Fixed vs. Growth Mindset – Tips for Strategic Innovation Success!

A mindset, as definition clarifies, is a set of assumptions, methods, or ideas held by an individual group that is so established it often means the continued adoption or acceptance of certain behaviours or choices. With regard to the business world, this can be a very good thing or a bad thing – it just depends on what those assumptions and ideas are.

Need an example? Think about it this way: if your employees subscribe to a common belief that things are just great the way they are, the result may not be bad, but it won’t lead to productive ideas that can be beneficial. However, if the common mindset within a group is one that encourages free-thinking rather than blind acceptance, or fosters the conception of change as positive this will inevitably lead to innovation.

Thanks to Stanford University psychology professor Carol Dweck, identifying and understanding the difference between a positive mindset and one that is less so, is a little bit easier. According to her work, there are two very different, basic mindsets that shape everyday life: growth and fixed. In order to navigate what can all too often become mindset mayhem, it is helpful to understand the two.

Fixed: in a fixed mindset, an individual or group believes that something is fixed and static. Using intelligence as an example, in a fixed mindset you are either smart or you are not. You have talent or you do not. There is rarely an in-between, and the idea that even a smart person needs to boost their own intelligence is not really present with a fixed mindset.

Growth: in a growth mindset, it is rather the opposite. Again, using intelligence as an example, the belief here is that that intelligence is fluid and ever-changing. With talent, you may not be adept at first, but you have the capacity to learn and develop certain skills. Nothing is concrete. Further learning and development is what this mindset is all about.

When it comes to innovation, a fixed mindset can be a creative killer. If an employee believes that their current skills are all that makes them valuable, or rather their mindset is that their intelligence and talent is what creates success alone, this can mean a lack of respect for the power of learning. In contrast, when the mindset is one that accepts the significance of learning and growth, and individuals understand that even their greatest abilities can be fostered and further developed, improvement is the ultimate end result. Even if a person’s skills and talent are crucial to a company’s success, continued learning can make the difference between good and great.

In order for an organization to have an ‘edge’ the mindset needs to be shared, especially among the management team, and it needs to be growth oriented. Mindsets that block forward progress are those that ultimately bring down productivity levels based almost solely on an inability to see that change is valuable.

At Innovators Alliance we can help you better develop your own mindset, and thus clear the way for strategic innovation in the future. For more info please contact us by calling 1-905-332-0340.