Improving Your Business with Lean Thinking and a Growth Mindset

Organizations that want to thrive in today’s unpredictable markets must develop leaders who not only embody a growth mindset but also apply Lean Thinking to drive sustainable improvement. The business landscape is shifting rapidly, and winning now means being pragmatic, data-driven, and relentlessly focused on creating customer value while eliminating waste.

Why Combine Growth Mindset with Lean Thinking?

Psychologist Carol Dweck defines the growth mindset as the passion for stretching yourself and persevering, even when it’s not easy. Lean Thinking shares this DNA—both require curiosity, openness to change, and the courage to challenge the status quo.

Instead of proving how great you already are, Lean-minded leaders continuously ask, How can we improve this process? How can we create more value with fewer resources?

Four Mindset Shifts for Lean Success

1. Growth vs. Fixed Mindsets – Learning to See Waste

Leaders with a growth mindset believe capabilities can be developed through effort and learning. In Lean, this translates to learning to see waste and encouraging teams to experiment with better ways of working. Those with a fixed mindset resist change and may accept inefficiency as “just the way it is.”

Lean action: Train teams to identify the 8 wastes (defects, overproduction, waiting, etc.) and empower them to eliminate them.

2. Learning vs. Performance Mindsets – Continuous Improvement over “Looking Good”

A learning mindset thrives on skill development, experimentation, and problem-solving—core elements of Kaizen. A performance mindset seeks recognition for achievements, which can sometimes discourage risk-taking and innovation.

Lean action: Measure success not only by results but also by the number of improvement ideas implemented and lessons learned.

3. Receptive vs. Implemental Mindsets – Listening to the Gemba

A receptive mindset values others’ input and recognizes that the best improvements often come from those closest to the work. In Lean, this means going to the Gemba—the place where value is created—to listen before acting. An overly implemental approach risks pushing top-down solutions without understanding the real problems.

Lean action: Practice Gemba walks, ask open-ended questions, and involve frontline employees in solution design.

4. Promotion vs. Prevention Mindsets – Striving for Excellence, Not Just Avoiding Failure

A promotion mindset seeks to win, improve, and innovate—perfect for Lean, where the goal is to deliver better value continuously. A prevention mindset focuses mainly on avoiding problems, which can lead to stagnation.

Lean action: Encourage teams to run small, low-risk experiments to explore better ways of working, rather than simply preventing errors.

Lean Leadership: Harnessing Agility and a Lean Mindset

Today’s leaders must be agile, receptive to feedback, and committed to learning. Lean Thinking gives them the tools to turn that mindset into measurable business results by:

• Reducing waste to free up capacity
• Increasing value delivery for customers
• Building a culture where improvement is part of everyone’s job

The combination of a growth mindset and Lean Thinking is a powerful formula: one provides the belief in potential, and the other provides the method to realize it.

In short: Lean gives you the how, and a growth mindset gives you the will. Together, they help your business continuously improve, adapt, and win.