From Bob Sutton’s Blog “Work Matters”
There have been many studies done on the power of beliefs and how they can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Bob Sutton, in a recent blog article, has tied it into intelligence, skills and performance (on-the-job or otherwise) and raised implications for low-cost, modest interventions in helping to improve peoples’ performances by helping tune-up their beliefs about themselves. As Mr. Sutton puts it: “When people believe they can get smarter, they do. BUT-and this is very important-when people believe that cognitive ability is difficult or impossible to change, they don’t get smarter.”
When people believe, as many do, that intelligence is fixed and unalterable (i.e. we are either born with it or we’re not) they lose motivation to do the things that lead to improvement and better performance. When people believe, as science is increasingly showing, that intelligence can be affected, in significant ways, by our actions and the choices we make, they tend to “…keep getting smarter and more skilled at what they already can do” and “are willing to learn new things that they do badly at first”. Science has shown that the brain is somewhat analogous to a muscle and the more exercise it gets (i.e. new learning), the stronger it gets (e.g. neurons grow new connections and become more efficient). Another example is that exercise has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain, which may help stave off or delay processes of deterioration such as Alzheimer’s. “Smarts come from what people do, not what they were born with.” Performance can indeed be improved.
This re-affirmation of the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy and realization that brainpower can be affected by our actions has profound effects for leadership. “It means that if you believe that ability is fixed and communicate this to the people you lead in your organization, they will treat their performance as an “impression management” problem, and carefully avoid providing you with information that they are bad at anything. If, by contrast, you—and they—believe that performance and ability are malleable, they will see tasks as learning opportunities, not just tests that determine if they are preordained to be “good” or “bad” at something.”
Carol Dweck’s Study “Can Personality Be Changed?, The Role of Beliefs in Personality and Change”
Dweck, C. S. (2008, Volume 17–Number 6). Can Personality Be Changed?, The Role of Beliefs in Personality and Change. Current Directions in Psychological Science , pp. 391-394.
Carol Dweck’s aforementioned research has further re-confirmed the power of the self-fulfilling prophecy and more strongly cemented its connection to the matter of intelligence, skill and performance.
From her abstract: “…beliefs lie at the heart of personality and adaptive functioning and they give us unique insight into how personality and functioning can be changed.” “…modest interventions have brought about important real-world changes.”
For leaders, this is where the leverage lies: “…modest interventions have brought about important real-world changes.”, and powerful, long-lasting ones at that. People’s self-theories are malleable and people can be taught that intelligence is malleable. For example, Dweck’s study educated a group of students about how science is showing that the brain really is like a muscle and makes new neuron connections, etc., with exercise and use. Many of these students reported visualizing neurons forming new connections as they studied and learned and “showed significant improvement in grades and significantly greater changes in their motivation” as well as “changes in study habits and persistence in the face of obstacles” versus a control group. A small intervention was demonstrated to have a large impact in changing behavior and performance. If peoples’ explanations for events can be changed so can their reactions to those events. What leverage and capability to help people change their lives! “It is not inevitable that people will function poorly in important areas of their lives.”