In the following article, we will answer the questions: what is the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset, whether your company needs this approach and how to develop this mindset in your team.
What is growth mindset?
The difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset was first presented by psychologist Carol Dweck of Stanford University in 2010.
Let's look at the definitions:
Fixed mindset – the belief that every person has a certain level of intelligence and/or talent, and these traits are constant and unchangeable.
Growth mindset – the belief that anyone can continue to grow their skills through learning, persistence, and motivation. Success is determined not by innate talent or intelligence georgia mobile phone numbers database but by personal commitment to growth.
With a fixed mindset, a person believes that potential is “predetermined” from birth and cannot be developed beyond a “predetermined” level. For people with a growth mindset, potential is unlimited.
Carol Dweck in her book Mindset shows the difference between the two approaches using the example of the word “yet.” Where a person with a fixed mindset thinks, “I can’t do this ,” another with a growth mindset says, “I can’t do this…yet .” This formula focuses on potential, on what we can achieve if we just try.
With this approach, every obstacle becomes a learning opportunity. People with a growth mindset recover quickly from setbacks, recognizing them as part of the process.
According to Dr. Dweck, companies should more often develop a corporate culture that focuses on broadening the skills of everyone, rather than just recognizing the best employees. Dweck believes that when entire companies adopt a culture of development, their employees feel empowered, more supported in acquiring new skills, and more determined to propose new solutions.
Former Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella believes that the philosophy of development is a shift from “I know everything” to “I want to know everything .” At Microsoft, Nadella introduced this approach as “hypothesis testing.”
Instead of, “I have an idea ,” the manager says, “I have a new hypothesis, let’s test it .” If testing requires a disproportionate amount of resources, the team moves on to the next idea. Nadella emphasizes that if a hypothesis doesn’t work, it’s okay to admit failure.
How to develop a development mindset in a team?
#1. Include Learning in Your Work Goals
The types of goals you set for your team affect how they behave and think. Goals based solely on outcomes, such as company revenue, push employees into a fixed mindset. This approach lacks flexibility: either you meet the plan or you don’t.
Learning-based goals may seem less beneficial at first glance – unfortunately, you have to factor in the cost of team mistakes. However, this approach allows you to move away from the traditional “work as you work” method to adopting a growth mindset: looking for new, perhaps riskier solutions and getting used to seeing failures as growth points. In the long run, this approach pays off more.
The theory is confirmed by the example of Chrysler: in the 1980s, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and was forced to take out a government loan for 20 years. When management introduced the principles of growth mindset, the team created a new minivan model.
Prototype and implementation of the first Chrysler minivan
Prototype and implementation of the first Chrysler minivan
The success and profits were so great that Chrysler was able to pay off the loan 8 years early. The team abandoned the traditional goal of producing as many cars as possible of proven models, developing an entirely new, risky model - and succeeded.
#2 Support your team in the face of setbacks
Risk aversion is the typical behavior of someone stuck in a fixed mindset. To help your team break out of this trap, it’s important to show your teammates that they can make mistakes and the company won’t hold them accountable.
This is perfectly illustrated by the example of former Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who sent a letter of support to the team that organized the controversially failed project. In 2016, the company launched a bot on Twitter called Tay, which was supposed to show the possibilities of artificial intelligence by talking to users online about a given topic. Unfortunately, the bot had to be removed after 16 hours because users provoked it into racist and discriminatory statements.
