When the culture of growth risks becoming a cage

And this is absolutely agreeable.

The problem arises when this concept, which originated in psychology and pedagogy to expand possibilities and confidence in one's ability to grow and learn (for more on this, see Carol Dweck's book), is simplified and turned into a must: to have a growth mindset at all costs, the so-called Growth Mindset.

If the growth mindset becomes an obligation, one runs the risk of producing exactly the opposite of what is desired. People begin to recite the 'right' mindset and not to actually build it: they try to implement a positive attitude towards challenges, but avoid those that might expose them too much; they claim to welcome feedback, but suffer it in silence; they show enthusiasm for change, but inwardly accumulate fatigue and distrust.

Where there is no room to admit fatigue, doubt, slowness or fear, resistance is born. And concealed resistance is far more dangerous than declared difficulty.

Moreover, today the growth mindset is often presented as the key to success: a lever for better performance, faster careers, more ambitious results and in some companies it becomes a criterion for judgement. If you have a growth mindset, you learn. If you learn, you improve. If you improve, you get results.

The explicit message is motivating. The implicit one, however, can be much harsher: if you are not getting results, if you are not growing, if you are struggling to change, if you feel stuck, the problem is you.

Incidentally, if the only declared aim is personal success in profession and life, those who do not feel motivated by continuous self-affirmation risk feeling out of place. Not everyone experiences fulfilment in the same way, with the same pace or the same priorities.

Tying the value of mindset only to the world of results creates an implicit hierarchy between 'high potential and valuable' and 'less motivated' people.

In reality, the deeper contribution of mindset work is another: to increase psychological well-being and freedom of choice. Working on the mindset is not just about achieving bigger goals, it is about:

- not to identify completely with an error

- do not experience every feedback as a threat

- not foregoing opportunities for fear of not being up to scratch

In this sense, the growth mindset is not a race towards success. It is a reduction of one's inner cages.

A change of mindset therefore cannot be imposed; it can, however, be facilitated. And this is where the role of managers is decisive, because with their methods they can create a context to really foster a growth mindset. A context where:

- error does not humiliate

- non-labelled feedback

- vulnerability is not used against people

- learning times are respected

In such an environment, people spontaneously start to risk a little more, to try, to ask for help to grow or change their approach. Not because they have to prove they have the 'right' mindset, but because they feel safe enough to do so.

To work on one's mindset, a person needs to feel that the point they are at now is not a mistake to be corrected, but a legitimate base from which to start.

If the message, 'you have to develop a growth mindset', is interpreted as 'as you are not good enough', the natural reaction is not to open up: it is to defend oneself.

On the contrary, when the message becomes 'let's try to understand together how you face difficulties today, and what could help you feel better', a completely different psychological space is created. One is not asking to become another person, but to gradually expand one's way of being in situations.

Acceptance of who one is and of one's reactions is the ground on which genuine change can arise.

In this way we can move from a rhetoric of heroic growth to a real focus on people's growth. A focus that does not divide between evolved people and stuck people, because it is aware that we can all, at different times, feel stuck.

Really working on the mindset means helping people to better experience change, not judging them for how they deal with it today. It means expanding possibilities, not creating new categories of exclusion.

When the message is 'you have to change to have value', distrust is born. When it is 'you have value even now, you have a history of growth behind you and you can and will be able to grow again, today and in the future', energy is born.

And, paradoxically, that is where the real change in approach begins.

*Founder&Partner bbsette - Consulting, Training and Professional Games