Growth Mindset, SolarWinds, and Knowledge Transfer. Oh My 🌴

Mar 05, 2021 8:31 pm

Hi there,

I recently picked up the book Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck. I think this book is on a lot of people's lists as a great book to read, and so I finally picked it up. I'm about halfway through it, and I already find myself reflecting on my life and wondering how I can apply its concepts.

The tl;dr; version of the book is that through lots of research and studies Dr. Dweck describes two fundamental mindsets--- Fixed and Growth. Fixed mindsets are characterized by a belief that you have a fixed capacity and ability. Growth mindsets, to contrast, believe abilities and capacity can change. It goes on to compare and contrast the two mindsets over many situations and domains. Where people exhibiting fixed mindsets fear failure as it confirms their limits, growth-minded people consider failure a teacher and nothing more than a part of the journey to be who they want.

Anyway, if you need a reading recommendation, I'm happy to provide this one.

I wrote two articles this week, one is a hot take for developers in light of the recent news about SolarWinds. In it I want to call on developers to recognize the fundamental nature of employment as a business decision and that there is an urgent need for personal responsibility in our industry.

The other one is about knowledge transfer. I'm helping a client with this now, so it is top of mind. I put down my thoughts on what I've seen and my current preferences on how to go about it.

Here's my weekly update for March 5th, 2021...

🗒️ Blame the Intern

An article just surfaced on CNN where the top executives of SolarWinds essentially shifted the responsibility of a password leak to an intern.

This infuriates me, but I think it serves as an excellent reminder of some hard truths about working for a company.

Click here to read more

🗒️ When It Comes to Knowledge Transfer

A recurring theme for my clients is knowledge transfer from one group to another.

With these transfers’ regularity, one might expect a certain level of expertise in these transitions, but more often than not, they are full of challenges and surprises.