The School vs. Work Lie
The workplace is uniquely dysfunctional.
If you’ve ever been managed or managed an employee, you know in your heart it’s true.
Simple things get… weird. Awkward. More difficult than they should be.
What’s interesting is that things that are difficult at work don’t seem to be as difficult in other places.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced the key element that leads to dysfunction in the workplace is a lack of a growth mindset.
In areas of life where growth mindsets are common, you won’t find the kind of issues that typical managers face. Strangely enough, I think one area in American society where we have the healthiest growth mindset is athletics.
You won’t see a football coach fret about whether he should tell his lineman that he isn’t blocking correctly.
Isn’t the coach worried about hurting his player’s feelings? Or coming across too critical? What if the player disagrees with how the coach wants him to block?
In short, no, the coach isn’t worried about those things because he knows his player is there to perform — to win.
The thing is, sports is win or lose. There’s no, “He’s doing fine” like there so often is in the corporate world. In other words, the cost of not improving is too large to tolerate in the sports world. Either improve or fail.
How did it get like this?
We have a big fixed mindset problem in the United States. Some might argue it’s those damn millennials who can’t take criticism. There might be some truth to that, but even if there is, they’re the victims of the culture their parents created.
Think about the typical college educated millennial’s life. They spent the first 22 (or 23, or 24) years in school. Then there‘s this huge ceremony marking the transition from one phase of life into another — from school to work; from learning to doing. Talk about a false dichotomy.
I think that’s a huge mistake. Sure, it’s great to complete a college degree. But your learning has really just begun when you finish your degree.
Degrees, job titles, positions, these all push towards a fixed mindset: I’m certified. I hold this title.
There has to be a better way
The real job of a manager is to get his or her employees to get out of their fixed mindset and into a growth mindset. I think think of a few approaches that can help. You might know of others.
Make it a Game
If you want to read a business book that is different, read the Great Game of Business by Jack Stack. It’s different because Jack had a background in manufacturing when he and others bought the factory where they worked. He gets every single employee involved in running the company by framing it as a game, with revenue and profitability goals set at the top, and various department level goals set in support of it. In the abstract, it might not look much different than Google’s cascading OKRs, but it is in practice very different because of the employee involvement in setting even the top goal for the company. Goals are tied to generous bonuses, so the game is serious, but it’s a game.
When you frame work as a game, people naturally turn to more of a growth mindset. We can get better at the game. We can learn, we can try harder as we strive towards a goal.
Demand critique
I got this approach from Kim Scott’s Radical Candor. It’s a simple concept for a situation that comes up every single day. You show somebody a presentation or a report you’ve written and ask for feedback.
“Looks good to me.” is what you’re likely to get back.
The fixed mindset person thinks, “YESSS, I’m good. Nothing to fix.” The growth mindset person will reply back, “I’m sure there’s something in there that you can improve on. Please give me at least one suggestion for a change.”
You know what will probably happen? You’ll get two or three really good suggestions. But more importantly, you’ve demonstrated to your co-worker the kind of growth mindset you want to see.
Be explicit about improvement
When you meet with your direct reports, don’t shy away from talking about where you’d like them to improve.
You’re the coach meeting with one of your players. If you’re not helping them improve, you aren’t doing your job. If the best professional athletes in the world train for hours day after day, don’t you think it’s reasonable for your employees to at least spend some time dedicated to improving their work performance?
