1. Cultivating a Growth Mindset for Personal and Professional Success
It’s All in Your Mind
Cultivating a Growth Mindset for Personal and Professional Success
Jil M. Freeman
@TeachLearnCCC

2. Goals of Today’s Session
By the end of this session, you should be able to:
Identify how we get RRGA something
Articulate the (in basic terms) the brain science behind Growth Mindset
Explain the basic elements of a Growth Mindset
Explain the benefits of a Growth Mindset
Explore key strategies that support a Growth Mindset
Bring back a little GM spirit (and some go-to strategies) to your work and life!

3. What’s one thing you are Really, Really Good At?
How’d you get to be Really,
Really Good At that one thing?

4. Exploring our RRGAs
Introduce yourself to 2-3 other people and share the one thing you are Really, Really Good At
Share how you got to be Really, Really Good At your one thing (be specific in talking about what you did)
What key themes did you hear amongst the RGGAs?

5. Getting RRGA driving a cab in London

6. Your brain… it can grow!

7. “Cells that fire together, wire together”
Neuroplasticity
“Cells that fire together, wire together”
This means that the things you do, experience, feel, and think over and over again become part of your brain “highway map” or neurological pathways … this works in both positive and negative forms.
There does not appear to be any age limit to building new neurons and neurological pathways.
Stimulation is the key.

8. So, back to the RRGAs...
How did you get REALLY, REALLY GOOD AT your thing?
You strengthened and built new neurological pathways.
You may not have realized it, but you believed it was possible to
Grow Your Brain
(psst…. way to master the first step to developing a Growth Mindset!)

9. What story are you telling yourself?
Look at your professional challenge.
What stories have built the neurological pathway of your challenge?
What stories would be more helpful to rebuild your neurological pathway? (To get the right cells to fire together and wire together?)
In 10 words or less, what do you need to believe to overcome your professional challenge?

10. What is a Growth Mindset?
Dr. Carol Dweck, Stanford psychologist specializing in motivation and learning
What makes some people continue to try in the face of difficulty?
What makes people succeed?
Neuroscience and neurobiological research

12. Growth Mindset Key Points
Intelligence is not fixed; it can be developed
Struggle grows your brain
The brain is malleable
Success comes from
Effort
Strategies
Seeking help
Resources
Mindsets exist on a spectrum
Multiple Mindsets exist in all of us

13. Benefits of a Growth Mindset in Life
Increased self insight and self esteem
Happier and more fulfilled in their relationships
Greater levels of enjoyment and happiness in life
Lower risk of depression and anxiety
Lower levels of self-imposed stress
Learning, growing, developing new skills
More realistic sense of self
Less likely to have sense of superiority
Less “paralysis by perfectionism”
Improved happiness and satisfaction
from and

14. Benefits of a Growth Mindset in Learning
Mindset predicts motivation & achievement
GM training boosts motivation & achievement
Narrows gender & racial achievement gaps
Neutralizes stereotype threat
Improves resilience, behavior & achievement
Essential to “positive persistence”
Embrace challenges
Lower dropout rates
Improved student performance and success
Improved happiness and satisfaction
from and

15. Gender, Race, Class & the Growth Mindset
Women and girls are more likely to have a FIXED MINDSET
People of color are more likely to have a FIXED MINDSET
(Dweck & Simmons, 2014)
WHY?
Rewards and Praise (Girls for Being, Boys for Doing)
Pressure of Perfectionism (beauty standards, compliance, “good girls”), so criticism feels very real and personal
Systematic oppression, lack of access and representation construct (false) realities and cultural expectations of who is good at what/who belongs where
Limited choices and opportunities make failure high stakes
Discipline disparities make failure high stakes

16. Strategies to Cultivate A Growth Mindset
Name it & Explain it
Praise the Process, not the Person
Language & Framing
Celebrate Mistakes & Struggle (yours & theirs)
Provide Resources & Encourage Help-Seeking
Check and call out biases (social, identity and ability)

17. What strategy are you going to try?
For students: What specific things can you do in your work to help students build a Growth Mindset?
Name it & Explain it
Praise the Process, not the Person
Language & Framing
Celebrate Mistakes & Struggle (yours & theirs)
Provide Resources & Encourage Help-Seeking
Check and call out biases (social, identity and ability)
(look at you… step two of developing a growth mindset… check!)

18. What can you do? Spread the Growth Mindset gospel
Consider Growth Mindset in organizational processes & practices
Support Growth Mindset professional development
Practice a Growth Mindset strategy in your own work
Talk to students about Growth Mindset
Belief → Action → Growth → Belief → Action → Growth