful, this company seems to believe people have a certain amount of talent, and they really can’t do much to change it.” High levels of agreement suggested that the organization had a predominant fixed-mindset; low levels suggested a growth-mindset. The researchers then conducted surveys to try to understand how the prevailing organizational mindset influenced workers’ satisfaction, perceptions of the organizational culture, levels of collaboration, innovation, and ethical behavior, and how it affected supervisors’ views of employees.

“In broad strokes, we learned that in each company, there was a real consensus about the mindset,” Dweck says. “We also learned that a whole constellation of characteristics went with each mindset.” For instance, employees at companies with a fixed-mindset often said that just a small handful of “star” workers were highly valued. The employees who reported this were less committed than employees at growth-mindset companies and didn’t think the company had their back. They worried about failing and so pursued fewer innovative projects. They regularly kept secrets, used shortcuts, and cheated to try to get ahead.

Supervisors in growth-mindset companies expressed significantly more positive views about their employees than supervisors in fixed-mindset companies, rating them as more innovative, collaborative, and committed to learning and growing. They were more likely to say that their employees had management potential.

One major area in which mindset is especially important is hiring. Growth-mindset organizations are likely to hire from within their ranks, while fixed-mindset organizations reflexively look for outsiders. And whereas fixed-mindset organizations typically emphasize applicants’ credentials and past accomplishments, growth-mindset firms value potential, capacity, and a passion for learning. “Focusing on pedigree… is not as effective as looking for people who love challenges, who want to grow, and who want to collaborate.” The current trend of Google hiring people who lack university degrees but have proven that they are capable independent learners is a positive shift in this direction.

It is important to note that not all employees will be happier in growth-mindset organizations. For example, people who believe they are more talented than others may prefer an organization with a “star” system, where their talent will be better recognized (and compensated). In general, though, the early evidence suggests that organizations focused on employees’ capacity for growth will experience significant advantages.

In conclusion, to remain in a growth zone, we must identify and work with these triggers. Many managers and executives have benefited from learning to recognize when their fixed-mindset “persona” shows up and what it says to make them feel threatened or defensive. Most importantly, over time they have learned to talk back to it, persuading it to collaborate with them as they pursue challenging goals.

It’s hard work, but individuals and organizations can gain a lot by deepening their understanding of growth-mindset concepts and the processes for putting them into practice. It gives them a richer sense of who they are, what they stand for, and how they want to move forward.