Why Did My Growth Mindset Programme Fail?

The research of Professor Carol Dweck (Stanford University) has demonstrated that organisations with a growth mindset have greater levels of engagement, productivity, integrity, and diversity. 

In this blog, we explore Prof. Dweck’s latest research on designing effective mindset interventions to avoid a “false growth mindset” culture.  

One of the most common questions we hear is: "Why did our growth mindset programme fail to change our culture?" We are getting this query so frequently that we feel the need to address it now (again). 

The biggest issue with most approaches is that they attempt to banish a fixed mindset. The CEO declares a growth mindset as the organisation's top priority. What happens next? Top management sends out a message. Employees start using growth mindset jargon. They talk the talk, but they do not change the way they truly think and behave. This leads to an outbreak of false growth mindset. 

A false growth mindset occurs when people fear admitting they have a fixed mindset. Instead of banning the fixed mindset, we should embrace it and own it. 

Prof Dweck Quote

We need to normalise that we move between growth and fixed mindset everyday. Learning to recognise when our fixed mindset influences the choices we make is a necessary step to take. We should get people to talk about it and share their insights.  

There are eight common fixed mindset triggers and these triggers are belief systems that we develop through our experiences.  

Growth Mindset Institute offers The Mindset Profiler, an online assessment tool that provides people with insights into which of the eight triggers are most active for them.  

Read the original article published by Growth Mindset Institute.

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