Written by: Francesca Tettamanzi, Ruth Loftus, Rita Oszlanczi

In April 2021, the Learning & Development (L&D) team at Frontiers launched its first-ever organization-wide learning journey. The 4-week journey supports all employees to develop their understanding, awareness and application of Growth Mindset. 

Until recently, L&D initiatives at Frontiers were group-oriented and targeted to specific roles, or involved opportunities and funding for individuals to develop certain skills based on goals set during performance reviews throughout the year. By the end of 2020, the L&D team identified an opportunity to do something different, and for all employees to focus on developing their capabilities in the same, single development area. 

To make this happen, the team researched what other organizations were doing, talked to HR and employees at Frontiers and discussed options with the leadership team. After a few weeks, Growth Mindset became a clear winner, but what is it all about?

So what actually is Growth Mindset? 

Researched and identified by Carol Dweck in 2006, Growth Mindset continues to be a top trending topic within psychology and especially in areas of organizational psychology. In a Harvard Business Review article, What Having a “Growth Mindset” Actually Means, Dweck summarizes her own findings about Growth Mindset very simply by saying it describes: “Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others). 

Why Growth Mindset for Frontiers? 

In L&D, we want to support Frontons to develop their skills and develop their careers but with an ever growing number of employees, it’s not always possible to do this on an individual or even group level. Instead, we created a framework where employees are given the right tools and time needed to do that by themselves, enabling them to develop in their roles and grow within the organization. For the last few years, L&D’s mission at Frontiers has been to create ‘a culture where everyone is proactive about their learning and drives their own development’. Growth Mindset can play a big part in making this a reality, and our plan is that by developing an organization-wide Growth Mindset, more Frontons will do as Dweck suggests and “believe their success is based on hard work, learning, training and doggedness”. 

In January 2021, the People Experience Department at Frontiers, launched the first ever Employee Happiness Survey. The results from this survey helped L&D and leadership to narrow down and agree the Growth Mindset topic as the most suitable opportunity for all our staff to take part in. At Frontiers, we decided that a 4-week journey was the best place to start to develop a culture where more Frontons share the responsibility of accessing the learning and development they need to do their job. 

Access to LinkedIn Learning

The large volume of Frontons embarking in the Growth Mindset journey has been made possible thanks to our new automated workflow tool (Enboarder), which is currently used at Frontiers for many other employee journeys such as onboarding and parental leave. The 4-week ‘Growth Mindset journey’ includes weekly touchpoints from Enboarder and uses the concept of drip-feeding information via short messages, resources, bite-sized tasks and self-reflection moments. 

Since April this year, all Frontons have a LinkedIn Learning license so to leverage the use of that platform, the 4-week journey includes a 58-min course “Cultivating a Growth Mindset” led by Gemma Leigh Roberts. The main message from the course is that “Mindset is a choice” and the video lessons offer practical advice to reach your own potential, stay motivated and navigate change successfully. A Microsoft Teams channel has also been set up to encourage knowledge sharing and engagement among participants of the journey, including a dedicated channel of people managers only, to exchange best practices in leading their team’s development around growth mindset. 

Feedback so far about the journey indicates that Frontons appreciate that everyone focuses on developing the same awareness and development at the same time. This has also been reinforced by messages and encouragement from leadership who have shared how growth mindset is necessary for working in a fast-growing and constantly changing organization like Frontiers, and is something all Frontons should take the time and opportunity to develop. 

Over the few next months, when all Frontons have completed the journey, L&D will come back to report on the results of this initiative and share some stories from Frontons who have learned something about their own mindset throughout their journey. 

Join us

Continuous learning is the way of the future! Frontiers believes in its people and their potential.

People development is a priority for Frontiers and we are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to help develop our people. 

If that sounds like a working culture you would be interested in becoming a part of, check out our Careers page.