Growth Mindset and Flow at HR Innovation Summit in Valencia

Ferran Tort at HR Innovation Summit 2024

At the seventh edition of the HR Innovation Summit, held at La Nave in Madrid, more than two thousand professionals gathered to explore the future of people, technology and leadership. In this context, Ferran Tort (Change Management Expert, Psychologist and TEDSpeaker) led a workshop titled Growth Mindset how to create high performing teams without sacrificing their mental health.

His session brought together two powerful ideas from psychology. Growth Mindset, developed by Carol Dweck, and the concept of flow, introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The goal was clear. Help HR leaders and managers build cultures where performance and wellbeing grow together instead of competing against each other.

The HR Innovation Summit as a space for new people strategies

The HR Innovation Summit has become a reference event for HR leaders who want to stay ahead of trends in talent, technology and organisational culture. With several stages, more than one hundred speakers and a strong presence of directors and senior leaders, the conference creates a space where business strategy and people strategy meet.

Ferran’s workshop fitted perfectly into this environment. While many sessions focused on tools, data and artificial intelligence, his contribution invited participants to look at the psychological foundations that sustain high performance over time.

Growth Mindset as the starting point for healthy high performance

In the first part of the workshop, Ferran revisited the idea of Growth Mindset. Based on Carol Dweck’s research, this mindset is the belief that people can develop their abilities through practice, feedback and learning strategies, as opposed to a fixed view that sees talent as something static that you either have or you do not.

For HR and leadership, this shift in belief changes everything.

• Mistakes become information rather than proof of failure

• Feedback becomes fuel for growth rather than a personal attack

• Challenges become opportunities instead of threats

Ferran invited participants to observe how language reveals mindset inside a team. Phrases like I am just not good at this or this team is not creative show a fixed view. Statements such as we are still learning this or we have not found the right strategy yet reflect a Growth Mindset.

Connecting this to mental health, he underlined a key idea. When people believe they can grow, they feel more agency. That sense of agency reduces helplessness and supports resilience in periods of change and pressure.

Flow how high performance feels from the inside

The second core idea of the workshop was flow, the psychological state described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in which a person is so fully immersed in an activity that time seems to disappear and performance feels both intense and natural.

Ferran explained that flow is not simply working more or pushing harder. It is a state that appears when three elements are aligned.

• Clear and meaningful goals

• A balance between challenge and skills

• Immediate feedback that helps adjust in real time

When these conditions are present, people experience deep focus, a sense of control and intrinsic enjoyment in what they do. Research has linked flow with higher creativity, better performance and greater wellbeing at work.

For teams, flow is especially powerful. When people are aligned, know what they are trying to achieve and feel adequately challenged, collaboration becomes smoother and results improve without demanding permanent over effort or sacrifice of mental health.

Connecting Growth Mindset and flow in real teams

Throughout the workshop, Ferran showed how Growth Mindset and flow reinforce each other in daily work.

• Growth Mindset prepares people to step into challenging tasks without fear of failure

• Flow provides the subjective experience of deep engagement that makes those challenges sustainable and rewarding
  

For example, a high performing team with a fixed view of talent may hit impressive numbers in the short term but live under chronic fear of failing, which increases anxiety and burnout. A team that combines Growth Mindset with flow conditions can aim for ambitious goals while learning from mistakes and protecting psychological health.

Ferran encouraged HR leaders to review their talent practices through this lens.

• Recruitment that looks at potential to learn, not just past labels

• Performance reviews that explore effort, strategies and collaboration, not only results

• Learning programs that design clear goals, balanced challenges and frequent feedback to invite flow states

Practical ideas from the workshop for HR and leaders

To make the concepts actionable, Ferran invited participants to translate them into concrete steps inside their organisations. Some of the reflections and ideas that emerged were

• Replace talent myths with development narratives

  • Share stories of people who have grown in their roles instead of only celebrating natural stars

• Design learning journeys, not isolated workshops

  • Start each program by defining what success looks like in behaviour and how it will be supported over time

• Create conditions for flow in key projects

  • Clarify goals, reduce unnecessary interruptions and adjust the level of challenge so that it stretches people without overwhelming them

• Talk explicitly about mental health

  • Recognise that sustainable high performance includes rest, boundaries and psychological safety

This way, Growth Mindset and flow stop being abstract concepts and become design principles for team routines, leadership behaviours and HR initiatives.

Conclusion

The HR Innovation Summit 2024 confirmed the importance of HR as a strategic partner in a world where technology, disruption and human needs intersect. In his workshop, Ferran Tort offered a psychologically solid and practical roadmap for any organisation that wants to create high performing teams without burning people out.

By combining Growth Mindset, flow and a clear focus on mental health, companies can move from pressure driven cultures to environments where people feel challenged, supported and genuinely engaged with their work.

If your organisation wants to develop future ready leaders and teams through psychology based development and Change Management, this is a powerful moment to explore how Ferran Tort can support your HR strategy with high impact trainings that strengthen mindset, performance and wellbeing.