We were in two different arenas but our mindsets made all of the difference – I believed that I couldn’t learn and the Brothers in Blue knew that they could.
Carol Dweck, a professor at Stanford, has been researching these mindsets for decades and what she’s discovered is so simple but so incredibly powerful:
First: She found that arguably the most important factor in achieving success, in any arena, is our capacity to learn grow and adapt.
Second: The key to becoming a great learner is our mindset and attitude towards learning. Her work shows that there are really two mindsets we can adopt: A fixed mindset or a growth mindset
Fixed mindset = A belief that skills are something that you’re born with, that you either have them or you don’t – that you can’t (or don’t have to) learn and grow.
Growth mindset = A belief that skills are built, that you can grow and develop them – that you can learn.
For those of you keeping score; I was operating in a fixed mindset in my chemistry class while the Brothers in Blue were running with a strong growth mindset on the inside – which is why they learned and why I didn’t.
These two mindsets have a powerful influence on our ability to learn – no matter where we are.
The proof is in both the research AND the applications.
Dweck did an important study with hundreds of 7th grade students from Chicago. First, they gave the students a mindset analysis to determine if they had a growth or fixed mindset when it came
to math. Then, they simply tracked the students’ scores for two years. The results looked something like this:
I’ve had the honor of working with some pretty incredible groups through our workshops:
• A computer company in Seattle
• One of the biggest Fast-Casual
restaurant chains
• A MLB organization
• An Italian company that makes really
fast cars, and
• Hundreds of schools and
organizations across the country
Through these experiences it’s become clear that great learners can do serious damage in ANY arena. And the key to being a great learner is to first believe that you can.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting here telling you that you just have to believe and then it magically happens.
Our mindsets influence our behaviors, and it’s our action and behaviors that determine if we learn or not.
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