Culture-shaping firm Senn Delaney, a Heidrick & Struggles company, is pleased to share findings from a two-year study of several Fortune 1000 companies to examine the impact of an entire organization’s mindset.

In partnership with Senn Delaney, the research was completed by Stanford Psychology Professor Carol Dweck, an expert on mindset, and her colleagues, Mary Murphy, Jennifer Chatman and Laura Kray.

The root of this new study is about how a growth mindset, which the research team calls a “culture of development” versus a fixed mindset, which it calls a “culture of genius” affects such cultural characteristics in organizations as collaboration, innovation, creativity, risk taking and ethical behaviors.

Download the article: Creating competitive advantage by fostering a growth mindset in organizations: new study findings

Findings point to the importance of cultivating a growth mindset culture of development as key factor in creating greater agility and innovation and developing an engaged, collaborative, highly committed and trusting workforce.

Among the findings:

• Trust: Employees in growth mindset culture of development companies expressed a 47% higher agreement with statements about having more trust in their company.
   
• Engagement: Employees in growth mindset culture of development companies are 34% likelier to feel a sense of ownership and commitment to the future of the company.
   
• Innovation: Those in growth-mindset companies showed 65% stronger agreement that their companies support risk-taking and 49% stronger agreement that their organizations foster innovation.
   
• Ethics: Those in growth mindset culture of development companies disagreed 41% more strongly than those in fixed mindset companies that their organizations were rife with unethical behavior.

 “This latest research adds a new dimension to our understanding of the correlation between a growth mindset and positive behaviors in organizations, and suggests that a growth mindset may well be a key factor in determining which companies gain and keep their edge,” states Senn Delaney President and CEO Jim Hart.

“Most leaders today recognize that agility, innovation and collaboration are vital to achieving their organization’s goals,” says Hart. “Since cultures are shadows of their leaders, it is critical for leaders to embody a growth mindset in order to create broad and sustainable agility, innovation, commitment and engagement.”

Senn Delaney and our parent company, Heidrick & Struggles, have unique tools to assess both leaders and organizations for leadership traits and organizational behaviors to demonstrate growth or fixed mindset, says Hart. To enroll your company in the organizational mindset study, please call Senn Delaney at 562-426-5400.

Download the article: Creating competitive advantage by fostering a growth mindset in organizations: new study findings

Read a related story about the research on Harvard Business Review by Prof. Carol Dweck: How Companies Can Profit from a “Growth Mindset”