The neuroscience of false growth mindset

THE BRAIN IS PLASTIC... AND SO IS OUR POTENTIAL

The human brain IS plastic. It IS changeable, malleable. And we have the capacity to SELF-DIRECT this process.

This is why growth mindset is an accurate model of human potential. 

But... we all (often without knowing it) .. introduce disbelief and doubt into our own abilities in different contexts.

Understanding growth mindset from a neuroscience perspective helps us untangle those doubts about our own power and potential.

WHAT OUR SIGNALS REVEAL

We send micro-signals of authenticity that reflect our internal states. Others pick up on these frequencies... and either trust us, or resist us, because they can detect when we're not truly 'walking our talk'.

Our signals reveal how WE truly feel about our own mistakes, disappointments and rejections.

When something doesn't go the way we hoped, do we actually feel, in our body, that it's information for iteration?

Or do we shut down? And what do we do inside ourselves to get moving again?

This includes when we, as teachers and coaches, see the people we work with make mistakes, or don't do as well as we hoped.

What is our internal, embodied, vibrational-signal-transmitting response in those moments?

WHERE IT GOES WRONG

But one key issue keeps coming up: growth mindset ideas and words are often used by people who haven't truly internalized the concept.

One way I've seen this happen (and research attests to):

• Many teachers and leaders skip right to teaching it or convincing others of its importance
• ...But they have skipped over the internalizing process

This is part of what Carol Dweck calls "false growth mindset."

WHY WE CAN'T JUST TALK ABOUT IT

The bottom line: teaching people to become more curious, open to discomfort and iteration, can't happen on a conceptual level alone.

As we speak, we send nonverbal micro-signals about how we FEEL as we say the words we are choosing. We do this partly through sensory motor simulations of what we're saying.

• The richer and more personal our experiences, the more multisensory those simulations become... and the better the simulations, the better we can find words for them.
• This internal-to-external process is what helps others truly understand us

When our micro-signals reflect the truth about the human brain as a powerful learning system

... and the truth that mistakes and less-than-hoped-for outcomes are information-for-iteration...

our signals become coherent and authentic as we speak about and explain growth mindset.

WHY I TEACH THIS

It helps to have teachers who have gone through that internalizing journey, who can see that power and potential in others.

Those are our growth mindset teachers. And we need them to help us know that continuous growth is possible.

If you're here with me.. I believe you are one of those special teachers.  Thank you for your contribution to Human Agency.

Wishing you empowering insights after every less-than-hoped-for outcome,

Stefanie

P.S. -  Consider what happens without the internalizing process: you can use all the right words about growth and neuroplasticity, and people will still sense something is off. Your signals give it away.

The Mindset Science Teaching Framework walks you through the neurophysiology of mindset, so that when you talk about mistakes, setbacks and what's possible for the human brain, your words carry weight.. one that resonates with the logic model of human transformation.

This is the blueprint I have used to move audiences who might have written off growth mindset as 'fluff' into new trajectories for their organizations and individuals, and repeat requests for more on the biology of mindset as a powerful lever for creating our desired realities.

The 9 bite-sized modules are designed to help you build an embodied understanding of the biology of change, so your words naturally carry more authority, coherence, and hope.

Each module is accompanied by the Human Potential Blueprint - a printable pdf companion document with reflections, prompts, and research citations. It includes:

• Science pages. The research behind each module, written in plain language you can actually repeat to the people you work with.
• A blueprint diagram. A visual you can teach from.
• The Facilitator's Edge. Where the science becomes something you can use in a session, a classroom, or a workshop.
• The Human Potential Prompt. A weekly observational practice: This week, notice... listen for... look for... So the science moves from the page into daily pattern recognition and perception.

You're getting a reference library you'll pull off the shelf for years, and the biology behind hope and agency in a form you can hand to the people you guide.

GRAB IT HERE →