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In 2006, Mary Murphy, a graduate student at Stanford University, scheduled a meeting with Carol Dweck, a professor whose work on motivation led to worldwide renown for the concepts she delineated of fixed and growth mindsets. Ms. Murphy paid tribute to the importance of the professor’s work, but argued it was missing an important factor. People do have different mindsets that can propel them forward or not, but the social context, culture and organization can also have a mindset.
Together they began looking at that notion and two decades later, the student is now a professor in her own right, at Indiana University, with a stack of research extending Prof. Dweck’s original thesis about mindsets oriented to growth and learning and those that believe personality and talent are fixed at an early age.
“The biggest influence on whether you’re operating from your fixed or growth mindset at any given moment isn’t necessarily between your ears – it’s outside of you,” Prof. Murphy writes in Cultures of Growth. “The mindset culture in which we swim significantly impacts our thoughts, motivation and behaviour.”
Every gathering, she notes, has a mindset culture. Yet most organizations have no idea what their mindset culture is or how it powerfully influences the group and its outcomes.
An organizational culture that rewards – or even worships – fixed ability might admire and praise those who are deemed brilliant and judge or blame people who don’t measure up. A growth mindset culture, on the other hand, values, fosters and rewards growth and development of all its members. It’s important to know where your organization stands because going against the culture would be like swimming upstream. “Sure, it’s possible, but the truth is, it’s unlikely,” Prof. Murphy writes.
Although the two mindsets are presented as distinct and opposite, they exist on a continuum and we shuffle between them, although individuals have a default set point. Where we fall on any given moment has to do with the situation we’re in and the people around us.
At the fixed end of the continuum, cultures of genius as she calls them, offer the highest performance opportunities; emphasize employees’ talents and successes; focus on results; and encourage an atmosphere of having the best - best instincts, best ideas and best people. Cultures of growth offer the highest growth opportunities; emphasize employees’ motivation and hard work; focus on results and processes; and have an atmosphere that fosters a love for learning, passion, creativity and resourcefulness.
Her research found that organizations with cultures of growth enjoy more effective company cultures and have more, higher-performing employees. Employees of organizations with cultures of genius were 40 per cent less satisfied with the company culture than those in organizations with cultures of growth.
Cultures of genius encourage people to compete against one another to prove themselves and to see who reaches the top. That fits our societal fascination with brilliance and genius. But it can hinder collaboration and motivation. “Cultures of genius often produce less genius - that is, they tend to show significantly less innovation, creativity, sustained growth, consistent results and so on. People’s drive, their willingness to take the kinds of risks that will lead to the next big idea or breakthrough, their desire to collaborate with their colleagues or folks in other sectors, may all be dampened inside the prove-and-perform culture of effortless perfection that cultures of genius establish,” Prof. Murphy says.
We instinctively think of cultures of growth as softer and less rigorous. Leaders are supposedly bundles of warmth, positivity and empathy, constantly affirming and rewarding effort while being lenient on results. But her research with college students found those taught by faculty who create a growth mindset culture describe the classes as quite demanding and even at times annoying. The growth mindset leads the professors to challenge rather than coddle the students, pressing them to learn and grow.
While companies with a culture of genius look for high-talent individuals, she says they tend to exclude in their search people who belong to groups whose abilities have been historically excluded and stereotyped as inferior. In tech, engineering and physics, white and sometimes Asian men fit the genius profile and get the highest attention. “A culture of growth also emphasizes strong skills and abilities, but in addition it prioritizes people’s motivation, trajectory of growth, dedication and willingness to continually develop over time. No matter what race, sex, age, ability status or other demographic, willingness to grow is a quality available to all,” she writes.
The cultural differences play out in factors like collaboration, innovation and creativity, risk-taking, resilience, integrity and ethical behaviour and DEI. They also can shape the bottom line.
Changing a culture, she warns, can be like turning the proverbial large ship. While a lot of her book celebrates the growth mindset she said it would be a misperception to believe that growth is good and fixed is bad. “Mindset simply is. It is generally more advantageous to operate from your growth mindset, but that isn’t an absolute and remember: We fluctuate between them,” she writes. It’s important to know your own personal default point, what mindset the organization – or your unit within it – has, and to analyze how to improve.
Cannonballs
- Your teams should drive artificial-intelligence adoption, not senior leadership, says Sowmyanarayan Sampath, chief executive officer of Verizon Consumer. Whenever a new technology comes along, he notes, large companies think you need to appoint a designated senior leader - a “czar,” - and it will get taken care of. But in developing applied technologies like AI, leaders must identify opportunities within workflows and czars tend to be too far away from the frontlines.
- When decisions are being made, teams need a designated skeptic whose role is to be coldly objective about each alternative being presented, argues longtime chief executive officer Gary Kusin. The title should cycle through the team so that every member from time to time is the designated skeptic.
- To be known for your leadership, executive coach Terri Klass recommends giving priority to developing future leaders. Empowering others to lead will probably be our greatest legacy.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.