Creating a culture of innovation by fostering a growth mindset.

CANHEIT 2017 Presentation. Presented at Queens University as part of the 2017 higher education IT conference. The presentation explores how to create a culture of innovation by encouraging a growth mindset. By creating an environment where mistakes are possible and learned from, experiments are acceptable, and the journey and the effort is recognized as opposed to just judging the outcome.

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 6 th CIO in ten years [email protected] 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

16. mindset The New Psychology of Success Carol S. Dweck Ph.D. [email protected] Questions or comments