The Growth Mindset Platform
As we move into the New Year, organizations, leaders and individuals alike have the opportunity to create a new platform; a Growth Mindset Platform. A Growth Mindset Platform (GMP) is essential to innovation, synergy, engagement and transformation.
What is a Growth Mindset?
The concept of Growth Mindset is attributed to Carol Dweck, a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. In her book, Mindset, The New Psychology of Success, Dweck demonstrates the power of the growth mindset in success, innovation, and achievement.
According to Dweck, there are two types of mindsets; “fixed” and “growth” mindsets. People that have a fixed mindset believe in their qualities, situations, and outcomes are fixed. Those that developed a growth mindset believe these qualities, situations and outcomes can be transformed with hard work and dedication. This view, according to Dweck, creates a “love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” Those that have a growth mindset intrinsically strive to get better, learn more, develop new skills, and perform better than before. The translation to business equals resiliency, innovation, achievement and contribution connecting to the culture and ultimately, the customer, client or patient.
What are the Impacts of GMP?
There is much research in the past decades around the effects of how creating a growth mindset culture has on organizations. According to Dweck, growth mindset cultures have exceptional impacts, including:
Employees are 34% more likely to feel a sense of ownership and commitment to the future of their company
Employees state 65% agreement in that their company supports risk-taking
Employees had 47% higher trust in their company
Employees had 49% stronger agreement that their organizations foster innovation
NeuroLeadership Institute research found that other impacts on team members included positive attitudes, a perceived sense of empowerment, behavior change, and increased resilience.
How Do Companies Get It?
More and more companies are realizing the benefits of a growth mindset culture, so what are the steps that lead to this?
First, companies that strive to get a growth mindset usually start with defining it with elicit frames. By this, I recommend a conceptual vision be transcribed that includes how meanings around development, empowerment, accountability, learning and openness will be woven into the company’s view of the growth mindset. According to the NeuroLeadership Institute research, the most frequent meanings are:
Developmental: Incremental and continuous improvement, self-development, learning, helping others grow, and growing beyond one’s current role
Empowerment: Responsibility, shared accountability, initiative, and facing change
Openness: Embracing the new, being open to new challenges, staying curious, and dreaming big
Second, create a GMP plan for implementing the change. This includes with forming a 20-30 minute bi-weekly GMC meeting that focuses on learning, core values around the vision, and steps moving it forward consistently.
Third, create a GMP habit. In the GMC plan, include easy ways to make this a habit. Create consistent readings that move the whole team forward, place a poster with the vision easily accessible, create a system for transparent feedforward, and find environmental anchors to remind employees to focus on growth mindset. As a coach, I encourage teams to create a Wordle or poster of words that describe their culture, have a 15-20 minute Success Share weekly or bi-weekly to share the successes of the week, create promotional items with their GMP phrase, and to lead team learning meetings where members choose a book to apply learnings from.
Resources for a Growth Mindset Platform
There are many resources you can utilize to build understanding and platforms for a growth mindset. As was mentioned earlier, start with Carol Dweck’s, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ask for recommendations for mindset transformation books. I often recommend a structure and a book for companies just starting with a growth mindset. Seek out a coach or resource that can assess where your team is and help you develop a growth plan. In Valley County, the SynoVation Valley Leadership Academy (SVLA) is a viable resource for enrolling employees in learning and gaining a growth mindset. All these are viable options for supporting a new growth mindset platform!
Sources
Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House.
Dweck, C., Murphy, M., Chatman, J., & Kray, L. (n.d.). Why Fostering a Growth Mindset in Organizations Matters. In Senn Delaney. Retrieved from http://knowledge.senndelaney.com/docs/thought_papers/pdf/ stanford_agilitystudy_hart.pdf.
Grant, H., Salughter, M. and Derler, A. (2018). Mistakes Companies Make about Growth Mindsets. Harvard Business Review, July 23 2018 https://hbr.org/2018/07/5
NueroLeadership Institute. (2018). The Idea Report. Retrieved from https://cdn2.hubspot.net December, 2018
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