The Light and Fast Organisation

CHAPTER 11 Three traits

In order to transition to alpine style, we need to have these three character traits:

• the growth mindset
• a commitment to learning
• an anti-alpha approach.

Okay, so we have learned about the three skills and the three insights. Now we are on to the three character traits that we must possess to complete the transition to an alpine-style organisation. The first of these is about having an open, or growth, mindset.

Growth mindset

In her classic 2006 book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, psychologist Professor Carol Dweck made a case for the straightforward premise that the world's population is divided into two types of people: those who are open to learning, and those who are closed to it. Importantly, this notion is also applicable to teams and organisations. Dweck refers to these two categories of people as having either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

The key premise of a fixed mindset is the belief that the qualities (of a person, team or organisation) are unchangeable.

Whether it is intelligence, personality or knowledge, they believe that they are what they are and that they cannot be changed. Whatever the external environment throws at them, they are impervious to it. People with a fixed mindset are more likely to take failure personally, regardless of whether they played any role in the cause of the failure. They interpret setbacks as signs of failure, rejection and of their own inherent weakness. They are embarrassed about ...