The Agile Mindset: 11 tips for everyday life (part 3/3)
A simple lesson from the literature on persuasion: A sustained engagement with certain ideas - especially when these ideas are self-generated (Aronson, 1999) - increases their accessibility and thus their influence on people’s subsequent thinking, feeling and behavior (Crano & Prislin, 2006).
People who want to develop the Agile Mindset should therefore - in addition to the Measures on organizational and Team level , which we have discussed in previous blog articles - also regularly engage with a growth mindset themselves.
If doubts arise on a personal level regarding the growth mindset (eg “I’m too old for that”), it is important to have your own individual development plan on hand.
Well then: Here you will find 11 ways to promote your personal growth mindset (based on the research of Aronson, Fried & Good, 2002; Heslin, Latham & Vandewalle, 2005; Dweck, 2006).
11 tips for everyday life: Develop the agile mindset
1. Consider difficult tasks as an opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t work, and not as a barometer of whether you have a natural talent for it.
2. Always consider your successes and failures as Result of your efforts, strategies and decisions - and not as an indicator of your (lack of) innate talent.
3. Think back to the long learning processthat you put behind you to be able to read, write, calculate, etc. Hopefully you will notice that if you want to be really good at something, tenacity, perseverance and frustrating setbacks on the way are part of it.
4. Recall an event in which you find yourself through one performance check felt humiliated. Now realize that such events rarely defined your potential performance. No matter what you want to learn - Spanish, golf, or Excel - you should always see yourself as an eager student with a beginner’s attitude and never as someone who can’t do something.
5. Have you ever heard something like this: “I want to develop, but I don’t think it’s possible - that’s just the way I am”? Not quite right. There is (almost) always a choice and question of your personal prioritization.
6. Think of a person whose talent you really have admire, Would you say that this person’s talent was innate, or that they acquired it through enormous effort and time investment? Learn from your idols with what effort and which routines they achieved and maintain their level of performance.
7. Think of something you always wanted to learn, but you always thought you didn’t have it in you. Make it a little experiment and start learning this skill! Every time you think it’s not working, try 10 more attempts. You will make many mistakes along the way - that has nothing to do with your ability. Above all, you will actually learn something!
9. Don’t be proud that you won something or achieved a goal. Be proud of how much time and effort you put into the process to get there.
10 Resist temptation, to surround yourself with people who only confirm how “smart” you are - instead of challenging you to grow! Surround yourself with people who are trying to grow just like you, so you can motivate each other.
11. If you have a fixed mindset thought, for example “the others just have more talent for kicking”, always answer with the growth mindset voice: “The others have already invested a lot more time in learning to play kickers.” And besides, why do we kick at all? Back to work. ;-).
Conclusion
It has been heard many times before. However, we hope that with this blog series we have shed light on it from a slightly different angle - namely as a psychological concept - illuminated:
No matter what the others say, no matter who you are and where you stand. You can always develop positively. You can still become the Chuck Norris of your discipline. Yes. Chuck Norris. #KeepGrowing
References
Aronson, E. (1999). The power of self-persuasion. American Psychologist, 54, 873-890.
Aronson, J., Fried, CB, & Good, C. (2002). Reducing the effects of stereotype threat on African American students by shaping theories of intelligence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 113-125.
Crano, WD, & Prislin, R. (2006). Attitudes and persuasion. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 57, 345-374.
Dweck, CS (2006). Mindsets. New York: Random House.
Heslin, PA, Latham, GP, & VandeWalle, D. (2005). The effect of implicit person theory on performance appraisals. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 842-856.
