Carol Dweck's Mindset (2006) and Angela Duckworth's Grit (2016) are two of the most influential social science texts of this century, but difficulty implementing their ideas and a failure to replicate their findings has left them open to criticism.

In this special crossover edition of The Good Practice and Emotion at Work podcasts, hosts Nicola Boyle and Phil Willcox are joined by Owen Ferguson, Ross Garner and Gemma Towersey to discuss.

We explore:

• the extent to which we feel we demonstrate grit and growth mindset
• the problems posed by the popularity of these ideas
• the impact of grit and mindset on L&D.

Show notes

Mindset - Updated Edition: Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential, by Carol Dweck, is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mindset-Updated-Changing-Fulfil-Potential/dp/B07NQLQDWN

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth, is available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth-ebook/dp/B019CGY2ZG

A useful review of mindset literature is: Burgoyne, A. P., Hambrick, D. Z., & Macnamara, B. N. (2020). How Firm Are the Foundations of Mind-Set Theory? The Claims Appear Stronger Than the Evidence. Psychological Science, 0956797619897588. Online at: https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/2020-burgoyne.pdf 

A study looking at mindset in the workplace is: Campbell, A. (2019). Effects of Growth and Fixed Mindset on Leaders' Behavior during Interpersonal Interactions (Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University). Online at: https://search.proquest.com/openview/f227f221ad725ab6802a70bb2d192d83/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Professor Dweck has responded to criticism of her work here: http://theconversation.com/growth-mindset-interventions-yield-impressive-results-97423 

Two papers critiquing the 'grit' concept are:

Credé, M. (2018). What shall we do about grit? A critical review of what we know and what we don’t know. Educational Researcher, 47(9), 606-611. Online at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1051&context=psychology_pubs

Lee, C. S. (2018). Authentic leadership and organizational effectiveness: The roles of hope, grit, and growth mindset. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 118(19), 383-401. Online at: https://acadpubl.eu/jsi/2018-118-19/articles/19a/27.pdf

The paper that Ross and Owen discussed was: Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., ... & Paunesku, D. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369. Online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y?fbclid=IwAR3eSTiOiVc3v8LARTfGwxTzlSDz4AiAFpLK-jK4VcJr57wI0eO8zyvwkEc 

The blog by David D'Souza that Phil mentioned was: https://daviddsouza.com/2020/02/03/the-surprising-truth-about-obvious-truths/ 

In What I Learned This Week, the gang discussed:

Security issues associated with Zoom. Find out more at https://tidbits.com/2020/04/03/every-zoom-security-and-privacy-flaw-so-far-and-what-you-can-do-to-protect-yourself/ and https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/03/thousands-zoom-video-calls-left-exposed-open-web/

Ross' reflections regarding Dr Catherine Calderwood's resignation, covered online at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52181221 

The book Ross recommended was Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed, available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed-ebook/dp/B00L9B7IRC 

The paper Phil discussed, on the mindsets intervention, was: Foliano, F., Rolfe, H., Buzzeo, J., Runge, J., & Wilkinson, D. (2019). Changing mindsets: effectiveness trial. National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Online at: https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Changing%20Mindsets_0.pdf

The book that Gemma recommended was The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker, available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sense-Style-Thinking-Persons-Writing/dp/1846145503 

If you'd like to Give Blood during the current crisis, you can! See: https://www.blood.co.uk/ 

For more from Emerald Works, see: https://emeraldworks.com/ 

For more from Phil, see: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/ 

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You can find Phil's podcast at: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/podcast/ and on iTunes.

Connect with our speakers

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with our speakers on Twitter:

• Nicola Boyle @Nicola_BoyleEW
• Phil Willcox @PhilWillcox
• Ross Garner @RossGarnerEW
• Owen Ferguson @OwenFerguson
• Gemma Towersey @GemmaTowersey

You can follow Emerald Works on Twitter @Emerald_Works and LinkedIn.

Emotion at Work is @EmotionAt_Work.