I’m sure many people have already seen this movie: Moneyball. In it, Brad Pitt plays a team manager who transforms an average baseball team into a top team. He succeeds in doing so because, against all odds and using new statistical evaluation methods, he puts the team together in the right way – with the right player in the right place. The story is based on true events: back then, the Oakland Athletics made it to the play-offs four times in a row despite having fewer resources and facing overpowering opponents – because the team spirit and the mindset of each individual was right.
Being allowed to be who you are
In many ways, the film shows what makes teams really strong. If there is a “we-feeling”, they can achieve a lot together. It is not the individual top talent that determines success, but working together on a project, being creative and shaping it. Five factors are decisive here: psychological safety, reliability, clear structures, meaningfulness and impact. Of these factors, psychological safety is probably the most powerful. If people feel psychologically safe, they are in an environment in which they can say what they want – without taking any risks. This is the only way to create a sense of trust and genuine connection.
The term was coined by Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School – she identified psychological safety as the basis for more development, learning and innovation. According to her study, published in her book “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth“, teams in which people are allowed to be who they are and feel seen and heard generate 50 percent more innovative ideas.
A certain mindset
Just as companies should create a psychologically safe environment, everyone can actively contribute to this with a certain open and appreciative attitude. Associated with this is “The Power of a Growth Mindset”. This growth mindset stands for a dynamic self-image. It is based on the conviction that skills and abilities can change and develop over time. Challenges are viewed as an opportunity to expand skills and mistakes are seen as a valuable learning opportunity. You try things out, allow yourself to fail and try again. The matching belief system:
I can continue to develop and grow.
This is accompanied by increased self-confidence, a positive attitude, determination and perseverance to achieve long-term goals. The opposite is a “fixed mindset ” – which is only fixated on results and considers abilities to be innate and rigid.
Believe in your own development
The first step towards growth is to question yourself and feel where in your life you have a fixed mindset and where you have a growth mindset. This can be done, for example, as part of a coaching session or in a discussion with your manager. Managers in particular play an important role here – they should definitely be involved in the topic and stand behind it. Daily journaling can also help to quickly identify patterns. Perhaps the same beliefs keep popping into your head in certain situations, leading to insecurity – positive mantras then help you to stop limiting yourself and trust yourself to do new things. The second step is to think about what would be possible if you believed in your own development.
Concrete, honest and development-oriented feedback from outside also has a positive influence on a dynamic self-image. A distinction must be made between feedback on behavior or the chosen path (“You really made an effort to find a clever solution”) and the person (“You are so clever”) – the former has been proven to bring significantly more joy in learning, stamina and motivation. It is also important to choose the right time for feedback – prompt and context-related – the right place – preferably in a 1:1 conversation – and to emphasize strengths rather than potential for improvement.
Those who regularly reflect on themselves know how to take constructive feedback and classify it correctly. Questions that help with this are: “What have I learned?” or “What am I grateful for?”, but also more critically “In which situations did I not quite meet my expectations – what was still valuable about it?”.
A strong duo for modern collaboration
Two exercises have proven effective in practice for strengthening a growth mindset: One simple exercise is the “warm shower”. The team forms a circle or smaller groups. One person sits symbolically or physically in the middle. The others take it in turns to say what they appreciate about this person: Qualities, special moments that have stayed in their memory or areas in which the person has developed a lot. The central person just listens and accepts the feedback. They then take turns until each member has had a turn. The beauty of the exercise is that it allows everyone to take center stage for once – this strengthens self-esteem, team cohesion and the feeling of being seen and appreciated. As a result, people generally dare to contribute their own ideas, make decisions and show their weaknesses more often.
A more challenging exercise to promote a positive error culture originally comes from creative writing: Kill your Darling. This method encourages people not to focus on perfection or avoiding mistakes in a process or project or when generating ideas, but to consciously question the status quo and look for challenges. This involves presenting the idea in its individual components on a flipchart and looking for counter-arguments to each part and sticking them on sticky notes. Another brainstorming session takes place on the basis of the new findings. Critical colleagues can also be consciously brought in here to evaluate and sort out rationally. This method can be very challenging, even for experienced teams, and should be carried out in the early project phases in particular and with moderation – it can then promote open and trusting collaboration and joint constructive problem-solving. It also shows that a work result can and should be allowed to change and develop further. It is important that the team accepts that it is not about people, but about the result.
To summarize: a growth mindset and psychological safety are a strong duo for learning and innovation. People bring one to the table, the other is the environment – both are positively interdependent. It leads to individual progress and the development of top teams. All that is needed are clear common goals and visions, strong and supportive leadership and room for development.
About the author
Ich bin Carla Gottschalk, Managerin für Culture, Leadership & Enablement bei MHP – A Porsche Company. Hier arbeite ich als Expertin für Leadership Trends, Leadership Development, Coaching und Human Skills.
Das klingt nach vielen Buzzwords, aber mein Herz schlägt für echte Veränderungen, Inspiration, Kreativität, ausgefallene Workshops und individuelle Führung.
Neben meiner Tätigkeit begleite ich als systemischer Personal & Business Coach Menschen auf dem Weg zu einer tieferen Verbindung mit sich selbst und daraus resultierendem Wachstum - No Shortcuts. Just inner work!
Auf LinkedIn teile ich Einblicke in meine Arbeit rund um die Themen Leadership, Coaching und Entwicklung – immer mit einer Prise Humor und der Einladung, ins Gespräch zu kommen.
