Goal Mindset vs. Learning Mindset

In agile dynamics, roles and responsibilities are not as crucial as mindsets and frameworks. In general, the roles and responsibilities are more or less exhaustive lists that, if they are interpreted as a framework for establishing expectations and circuits of cooperation and collaboration, are useful, but if they are assumed as a checklist of what we consider “our job,” is a sure path to stagnation.

In the same way, maintaining a Goal Mindset is beneficial to keep an “eye on the prize” and facilitates the adoption of models such as OKR. This mindset makes us program ourselves so that everything we do must be oriented in one way or another towards obtaining the Key Results and, therefore, the fulfillment of the Objectives, which must be connected with the strategic vectors, mainly with the Goals.

Now, just as roles and responsibilities can be limiting, a strict Goal Mindset can keep us from exploring and growing; That is why many of the successful adoptions of the OKR model contemplate the definition of Learning Objectives and Key Results that measure upskilling, the expansion of frameworks, and the adoption of new concepts and technologies.

But learning cannot be effectively measured using OKR. Learning by definition is a continuous process and a Learning Mindset (some studies refer to a Growth Mindset, but I prefer the Learning…