Growth Mindset: The Missing Piece in Most L&D Programs

Have you ever watched a new team member shut down the moment they encounter their first real challenge? I'm sure you've seen it before. Confident during onboarding, engaged during initial training, then completely deflated when faced with actual complexity. They shift from "I can handle this" to "I'm just not cut out for this job" faster than you can say "learning curve."

I don't think this is about capability gaps or poor hiring decisions. This is about mindset, and it's costing organizations more than they realize. 88% of executives agree that a growth mindset is important for organizational success. (TalentLMS, 2024). Yet most training programs completely ignore the psychological foundation that determines whether employees will persist through challenges or give up at the first sign of difficulty.

The Growth Mindset Gap That's Crushing Performance

Growth mindset, as Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck defines it, is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, hard work, and learning from failure. It's the difference between "I can't do this" and "I can't do this yet." Unfortunately, 96% of executives believe they have a growth mindset, but only 45% of employees think their executives demonstrate one. (TalentLMS, 2024). #airball

The workplace reality is stark. Fear of failure is the top barrier to growth mindset culture for both leaders and employees. (TalentLMS, 2024). When people encounter new challenges, their fixed mindset kicks in, they interpret struggle as evidence of inadequacy, and they either avoid challenges entirely or abandon efforts when immediate success doesn't follow.

What makes this particularly devastating is the ripple effect. Research shows that employees with growth mindsets are positively associated with innovative behavior. (Frontiers in Psychology, 2022). While those with fixed mindsets avoid the very experimentation and risk-taking that drives organizational adaptation.

Coffee mug with the caption "I can't even" - Unsplash Photos

Where Traditional Growth Mindset Training Falls Short

Most organizations approach growth mindset development the same way they approach compliance training: tell people what it is, explain why it matters, then expect behavior change through sheer willpower.

The typical workshop goes something like this: "Growth mindset means believing you can improve through effort. Fixed mindset means believing your abilities are static. Next time you feel inexperienced, make sure to frame it like this in your mind." Then participants nod politely, complete their evaluation forms, and return to their desks with the same psychological patterns intact.

This approach fails for three critical reasons:

Traditional Training Lacks Emotional Experience Studies show that only 12% of learners apply skills from training to their job. (Edstellar, 2025). Why? Because intellectual understanding doesn't create the neural pathways needed for behavioral change. You can't think your way into a growth mindset, you have to experience the actual feeling of moving from incompetence to competence under pressure.

No Safe Space for Authentic Struggle Real growth mindset development requires experiencing genuine challenge and failure. Traditional training provides neither. Participants never feel the authentic frustration of being the newest person on the team, the youngest in the room, or the most inexperienced at a critical skill.

Missing Transfer Mechanisms Traditional training achieves only up to 30% retention rates. (European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2024). Because it doesn't provide the contextual practice needed for workplace application. Knowing that you should "embrace challenges" intellectually is completely different from actually doing it when your competence is questioned in front of your peers.

The Game-Based Solution: Authentic Growth Under Pressure

There’s gotta be a better way! This is where commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games become transformative. Video games don't just teach growth mindset conceptually, they create the exact psychological conditions where growth mindset must be developed to succeed.

Research on serious game learning shows that growth mindset players perform better and devote more attention to learning feedback than fixed mindset players. (Games for Health Journal, 2012). But what's even more compelling is that games can actively develop growth mindset through their core mechanics.

The Neuroscience of Game-Based Growth

Video games do improve cognitive skills and decision-making. (Procedia Computer Science, 2021). But more importantly for growth mindset development, they create what educational researchers call "desirable difficulties." Games present challenges that are just beyond your current ability level, require repeated practice, and normalize failure as part of the learning process.

When players encounter a difficult level, they don't think "I'm bad at games." They think "I haven't figured this out yet." This psychological shift is exactly what we need in the workplace, but traditional training can't create it artificially.

Why Game Failure Feels Different The key difference is context and expectations. In a workshop, failure feels like evidence of incompetence. In a game, failure is expected, temporary, and immediately actionable. Studies indicate that puzzle, roguelike, and platformer games show higher prevalence of growth mindset-related terms. (Games and Learning Alliance, 2024). Because these genres inherently involve setting objectives, exerting effort, learning from setbacks, and refining strategies through gameplay.

Games in Action: Real Growth Mindset Development

I've facilitated growth mindset workshops using two specific COTS games that create authentic learning experiences: Rocket League and League of Legends. Both games provide the psychological conditions necessary for genuine mindset development.

Rocket League: Mastering Aerials as Growth Mindset Training Rocket League's aerial mechanics perfectly demonstrate growth mindset principles. Aerials are simple to understand, nearly impossible to execute initially, and require hours to master. They represent what I call the first skill threshold, the point where players transition from rookie to competent.

What makes aerials particularly effective for growth mindset development is their clear progression path. Players start with stationary ball practice, advance to moving targets, then eventually attempt aerial plays in competitive matches. The skill demands precise timing, spatial awareness, and the ability to fail publicly (your teammates see every missed aerial) while maintaining persistence.

In workshops with middle years students, I use aerial training to help participants experience the transition from "I can't do this" to "I'm not there yet, but I will be." The physical mechanics create authentic struggle, while the game environment makes that struggle feel manageable rather than threatening.

One student mentioned afterward that it became "a lot easier to get through new concepts in school because he got familiar with the feeling of 'I don't get it now, but I will if I keep at it.'" This is the transfer we're looking for: not intellectual understanding of growth mindset, but embodied experience of moving through competence development under pressure.

League of Legends: Complex Strategy Under Time Pressure League of Legends provides a different but equally valuable growth mindset experience. The game's complexity means that even experienced players regularly encounter new champions, strategies, and meta-game shifts that require learning from scratch.

What makes League particularly effective is the social pressure component. Players must learn new skills while teammates depend on their performance. This mirrors workplace dynamics where individual skill development affects team outcomes. The game normalizes the experience of being the least experienced person on the team while still contributing meaningfully.

The key insight from both games is that they don't teach growth mindset through explanation, they develop it through repeated experience of competence development in challenging conditions.

Implementation Strategy: Building Authentic Growth Experiences

Based on research showing that 80% of executives link growth mindset directly to revenue growth. (ATD, 2024). Organizations need practical approaches to mindset development that actually work.

Start with Pilot Programs Using Proven Games Rather than custom development, use COTS games with established learning curves. Research suggests that video games requiring complex resource management show 25-35% improvement in executive function. (Procedia Computer Science, 2021). While games with clear skill progressions naturally develop growth mindset attitudes.

Select games based on your specific development goals:

• Rocket League for individual skill development and handling public failure

• Portal 2 for collaborative problem-solving and iteration

• Overcooked for team communication under pressure

• Strategy games for long-term thinking and adaptation

Design Structured Debrief Sessions The learning happens in reflection, not just gameplay. Create guided discussions that help participants identify moments when their mindset shifted from fixed to growth. Ask specific questions: "When did you first think 'I'll never get this'? What changed your mind? How did it feel when you finally succeeded?"

Measure Mindset Shifts, Not Just Engagement Traditional training metrics miss the point. Instead of measuring satisfaction scores, track behavioral indicators: Are employees more likely to volunteer for challenging assignments? Do they persist longer when facing obstacles? Are they seeking feedback more actively?

Create Ongoing Practice Opportunities Growth mindset development requires sustained intervention. (PMC, 2024). Not single-session workshops. Establish regular "skill development challenges" where teams can practice growth mindset in low-stakes environments before applying it to high-pressure work situations.

Level Up Your Approach

The data is clear: growth mindset directly impacts organizational performance, yet most training approaches fail to develop it effectively. The problem isn't that growth mindset training doesn't work, it's that intellectual understanding without embodied experience creates no lasting change.

I think commercial video games provide the missing piece: authentic challenge, safe failure, and repeated practice of moving from incompetence to competence. They create the psychological conditions where growth mindset must be developed to succeed, then provide immediate feedback on that development.

Ready to move beyond theoretical growth mindset training and give your team actual experience developing resilience under pressure? Book a free consultation to design a custom workshop using proven COTS games that create authentic learning experiences your participants will carry into their daily work challenges.

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