3 ideas
Rather than ranking people against each other, assign them an 'A' at the outset and have them write a future-dated letter explaining what they did to earn it. This removes the anxiety of measurement and frees people to act from the standard they aspire to rather than fear of falling short.
When facing scarcity or threat, the mind enters a 'downward spiral' that catalogs deficits and reasons for failure, narrowing what seems achievable. Speaking and acting from possibility instead generates a field that opens new options that the calculating, survival-focused mind cannot perceive.
Two salesmen sent to a region where no one wears shoes send opposite telegrams: one reports 'no prospect of sales' while the other reports 'glorious opportunity, they have no shoes yet.' The identical facts produce opposite conclusions because each man's interpretive frame, not the data, determines what he sees as possible.