mindset.pdf

7/25/2019 Mindset.pdf

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In this research brief you will learn why fostering a growth mindset culture can

help your employees reach their full potential and make your organization

more resilient to changing business needs.

Recent research on organizational psychology shows that one of the primary

factors that influences an individual employees ability to learn and adapt to

changing conditions is their mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe

that talent and intelligence are natural and inherent. People with this mindset

are less adaptable to changing circumstances because they are limited by a

fear of failure and a need to be perceived as naturally talented. People with

a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that talent and intelligence can

be developed though practice and effort. These people are more resilient in

times of change and are better equipped to innovate and adapt.

Organizational culture can reinforce an individuals mindset. Typically,

organizations promote a fixed mindset by rewarding a superstar mentality

and discouraging candid conversations. This culture tends to limit innovation,

learning and collaboration. Conversely, learning organizations foster a

growth mindset by embedding expectations for learning and reflection in the

fabric of the organization. These organizations create a supportive learning

environment, including active leadership support, and establish formal

learning strategies to ensure that all employees have access to the training,

information and networks they need.

Because mindsets can be learned, organizations can actively influence their

employees mindsets by providing learning opportunities that promote

reflection and debate, providing safe harbors for practicing and failing, and

actively teaching employees how to learn. Supporting these developmentalopportunities with organizational structures that recognize and reward

collaboration and learning from failure helps perpetuate the growth mentality

outside the classroom by embedding it into the expectations for their daily work.

Organizations that actively develop the learning agility of their employees by

fostering a growth mindset will be better able to adapt to changing market

and customer needs. This increased agility serves as a key competitive

advantage for learning organizations.

Home Grown: Building a Learning Organization byCultivating a Growth Mindset


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INTRODUCTION

In the face of quickly changing markets and customer needs, an

organizations ability to respond can be a key differentiator from theircompetitors. However, in order to do this, organizations must be able to get

people across the company to quickly learn new priorities and processes.

Unfortunately, typical organizational cultures may actually inhibit this type

of change by setting up an organizational mindset of natural talent that

generates a fear of failure that can undermine learning, innovation and

strategic problem solving. In this brief we will explore how an organization

built on a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset can encourage

organizational learning and growth.

WHATS WRONG WITH TALENT?

In her book,Mindsets, Carol Dweck explores why some people are

successful, while others, who seem to have similar capabilities dont live up

to their potential. According to her research, the answer lays in the ways in

which people think about their intelligence and talent. Dweck distinguishes

between two typical conceptualizations, or mindsets:

Fixed Mindset:People who tend to believe that intelligence and talents are

natural and inherent are said to have a fixed mindset. While talent can be

sharpened or dulled through experience, people with a fixed mindset believe

that it cant be substantially changed.

Growth Mindset:People who tend to believe that intelligence and talents

are developed traits are said to have a growth mindset. For these people,

intelligence and talents can be significantly changed through deliberative

practice and effort.

Because intelligence and talent are not directly measurable, our actions,

and feedback on our actions, serve as rough indicators of our underlying

abilities. For people with a fixed mindset, this can result in a hyper focus on

achievements, because these serve as outward evidence of ability. While an

achievement may seem like a positive trait, often, people with a fixed mindset

are easily thrown by failure because it makes them doubt their abilities. This

can be manifest in a reluctance to try new things that they might not be

immediately good at or a tendency to hide problems so that others dont

question their abilities.


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People with a growth mindset, on the other hand, tend to focus on learning

instead of achieving. While they still attend to the feedback they receive on

their actions, successes and failures are treated as equally important input

for consideration. People with a growth mindset are more likely to approach

something new as a challenge and view failures as a reflection of their effort

or context.

The willingness of people with a growth mindset to take on tasks outside

of their comfort zone can lead to what Malcom Gladwell calls the gift

of doubt. Gladwell describes how true innovation arises when a person

suddenly realizes that they are out of depth and they decide to press on

instead of give up. In those moments, the necessity of a solution can spur

creativity that couldnt occur within the safety of the status quo. People witha fixed mindset are less likely to experience these revolutionary changes

because they are less likely to risk being out of their depth in the first place

and when faced with a challenge are more likely to retreat.

Because of these differences, employees with a growth mindset are likely

to be more resilient in the face of change and more likely to generate truly

innovative ideas compared to their peers with a fixed mindset.

CHANGING YOUR MINDSET

Dwecks research suggests that our mindsets about intelligence and talent

are learned through school, culture and upbringing. As such, it is also

possible to change our perceptions, and in turn our behaviors. Her research

suggests that something as simple as priming a person with the idea that a

task can be learned through practice is enough to shift someone from a fixed

mindset to a growth mindset for that task.

In order to change from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset individuals must

learn and internalize several key concepts:

Mind is a muscle that can and should be exercised

Effort is not a signal of deficiency, but instead a signal of commitment

Learning is humbling. Being a learner requires being open to the

vulnerability of not knowing

Frustration and confusion are natural stages in learning

Discover your

mindset:

Carol Dwecks

MindsetAssessment

People with a

fixed mindset

hide failures

so that others

dont question

their ability.

People with

growth mindsets

view failures

as input for

consideration.


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Reflection is an important part of the learning journey. Action without

reflection provides only incremental value.

The idea that mindset can be learned is particularly important for

organizations because leaders and organizational culture can have

a profound impact on the perceptions of employees on their own

developmental potential. Expectations and processes at the organizational

level can create a culture that either promotes a growth mindset or reinforces

a fixed mindset.

HOW ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE PROMOTES

GROWTH AND FIXED MINDSETSJust as people tend to have fixed or growth mindsets, organizations do as

well. Research on organizational effectiveness shows that some organizations

are more effective at promoting employees ability to create, acquire and transfer

knowledge. These learning organizations tend to be more innovative and

agile, and therefore more responsive to changing business needs.

According to David Gavin of Harvard Business School, the three building

blocks of a learning organization are a supportive learning environment,

concrete learning processes and practices and leadership behavior that

reinforces learning.

A supportive learning environment is one in which it is ok to disagree with

peers or authority figures and it is ok to ask nave questions. Differences

of opinion are encouraged and appreciated and time is devoted to reflect

on what has been learned. A supportive learning environment doesnt

refer specifically to the classroom setting, instead it is a characteristic of all

interactions.

Concrete learning process and practicesrefers to both a formalization of

curriculum throughout the entire employee lifecycle for all employees as well

as processes, and structures supporting the dissemination of ideas. In learning

organizations, information sharing is facilitated and rewarded so that information

flows laterally as well as vertically within the organization.

Critical to sustaining a learning organization isleadership behavior that

reinforces learningthrough role modeling the type of dialogue and debate

Learning

organizations

tend to be

more innovative

and agile.


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that is desired. Leaders of learning organizations actively shift their focus

from evaluating achievements to understanding processes that went into

achievement the so that the desired thinking patterns, relationships and

behaviors are rewarded.

These characteristics parallel the strength areas of people with a growth

mindset. However, many organizations struggle to become learning

organizations because the building blocks described above require

significant structural changes. For example, the ability to openly and safely

share ideas across functional areas requires a permeable structure that is

quite different from most silos that exist on many organizational charts. Strict

functional boundaries and hierarchies are attractive to people with a fixed

mindset because it is easier to determine status and achievement when these

structures are in place. Similarly, more experienced employees with a fixedmindset are often resistant to formalized training because it implies that they

arent naturally skilled. Therefore, shifting to a learning organization model

may be difficult unless senior leadership is ready to champion the change.

How do you know if your organization is cultivating a fixed mindset culture

instead of a growth mindset culture? Watch for some of the following

warning signs:

Shuffling the Deck Chairs: Many organizations with a fixed mindset end up

with very small talent pools because opportunities are rotated between thesame set of superstar employees. This creates the perception of innate

talent, and becomes self-fulfilling because other employees do not have

access to experiences that would stretch their capability.

Superstar Burnout:A related scenario is the early burnout of high potentials

who may feel overwhelming pressure to maintain their superstar status.

Within role, symptoms of burnout resulting from a fixed mindset may be

expressed as aggressive/defensive behavior designed to mask problems, or

errors in judgment made because of a perceived need move quickly. Total

burnout can result in losing the employee altogether.

One and Done:Where learning organizations take failures as opportunities

to learn about context, processes etc., fixed mindset organizations have a low

tolerance for failure. This may result in punitive actions taken against individuals

or groups (ex. Witch hunts, scapegoating). In growth mindset organizations

there is still personal accountability, but errors are considered part of the

developmental process.

Learning

organizations

promotea growth

mindset among

employees by

creating a safe

environment to

share lessons

from bothsuccesses and

failures


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Project Churn:In a fixed mindset organization the push-pull between a

high need for perceived achievement and a fear of failure may incentivize a

revolving door of project initiation and abandonment. Projects are started

as a signal of productivity, but quickly pulled if initial measures suggest that

results wont be as strong as anticipated. This churn reduces the ability of

individual project owners to develop their own problem solving skills and

reduces the organizations ability to apply lessons learned to future projects.

Performance Goal Inflation:Many performance management systems

reinforce a fixed mindset by focusing on achievement based goals. Often

performance goals are either equivalent to an employees job role, allowing

employees to stay in their comfort zone, or they are initiative based goals

that promote the project churn mentioned above. In growth mindset

organizations performance management conversations focus on thedevelopment aspect of the goals and periodic appraisals focus on ensuring that

the resources, training and relationships are in place to ensure success.

Organizations looking to foster a growth mindset among their employees can

begin by carefully evaluating their existing culture to determine what factors

encourage or discourage a growth mindset and then actively build growth

mindset culture instead.

CONCLUSION: DEVELOPING A GROWTHMINDSET CULTURE

In order to respond to changing business needs, organizations must invest

in the ability of their employees to learn and adapt. However, as research

on organizational psychology shows, individual mindsets may hamper

employees ability to realize their full potential.

Luckily, mindset can be changed. However, because the fixed mindset is so

deeply ingrained in the US culture, developing a growth mindset among your

employees requires purposive action that helps individuals learn to learn

again. Some key activities that can build a growth mindset include:

1. Leadership Pipeline:Provide development experiences to mid-level

management to help them prepare for their next role. Use these

experiences to break down barriers to learning.


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2. Reflection and Debate:Incorporate opportunities for reflection and

candid discussion into learning opportunities to allow employees to

practice these key skills.

3. Knowledge Sharing: Recognize and reward knowledge sharing and

collaboration. Provide opportunities to connect people across the

organization.

4. Safe Harbors:Celebrate failures as lessons learned both at the project

level and at the individual development level.

5. Leadership Mindset: Provide mindset training to leaders so that they can

cultivate a growth culture on their teams.

By investing in developing a growth mindset, organizations can better

harness the potential of their employees and create a culture of innovationand resilience.

Brought to you by Strayer@Work

Find us atStrayeratwork.com

Follow CEO, Kelly Bozarth, on Twitter@Kelly_Bozarth

Sources:Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: the new psychology of success.New York: RandomHouse.

Garvin, D. A. (1993). Building a learning organization. Harvard Business Review, 71(4),78-91.

Gladwell, M. (2013, June 24). The Gift of Doubt. . Retrieved July 16, 2014, from http://gladwell.com/

Heslin, P. (2009). Potential is in the Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Managers who

Spot Rising Stars. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, (2), 420-424.

Rock, D., Davis, J., & Jories, E. (2013). One Simple Idea That Can Transform PerformanceManagement. People and Strategy, VOLUME 36/ISSUE 2, 16-19.

Spitzer, R. (2013). Lighting the Fire of Innovation. Journal For Quality & Participation,36(3), 15-18.

Von Culin, K., Tsukayama, E., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). Unpacking grit:Motivational correlates of perseverance and passion for long-term goals.Journal of Positive Psychology.

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