Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Paperback – December 26, 2007

I was looking forward to reading this for months, and had a mixed reaction when I finally did. The book is valuable for its conceit: that there are two types of mind-sets; the growth and the fixed. The growth is the one to have if you want to thrive in life, career, relationships, etc. People are formed early on into one mindset or the other, but can change to the valuable growth mindset if they put themselves to the task. This is incredibly important and the book's value stands on this assertion alone. All of this can be summed up in a single chapter, or a scientific paper tweaked for the lay reader. The problem is that this argument is stretched thin to become a "book" and Dweck's writing doesn't maintain enough interest on its own and is often clunky, sentimental and obvious at times. I'm sure this happens a lot when a notable scientist, psychologist, etc is given a book deal and needs to expand it to justify a full-length book when something shorter would suffice to most readers (exceptions are brilliant writers like Daniel Kahneman and Daniel Gilbert, etc). So Midset is a mixed bag. The real gift here is the conceit. Read it because it has value. It's an informational book, but not a great book.

I first came across the author in a TED video. Her talk about how "not yet" generates far more power than "fail" was interesting and I decided to buy her book to further read into her studies. The book in general is an interesting piece of work. I like the way she describes the "growth mindset". However, most of the book seems to focus on discussing the difference between "fixed mindset" and "growth mindset" applied to different fields. So it does get very predictable and tedious. There is far not enough discussion about how to better develop the "growth mindset". It is like the author uses the entire book to emphasize how important "growth mindset" is but doesn't really offer much help. In particular, I don't like how she attributes every corporate failure to "fixed mindset". I think it is way too generalizing and over-simplifying.

Love this book! Lots of insights and it makes sense. How tightly do we cling to our ideas about life? About ourselves? Can people change or not? How do we react to failure-- devastation or just a part of normal living? Reading this is changing much about my way of thinking. The author started life with a static, limiting understanding of herself and life. In studying various people in her career as a psychologist, she began to see that people respond to negative things in one of two ways: with despair or with hope. She explains how we get these mindsets and how we can grow if we choose to. Really life-changing.

This book, Mindset, by Carol Dweck, has been thoroughly enjoyed by this reader! I have not yet finished it, as I am among three other titles that I bounce among depending upon my mood. Also, this is easy for me as I own a Kindle.
I just read, and captured in a Word document, a short chapter in the book entitled, “Corporate Training: Are Managers Born or Made?”. For me, this chapter alone was worth the purchase of the book. This chapter describes a workshop in which managers are presented with concepts and strategies that are growth-mindset oriented.

Suppose managers in a workshop did these things: a) reach an understanding of why it’s important that people can develop their abilities, b) identify areas where they once had LOW ability but now perform well, c) write a struggling protégé about how his or her abilities can be developed, and d) recall times they have seen people learn to do things they never thought these people could do. And in each case, they would reflect upon why and how change takes place!

The description of the workshop process above, coupled with two suggestions by the author, offer both direction and hope for future organizational leaders. The first suggestion generally was to employ/seek out people who have a growth mindset and a passion for learning. The other brilliant suggestion was making a growth-mindset workshop the first step in any major training program!

I have worked in a corporate training environment and in the management development area as an internal consultant, content developer, facilitator of workshops dealing with leadership development, coaching, team leadership, team development, change, personal development (MBTI), communications, motivation, conflict, process improvement, customer service, quality, etc. I witnessed first-hand managers who were not open to learning, to growth; they were stuck in default modes. Many sorted folks out into winner/loser categories that most often became self-fulfilling. I think Dweck’s suggestion to expose these “types” to a growth-mindset workshop could be the catalyst for a real learning change (if we could restrict the use of digital communications devices during the sessions!)

I am a bit put-out, displeased at the reviewers who disparaged this book, in one case saying it was of no value beyond the first chapter. To those reviewers I say: I am convinced to the contrary! I am looking for what the book is: it is a valuable resource which offers hope to those in leadership positions trying to improve their own authentic performance and the performance of those they LEAD (not manage). Leaders see the potentials of their people, then provide the direction, support, and feedback that required for individual/team success on task/mission.

The book has been a most informative, fun read! I enjoyed reading about the growth mindset of athletes like Michael Jordan.

There are MANY positive takeaways from the book, and I think most future readers will find the book very beneficial.

I was hoping for a more detailed look at growth and fixed mindsets and actual tools to assist individuals to move from a fixed to a growth mindset. You won't find that in this book. What you do find is repetitious stories. This is best for people who have never read any of Carol Dweck's articles (or people writing about her work like Po Bronson)... though even then... why buy a book when you can access many articles for free.

So if you are a professional looking for actual resources to use in your practice... this isn't it. I won't even be using this in my lending library as the articles are so much more poignant... and short.