DEVELOPING YOUR
GROWTH MINDSET

what is this topic about?

A growth mindset is the belief that skills, capability and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning, feedback, and experience. For organisations, it is not a personality trait. It is a capability that determines how quickly people and teams learn, adapt and execute under pressure.

Why businesses care?
In volatile, fast-moving environments, competitive advantage increasingly depends on how quickly people learn rather than what they already know. A growth mindset helps organisations:

Learn faster in complex conditions
Reduce fear-based behaviours that slow execution
Adapt to change without waiting for perfect clarity
Improve collaboration and psychological safety
Strengthen innovation by rewarding experimentation rather than certainty

What it looks like at work?

Employees take on stretch goals rather than avoid risk
Feedback is used to improve performance, not defend identity
Mistakes are examined for insight rather than hidden
Teams persist longer on difficult or ambiguous problems
Leaders model learning rather than perfection

who can benefit from this topic?

C-Level executives

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Teamleaders

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Management

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Employees working in project teams

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People who tackle new and previously unexplored tasks

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what can be included in this topic?

potential problems to be resolved:

This topic covers the practical conditions required for individuals and organisations to learn, adapt and perform under pressure.
It focuses on how people think and behave when things are difficult, uncertain or not working as planned.

Growth Mindset helps shift those patterns to support better outcomes.

In practical terms, this topic enables:

Faster adaptation to change

Better decision-making under uncertainty

More effective feedback and development conversations

Stronger innovation and experimentation

Greater resilience and sustained performance

Slow learning in fast-moving environments

Fear-based behaviour under pressure

Resistance to change and new ways of working

Poor use of feedback

Innovation stalls despite strong talent

Burnout during sustained challenge

Lack of psychological safety

Over-reliance on past success

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growth-mindset teams persist 65% longer on innovation tasks

key benefits

companies that make "adaptive learning" part of their core operating model are 63% more likely to have higher total shareholder returns than those whose

participants prided with a growth-mindset produced 47% more creative solutions than fixed-mindset peers

Embedding a Growth Mindset to Accelerate a 5-Year Growth Strategy

сase #1

A global medical devices manufacturer wanted to put growth mindset at the heart of its ambitious five-year growth goal. We created a practical programme to build growth mindset capabilities at individual, team and departmental levels.

What we delivered

Linked individual growth mindsets with company growth objectives
Shared language around growth mindset across the department
Managers as “leaders as teachers” through a Growth Mindset Cascade-in-a-Box
Growth mindset principles anchored into day-to-day departmental habits

problem to be solved

what we learned

Quiet undertones of imposter syndrome were present;

Curiosity needs improvement. More questioning, ability to recognise bias, challenge assumptions and experimentation;

Networking: tap into broader networks to support them in their growth aspiration moving forward;

Habits: little to no evidence of habits to reinforce will-power when facing difficulties.

Improved trust between manager and team members

key results

Greater alignment between mindset, behaviours and strategic goals

Stronger resilience and openness to challenge

A more learning-driven team culture that supports continued growth

Embedding Growth Mindset to drive National Impact Building

сase #2

A national leadership academy supporting mid career government officials chose growth mindset to be a major capability to advance its public sector transformation agenda. We designed a practical, context-sensitive programme that translated growth mindset from concept into daily leadership practice, building individual and cross-ministry growth mindset capability.

What we delivered

Linked growth mindset to national priorities such as public value creation, service quality and Vision 2040 outcomes
Created a shared leadership language across ministries for learning and experimentation
Positioned mid level government leaders as “agents of change”, cascading growth mindset behaviours through their directorates
Embedded growth mindset principles into cross-government collaboration habits

problem to be solved

what we learned

Strong commitment to public service, alongside fear of failure and unwanted visibility in high-stakes government contexts;

Curiosity was limited by hierarchy and status.This got in the way of questioning and assumption testing;

Networks tended to remain within silos, with limited use of cross-ministry and external perspectives to accelerate learning;

Persistence relied heavily on personal willpower rather than deliberate habits to sustain momentum through complexity and ambiguity.