Growth Mindset is Crucial – And Not Just For Kids
by Jeremy Taylor, Ph.D., Chief Research & Evaluation Officer
TPZ Core Competency Focus: Growth mindset is one of the interconnected skills, mindsets, and assets students develop at The Possible Zone that contributes to Entrepreneurial Spirit. Growth mindset is also a construct that greatly overlaps with the concepts of power and autonomy–an indicator of upward mobility.
Starting in 2002 and for more than a decade, the work of software developer Stewart Butterfield and his team was marked by innovation, anticipation, and ultimately by failure. Today he is known as the creator of Slack, one of the world’s most popular collaboration tools; but the road to success for Butterfield and his team was not always smooth. In fact, the platform that launched in 2013 and sold seven years later for nearly 28 billion dollars, emerged from ideas that came from two failed attempts by Butterfield and his team to launch a multiplayer online video game.
So how did Butterfield and his team find their way from those failures to immense success with Slack? What was the difference between Butterfield’s team and the countless others that closed their doors and were never heard from again? Though they might not have used this term, the answer (at least in part) is growth mindset.
What is a Growth mindset?
Growth mindset is a concept originally developed by Stanford professor Carol Dweck. It refers to the belief that one’s abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and perseverance. A growth mindset is contrary to a fixed mindset—a belief that one’s abilities and intelligence are static and unchangeable1. Theory says that individuals with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, learn from criticism, and persist in the face of setbacks, seeing effort as the path to mastery. The concept rapidly gained prominence in the education world starting in 2006, with the publishing of Dweck’s book on the topic—Mindset: The New Psychology of Success1. 
Over the nearly two decades since Dweck’s book was published, a groundswell of research has emerged in support of the benefits of growth mindset, the largest portion of this research focusing on benefits to children and young adults. Positive outcomes connected to a growth mindset include academic performance7, increased resilience and creativity8, improved coping strategies6, and even improved relationships9. Recent neuroscience research suggests that having a growth mindset can even influence neurological responses to our environment, including how we direct our cognitive resources to gather and use information about our successes or failures10. This is part of a growing understanding among scientists that our brains should not be seen as a blueprint or hardwiring that determines our abilities and actions, but rather as a dynamic resource that both influences how we experience the world and also are impacted—and sometimes changed—by our environment and even our own thoughts or beliefs.
Growth mindset in adults and teams
Our understanding of how our brains interact with the way we experience the world is not the only thing that has evolved in recent years. Not long ago, it was widely believed that most brain development, and thus the vast majority of meaningful learning, occurred during childhood and adolescence. Today, we know that our brains continue to develop and change well into adulthood, providing a much longer timeframe in which major periods of learning can happen. This evidence disproves the common belief that you ‘can’t teach an old dog new tricks,’ and may also help explain why some people and teams give-up when faced with failure, while others embrace it as an opportunity for learning and use it as a tool for future success.
Given evidence that our brain functioning is impacted by our environment–and our cognition–and that brain development persists well into adulthood, it’s no surprise that the powerful impact of growth mindset is also evident among adults. In fact, the role of growth mindset in fostering success among organizations and work teams has increasingly been a focus of research. Studies show that employees with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, bounce-back from setbacks, and ultimately be more innovative2; they are more likely to embrace constructive feedback and support each other’s learning and improvement1; they are more likely to adapt to change effectively3; and organizations that emphasize the importance of growth mindset tend to have higher rates of employee engagement and satisfaction4. Moreover, when leaders demonstrate a growth mindset, their teams tend to do the same, and subsequently tend to more effectively navigate change and uncertainty they may encounter5.
Where do we go from here?
With the benefits of a growth mindset—for kids, adults, and even teams—becoming clear, what does this suggest we should do? Several implications that emerge:
- Maintain emphasis with children and young people. Though research shows it is never too late to develop a growth mindset, the benefits for children remain clear. The earlier it is emphasized among young people, the easier it will be to maintain, apply, and even expand it as adults.
- Embrace challenges and anticipate the possibility of failure. Identify and tackle projects that push outside your comfort zone. Remind yourself from the start that the chance of failure is high and explicitly build-in time for reflecting failures into your project plan. You might even include documentation of learning as a project goal.
- Invite feedback often and practice receiving it. Learning to receive and value feedback is crucial for a growth mindset. Get into the habit of asking for it early and often. In fact, practice receiving it with peers you trust, so that others become more willing to share feedback with you in the future.
- Model growth mindset and empower others to build it. This one is especially important for leaders. As a leader, we communicate what we value through our actions. If we want others to prioritize a growth mindset, we must prioritize it for ourselves. Also, empower others by encouraging them to dedicate time learning new things and challenging themselves, sometimes even when doing so might not be completely aligned with their annual goals or job description.
- Use the power of “yet.” Not only can subtle word choices have a big impact on what we communicate, research shows they can also impact our mindset and our beliefs. I sometimes think of this as ‘fake it until you make it.’ Using phrases like “I’m not good at Math” or “I’m not a Math person” reflects a fixed mindset. However, the subtle difference of saying “I’m not good at Math yet” communicates something different. By just adding the word “yet,” one implies a belief that they will be (or at least can be) good at Math in the future. Even better would be “I’m still learning Math.”
A Final Thought
Growth mindset is not built in a day and may not happen quickly, especially for adults that may be unwinding a fixed mindset built over decades. It’s important to be patient with yourself. It won’t help to get down on yourself about difficulties with developing a growth mindset. If you notice yourself demonstrating a fixed mindset, there is no need to be frustrated with yourself. Instead, realize that recognizing this tendency is a HUGE first step toward change. When it happens, consider acknowledging what happened and restating whatever you said. You can say something like “Sorry, I said I’m not good at Math,’ but what I meant to say is ‘I’m not good at Math yet’.” This will go a long way toward helping you build new habits and mindsets, while also highlighting the importance of this distinction for others. In doing this, you are not only modeling a growth mindset about Math, but you are actually demonstrating a growth mindset about your own mindset. You might be surprised how quickly this becomes a habit for you and those around you. Soon, you won’t be faking it, you will be living that growth mindset.
REFERENCES
- Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.
- Heslin, P. A., VandeWalle, D., & Latham, G. P. (2006). Keen to help? Managers’ implicit person theories and their subsequent employee coaching. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(10), 1438-1449.
- Murphy, M. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2010). A culture of genius: How environments dictate the success or failure of prodigies. Academic Medicine, 85(S2), S38-S47.
- Gallup. (2016). State of the American Workplace. Gallup, Inc.
- Ibarra, H. (2015). The authenticity paradox. Harvard Business Review, 93(1), 52-59.
- Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314.
- Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child development, 78(1), 246-263.
- O’Keefe, P. A., Dweck, C. S., & Walton, G. M. (2018). Implicit theories of interest: Finding your passion or developing it?. Psychological science, 29(10), 1653-1664.
- Kammrath, L. K., & Dweck, C. (2006). Voicing conflict: Preferred conflict strategies among incremental and entity theorists. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(11), 1497-1508.
- Schroder, H. S., Fisher, M. E., Lin, Y., Lo, S. L., Danovitch, J. H., & Moser, J. S. (2017). Neural evidence for enhanced attention to mistakes among school-aged children with a growth mindset. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 42-50.