So people who are purposeful at work tend to have what we call growth mindsets. And let me explain what growth mindsets, and especially growth mindset at work means. So often we feel at work that we're kind of like cogs in a wheel. And if you ever watch this old Charlie Chaplin movie called Modern Times, he talked all about that. And about essentially the movie was all about being a cog in this big industrial wheel. Remember early on in this course, we talked about the industrial revolution. And that's when a lot of people moved from the rural countryside into cities, into large factories and they're basically just cogs in a wheel. They could have been replaced by a robot probably. And that's a problem because if you're just a sculpture, if you've just been sculpted by somebody else, you feel like this cog in a wheel, you feel like you can't break out of that. Ideally what we really want people to do, especially in these modern times, is become sculptors. We want to be a sculptor of our life, right? We want to be sculptor of our work. So how do we do that? And in thinking about that, we need to have a growth mindset. And one of the people who is a world expert on growth mindset, especially growth mindset at work is Heidi Grant. A PhD from stanford who worked with a woman named Carol Dweck. Carol Dweck, a professor at stanford in psychology developed the whole concept of growth mindset. And here Heidi will be talking to us in an interview that I did with her fairly recently about growth versus fixed mindsets. Remember Heidi is a psychologist at Ernst & Young, a major corporation. And Ernst & Young as well as Heidi think all the time about purposeful work. So this is highly relevant to what they're trying to do with their employees themselves. >> When in children and often kind of the way people think about it. And a lot of carols were really initially focused on this idea that growth mindset was about believing that you could get better at something. As opposed to fixed mindset which is believing you sort of won the DNA lottery or you didn't, right? You only have so much of a particular ability and you really can't get any better. And you hear that, I mean especially in the US, I think you hear it more most around certain kinds of things. You hear people say I'm not a math person. >> Right, right. >> One of my least favorite phrases. As if people are just born able to do calculus or not. I'm not a computer person, I'm not very creative, I'm not very social. So you hear people use this language. It sort of says like you're good at something or you're not. Growth mindset is, you can get better. But I think it's really more than that, so I'm really glad you asked this question. Because in children you can kind of predict a lot about mindset just from asking those questions, right? Do you believe you can get better or not? But in adults you actually also have to have another piece of it, which is, is developing yourself or growing yourself your goal, is it part of the purpose behind what you do? Do I think about the work I do every day as an opportunity to get better? Or do I think about the work I do every day as an opportunity to be good, right? To show that I'm already very capable that I'm already very talented. I mean obviously the answer is a bit of both. But to the extent that we can see the work we do, our work goals, or projects, everything we're doing, professionally as being about developing ourselves fundamentally. That's really important for an adult growth mindset, right? It's not just, I think I can get better at something, but I think that's the point. The point is to get better. >> That is so cool. And in your really, really great book, Succeed, which is amazing. You write that most of us blame our failures on the wrong things. >> Sure. >> Because when we're talking about growth and this growth mindset, you are going to fail sometimes. And the growth mindset has a way to reattribute failure in I think a really special way, would you mind? >> Of course, yes, I mean and really could have looked at the end of the day if you're doing well at something you don't necessarily need a growth mindset, right? Everything's going well. Like, so it's fine. But the minute something becomes difficult, challenging, there's a setback, there's something feels unfamiliar, uncertain complex, this is where growth mindset yields all of its benefits. And as you said, a lot of the benefit comes from how we explain to ourselves, depending on our mindset. Why something happened, right? That sort of, in psychology, it's attribution is that the technical term. Like, what do we attribute our successes and failures to? And particularly our challenges, our failures? It was really interesting. And it's really powerful, because of course, how you explain what happened predicts what you do next, and the way you- >> So give us some example of that. >> Yeah, so if the way you explain, so I'll give you example from my life actually, which is really interesting. >> Awesome. >> So to me, I hope to other people. So when I was in school, growing up, I got all A's on everything. I was really good at school. It was like my thing. It was my zone. And of course when you're a kid, and you get A's on things, and you do well, what does everyone say? They say, you're so smart. >> Right. >> Wow, you're a genius, you're so smart, you're so smart. My older brothers were really great athletes, and when I was about 8, one of them tried to teach me to catch a ball. And I caught it with my face, which is not what you're supposed to do. And my mother comforting me in that moment- >> Here, this is for you Grant. >> Yeah, I could use one. I could, because my mother in that moment said to me, it's okay, you didn't get the sports genes, but you got the smart genes. >> Yeah, and she was still well meaning. >> No, of course, it was like, don't feel bad, you're the smart one, right? And so I thought, okay, that makes sense. I didn't get that. And so, of course, what happened was, I never tried. And I got to, what's funny is I went all throughout high school, got to college, got to grad school, started studying with people like Carol Dweck. Studying achievement, as like then, and performance, as my area of expertise is. I study motivation. And really had this insane moment, at about 23, of realizing the way I had explained my successes and failures. The story, I had told myself my whole life, about why I was good at some things and not others, was just wrong. In retrospect, I could totally see it. I thought I was good at school because I was smart. In retrospect I realized it was because I used all the right strategies. I was the kid who came home from school and started doing my homework right away. It was my top priority, to get my work done. When I didn't understand something, I stayed after and talked to the teachers. I was the kid that when you have three weeks to do a book report, started right away. I'm not saying I was popular, but I was really good at school, right? Now, sports the totally other end. I never tried. And I'm not saying I could be in the WNBA right now or something. But you know what? I could have been better at things, if I had actually worked at it. So it was crazy to have this moment where I realized my story of me is wrong. I always say, be very careful reading the autobiographies of successful people. The biographies are often interesting. But autobiographies, just because someone successful doesn't mean they actually know why. They do the right things. >> [LAUGH] Right. >> But they don't necessarily know that that's why it's happening, right? So growth mindset really helps us to, and having a growth mindset naturally kind of goes hand in hand with this idea. That it's what we do that makes us successful, much more than sort of who we are. So people blame their failures on the wrong things. But they also often claim their successes for the wrong things as well as what you're saying. That's really important. And you know what's interesting is that, that's often where a lot of, one of the groups that has the strongest tendency towards fixed mindset thinking, turns out to be very bright women. And interesting Carol did a bunch of work looking at this. And where it's coming from isn't criticism. It's coming from praise. It comes from the fact that girls self regulate faster. So they do a little bit better in school than boys do of the same age, because they listen, they have a better ability to control themselves. And when they do well, they get told you're so smart, you're so good. Which is praise. But its ability praise, right? It's the kind of praise that makes you think, okay this is about being smart. This is about being talented. But here's what boys hear, if you would just sit still you could do this. If you would just pay attention you could do this. >> If you would work harder. >> They're getting criticism, but it's great growth mindset criticism, right? Here's the thing you do, and then you're going to be better. So often it's absolutely just as important to think about what am I attributed my success is to. because if you attribute your success is to your genius, then you're going to attribute your failures to your lack of it. And that's really not the right way to think, objectively, that's not the right way to think about performance. We know a lot about what makes people effective, and it isn't DNA. >> So Heidi Grant was talking with me about growth mindset in the self. Can I change my abilities? Can I change my traits, right? I also want to focus then on growth mindset in your job. Can I change the ways that I do my job? Now, if you add those two together, it turns out that you have a great job. So, if you feel that you can change your abilities and traits, and you also feel that you can change the way you do your job. In other words having a growth mindset in yourself, and a growth mindset in your job, you're more likely to be happy. And there's a brand new study that has shown how that works. So this study getting unstuck, The Effects of Growth Mindsets About the Self and Job on Happiness at Work. Really interesting study, very recent. So here's what they did. They took a look at a large group of employees and they gave them either a growth mindset for self growth, or a growth mindset for job growth, or they gave them both interventions. So these two interventions were separate. One focused on the job and how I can change and modify my job. The other is focused on my own growth mindset, how I can modify my own traits. And people either got one or the other, or they got both of them. And look what happens and after 6 months to overall happiness. At 4 weeks they're pretty close, but at 6 months suddenly you saw the dual growth mindset. This intervention that affected both job growth mindset as well as self growth mindset, really leading to more happiness. So what are we talking about then in terms of what we need in our jobs? This is where we want to be, right? We want to be happy in our work. We want to do that by feeling like we can change our jobs, some, but also that we can change ourselves, some. And it works better than just trying to change one or the other, right? So let's think more about, can I change the ways that I do my job? It's not something we typically think about, but how do we build that greater growth mindset in a job. Heidi talked about ways to change this in our lives, in ourself. But how about this job? Let's take a look at this picture. Let's say that your job was painting these yellow lines on the street. You notice a tree branch that's fallen right in the way that your truck is going to paint the yellow line. What do you do? Do you stop the truck? Do you move the tree branch? And do you continue to draw a straight line, or do you basically say, well, that's not my job to move the tree branch. So I think I better just maneuver my truck around it, resulting in a curved and flawed yellow line, right? So how do we conquer that? Because I doubt very much that the person drawing that yellow line, painting that yellow line is very satisfied with this job. And I doubt that drivers are very satisfied with it. I doubt the organization who was paying you to paint that line is very satisfied. No one satisfied with this, right? So how do we do something about that? How do we get that person to stop the truck, move the branch, and go forward? I think two things need to happen. One is that you need to understand the organization's purpose. And we asked people this in large surveys of full time employees. Do you know the mission of your company, of your organization? Do you see how you can support the mission of your organization, your company? And part of that might be, yes, and my mission is painting a straight line, right? But whatever it is, do you know the mission of your company? Do you see how you can support it? Very, very important. So, understanding the purpose is important. The second thing, is what we call autonomy. Am I able to plan my workout as I would like to. Am I happy with the opportunities at work. I have to express myself. Am I able to use my strengths at work? In other words, am I able to stop the truck, move the tree branch, and continue by painting a straight line? because I know that, that is the organization's purpose. You put those two things together, and you have a happier employee. You have a person who doesn't simply say, well, that's not my job, making everybody unhappy including the employee, right? So you want both. As an employer you want to provide autonomy, and you want to make sure that employee understands the purpose of the organization. At the same time, that employee needs to feel like they are autonomous, that they can do these things. Now, what happens to an employee who feels both of those, versus feeling just one or the other, versus feeling neither? Well, that's something that we looked at in terms of engagement. So we started asking the same people, we asked about autonomy and their purpose. We asked them how engaged are you at work. And this is a standard scale. It's often used, we use it in a lot of our research. I am emotionally energized at work. I am highly engaged in my work. I feel bursting with energy while I'm at work. I'm enthusiastic about my job. I am immersed in my work. So, a person who says yes to those things, is very engaged in their work, right? So, we wanted to find out how does autonomy and connection with purpose lead to more engagement? Here's what we found. People who feel very autonomous, like they can control their job and also understand the organization's purpose are highly engaged. Notice this, 71% of those employees are highly engaged. Now look at the total opposite. I don't feel like I have any control in my job, no autonomy. And I also don't really know what's going on in my organization. They don't try to tell me what the organizational purpose is. I don't know what it is, 8%. 8% are engaged. Now just think about that as an employee. Do you really want to go to work and be disengaged? Is that your goal? Maybe it is, but I doubt it. I don't think you'd be taking this course if you wanted to have a job where you were fully disengaged. But if that's the case, fine, it's your life. But I would say we want to be engaged in our work. We want to be energized by our work. If that's the case, we need to find jobs that provide that type of autonomy and an understanding of what the purpose is. Because one or the other doesn't work either, right? You can see the two middle grounds, low autonomy, high understanding, or high autonomy, low understanding. Only 28% of those people were engaged, deeply engaged in their work. So this is a quote from somebody who is going through an intervention designed to increase autonomy at work. And I just love the quote because this person has moved from being a sculpture to being a sculptor. And here's what he said. I've matured quite a lot, definitely have, because before you work in this environment with a supervisor telling you what to do and you've got this thing inside you that, OK, they're like my parents, and I'm a kid and you tend to work like that. With this team-work, and this is a new way, this intervention around autonomy and purpose. People treat you like an adult, which is a really good thing. And if they treat more and more people like adults, I think a lot of people will grow up. Doesn't everybody want a grown up employee? Doesn't every employee want to be treated like a grown up and act like a grown up? So, these people say, this is my job, and I know how to do it, because I understand the purpose and I feel autonomous, I feel like I have the ability to change things. Those are sculptors of their life. They're not sculptures of their life. I'll give you one final example. And this is a very personal example. Our daughter who had a heart transplant, she actually had two heart transplants in her life, who passed away when she was 19 years old, spent a lot of time in the hospital. And you just can't help but observe other patients who don't have parents there by their child side all that often. And in fact, there are some who I never saw the parents come in. And yet I saw a custodian come through, and in the evenings when some of these kids who never had parents there, were resting and trying to get to sleep, and were in pain and suffering and a number of them died unfortunately. This custodian would stop, and set his mop down and you pick up a children's book, and he'd read that book to these children. That custodian was more than a custodian. That person was a healer. That person was part of the medical team. That person was special. That person almost never took time off. That person found great meaning and purpose from their work. And I get emotional thinking about this. Because I remember those people who cared so much about those kids. And it was part of who they were. It was one of their beagles. I'm here to help these children get through difficult times. That's what I mean by purpose at work.
