Progress-focused

During a recent training course we asked participants to do an exercise which we call 'What have you learned?' In this exercise we ask them to talk, in duo's, about something which they once doubted they could ever get better at but which they eventually did get better at. With the help of some questions they talked about what that thing was at which they got better against their own expectation and how they were able to get better. This exercise is an example of a self persuasion technique ( read more ).

Many of the participants in our training programs are especially interested in Carol Dweck's research into mindsets . They see the relevance of mindset and realize that a fixed mindset has many disadvantages while a growth mindset has many advantages. They are interested in learning how they can influence their own mindset and that of other people. Many of them are aware that person praise can evoke a fixed mindset and process praise can evoke a growth mindset. But they look for other way to influence mindsets. Here are several other ways.

Can we always trust professional helpers? Unfortunately we cannot. Suppliers of help can even harm us when they tell persuasive stories and supply us their treatments. They might do this with the best of intentions and they may actually believe in their treatments. But there may also be cynical and unreliable suppliers who knowingly sell us ineffective and even harmful treatments. Let's look at how people of the latter category, these unreliable helpers, might work. I think, in essence, they do four things.