The Growth Mindset Explained.
By: Maria Krajewska-Olkkonen
Tags: Growth Mindset, Digital Transformation, Learning, Business, Growth Hacking

Developing a Growth Mindset in your organization or team can make or break your success. It’s a critical factor that most people overlook and, in my experience, it is often the missing ingredient in digital transformation strategies.

Before I get into why it’s so important and how you can use it to your advantage, let me start by clarifying what it means.

What is a Growth Mindset, and why should it matter to you?

The concept of a “Growth Mindset” is not new. It was put forward by Stanford Professor of Psychology Carol Dweck who, for over 20 years, studied why some people succeed while others fail. Even though they may have both come from similar starting points and put in a lot of work. Some people do not thrive in their professional and private life. The conclusion she reached was that a person’s mindset plays a crucial role in the psychology of success.

She divided people into two groups: those who have a Growth Mindset and those who have a Fixed Mindset.

The basic idea is that people with a Growth Mindset believe that intelligence and talent can be learned and improved if you put enough effort into them. They also see failure and obstacles as a part of the journey and the necessary element of development. They embrace it. People with a Growth Mindset focus on the things that they can influence. They believe that life is 10% what happens to them and 90% how they react to it.

On the other side, people with a Fixed Mindset believe that intelligence and skills are permanent, with no chance of developing them. They are afraid of failure. They consider it to be negative and they try to avoid it by all means. They tend to spend their time and energy complaining about things that are out of their control and very often blame others instead of reflecting on how they could help or influence the situation.

If you are interested in learning more about these differences, you can find a more detailed list of the characteristics in Carol’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, or in her TED talk. I highly recommend checking them both out!

So, here’s where you come in…

In the past few years, the concept of the Growth Mindset has evolved from a personal attribute to a way of working for companies and even industries. One famous example of this is Microsoft’s transformation from a “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all” culture: by embedding the Growth Mindset into their company values, they not only changed the way they work but grew their bottom line, too.

We also see the power of the Growth Mindset in the aviation industry, which started as one of the most dangerous ways to travel, only to become one of the safest. In Matthew Syed’s Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success, we learn about this in even more detail. Did you know that black boxes are actually orange? And there are two of them — one to collect flight data and one to record the discussions in the cockpit. The reason behind this is because the industry has embraced diligently measuring everything to learn from their mistakes. This is an industry where accidents really are life or death, so they must learn not only from the accidents that happen but from the near-misses that don’t. This is a clear example of a Growth Mindset in action.

I firmly believe that only companies that cultivate Growth Mindset principles will survive and thrive in today’s fast-changing digital environment. Need proof? Just look at the last few months…

Due to the pandemic, many organizations had to operate in unknown, unpredictable circumstances. To survive, they had to quickly innovate on new revenue streams, new product features, or new digital channels for sales and communication with customers. In the end, it’s people that drive change, transformation, and development. It’s one thing to have the development strategy drafted on paper, but something different to start executing it. The Growth Mindset is crucial to closing the gap between knowing what to do and doing it.

How can you apply the Growth Mindset at work?

At Growth Tribe, I have daily conversations with my customers about how they can start incorporating the Growth Mindset in their company’s culture. However, the truth is that it won’t happen overnight. For Microsoft, it took over seven years for it to end up on the agenda for top management. The key is to start — and you have to start small.

Here are some ideas that I have seen work successfully:

1. Cultivate a culture of learning

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

One of the most important questions I ask myself is: what skills do I need to stay relevant in my job? This single question challenges me to continuously learn and put new ideas into practice. I direct my attention on the future instead of the past and focus on upskilling.

There was a study that found that employees that allocate time for learning and self-development are “more confident, successful, and happy at work”- I could not agree with this more, and I have experienced this firsthand.

Continuous learning should be on everyone’s agenda. But, when it comes to company culture, the leader’s should make it clear that upskilling is essential. If you are making plans for the new year, make sure that one of your goals is creating a self-learning organization.

2. Embrace discussion about failures (but do it right)

There is no success without failures. The problem is that no one likes failures or admitting that they made a mistake. Why? It’s simple: we are all afraid of rejection; we want to look good; in many cases, we fear the negative consequences and impact that failure might have on our careers.

If you’re a leader, it’s your job to change this culture. Your role is to make it clear that failure is accepted. Failure is a good thing — it should be seen as a form of learning. Undemonize it as a concept and let your team make choices that help them learn and find the right way of doing things.

3. Implement a vivid feedback culture

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash

This is probably one of my favourite tools in the Growth Mindset toolbox.

Honest feedback is a gift. Why? Because giving feedback is not an easy task. We want to be friendly and we are often afraid of hurting someone’s feelings. Without feedback, it’s impossible to expect change.

You don’t have to be mean — be respectful of the receiver and give constructive feedback. Remember, as hard as it can be to give feedback, it’s not always easy to receive it either. And I am talking about both positive and constructive feedback. The goal is for someone you are working with to genuinely understand what they did well and what they could improve on, learn from it, and grow.

The key here is to create a culture where a “devastating critique” or a standing ovation are considered valuable information.

Do you have any other Growth Mindset tools that you use? What kind of success have you seen from implementing the mindset in your organization? I would love to hear from you!