Celebrating Mistakes. Sherria Hoskins, Psychology

Why focus on mistakes? Implicit theories of intelligence (Mindsets) Exploring your mindset. Exploring the evidence of impact. Tips for developing growth mindsets. Growth cultures. Overview

Why focus on mistakes?

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure” Colin Powell (US Secretary of State ) When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work” George Bernard Shaw (Playwright) Henry Ford - early businesses failed and left him broke 5 times before founded the Ford Motor Company. Albert Einstein - did not speak until he four and did not read until was seven, teachers and parents thought he was mentally handicapped. Expelled from school and failed to get a place at the Zurich Polytechnic School.

It’s all about Failure Benjamin Barber, sociologist: “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures... I divide the world into the learners and non learners.”

Implicit Theories of Intelligence (Mindsets)

American psychologist Research interests in motivation, achievement & intelligence Motivated by personal experiences: Went to school in NY Pupils seated according to IQ What if low IQ? What if high IQ? Led her to think...

Growth Mindset Belief that abilities are malleable and can develop. Success and failure are attributed to effort and persistence, learning from mistakes and challenges. Fixed Mindset Belief that abilities are something you are born with. Can’t change it much. Failures attributed to self or others. What are Mindsets?

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset Ability fixed & can’t change muchAbility can be increased through practice Focus on performanceFocus on learning Failure and/or effort perceived as being sign of low ability Not threatened by hard work or failure Choose activities to maximise performance (easy ones to feel clever) Seek new challenges for a sense of achievement Don’t recover well from setbacks Repair self-esteem: look at work of people who do worse deny value of work do only what we already do well Mistakes are perceived as a good thing as they help the learning processes Decrease efforts (passive or active), consider cheating (self-protection) View effort and persistence as a necessary part of success Helplessness orientationMastery orientation

Exploring your mindset Pick an area of ability.

What is your Mindset? Entity questions 1. You have a certain amount of ability ? and you cannot do much to change it. 2. Difficulties and challenges prevent you from developing your ability ? 4. If you fail in a task, you question your ability ? 7. Good performance in a task is a way of showing others that you are able ? 8. When you exert a lot of effort, you show that you are not able ?. 12. Your abilities are determined by how able ? you are. 14. You are born with a fixed amount of ability in ?

Incremental questions 3. The effort you exert improves your ability ?. 5. Criticism from others can help develop your ability ?. 6. You can develop your ability ? if you really try. 9. When you learn new things, your basic ability ? improves. 10. If you fail in a task, you still trust your ability ?. 11. Performing a task successfully can help develop your ability ?. 13. Good preparation before performing a task is a way to develop your ability ?.

Have you ever... ? Said something to look clever. Not asked a question in case you looked ‘stupid’. Given up on a colleague because ‘they will never be good at...’ Given up in the face of challenge. Passive or active avoidance of a tough task... Not tried something challenging because you feel sure to fail. Selected an easy task to look good. Hidden the fact you found something really difficult.

High Ability Low Ability Growth Mindset Fixed Mindset

Exploring the evidence

Plasticity Neurones in the brain transmit information through connections (synapses). The more we keep our brains active through learning new information, the more connections the brain makes. Evidence from Neuroscience UCL - London taxi drivers. Brain scans = larger hippocampus than others Grew as they spent more time in the job. Suggests brain adapts to help them learn ‘The Knowledge’ and store mental maps.

Peter Heslin & colleagues Leaders with growth mindset notice improvement in employees, fixed mindset leaders do not. Leaders taught growth mindset, start to be sensitive to improvement. Employees evaluated growth-mindset managers as providing better coaching for development.

Workshop Intervention Scientific article and video on how the brain grows with learning. Exercises to instill a growth mindset. Managers showed greater: Openness to employee change Willingness and higher quality mentoring Openness to critical feedback

Negotiations (Kray & Haselhun) Showed superior negotiation strategies. Were undaunted by setbacks. Were better at finding common ground. Consistently outperformed those with a fixed mindset.

Tips for developing growth mindsets.

Lowering expectations does not raise self-esteem. High expectations = high level outcomes (Pygmalion study: Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). Focus on effort, experimentation and persistence not just outcomes. Focus on the emotions around tasks. Goals emphasise growth; development of skill or knowledge. e.g. Don’t always give easy tasks to ‘poor performers’, include elements that will be challenging. Set high expectations

Promote mistakes as part of everyone’s learning process. Take fear out of mistakes (debilitates growth). Create space to make mistakes. Create space to learn from mistakes (discussion time, learning - human, system). Don’t blame others for failure and mistakes. When you have good examples of attainment – remove luck and talent myth. Celebrating Mistakes

Identify area of weakness Establish clear and specific plan for improvement: Ineffective: “work harder” Better: “before each meeting plan how you are going to communicate in a way that doesn’t offend, talk it through with another colleague” Once strategy agreed - review - update with the next step (mountain). Make specific plans for growth and development

“You have a gift for chairing meetings!” “You are really great at presentations” “Don’t worry, I just don’t think this is one of your areas of strength, but you have others” “why not focus on your talents”

… Temporary high self-esteem if performed well but longer term: When challenged or fail re-evaluate ability Creates low self-esteem Avoidance of task in future Drop in attainment over time watch?v=mGTk6yeh9qE Avoid person/ability focused feedback, it causes...

Give ‘process praise’ Effort. Strategy. Persistence. Use ‘task praise’ What is better/worse than the last attempt. What is/not good, realistic, neat, correct etc. about the product. Growth feedback

Growth focused praise “You’ve spent a lot of time perfecting this, it looks great” “You were really convincing, you prepared well”. “Your minute writing gets better every time I see it” “You could have been clearer in the way you expressed that, perhaps a practice session would help” “I’m not sure that approach is as effective as some others might be, have you tried any others”

Mueller & Dweck (1998) Number of Problems solved Carol Dweck talking about praise Carol Dweck talking about praise

“I’m no good at doing budgets.” “Spelling was never my thing, my talent was in maths.” Don’t describe yourself with fixed language. Explain how you overcame challenges and how you continue to learn. Slip-ups. Yet... Model the behaviour you want

Growth cultures.

At the organisational level, growth mindset: Portray skills/abilities as acquirable. Value risk taking, passion, effort, learning (and teamwork). Permits failure if learning is taking place. Leader – mentors vs. judges – facilitator, not one with ‘right answers’. – reveals process/thinking. – shows their mistakes and are un-defensive. Honda D6n8XW95lNxPL Silicon Valley

Any Questions?

More info Carol Dweck’s webpage/sources Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality, and development Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality, and development Dweck, 2000 Mindset: the new psychology of success Mindset: the new psychology of success Dweck, 2008 Motivation and self-regulation across the life span Motivation and self-regulation across the life span Dweck et al, 1998 Available electronically How Executive Coaching Can Fuel Professional—and Personal—Growth Should Coaches Believe in Innate Ability? The Importance of Leadership Mindset Practical Applications of Goal Setting Theory to Performance Management An exploratory study on entrepreneurial mindset