Summary: Mindset
By Carol Dweck
In this book Dweck highlights how beliefs, whether conscious or not, are very influential on our lives. She starts by outlining our current understanding of the nature vs nurture debate. This is a long one and it is increasingly clear that both are relevant - genes have an major impact but so does the environment. What is relevant here is that attitudinal characteristics play a powerful role in outcome. These are clearly much more within our control than many of the other recognised factors and so become much more interesting.
I remain intrigued as to the narrative of where these attributes come from - are they genetic, environmental or a combination? Dweck doesn't elaborate significantly other than recognising the starting points of people are all different. What is true, is that improvement from any starting point is very possible and the limits are not clear, if they exist at all. As such, this is an area of great relevance to the quality of our lives because it is something that can be taught.
The Mindsets
Dweck then describes the two main mindsets she will look at: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. Her work has identified that these psychological approaches are one of the most relevant aspects of outcome. They encompass a number of very influential beliefs and attitudes which are the focus of the rest of the book.
The fixed mindset represents the belief that much of what we are (intelligence, personality, morality) are predetermined and stable over time, hence fixed. This label becomes important to people and their behaviours centre around upholding an image of this. In addition, outcomes of events relate primarily to them and their fixed characteristics. As such, adverse events are taken badly, for instance with the response that “I am stupid”. Both of these effects often impede learning and development. What is the point in the effort of learning if you are limited in your traits? And if you have the risk of making a fool of yourself by trying something challenging then why would you do it?
The growth mindset sees individuals as much more mutable. They view their actions as being highly impactful on their trajectory and outcome. Outcomes are much more situational and thus can be affected by the individual. As such, they approach the challenges of life in a very different way, often recognising many intrinsic opportunities. Life is just intrinsically difficult and we are natural learners, hence we will continue to get better at managing the difficulties. Some of also this relates to self insight as an accurate assessment is a key part of effectiveness. Growth mindset people are generally better at this and so tend towards greater effectiveness. In essence, the growth mindset is a better reflection of reality and so will deal with reality better.
The key factor is that these mindsets are changeable. This means that they can be taught and practised.
Inside the Mindsets
Dweck then goes on to explore the mindsets in a bit more detail. There are key recognisable differences between them. As noted, the central difference seems to be a focus on learning and development. When it comes to questions or challenges those with a fixed mindset are focused on the correctness of the answer and not much else. This seems to be all about how they will look to others, not wanting to appear negatively. In contrast, those with a growth mindset put their focus on the learning that comes with the challenge. If they are wrong about something this is actually good in certain ways at it presents a great opportunity to learn. With learning comes improvement.
A major recognition from this is that the growth mindset approach is challenging. Development is hard work and it is this way for everyone. We have seen this well articulated in our recent summaries on “Make it Stick” and “Peak”. Hard work and failure are essential components of the path to excellence and there are no shortcuts. Those with a growth mindset recognise this, whilst a fixed mindset person would view this as being a cause for concern. The difficulty that they experience is interpreted as a character flaw. Indeed, this is a theme that is sometimes promoted in the culture more generally. Finding things easy is seen as being a good thing and we often idolise the concept of innate talent. We sometimes see this in elite performers in that they make something so complex look so easy. However, as Dweck notes here (and we noted in Peak), this is just an illusion. The path to this excellence was hard work, and maintaining excellence remains hard work (even if existing in excellence might not).
Dweck follows on from this to summarise the key things we know about ability (Again, this is well described by Ericsson in “Peak”). Yes, there are genetic influences but a lot of the success of an individual is through learning and a lot of this is through effort. This makes the mindset of a person highly impactful. As such, we need to dispense with the idea of talented lone individuals who are already brilliant. Instead, brilliance is earned over time, and often with others. It is clear that children are born different. However, it is a mistake to think that this difference is deterministic or limiting. Instead, some tendencies start the person off towards aspects of the growth mindset, starting out a positive chain of activity that leads to excellence. This is seen in every prodigy studied. But again, a mindset is something that can be learned in itself and there is evidence that this works. Prodigious talents may have been lucky enough to have the genetic headstart, but that is all.
Praise
Dweck then moves on to the fascinating topic of praise. This is interesting as it would be thought that praise is a good thing. However, Dweck has studied how it can actually serve to trigger the fixed mindset. This is if the praise is towards the individual (you are so clever), rather than their actions (you worked hard). Indeed, this can be so bad that it can actually trigger students to lie about their results because of their desire for praise.
The opposite of praise, criticism, as well as the subtler form of stereotyping can have similar effects for those with a fixed mindset. The conclusion drawn by them is that they are inherently restricted and therefore they lose forward drive. In stereotyping this can be more subconscious but is just as influential.
Praise is not an entirely bad thing, and Dweck notes how it has short term, positive effects on self esteem. However, she articulates the importance of making sure that this is effectively directed. If it is too focused on who the individual actually is, it will start to trigger fixed mindset responses. As such , the advice centres around praising the features of the growth mindset; that is, an effort to grow. Importantly, this is not just praising effort by itself. This “at least you tried” mentality is what she labels as the false growth mindset. Trying is not enough; there has to be a deliberate focus on development and growth. Effort is clearly a part of this, but it has to be effectively guided. In essence, the effort has to be an effort to improve, and not just effort for its own sake.
Implementation
Dweck gives numerous examples in the book of how these mindsets can get implemented in the real world. This includes examples of highly impactful growth mindsets and destructive fixed mindsets, ranging from the domains of sport to business. Whilst there is clearly a risk that some of the observation may be overstated, it is fascinating to see how influential mindsets are in many of the domains in life. What is perhaps most relevant is that many of the factors around implementation seem to be very similar. I would personally highlight these key themes about implementation:
Talent is a myth
Praise the growth mindset
Model the behaviour yourself
Talent remains an enduring myth of our culture and one that has persisted through time. However, there is increasing evidence that it is not really a thing, as I have previously covered here in our review of Ericsson and Pool’s book, ‘Peak’. Dweck builds upon this by highlighting how detrimental a myth it can actually be because of how it closely aligns with the fixed mindset approach. This is true for the ‘talented’ and ‘untalented’ alike, both of whom can cruise or stagnate if they believe that effort is not needed or is ineffective. We can think of the many sport stars who are too talented to believe that any failure could be attributed to them. This pattern is seen in business too, where a desire to preserve the veneer of talent leads to an avoidance of anything that might display otherwise. This leads to deception and stagnation, amongst other problem. In short, dispelling the myth of talent is an excellent starting point to forward progress, whether this with yourself, your child, or your institution. Yes, people are different, but we are so plastic that it is that application of personal growth that has the biggest impact on the trajectory. If we can understand this then we are in an excellent position to grow.
This leads onto the importance of appropriate praise. As just discussed, this is commonly poorly appreciated. Praise is best directed at the characteristics of the growth mindset rather than any fixed traits around an individual. This can be integrated into training and teaching in a way that allows optimal growth. As hinted at, failure is a major part of effective forward progress and this needs understanding by those that are experiencing the failure. The way that this is done, focusing on the learning and development that is happening, can be powerful.
A final common theme about implementation is to ensure that this approach is modelled by yourself. This is particularly relevant for promoting the growth mindset in your children, but is just as applicable in work and high level sport. Part of this is probably the usual challenge of avoiding calls of hypocrisy but I think there is also a degree to which this model is not fully appreciated. As such, seeing it embodied in the actions of others seems to be a likely need for a full understanding of what the growth mindset is, and what it could be.
Summary
Our trajectory in life is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Of the factors that we have some control over our attitudinal stance plays a major role. Dweck had identified two common mindsets that well describe quite contrasting approaches: the growth mindset and the fixed mindset. The growth mindset recognises the immense potential for development that exists in all of us, and thus recognises that we have huge scope for making our lives closer to what we wish. The fixed mindset perceives the events in our life as much less susceptible to our intervention, fostering attitudes that can include powerlessness as well as encouraging deception to manipulate one’s perceived status. The growth mindset is much closer to the reality of the world and associated with clearly better outcomes and so seems to be the attitude that should be striven for. This can be hard when such mindsets may initially simply not be recognised as being present but they can be developed and taught. This starts with the simple understanding of their presence and relevance and then practice at implementation.