Toolkit for Flourishing
The second part of zZense Technology is developing familiarity with the toolkit by which each of us can build more of the PERMA-V elements of Flourishing in our lives.
Which Kinds of Tools?
What tools can we use to achieve our Goal, that is, to Flourish? We might first think that personal characteristics like being tall or having high IQ, are tools we can use. There is no doubt that height is an important tool for a basketball player. However, these fixed traits are not our primary interest in zZense Technology because they are, well, fixed. We can use what we've got and that's that. Fortunately, we will see that we have many tools which are under our control -- which can be cultivated -- and which can have even greater impact.
Another thought might be "If only I had this thing then I could do that." "If I had money, I could start my own company and be happy. If I had a sports car, I could attract a stunning girlfriend and have a good Relationship. If I had a gym membership, I could work out and increase my Vitality." These things -- such as money, cars, or gym memberships, are externalities. They are outside our personal selves. As tools, these externalities are limited. They are too specific in applicability, fleeting in time, and have unintended consequences. Externalities come and they go. They help one thing and often as not spoil something else. "The car attracted a great girlfriend, but then I became engrossed tinkering with it and ignored her."
As the Spanish philosopher Maimonides said a millennium ago: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." This time-tested maxim points us in the right direction. Our best tools are not external but rather inside us -- our skills.
Task skills such as knowing mathematics, carpentry, piano or business, are limited to specific tasks so they are secondary in zZense Technology. What about skills that have broad applicability? That are powerful enough to facilitate learning and successfully employing whatever task skills we need? Skills that are shown to be more influential to success than our fixed traits? That help us achieve our Goal, including acquiring those task skills and externalities we need or want?
Skills in Our Toolkit
The primary tools of interest in zZense Technology are our Centric Skills. In the field of Positive Psychology, these are called character skills or character strengths. Not unidimensional moral character goodness as in "he’s a shady character" or "she’s a saint". Rather, they are multiple diverse skills with which the executive part of our brain guides us to be effective and to Flourish. Things like Bravery, Grit (Perseverance), Humor, Love or Optimism, to name a few.
The idea that people Flourish by relying on Centric Skills isn't new. Aristotle in Greece and Confucius in China both emphasized it over two thousand years ago, as have numerous thinkers up to the present day. Consequently many different terms are used, all meaning essentially the same thing as Centric Skills -- for example, character skills, character strengths, virtues, traits, or non-cognitive factors.
Various Centric Skills Specifications
Now that we've homed in on Centric Skills as primary tools for building PERMA-V, the six elements of Flourishing, we ask "What are the Centric Skills, specifically?"
Thinkers over the millenia have specified various sets of skills. The ancient Egyptian concept of Maat specifies truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. Ancient Greeks admired the cardinal virtues of temperance, prudence, courage, and justice. St. Paul listed three theological virtues -- faith, hope, and charity (love). There are many, many more.
ZZense Technology pragmatically states that it's important to have a definite, clear specification so we can think and talk effectively about our Toolkit. We adapted comprehensive work from leading modern thinkers, rather than struggle endlessly to find the "most correct" specification.
Christopher Peterson PhD and Martin Seligman PhD, led a 3-year study involving 55 distinguished social scientists. They analyzed thinking from Plato to the present day, and from cultures and traditions world wide, to distill 24 universally valued skills, which are detailed in the book Character Strengths and Virtues. A self-assessment survey called the VIA-IS, has been taken by millions of people to inventory their strength in each of these skills.
In the dozen or so years since publishing the VIA strengths, various researchers have carried this skill specification forward. They have published somewhat differing names and interpretations of each skill. We sifted through these works and distilled a relevant and consistent synthesis to specify the Centric Skills.
The Centric Skills are described in two groups. Eight Foundational Skills are identified especially for their value in children as they develop, and generally for their value as a foundation for the other Centric Skills. The full set of 24 Centric Skills includes the eight Foundational Skills.
Foundational Skills
The subset of Centric Skills called Foundational Skills is small enough to be manageable -- easily kept in mind and focused upon -- and oriented toward parenting, children and education. Further, these skills strongly drive Achievement in life. This set of skills was based on work of Angela Duckworth PhD and the Character Lab.
In brief, the Foundational Skills are
- Curiosity -- motivates us to learn the other Centric Skills as well as task skills and knowledge.
- Gratitude -- directly builds many elements of Flourishing, and as the opposite of entitlement lets us know that we are responsible for our own growth.
- Grit (Passion & Perseverance) -- gets us to our longer-term and most valuable goals.
- Growth Mindset (Love of Learning) -- motivates the effort required to grow skills and knowledge, and thereby achieve new heights.
- Optimism -- gets us past roadblocks and setbacks.
- Self-Control -- keeps our behavior on track.
- Social IQ -- enables us to be effective with other human beings.
- Zest -- gives us the energy to fully develop, engage, perform, and enjoy.
For convenient reference by parents and educators, the Foundational Skills are overviewed and further described in individual folios.
Centric Skills
The full set of 24 Centric Skills is a good vocabulary for thinking about how an adult can achieve the PERMA-V elements of Flourishing. This set includes the eight Foundational Skills above and sixteen more, all briefly listed here.
| * | * | * |
|---|---|---|
| Appreciation | Bravery | Creativity |
| Curiosity | Fairness | Forgiveness |
| Gratitude | Grit | Growth Mindset |
| Humility | Humor | Integrity |
| Judgment | Kindness | Leadership |
| Love | Optimism | Perspective |
| Prudence | Self-Control | Social IQ |
| Spirituality | Teamwork | Zest |
Excluding the eight Foundational Skills, the Centric Skills are overviewed and further described in individual folios.
Using Centric Skills to Flourish
Now we have a vocabulary of Centric Skills that fill our Toolkit. How do we use that Toolkit to build a life of Flourishing? To build PERMA-V?
Note that zZense Technology is descriptive rather than prescriptive. It provides an awareness of the elements of Flourishing, and familiarity with the Toolkit. It does not suggest that this or that element of Flourishing or Centric Skill is most important. It doesn't suggest all skills should be equally strong. It does give us awareness, familiarity and a vocabulary for thinking about and discussing how to Flourish.
Each Centric Skill is not all or nothing but is present on a continuum from, eg, 0% to 100%. Each of us has some skills in our toolkit that are stronger and others weaker. We can take the free self-administered on-line VIA Survey of Character Strengths to measure our Centric Skills (character strengths) and tell us the top five strongest. These are called our Signature Strengths.
ZZense Technology suggests we can play to our strengths. Use the best and sharpest tools from our Toolkit. That is, as we consider each of the PERMA-V elements of Flourishing, we think about using our Signature Strengths to build those elements. Generally, prior to knowing our Signature Strengths, we haven't been able to get our best tools on the job. Now we can!
Honing Our Skills
What about our Toolkit itself? Do we just make the best of what we're born with? Are our kids cast from a genetic roll of the dice, not to be changed?
In her book Mindset, Carol Dweck PhD describes two ways that we can think about ourselves and our potential. In a fixed mindset, we believe that our capabilities are determined by fixed traits or innate talents. If we have the talent, things come naturally to us with little effort -- without the talent, we'll never get there. Conversely, in a Growth Mindset, we believe that growth and improvement is always possible through effort, and that great achievements do require great effort.
Obviously a fixed mindset is incompatible with trying to grow or improve our skills. Fortunately, a Growth Mindset is supported by broad research indicating that Centric Skills are approximately half fixed by genetics and early childhood events, and half malleable and amenable to change. Dweck makes it clear that a fixed mindset is a harmful and inaccurate understanding, and we can and should adopt a Growth Mindset if we don't already have it.
Because of this importance, Growth Mindset is one of the Foundational Skills.
Operating with a Growth Mindset, we can sharpen and polish our tools, our Centric Skills, through honing techniques powered by effort. Stephen Covey popularized the importance of such honing, calling it Sharpening The Saw.
Which Centric Skills should be honed? Many people focus on weaknesses, that is, negatives, and work to correct them. If weakness in some particular skill is causing us a lot of trouble, it does make sense to try to correct that.
What if we are weak in the skill Appreciation for example, but that isn't greatly harming our ability to Flourish? ZZense Technology suggests not focusing there -- just let it go. We aren't trying to all become machine-like creatures with uniform skills. We all have weak skills and they are part of our individuality. Instead we can focus on our Signature Strengths and hone them to be even stronger.
What's the appropriate strength for a Centric Skill? There isn't a precise quantitative answer. However, note the range of strengths for each skill extends in the negative direction to an opposite, and in the positive to an excess. For example, in Kindness it ranges from
- -100% cruelty, the opposite of the skill Kindness
- through 0% indifference, no strength in this skill
- and through +100% Kindness, full strength
- up to +200% intrusiveness, excess strength
Here we see the 2500-year-old wisdom of Aristotle’s Golden Mean at work. One should seek to be near the optimal "golden" mid-range around +100%, and avoid the extremes at each end. Values near -100% or +200% may be considered pathological in degree. Note that these numbers, -100%, +200%, etc, are for illustration only -- such precision is not supported by science.
A major aim of zZense Technology is to create a menu of concise indexed skill folios to give us ideas for honing whatever Centric Skills we choose. A ready "how-to" handbook. We're just starting to create that... please follow or join our progress!
Toolkit for Flourishing Myself. What About Others?
Now we've learned from this folio about the basics of our Toolkit, the Centric Skills and how to hone them. Gaining true familiarity with our toolkit additionally requires significant effort spent working with and on our toolkit, while referring to this folio.
The next section is the third and final part of zZense Technology, a personal mission and techniques for Propagating the technology to others.
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