We live in a time of profound and rapid transformation. Economic shifts and technological disruptions are shaking up our businesses, while the advent of generative AI promises huge productivity gains but also profoundly alters the way we work. As a result, our organizations are under intense pressure to seize the opportunity - and change.
In such times of change, it is increasingly important to revisit the topic of mindsets as an all-too-often overlooked, yet essential enabler and necessary component of lasting, impactful change. So, what is a mindset in a nutshell? A mindset shapes how we think, perceive the world, and act. It is a mental framework or background to our thoughts, as well as our actions. In doing so, mindsets can be elusive, influencing our actions without our awareness. For example, a “we know what's best for you” mindset toward customer needs leads to very different actions than a “the customer knows best” attitude. But before you start asking questions and consciously exploring these mindsets, you may not even be aware that you are entertaining them. Hence, mindsets have an impact on how we approach our work, affecting the wide range of different actions we take to fulfill our tasks and meet our goals. Thereby, mindsets can help us achieve our goals, and sometimes they stand in our way.
Perhaps the most famous example of (opposing) mindsets is Carol Dweck's idea of a “growth mindset” and a “fixed mindset”. These are beliefs about humans´ abilities, in particular intelligence and its potential for growth and change.
These mindsets have a profound impact on motivation, effort, resilience, and ultimately personal and professional outcomes. Moving from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset means gaining the belief that putting in the effort can make a difference in meeting a challenge that we would otherwise avoid because our abilities or skills are not yet sufficient for it. For instance, one might apply for a grant even though they feel they don’t have what it takes to succeed, but they can outgrow the challenge and overcome it.
Considering this, it’s no surprise that mindsets become critical when organizations and employees undergo transformation. Shifting to a new vision or strategy always requires changes in how we work – and how we think. So, the real question is: do our current mindsets support this shift, or do they subtly anchor us to the past, locking us into habits of old? Are we truly ready to live the new strategy, or are we unwittingly constrained by outdated assumptions? Exploring these invisible drivers is not just about removing barriers; it’s also about unlocking the mindsets that enable us to shape the desired futures of our companies.
The term “mindset” is everywhere these days, often used as if we all agree on what it means. But in truth, it’s a surprisingly vague concept (and so is our introduction to this blogpost). Even among researchers who specialize in the topic, there’s no universally accepted definition of what a mindset actually is.
At best, across the more than 100 definitions found in the literature, certain common threads emerge. Most notably, mindsets are said to be “implicit”. They shape our behavior without us necessarily being aware of them. Because of this, mindsets are often referred to as “implicit beliefs” or “lay theories”. They influence what we do and how we do it, without needing to be named, articulated, or consciously examined. Whether these mindsets are primarily cognitive or emotional, individual or collective, or whether they involve bodily skills or are purely abstract is a matter of debate and definition.
A new perspective, however, is starting to explain the multifaceted, elusive nature of mindsets. It offers us a framework that covers the myriad different notions of “mindset”, placing them under a common conceptual umbrella.
While there is no universal agreement on what a mindset is, a novel framework has gained traction over the past decade: predictive processing, also known as the predictive mind thesis. This perspective doesn’t just offer a useful analogy; it provides a cognitive model for and explanation of how mindsets work, and why they are so influential yet difficult to detect or shift.
At the heart of the predictive mind thesis is the idea that our brains are not just passive receivers of information but constantly generate predictions about what’s likely to happen next. Consider this everyday example: you stride confidently toward what looks like open space, only to thud into a spotless glass door. Your visual system carries a deeply ingrained, high-level assumption (a hyper-prior) that broad, uniform patches with no obvious texture are traversable air. The brain applies that rule automatically, discounting the possibility of an invisible barrier. Most of the time, the hyper-prior keeps you moving fluidly; occasionally, when the glass is perfectly clean, it betrays you.
In much the same way, mindsets operate as implicit, high-level predictions. They reduce cognitive load by offering ready-made frameworks for how to interpret situations and respond. They help us be efficient in familiar contexts, but this strength is also their weakness. Because they remain in the background of our awareness, mindsets are harder to question and change than more explicit beliefs.
This connection to predictive processing shows why mindsets are so central in the context of transformation. They quietly shape perception, judgment, and behavior—often below the threshold of conscious awareness. And unless we bring them into focus, they can continue to steer actions in ways that conflict with the direction our organizations are trying to move. Yet, they can create an entire framework for thinking and acting that drives forward a company's future vision or strategy.
But mindsets don’t stay locked inside one single brain. They can spread across teams, becoming “just the way we do things around here.” That is, they can become organizational mindsets, held by the collective of employees.
Indeed, mindsets can quietly grow and become deeply rooted within an organization's culture, affecting both long-standing and new employees in subtle yet powerful ways. A frequently cited metaphor illustrates this phenomenon vividly:
Say, you put a couple of monkeys into a cage. There is a stairway in the cage leading to a banana dispenser. Of course, the monkey will swiftly climb the stairs and get their treat. However, this swiftly changes. Soon, a water sprayer near the bananas will come to life. Every time the monkeys approach, they will get sprayed. So they avoid the bananas and stairs from then on. But things get interesting when new monkeys join the group. The old-established crew will hinder the newbies from climbing the stairs, being aware of the looming threat. Soon, without knowing why they are hindered, the newbies will give up. Learning from the old-established monkeys, they will also hinder any additional newcomers that join later. The bananas remain unclaimed. Now, imagine circling through all the monkeys so that only the newbies will be left. None of them ever saw the water dispenser in action. They just keep one another from reaching the bananas.
Note that this is not a real experiment conducted on real monkeys. It is a metaphor for how mindsets spread in an organization and how they remain unquestioned and unchallenged. For example, people often "cc" colleagues on emails without thinking about it. Upon reflection, we find that we do it to keep everyone informed or make them feel included. But this habit can backfire, overwhelming recipients with unnecessary information and making it harder to spot critical details. Also, research suggests that limiting emails to essential recipients can increase productivity by up to 7%. Rather than feeling included, many colleagues actually find excessive emails irritating. Reducing email overload requires shifting our mindset about effective communication. What was once a useful habit has become a habit that leads everybody (the entire organization) to be worse off sticking with it.
As you can see, this is how mindsets work: We cling to a habit and practice because we believe that's "how it's done”. Unbeknownst to us, it should and can be done differently. But this insight can only be gained by working on mindsets.
One must emphasise that mindsets are especially important when organizations change, realizing a new strategy and positioning. The goals of transformation are often abstract, even if they are clearly communicated and everybody agrees on them. But in the process of bringing about the change, obstacles emerge, and employees feel like they don’t know what the strategy actually means hands-on, that is, for their processes and practices.
This disconnect often stems from deep-seated, culturally ingrained mindsets that conflict with the new direction. Take, for example, a company that embraces “user-centered innovation” as a strategic goal, yet still operates under the implicit belief that “we know what customers need.” As a result, decisions lean heavily on internal assumptions rather than actual user insights, and the push for user-centricity loses momentum before it truly begins.
Unless the underlying mindset shifts—from “we know best what the customer needs” to “the user’s experience is our compass”—entrenched behaviors will continue to steer the organization away from its intended path.
Hence, to breathe life into any novel strategy, the underlying mindsets must evolve in lock-step. Implicit beliefs about how we lead, collaborate, make decisions, and structure teams and processes must be grounded in the new strategic direction. In practice, that means deliberately surfacing and examining the beliefs beneath daily routines, then helping people replace outdated narratives with ones that make the future trajectory feel both credible and actionable. Sustainable change travels through the gateway of mindset; there is simply no way around it.
To give you an example from our own experience: in one of our recent transformation projects with one client, a German mid-sized business providing customer experience services, we discovered a hidden mindset among leaders: “My job is to provide employees with precise structures and processes.” While initially helpful, this mindset was subtly anchoring employees to past ways of working, hindering the company's strategic shift. We collaboratively developed and promoted a future-oriented mindset: “My job is to support employees in achieving joint goals.” As this new mindset took hold, leadership behavior shifted noticeably from controlling to enabling, in line with the organization's new strategy.
These examples show the effect of mindset work in practice – but the benefits don't stop there. So, what else can your organization expect when consciously working on mindsets?
There are several benefits to working on mindsets and ensuring they drive forward your company's strategy and overall targets.
In short, working on mindsets means thoughtfully examining and adjusting the "mental habits" within your organization. This isn't about manipulation or imposing new beliefs. It’s about helping employees consciously reflect on the assumptions that drive their daily work, empowering them to find authentic and meaningful ways to contribute to shared organizational goals. Most importantly, the effects of mindset work can be seen in the most substantial places: smoother execution, faster learning loops, and fewer costly missteps. When strategy, behavior, and belief systems are aligned, the bottom line follows.
We've seen firsthand how mindset-focused approaches will bring forth sustainable organizational change. Our clients frequently highlight mindset work as genuinely transformative – because it tackles deeper, underlying beliefs rather than surface-level tools and behaviors. If you’d like to hear more concrete examples or discuss how mindset work might unfold in your organization, feel free to reach out. We'd be genuinely interested in exploring your situation together.
Images by Pawel Czerwinski, Matus Kovacovsky, and Marek Piwnicki, in stated order, via Unsplash
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