Growth Mindset
The Brief
If talent is everything, what is a leader for?
Deloitte sells expertise, so the firm only grows as fast as its people do. Leaders who believe ability is fixed hire for talent, then stop developing it. They judge instead of coach. Deloitte University needed leaders to leave its face-to-face sessions believing something different: that improvement is the job. And to feel it, not just note it.
The Solution
Two champions. Both gifted. One fatal flaw.
We told the story through two players everyone already has an opinion about. John McEnroe: all talent, every loss someone else’s fault. Serena Williams: just as gifted, but relentlessly raising her own bar. Bold, minimal illustration and animation did the rest. A second short piece plays as sessions end, so the lesson walks out of the room with people.
There’s a story behind the story
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A $300 million campus only pays off if leaders believe people can change
Deloitte University is where the firm develops its leaders, and it is a serious commitment. The Texas campus alone cost around $300 million. Every session has to justify that.
The firm’s product is its people, and a fixed mindset at the top quietly caps them. Research shows managers who believe ability is fixed are slower to notice improvement and less inclined to coach. In a business built on developing talent, that is how you lose it.
Growth mindset is easy to nod along to and hard to hold onto. Everyone claims to understand it. Few can picture it. The risk was the usual one: broad agreement, no change.
Deloitte University wanted a jolt, not a summary. Something that provoked a reaction as people walked out of the room.
Growth Mindset — The Film
Our Approach
Pick two champions. Let the contrast do the teaching.
We started with the question underneath the theory. Is talent everything, or does success come from continuously improving how you play? Answer that and you’ve answered how you lead.
The breakthrough was tennis. John McEnroe: talent to burn and a fatal flaw. He believed talent was everything, and every defeat was someone else’s fault. Serena Williams was just as gifted. At her lowest she didn’t look for blame. She raised the bar. Twenty-three Grand Slam singles titles, more than anyone in the Open Era.
We kept the craft spare. Bold, minimal illustration, animated so the story moved and nothing got in its way. Two careers side by side, the conclusion left to the viewer.
Then a second piece for the end of every face-to-face session. A short visual nudge: learning doesn’t stop at the door. It starts there.
Growth Mindset — The Session Close Piece
Key Project Assets
The Growth Mindset Film
An animated story of two champions, McEnroe and Williams, that turns an abstract leadership concept into a rivalry everyone recognises, and makes the fixed mindset look like exactly what it is: a flaw.
The Session Close Piece
A short visual piece designed to play as face-to-face sessions end, so the last thing leaders see is a reminder that learning doesn’t finish at the door, and the bar keeps moving.
The Illustration Style
A bold, minimalist visual language created for the project, stripping two global sporting icons back to a few decisive lines so the idea, not the detail, is what people remember.
Impact
The film did what the theory couldn’t: it gave leaders a picture of growth mindset they could carry out of the room. The client’s verdict said as much about the relationship as the work.
Project Insights
From nodding along to picking a side
Growth mindset is one of those ideas that gets agreed with and then ignored. The fix isn’t more evidence. It’s a story people already care about, with the answer left for them to find. Nobody has to be told which player they’d rather be.
It also says something about the relationship. The brief arrived as a question, not a spec. That’s the job as we see it: take the challenge, get the best out of the subject, hand back more than was asked for. Multipliers, as the client put it.
You are multipliers at Tilt. When I come to you with a challenge, you come back with a solution that gets the best out of the subject matter. Everyone loves the work.
Pete German, Digital Designer — Deloitte University
