Which exercises can you use to encourage a growth mindset in your employees?

What is a growth mindset?

The term growth mindset refers to a particular kind of mindset. But what actually is a mindset?

A mindset is a collection of beliefs that shape how you see the world and yourself. It influences your thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors in any given situation. Everyone may have the same goals, but everyone uses different methods to achieve them. These strategies are often called mindsets. In some cases, the type of mindset you apply determines the outcome of your performance. And that is certainly the case with the growth mindset!

But what does a growth mindset actually mean?

Do you believe your abilities are fixed? American psychologist Carol S. Dweck discovered that our opinion on this is a major factor in our success and motivation. She distinguishes between two ways of thinking.

• Fixed mindset. Also known as the fixed mindset. People who adopt this mindset believe that abilities are determined by intelligence. They believe that intelligence is set at birth and that you have to make do with what you have for the rest of your life. What happens when these people fail at something? They think they won't succeed in the future either, which leads them to become discouraged.
• Growth mindset. Also known as the growth mindset. Conversely, people who adopt this mindset believe that your abilities can grow. What happens when they fail at something? They see it as a learning opportunity and persevere. They are motivated to improve themselves.

It will come as no surprise that a growth mindset leads to greater success. The mindset of these individuals is not only motivating, but it is also most likely based on truth.

There is, in fact, increasing scientific evidence that our brains are plastic. This means that our brains do not just change and grow during childhood, but continue to adapt throughout our entire lives. These adaptations occur primarily as a result of learning experiences. After every learning experience, your brain becomes more effective and smarter, and can function faster when performing a specific task. There is therefore no reason to believe that a particular task will never be within your capabilities!

Want to know more about motivation? We wrote about intrinsic motivation and how you can stimulate it through e-learning.

5 growth mindset exercises using e-learning

As an instructor, you can stimulate your students' growth mindset so they stay motivated and are more likely to succeed. While this can be done through in-person training, an online learning environment (like Pluvo) can also help you with this!

How? You can achieve this with these 5 growth mindset exercises.

Exercise 1) Positive feedback stimulates the growth mindset

It is important for employees to realize that making mistakes is not a disaster. This will make them more likely to adopt a growth mindset, as they will begin to see that mistakes actually provide a learning opportunity. You can do this in a number of ways. First, ensure that the message students see after giving an incorrect answer has a positive and encouraging tone.

So, not: "This answer is wrong."

But, for example: "Good attempt, but unfortunately this is not the answer we are looking for. Why not re-read section x? You will find the correct answer there."

It also works well to have students give each other (constructive) feedback. This is also known as peer feedback. People are often more critical of themselves than of others. If students realize that others also receive criticism, they are more likely to view criticism as a gift that helps them continue to develop.

Exercise 2) Growth with a personal learning path

The growth mindset is based on the idea that you learn by falling and getting back up. But falling alone isn’t very motivating. So make sure your students are challenged, but also experience successes.

In an online course, you can easily create a personal learning path. Say someone struggles with a certain part of the course. Study exactly what they are having trouble with. You can do this easily and quickly in a Learning Management System (LMS), such as Pluvo. Then split the difficult parts into two separate chapters.

The chance is then much greater that they will successfully complete at least one of these chapters. After each success, someone experiences a positive, rewarding feeling. Your student will start to associate this feeling with your online training, which ultimately means they will work through other chapters with more motivation.

Another way is to add hints to assignments. Only do this for assignments you’ve made a bit harder. That way, you let your students think for themselves, but you don’t leave them to do everything alone.

Exercise 3) A retake offers the chance to grow

Do your students not pass their tests right away? Then offer them retakes and encourage them to dive back into the material. One way to do this is to have students reread the material after wrong answers and then test them again. In Pluvo, you can use the ‘review chapter’ feature for this.

Note: your ultimate goal is for your students to develop, not for them to pass at all costs.

So don’t offer them unlimited chances, and only give a passing grade if they truly master the material sufficiently. Do you notice that a student works hard but keeps getting failing grades? Then try to support them personally. Look at the learning strategy together and ask them: What could be done differently?

Exercise 4) Process feedback

After growth come successes, and those need to be celebrated! Regularly pause to acknowledge your students’ successes. For example, add a text like this at the start of a chapter:

“Congratulations! You worked hard and successfully completed the previous chapter.”

Emphasize the learning objectives achieved and everything someone has already learned. For example, by adding the following piece of text. This works like a virtual pat on the back.

This is what you can do now:

• You know how to conduct a negotiation;
• You know the key sales arguments;
• You are aware of your body language.

Want to know more about learning objectives? Here’s how to use them effectively.

Extra: Growth mindset exercises for children

It is important  that you compliment your students for their effort rather than for their results. After all, they can work on their effort (growth mindset), but not on their intelligence (fixed mindset). Research shows that this growth mindset exercise is also effective for the development and upbringing of children. For example, it was found that children of mothers who regularly gave process feedback are more likely to develop a growth mindset, and also perform better later in life! In contrast to children of mothers who gave compliments about certain fixed abilities of the child.

So not: “What a sweet child you are!” 

Instead, try: "It’s impressive how long you worked on this sandcastle!"

Exercise 5) Tell your students about the growth mindset

The easiest way to encourage a growth mindset in your students is by sharing the theory behind it. Explain that abilities can always be developed and that making mistakes is part of the learning process. You could also share research showing that the brain is plastic. This helps students break free from a fixed mindset and start seeing new possibilities!

Want to know more about using online training to achieve better results? Read this blog with 10 tips on e-learning.