Cultivating a Growth Mindset - The Comfort Zone for Ideation
Is innovation and creativity an innate trait or a product of learning and constant effort? Carol Dweck in her famous book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: proposed the idea of a growth mindset, a shifting of the mindset that leads to growth and improvement. Her theory became the leading cause behind the understanding and development of innovation within organizations. Dweck believed that people/students are not a reflection of the two extremes of the spectrum either creative or not, either winners or losers, either smart or dumb. Instead, it all came down to an understanding that talents can be developed through effort good teaching and persistence.1
A mindset can be defined as a set of assumptions, methods and ideas held by an individual or exercised by a group.2 Dweck believed that people either adopted a fixed or a growth mindset. If one was to believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits that cannot be changed they therefore live with a fixed mindset. Individuals with a fixed mindset will believe they have a certain amount and that’s that, and their goal becomes to look smart and never look dumb. On the other hand, with a growth mindset, individuals understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence.1
The concept of growth and fixed mindset helps us change the way we perceive study, work, love and our lives in general. If we become aware of the indirect messages, we send to our brain through our daily conversations with ourselves and through the way we give feedback to others, we can easily stretch our skills and approach opportunities we thought would be impossible. The image below reflects how an individual with a fixed mindset perceives failure compared to a person with a growth mindset.
Source: https://www.just-spark.com/2018/08/fixed-vs-growth-mindset/
As clearly seen in the image, an individual with a growth mindset will look at failure as a challenge, an opportunity to grow and learn. A growth minded individual will be inspired by the success of others and will determine his/her abilities only through effort and attitude. On the contrary, an individual with a fixed mindset will look at failure as a limitation to his/her abilities. A failure will be immediately translated as a loss and the loss will make him/her a loser! A fixed mindset will think that feedback and criticism is personal and will lead him/her to frustration and giving up. A fixed minded individual will stick to what he/she knows and therefore will not be confident enough to think of new ideas or solutions to existing problems. Any chance to think outside the box will be avoided, in order to avoid the feeling of failure, criticism and feedback.
Take a look at the table below, it seems like you might have a mindset away from being intelligent!
Source:https://www.just-spark.com/2018/08/fixed-vs-growth-mindset/
Changing our mindsets from fixed to flexible, requires changing the way we see and “talk to ourselves”. It starts by avoiding negative “I am “phrases that lead to generalized conclusions about ourselves and labels that become difficult to get rid of. In the same way we are told to perceive our bodies differently and practice mindful eating in order to adopt a healthy lifestyle without hating ourselves or thinking of a quick yoyo diet, nevertheless we are also told to perceive any mistake as an opportunity and to avoid thinking negatively of any problem or challenge we may encounter. Flaws do not exist, they are rather signals for us to work harder. Moreover, it is important for us to explore different choices and to be flexible with more than one option. These simple changes we make to our self-talk and self-image will allow us to stretch our minds from being fixed, to being flexible.3
1https://wabisabilearning.com/blogs/mindfulness-wellbeing/fixed-growth-mindset-infographic
2https://www.businessmagazinegainesville.com/innovative-thinking-fixed-vs-growth-mindsets/
3https://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/find-out-if-you-have-a-fixed-or-growth-mindset-clues-are-in-your-language.html
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