CMS338 Learning Objective 7:
Integrate a growth mindset
and design thinking into
your communicative practice
Growth mindset, a term coined by Carol Dweck in the 1970s, is the belief that one’s intelligence, abilities, and talents can be developed and improved through application and learning, both new skills, techniques or philosophies and from mistakes. A professional with a growth mindset views challenges as opportunities to expand their talents rather than viewing it as the limit of their abilities.
As I said on my home page, “… as each new technology and channel emerged it became not only a learning experience but a literal survival imperative.” Throughout my career, and I would guess most other careers over the past 40 to 50 years, a growth mindset has been essential to continued success. And with each growth opportunity has come the ability to weather the next with more skill and confidence.
Over the course of the past 43 years, I have grown and adapted to changing technologies, life circumstances, and financial and professional situations. A growth mindset is essential to living and thriving, and not just with respect to one’s career. That mindset is the very reason I am here so many years later, pursuing my education, amending my greatest regret, and building the foundation for continued growth to come.
The same open-minded attitude necessary for a growth mindset is aligned with design thinking. A growth mindset requires the acceptance of “not knowing” in the same way that design thinking actively avoids preconceived ideas and formulaic solutions in favor of an openness to discovery of specific solutions to specific, unique problems. Design thinking is built upon the ideas of discovery, understanding, empathy, ideation, and allowing innovative solutions to bloom. Each project undertaken using design thinking is, on a limited scale, emblematic of a growth mindset.
That is the attitude I do my best to bring to the table at the beginning of every new project. Truly understanding the stakeholders, their challenges, and understanding their personal and professional situation is crucial to being able to craft a solution that will both satisfy the client and achieve their business objective.
That process is ongoing. Each successful work brings with it, I hope, the opportunity for another. Another opportunity to expand the boundaries of one’s knowledge, apply one’s skills at their highest level, and create work that is both satisfying and effective.
The first widely used nautical signal flag code was created by Captain Fredrick Marryat of the Royal Navy in 1817, using numbers only. What started as a limited communication system used during military battles has evolved over two centuries into a comprehensive, internationally recognized signaling system functional for military and non-military purposes.
Today, forty flags comprise the complete set of international maritime signal flags—one for each letter of the English alphabet, one for each number, and four flags called substitutes, which perform special operations. Individual letter flags also represent commonly used phrases.
For a unique perspective on nautical signal flags, I recommend the Paris Review article “At Sea,” by Merritt Tierce, published November 18, 2016.
Even in the era of digital communications, the U.S. Navy uses the flag system for visual signaling while maintaining radio silence. Signalmen transmit messages by hoisting a flag or a series of flags on halyards on either side of their ship, where they store “flag bags” containing a full set of signal flags.
I created this flag icon to use as a logo for work I do independently. The blue and yellow fnautical signal lag represents the letter K, or Kilo, and the phrase “I wish to communicate with you.”