Mark Humphries discusses how fostering a growth mindset can create a culture of innovation. He explains that a growth mindset views intelligence as something that can be developed, sees effort as the path to mastery, and treats challenges as opportunities to learn. In contrast, a fixed mindset believes ability is innate and unchangeable. Humphries explains how shifting an organization from a culture of blaming individuals for failures to viewing mistakes as learning opportunities and acknowledging efforts can encourage risk-taking and new ideas. He stresses that changing mindsets is important for both work and personal life, and encourages focusing on learning rather than outcomes alone.

1. Creating a culture of
innovation by fostering a
growth mindset.
Mark Humphries – Chief Information Officer
University of Lethbridge
CANHEIT 2017

2. About me:
• Managed teams for 18 years
• Worked in both the public and private sector
• Initially joined the University of Lethbridge at CTO
• Four months after joining became the 6th CIO in ten years
mark.humphries@uleth.ca
www.linkedin.com/in/humphriesmark

3. What lead me to mindset?
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

4. It is your beliefs
about yourself and
your most basic
qualities.
What is Mindset?

5. What is culture of innovation?
A culture of innovation is an environment that
supports creative thinking and advances efforts to
extract economic and social value from knowledge,
and, in doing so, generates new or improved
products, services or processes.
MaRS Discovery District

6. Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset

7. Fixed Mindset • Innate abilities are set
• About “looking smart”
• Leads to quitting if it is
hard
• Effort equals a lack of
ability
A fixed mindset blames the environment and others for failure.

8. • Intelligence can be
learned
• Talent is not fixed
• Leads to a desire to
learn and try
• Effort equals
improvement
Growth Mindset
A growth mindset adapts to the environment.

9. Fixed Mindset
• Reward outcome
Growth Mindset
• Reward effort

10. How does this apply in a work setting?
• Consider rewarding effort and progress not just
outcomes
• There is more to work than technical ability
• In many cases failure is an option and, an opportunity
to learn and do better next time
• A growth mindset encourages trying new ideas and
approaches

11. How does this apply in our personal lives?
• Your potential is not
fixed
• You can change your
mindset
• It is about the
journey not just the
destination

12. How did this apply at the University of
Lethbridge?
• Mistakes were punished (who
is to blame)
• Public shaming
• Individuals failed
• Mistakes were career limiting
and attributed to individuals
• Mistakes are learning
opportunities
• Public acknowledgement
• Plans, processes, and
preparation let us down
• Mistakes happen

13. How can you change someone’s mindset?
• Focus on the effort not the outcome
• Create a culture of trust where mistakes are possible
• Treat mistakes are learning opportunities (root cause and how to
avoid not who to blame)
• Learn from successful projects too (what made that go well and
how do we do more of that)
• Credit and reward new ideas

14. What if they don’t want to change from a
fixed mindset?
• This happens and there is nothing you can do about it…
• Don’t try and force creativity upon them it will not work.
• Put them in teams with those with a growth mindset.
• Avoid creating teams where everyone has a fixed mindset

15. How does mindset create a culture of innovation?
We welcome
new ideas
With a growth mindset:
Failure is
an option
We can adapt
We are Open to new
ways of thinking
Failures are an
opportunity to learn
We don’t
internalize failures

17. mindset
The New Psychology of Success
Carol S. Dweck Ph.D.
mark.humphries@uleth.ca
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