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Hello, my name is Debi Roberts. I am the voluntary Director of TOC For

Education in the UK. I also work as an educational author and a youth

participation officer – helping young people engage in decision making and

local politics. I also conduct research for local government and am currently

working on research with young carers. I have worked with children and

parents for over 19 years, predominantly looking at ways that develop critical

thinking skills but also how to facilitate an awareness of emotions and an

understanding of how emotions influence thinking. I have a masters in

Education, specialising in Emotional Literacy in Educational Settings.

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I mention this because as part of my masters I undertook a year’s research to

study the impact TOC thinking tools had on a mixed ability class of 10 year

olds in a main stream setting. My hypothesis was that by regularly using TOC

,in particular the Cloud organiser (a tool which requires users to consider the

needs of others), student’s empathy would be enhanced.

This, to my surprise, was not the outcome - the data showed the student’s

empathy levels remained constant.

However, both student’s self assessments and their teacher’s student

assessments, highlighted a significant reduction in stress and hyperactivity

and attention difficulties.

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When I reviewed the data and reflected further, I was able to conclude that the combination of TOC graphic organisers combined with developing an understanding of how to use the CLR’s was likely to have been key to this outcome. This new hypothesis together with other observations lead me in a new direction of enquiry

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I had always been intrigued by behaviour and how people develop and change. What supports them to reach their goals and what gets in their way and most mystifying of all - what triggers our auto responses no matter how much work has been done to move away from them - in other words how we can be our best version of ourselves even under stress. My initial research (into EI and TOC) was underpinned by the understanding that typically, staff and pupils with well developed emotional intelligence present companies and schools with a better candidate than someone with low EI Although to be fair, in terms of employment it does rather depend what you want your staff to do as to how important EI might be …. That said, high EI tends to equate to more competent employees and pupils achieving more in their exams and in the work place. (Goleman 2006)

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My research lead me to understand something Goleman and others do not focus on so much, that the collective Emotional intelligence of a group, team or class can be more, or less than the sum of its parts. And for this to be true, groups must be an entity with their own intelligence. This was the subject of my TOCICO talk last year. Q - why didn’t Goleman’s emotional intelligence focus on group intelligence too?

A - possibly because research and tests were not done in a realistic setting, ie they were not carried out in groups settings with all the variables that exist within a class or office. If that were the case, they would not be aware of the constraint a group situation causes to the individual. Possibly its simply an assumption - is its easier to change the individual than the group, but that is my exact point – it’s not)

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I had seen in my own research that if you try and develop a persons emotional intelligence in a group situation, for instance a classroom, and the group is emotionally illiterate, it becomes counter productive to the original goal.

Q – what do you mean by lower order goals?

A - Goals that serve the ego and enforce hierarchy . Goals that do not value

personal development. Goals and behaviour that individuals see as negative

but feel compelled to go along with in a group situation

Q – how did you determine the group was emotionally illiterate? The group

had initially been selected by the school for this research because they were

such a difficult group. When I compared Teacher’s individual assessments of

each child with staff comments about the class I could see they could find

delightful characteristics in individuals, but hated teaching them as a group,

because they were so difficult to manage and so nasty to each other, even

though individually they were nice children.

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However, if you can raise the group intelligence you can more effortlessly raise individual intelligence read slide * and this tends to create an upward spiral of growth for all. Because the group is not threatened by individuality , instead it recognises the strengths of its members without feeling threatened by them, in addition, the group is more prepared to accept their weaknesses and compensate for them, allowing the individual to be strong as well as the group – and this is key to what I am going to share with you in a minute. So how do we develop a groups emotional intelligence – How do we cause the change? As I mentioned earlier, I believe by introducing the Categories of Legitimate Reservation and using them to support the groups Ei allowed the individuals within the group I researched, greater freedom to flourish. If you would like to know more about this, please feel free to download last years webinar or get in touch with me directly.

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To extend my understanding of group intelligence I began to consider if and how mind sets impact the group. Most people aim to succeed. But I wondered what impact being in a group had on those aims. By considering MINDSETS I began to understand that the likelihood of ones success is influenced not only by actual ability and effort, but also by the beliefs one brings to the task in hand (Elliot and Dweck, 2005). Which raised for me the question of whether a groups belief in an individual within the group could also influence the outcome. I have not undertaken further formal research, however I have would like to share with you what I have come to understand about mindsets and TOC in the hope that you will find it both interesting and useful. Now, its possible that what I will share today will be similar to something you have heard, read or thought before. I say this because I am mindful that there is really very little that is new. Its simply that its new to us, so let me share with you what was new to me and a whistle stop tour of what I have come to understand.

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Mind sets are really important, and thanks to Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we can now appreciate that they are not merely an abstract concept, they are real and to some extent, observable. (Moser shroder, Heeter, moran &Lee 2011. Mengels et al 2006)

So what are mind sets? I am sure you’re familiar with the term, it’s used all the time to describe our attitude or our mood when we’re faced with a particular task .....’The mindset I was in there was no way I could fail’ or, ‘I just wasn’t in the right mindset to deal with that situation today’ But what actually are they? Mind sets are the implicit theories we have about the world and ourselves and they filter and colour all our experiences - Just like wearing a tinted pair of glasses. Your mindset can create a similar flavour to everything and a pre-disposition for how you will react to situations.

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Implicit theories, are just that, implied and not implicitly articulated by the person holding that theory. They provide an organising structure that proceeds self regulation regarding any specific goal. They form a schematic that scaffolds the way a person ascribes meaning to an event. Schemas in behavioural psychology are also repeatable patterns of behaviour, and your mindset will produce automatic responses, repeatedly. Most significantly, implicit theories create beliefs about the malleable and fixed natures of human attributes which unconsciously drive behaviour, decision making, and ultimately our mental and physical health.

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These belief systems converge around two main themes – incremental and entity theories, or what Dwek terms, fixed and growth mind sets.

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Carol Dwek is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. What Goleman did for EI back in 1996 , Dwek, ten years later, did for MINDSETS with her book of the same name. Now although other great thinkers and popular authors talk about mindsets, (such as Covey / Naisbitt) what you will find is more often than not, they are describing how a mindset influences peoples actions and list a variety of behaviours that come or are typical of certain Mind sets. Dwek’s research considers all those aspects but provides significant commentary that describes how mindsets are developed, and the long term implications for each mindset. Most importantly for me, Dwek helps us understand how our intentions as parents, teachers and employers, often create the exact opposite when it comes to motivating and encouraging those in our care.

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As I have already said, it is currently believed that Implicit Theories converge around TWO main themes – incremental and entity theories These are polarised positions and Dwek calls them Fixed and Growth mindsets. Very simply, one believes that abilities are fixed and really cant be influenced greatly, the other that there is no limit to what one can achieve – these two core positions result in a typical range of assumptions about life – that is, people with a particular mindset will often display the same types of attitude towards things and so we see stereotypical behaviour. It is these attitudes and behaviours that will ultimately determine whether a set back will crush you or spur you on. People develop these implicit theories, based on their observations, interpretations and interactions with the world. Dwek and her peers have shown that depending on which theory we subscribe to will influence whether we rise above the challenges we face or sink under the weight of them. And this, is what Dwek suggests in the end, supports long term outcomes and what ensures some of us make the most of opportunities and some of us, don’t. Further studies suggests that your mindset can even influence what opportunities come to you – a paper in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology showed employees who believed in their abilities were liked more by their supervisors, perceived to be more similar to their supervisors, experienced more positive LMX (leader member exchange) and were rated as better performers than subordinates low in self-efficacy. As we will discover later in this talk, self efficacy and goal attainment are greatly influenced by your mindset.

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Thus far, Dwek’s work has been most influential to education because understanding how we as parents, mentors and teachers play a part in developing the expression of mindsets is ultimately the difference our children and students need to engage with their education as well as their long term health, happiness and success too. And its this aspect that should be important to the wider community….* because children grow up and become our neighbours, doctors, politicians and colleagues – and so understanding how a mindset manifests can be very helpful when we are trying to work with others.

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MINDSETS in adults, just as with children can be impacted enormously by interactions with others – a type of gene expression if you like. And this is perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Dweks work, because her team found that the very phrases and comments we use, often believing them to be encouraging and helpful, can actually produce the opposite results to the ones we intended, worse still, they can actually prevent our students or employees reaching their FULL potential.

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Lets look at each of these mindsets a little more closely. A fixed mindset believes intelligence and skills are fixed, you cant do much to change what you are born with. But just like those that believe you can only win if someone else loses, this is a very hard paradigm to exist in because it often means, failure is personal – if something goes wrong it means I have failed as a person. Success means I am smart and accepted because being smart and being successful brings acceptance.

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The problem with having an entity theory or Fixed mindsets , is that you are then trapped spending the rest of your life proving that you possess skills and intelligence. Everything you do, will be underpinned by this need. FM would agree with the following statements; (read slide) Having read these, does it strike you that many of these statements are based on fear? I would suggest that the fear is born from the need to be accepted by the group. And why do I say this? Because if we are not accepted by a group we run a very high risk of not being cared for or loved – and this fear is as old as time.

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We are hard wired to work towards acceptance because acceptance usually means survival. It may help if we consider the notion of the triune brain

*The triune brain divides the brain into three distinct evolutionary areas.

The neo cortex is the latest addition, and is the area of the brain that can think,

enquire and reason. It is built over the mammalian brain or mid brain, where

emotion is processed. Both are built over the old brain the area that deals with

the nitty gritty, sub conscious details that keep us alive.

* They are not just built over each other though, they are connected and

support each other. They each need everything above and below to support

their primary functions.

The reptilian or old brain is the part of your brain that is constantly scanning

the environment looking for threats. Survival is what matters to the old brain.

* In prehistoric times, being part of a group was essential to our survival. So

one of the threats to our survival was being kicked out of the group. What

might get you kicked out? Standing out in some way, saying something

offensive or stupid, or not performing up to expectations.

Fast forward a millennia or two and some of us, having considered our

experiences of the world so far and the feedback we have been given from

parents and teachers, those adults who we trust to mirror the world for us,

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have influenced our understanding of how things work and lead us to assume

that talent and skill are part of who we are and what we were born with, we

conclude that they are within a fixed range – and so we develop an entity

theory of intelligence or a fixed mindset.

Now, Imagine you are in the staff room or board room, ready to present your

new idea, your proposal for change. You might not consciously be aware of it,

but in the background, your old brain is on red alert because, Oh-oh. This is a

potentially threatening situation. In a millisecond it considers all the possible

negative consequences * Starting with, If ….you say something stupid, and

ending up with the worst case scenario* ……YOU MIGHT DIE!

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So, I would suggest, fixed mindsets are born out of a protective need. How is

that relevant to the here and now, well….for one thing, when we suspect we

are working with a colleague with a fixed mindset, we know that part of our

positive interactions with them will include making them feel safe, or at the

very least trying to avoid making them feel vulnerable. We also know that to

get the best out of them, it s likely that we should speak in terms of

performance related goals

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Growth mindsets on the other hand have interpreted the world differently and have developed an implicit understanding that intelligence and skills are malleable and can be developed. Some will even believe that humans have inherent potential. Make no mistake, both mindsets will achieve, and are as likely as each other to find happiness, however Growth mindsets are far more likely to bounce back after a set back, because they find it easier to view it as a stepping stone to getting to where they want to be. Motivation for a GM would strongly focus on mastery and development. But Growth Mindsets are far more likely to rise to a challenge anyway, because they don’t fear failure, or at least not nearly as much as their fixed mindset colleagues, who can really feel defeated when things don’t go to plan (escalating all the additional health problems that might lead to, from stress and heart attack to suicide) The other very negative behaviour (consequence) of fixed mindset colleagues, is they have a high tendency to look to blame someone else when things don’t work out or when a project fails.

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Seeking to re-appoint blame is a key issue in staff relations and project planning and so this all becomes as relevant to the workplace and HR as EI did back in ’96 when Goleman published his first book. Here is a basic example that hopes to tease apart the type of logic Dwek and

other researchers have observed many times in students with fixed

mindsets…..

Does it remind you of anyone?????

Here are a selection of statements that growth mindsets might relate to * As you can see, these attitudes tend to support the way we currently exist, as students and workers, continually striving to do well and achieve more and more We have known for a long time that a parent or teacher’s belief IN a child or beliefs ABOUT their child/student can influence that child’s attainment significantly. This is because young people tend to adopt the beliefs they are presented with. When someone has faith in you, it can be an incredibly potent force. However, if a child feels their parent or teacher doesn’t believe they can do any better, then many times, they will except that version of themselves and wont even try. Dwek’ research helps us understand that some of the messages we give, thinking we are being supportive, actually help create these limiting beliefs and put a ceiling on a student’s potential and strengthen their mindset in terms of what they believe is or isn’t possible.

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What has been so interesting to educators around the world is to consider the suggestion that many times praise and comfort can be detrimental. Our caring comments, when logically unpicked, actually suggest that the student has permanent traits and its these that are being judged or valued. But if they are permanent traits, then it is unlikely the student can do anything about them. And if they cant do anything about them then there is no need to try So what type of phrasing could inadvertently enhance a fixed mindset? **

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Consider the following interaction; ‘Alim, you did that so easily, you are such a clever boy.’ The teacher intends to praise Alim and highlight positive attributes, however, Alim’s brain, which is trying to help Alim make sense of the world and understand his position in it, applies cause and effect logic to analyse this statement and concludes that he finds things easy because he is clever. This creates a number of assumptions leading to a variety of potential problems. *One is that Alim does not have to try, * because Alim is already clever. If Alim doesn't have to try (and it’s possible at the current level of study he may not be being stretched) then Alim stops trying, because he is meeting the current level of attainment without doing so. If Alim stops trying he is not engaging fully with the process of his education. And what happens if Alim is not fully engaged? He misses vital sound bites, those experiences and practises that are essential later on - the business of how to learn. Another consequence that can sometimes result from this type of praise is that Alim may decide not do anything too difficult in case people realise he isn’t actually that clever. So he stops stretching himself and thus fails to reach his potential. Babies and children are like little scientists, experimenting, analysing and adapting accordingly as the try and make sense of the world. And the conclusions they make form the mind-sets they use to engage with the world and which go on to influence all their choices and behaviours. For better or worse these are influenced by their interactions with the primary adults in their life. Praising the outcome and connecting it to traits that could be out of a student’s control can enhance fixed mind-set development.

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Read slide So we need to be sure we are sending the right messages Noticing effort and application seem to enhance growth mind-sets.

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Regardless of the outcome – * ‘You have put so much effort in to this, * I really value how hard you have worked. And when something doesn’t work or a grade is low ….*‘How do you think you can improve on this’ / * What can you learn from this experience for next time? The implied emphasis is now on the effort and the continued journey, which in turn develops a sense that the student can work on things and improve - and so just with our comments alone, we are supporting the young person to develop self-efficacy. No teacher thinks “I wonder what I can do today to undermine my students, subvert their effort, turn them off learning, and limit their achievement.” Of course not. Yet when students logically unpick the underlying messages in their teachers helpful comments or motivating language, sadly that is exactly what can happen. Every word and action sends a message. It tells students (and colleagues) what we really think about them and how they should think about themselves. We now have to consider how to rephrase our helpful comments so they are just that – helpful. And they are helpful when they suggest to the student that they are a developing person and that you are interested in their development and how they apply themselves.

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This slide summerises typical responses each mindset could have to everyday scenarios, as observed by Dwek during her research. In addition to not reaching potential, plateauing early and achieving less than optimal results, we have also seen that fixed mindsets tend to be less resilient to failure, having implications for personal health, and therefore to health professionals and even health insurers too, because experiencing setbacks is something we all experience, all the time. Now, having said all that, there are times when having a fixed mindset is not only beneficial, but preferable – for instance when passing, not mastery, is what really matters. If you only need to pass to move on or up, is it wise to spend time trying to master the topic in hand? If the immediate goal is to pass, then probably not Another example of fixed mindsets being useful is when we need to find something quickly, like information on the internet. A GM may find themselves on a long and interesting trip as google takes them on one fascinating journey after another. A FM is more likely to keep the task in hand so they can reach their goal , no matter how interesting the deviation.

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So its really not all doom and gloom, which is particularly important to keep in mind ……as researchers believe around half the population have fixed mindsets. I should also mention that you can have Fm attitude in certain areas but predominantly be growth and vice versa. For example, a student may show growth midset attitudes in most areas but when it comes to a certain subject, they have a block and display a fixed mindset. This of course can work the other way round too

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Using TOC, a methodology that enhances our thinking AND deepens our understanding, I have come to believe that there are two additional mindsets equally important to education and man management because they also filter peoples perceptions and experiences and unconsciously drive behaviour, decision making, and ultimately mental and physical health. The two additional mindsets are * scarcity and win-win .

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A win-win mindset is not defined by a persons NEED to win (quite the opposite) or their determination or belief that if they try harder they can win. A WIN-WIN mindset’s core belief is that there is enough for everyone, everyone can have their significant needs met . They do not believe that automatically for one side to win the other side should lose – and this links very strongly to my earlier work with groups and my understanding of how CLR’s support group emotional literacy.

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Statements that WIN WIN mindsets would agree with are – ‘its possible for both sides to be right but disagree with each other’ . ‘Its possible that opposing sides can both get what they need’ ‘Its you and me against the problem and not me against you’ ‘conflicting WANTS rarely find peace without a compromise’ ‘compromise is not necessary and that win-win solutions exist when you change your focus from wants to needs’ What about scarcity mindset- what do they believe?

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Scarcity mindsets believe that non physical as well as physical resources are limited, and can even get used up. Read slide – then If you think about your work of your children’s school, what type of mindsets do you see? What do you think is the typical split of mindsets in any organisation?

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It usually looks something like this. ‘win-win’ mindsets are nearly always the smallest population in any class, school or organisation (because) the majority of us have scarcity mindsets and so we send those messages to others generating a growth cycle, and so it continues. It would seem that the most limiting combination for an individual would be to have a combination of a fixed and scarcity mindset (which I don’t know about you, but describes many of the teachers and adults I experienced growing up) and the most aspirational would be growth and win-win (which is what we hope our teachers portray to their students today). It seems unlikely that you could have a fixed and winwin mindset just as it seems almost impossible that you could have a scarcity and growth mindset - I would like to conduct research that investigate this further and that might conclude if scarcity and win are actually subset of fixed and growth or vice versa or whether they are legitimate mindsets in their own right AS I HAVE SUGGESTED here today

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What I do know is scarcity mindsets can negatively effect – individuals, groups and organisations And what we have learnt from Dwek’s work is that our mind-set as a teacher, manager or leader flows through our words and interactions and influences the development of a similar mind-set in those we have responsibility for. We mirror our own internal position to the people we are nurturing, and so the cycle continues.

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Lets just take a moment to remind ourselves, Mindsets are similar to paradigms in that both effect what you see and colour all your experiences …. They become the way you measure and engage with the world Dr.Goldratt (1996), said paradigms are ‘sets of assumptions we believe are valid. We go through ‘paradigm shift' when we realise one or more of our assumptions are no longer valid’ Shift happens! …. Well shift can happen, but it seems we may need to explore our assumptions for it to do so. Mindsets and paradigms are not fixed , they can be transcended. They are doors of knowledge which once opened are hard to shut. But they can also be subject to circular logic, or the ‘Rumsfeld dilemma’ – we don’t know what we don’t know! Which makes finding the door to a ‘new’ way of thinking seem pretty hard to find sometimes.

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Now. Lets imagine someone with a fixed or scarcity mindset, or horror of horrors…..both! They do walk amongst us, they are in many cases our peers and colleagues! They have worked hard to prove they are the best, their identity depends on it, so they are going to display many elements of success and are quite likely to be our line managers or Directors. HOWEVER, are they great to work with? are they great at developing others? are they truly inspirational leaders? Are they liked just as much as they are respected? Do they bring out the best in themselves and others? Do they leave a place better than they found it ? – not so much! And you know what ? No matter how wonderful we know we are, we may even recognise one or two elements of these mindsets in ourselves. How do we manage and progress everyone in our team regardless of their mindsets ?

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Well I believe the same way I reduced stress and enhanced attention in ten year olds during my research, – ensuring we teach CLR’s when using TOCtp so people have an effective non confrontational method to give and receive feedback

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Mindsets are clearly consequential for self regulatory processes and goal achievement – that is also the conclusion of Burnette et el in their 2012 meta analysis and review of implicit theories and self regulation. The working assumption of their analysis was that self regulation has three concrete processes. the ability to set goals, the ability to carry out the steps to achieve that goal and the ability to review ones progress They were also able to demonstrate that implicit theories impact our approach to these processes and therefore the outcomes we create Setting goals is as we all know, something TOC can help people do effortlessly.

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In a group situation, The ATT method creates focused collaboration that exploits the very thing that makes group projects so hard – different needs and opinions. Now a very interesting aspect of this process is it taps into one of the favourite pastimes of colleagues with fixed and or scarcity mindsets – showing why they know this goal cant work or why we shouldn’t even try. As we need to surface all the obstacles we can think of, this is perfect, particularly as we are likely to have a substantial gene pool predisposed to surfacing all the reasons why this wont work or is unlikely to work, or possible negative ramifications they can predict from implementing this goal. Legitimately sharing obstacles to the goal has other benefits too. Aside from showing respect for everyone’s opinion, it ensures that obstacles that otherwise could go undetected are addressed and because you have allowed protagonists to be part of the troubleshooting process, they are highly likely to buy in to the overall process because they have contributed to the solution. (what people contribute to they usually will buy in to). When we find solutions that work for everyone, we expose people to the notion of win win outcomes. And when we mirror CLRS as a way of communicating reservations, we remove the ego threats people are used to encountering when sharing ideas and working in a team

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Ego threats refer to any ‘ events or communication that have unfavourable implications about the self’ fixed mindsets will react badly to ego threats because they consider it risks exposing them as failures, research shows us that ego threats also negatively impact FM belief in their ability. Scarcity mindsets will have similar reactions driven by the fear that resources are limited and if they are nor performing well, someone else will fill that void. Growth mindsets on the other hand, tend to interpret ego threats as part of the struggle and an obstacle to be overcome before mastery can be achieved. Therefore more often than not, GM remain optimistic Unlike their Fixed mindset COLLEAGUES who interpret ego threats as ‘proof’ they lack ability and their Scarcity colleagues who feel under attack because there cannot be two winners, and they cant win if you are questioning their skills / ability / commitment etc How can we flip these negative reactions so they becomes useful?

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Understanding the personal ‘need’ that has to be met or protected, we can phrase our goals so they resonate deeply and do not cause a conflict with our internal triggers.

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Transformational change even in an organisation has got to include personal transformation – the ATT process together with CLRS support users to develop a win-win mindset. When we support others in this socratic way, we allow others to take ownership of their own development even though they might not be the ones who instigated it. In accord with Deming (1993), once an individual truly understands and resonates with win-win thinking, he will apply its principles in every kind of relationship; with his peers, his students and his family. He will have a basis for scrutinising his own decisions and for transformation of the organizations that he belongs to (Deming, 1993). And so we start another cycle of understanding that will replace the old one My hypothesis is that learning a strategy that allows someone to construct a step by step plan for reaching their goal (such as an ATT) as well as providing team members a process for raising reservations in a way that does not threaten the ego ( such as the CLR’S) we can support the individual, develop the EI of the group and simultaneously mirror growth and winwin mindset attitudes - A very powerful combination of outcomes.

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For me, as someone primarily interested in behaviour, and has personally struggled to override the fixed and scarcity mindset input I grew up with, I think an important understanding mindsets gives us, is that our self image and our world view point is just as malleable as our intelligence and skills set. And I think most religions and philosophies speak to the notion that, ‘as we speak so shall it be’. I once spoke to Dr Goldratt about my sense that TOC scaffolded mindfulness, could be used as a meditation, and a way to explore philosophical and religious concepts. He smiled and nodded. I like to think that means he agreed with my observation.

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Win win thinking may be the greatest legacy of TOC thinking processes, it provides a scaffold for those with growth and win win mindsets and a robust process and safety net for those with fixed and scarcity mindsets.

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As I have said, we mirror our internal beliefs in our words and actions and send those messages to others generating a growth cycle, lets make sure we are sending the best possible messages to create the best possible outcomes

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I started by saying that much of this would be similar to things you have seen, read or heard before - let me finish with a quote from Bruce Lee, a gentleman perhaps not known for his understanding of Mindsets (or TOC)

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If you would like to discuss any of these ideas further please feel free to email me.

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