Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022 - 65

SRINI PILLAY, M.D.
SCIENCE OF
LEARNING
MINDSET STRATEGIES FOR
BUSINESS GROWTH IN 2022
Earlier this year, Madgavkar et al at
McKinsey & Co. explained why 2022
may be a year for CEOs to harness
growth jolts. They pointed to several
growth sectors, including e-commerce
and virtual health care, that leveraged
the upheaval of the pandemic to launch
and develop new business models.
While some businesses sought stability,
others took advantage of the tailwinds
and sped up. The result is that the gap
between the high performers and the
rest of the field has widened. Let's
take a look at some of the strategies
that have enabled businesses to thrive
amid upheaval.
FOCUS ON HOW
YOU CAN BOOST
THE CONFIDENCE
OF INDIVIDUALS
AND TEAMS.
ADD IMAGERY TO MASTERY AND
PERFORMANCE GOALS
This type of goal must be accompanied
by a performance goal - the aim to
outperform others. When business
leaders can align on an image of how
they might achieve both of these goals,
the chances of success are higher.
Action: Get the senior leadership
team together. Address mastery and
performance goals separately. Then, get
aligned on how you imagine this might
occur. Develop a strategy to engage
everyone in the organization on this
mission. Developing this mindset can
boost the morale and performance of
the organization.
DEVELOP WIDESPREAD
PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENTUM
IN THE ORGANIZATION
Psychological momentum is a key
factor in success. There are three
factors that
boost
psychological
momentum: confidence, perceived
competence, and internal (ability-skill)
attributions. When doing performance
evaluations, focus on how you can
boost the confidence of individuals
and teams. Provide positive feedback
where it is deserved. Invest in training
and reskilling to increase perceived
competence. Where you can, match
tasks with skills that people possess.
Action: Think of the spirit of a sports
team that's together at half-time. If
they're ahead, they're fired up, and
the captain or equivalent will use this
" fire " to pump them up even further.
If they are down, then they will use
the break to reset. Do exactly this.
Depending on where you are, share
winning messages with the entire
organization. And if you're down, focus
on a reset and how you will benchmark
this to help people join you in your
momentum shift.
USE EMBODIED LEARNING
Many learning programs ignore the
importance of the body for the mind
to develop. Yet, embodied learning
is crucial to adopting new ways
of being. Rather than espousing
cognitive theories to people, help
them to feel it in their bones. Wellbeing,
self-awareness, and stress
relief are enhanced when the
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - SPRING 2022 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
learning is embodied. For any mindset
intervention to work, people must
have optimal stress (that is motivating,
yet not debilitating), as well as selfawareness.
Virtual reality experiences
can help to embed learning. This can
enhance real-world learning. It's not
just competencies, but mindsets that
need to be embodied.
Action: Add virtual
reality
to
your
learning strategy to help embed
learning. Remember that embodiment
can help the learning of competencies
as well as the implementation of a
growth mindset. Trying to skip over
aligning on mindsets may prove to
be costly in the long run. Aligning on
mindsets offers great competitive
advantage, especially if you can do
this for the entire organization.
This year will likely offer tremendous
growth for business leaders willing
to dig deep to implement strategies
to achieve mastery and performance
goals, enhance momentum and get
the organization aligned deeply in
these aspirations. Leaders who invest
in these mindset strategies are likely to
build more sustainable wins, especially
if this investment is continuous and
relevant to the changing circumstances
at hand.
Dr. Srini Pillay is the CEO of
NeuroBusiness Group. He is a Harvard
trained psychiatrist and neuroscientist,
on the Consortium for Learning
Innovation at McKinsey & Company, and
author of " Tinker Dabble Doodle Try. "
Srini is also co-founder, chief medical
officer and chief learning officer of
Reulay. Email Srini.
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https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-ceo-agenda-in-2022-harnessing-the-potential-of-growth-jolts https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5006010/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33503022/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33503022/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33503022/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33503022/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33503022/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5351796/ https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/2/111 https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/2/111 https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/2/111 https://www.reulay.com/ https://www.reulay.com/ https://www.trainingindustry.com/magazine

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022

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