Do SMEs support a growth-mindset and lifelong learning?

In the modern business world concepts like growth-mindset and lifelong learning are omnipresent. But do most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) relay encourage and support these values? And if not why is this the case and what are the possibilities for companies and employees? In this article I would like to elaborate the current situation in SMEs based on my own experience and through my different rolls in SMEs over the years from team and division manager to CEO.

Do most SME encourage and support growth-mindset and lifelong learning?

No! And to explain why, here is the classic process SMEs use for the training of their employees.

HR defines together with mangers the core competences and skills needed in the single teams. Following this they compare the needed skills with the existing skills of the teams rated by the managers. Where they find discrepancies, they will identify adequate trainings in the form of a one or two day workshop offered by many known providers. The manager will decide which of his team members will attend this workshop. Often these are the only training programs being offered beside the onboarding.

So why doesn’t this existing approach encourage growth mindset mentality? To make it short and not go into detail, it misses the key essence, which is the self-motivation or voluntary endeavor of improvement.

Why do many SMEs proceed this way?

There are mainly three challenges that seem to force SMEs on this path.

1.     Fear of missing skills

Small teams and single source employees make them use the presented approach, because they fear to miss a needed skill if employees would “go their own learning way”. So the feeling arises, that they have to force their employees on to the way they need. This fear is wrongly placed, because if the values are lived out in the teams, they will gladly follow the proposal of the managers.

2.     Fear of high fluctuation

SMEs often are not able to offer their employees a perspective if they develop. They even fear to lose the employee if he improves. So they rather settle for an employee who does an “ok” job and leave it that way. This is the easy way out and will leave the company’s performance in the mediocrity where they left their employees.

3.     Cost

This may actually be the main reason and also affect the ones mentioned above. SMEs are often under a high cost pressure. This results in small teams often doing extra ours with no time for personal development. The employees need to be extremely efficient, so every minute they spend on a task is being logged. So called “unproductive time” for team meetings etc. is being held low. They often think they are not able to afford this kind of values and the related costs. When I see so many unmotivated employees sitting through a two day workshop like mentioned above and going home with a questionable certificate of participation, the gain of the invested money will multiply with the realization of these values and a holistic learning offer. And running on over ours and time pressure on the employees is like running an engine way to hot resulting in a progressing destruction and finally burning it out.

What are the possibilities for companies and employees?

Creating a growth-mindset within the company is a topic of its own. But when it’s on its way or does already exist, here are some possibilities SMEs can offer besides their standard trainings in an easy way.

Books

This may sound simple and old school, but books are still a main source for information and in many SMEs absent and sadly underrated. Since there are nearly unlimited options out there, don’t leave the ones eager to learn alone on their path. Create a library offering books and audio books with recommendation for specific fields. Enable discussions rounds, where employees can share and discuss their opinions on the different topics and books.

E-Learning

E-Learning is nothing new and there are many established mostly web based learning platforms offering classes in nearly every field, but still cannot be found in most SME. So here are some advantages I want to share.

• Easy accessible from everywhere and on nearly every device
• Interactive learning with visualizations, audio and small tests after every chapter
• Self-pace learning
• Traceable learning progress of employees
•  Deadlines & Exams
• Certificates for the employee
•  Reasonable and controllable costs

Mentor

A Mentor program can be a very effective tool. On paper many SMEs do have a mentor system, so why do I mention this? If you look closer at these so called mentor systems in place, you will often find that they are only used for onboarding and sometimes brake down to “if you have questions, you can asked your mentor”. As valuable as this may be, it is only one sided. A Mentor should guide the mentee and bring up new topics and ways the mentee was not thinking about at all, and not just answer questions. Also this should go through the whole career and not just for the onboarding. So please rethink your mentor program, train the mentors in detail on their tasks and give the program room, space and time to actually work and then it may become a success.

Visualization

This may sound too easy, but I found it be extremely helpful. Visualize for your employee where he is right now, where he wants to go, the steps he needs to take and the ones he already completed. This can be done in a digital way by using word, excel etc. but I found it to be most effective in an analog way. For example, give every employee a lather bound book, where the path is visualized and updated in face to face session, between the manager and employee, on the way. If it’s the development of a team, maybe even do it on the office wall. I even went so far as to create playing cards for every team member showing his self-evaluated skills, of course with the goal to raise them over time. These visual aids make it easy for all stakeholders to grasp the concept, focus on the objective and trace the process. 

The END

To sum it up, as we have seen it is a huge effort and there are actual challenges for SMEs to really support this mentality in the workforce, not to mention the effort to create this mentality in the first place. But if we do not change the culture at least with some small steps (as described above) to support a growth mindset mentality, it will be more and more difficult to compete on the market and in the competition for the best employees. So maybe the risks of a higher amount of unproductive hours and increasing fluctuation is worth taking in order to raise the quality and satisfaction in the workforce, increasing the efficiency and attracting new exceptional talents.

I hope you found some inspiration or maybe a single idea for you, your team or your company so that this article served its purpose.