Foundational Skills Overview

These eight Foundational Skills form a foundation for building a full Centric Skills toolkit, and they strongly drive achievement and success through school and life. They are a subset of the full Centric Skills set, for which there is an overview here.

Importance

It is helpful to distinguish these eight Foundational Skills from the full set of Centric Skills for several reasons.

They form a foundation upon which the other Centric Skills rest, they are in some sense more "core".
For Achievement, the Foundational Skills are key drivers.
As a practical matter, the smaller number of skills is more manageable -- they are easier to remember than the full set of 24 Centric Skills.
Further, they are especially important to develop during childhood and thus provide focus for educators and parents raising children.
Of course it is valuable to further hone and grow them throughout life, too.

The description of each skill below further highlights its Foundational nature.

Origin

Our selection of these skills was based on work of Angela Duckworth PhD and The Character Lab. Duckworth has focused her career on ways for education to be more effective, both in teaching academics and preparing children to Flourish. The character lab was co-founded by Duckworth, Dave Levin and Dominic Randolph. Levin co-founded the well-respected KIPP schools and Randolph spent his career in independent schools.

The zZense Foundational Skills are largely the same set of character skills highlighted by The Character lab.

The Eight Foundational Skills

In the list below, various alternative names for each skill are shown in parenthesis. Clicking on a skill expands its description.

Curiosity (interest, openness to new experience)
Recognition of new knowledge, experience or challenge, and a desire to pursue it
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Curiosity is a fundamental human drive that moves individuals, and all humankind, forward and outward. Curiosity about others' lives builds Relationships. Curiosity about our selves, ie introspection, is key to discovering Meaning in our lives. Curiosity leads us to try new things, and that trial and error experimentation is key to developing our other Centric Skills.

Todd Kashdan says Curiosity is the engine of growth. Conversely, perhaps its absence drives decline. He cites brain science research findings that one of the first markers of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease at the neurological level is inability to manage novelty. Engaging Curiosity and novel experiences may be an antidote for these degenerative diseases.

Because Curiosity drives growth in so many ways, it is a Foundational Skill.

Gratitude (non-entitlement)
Appreciation and desire to reciprocate for the benefits we receive from the people and world around us
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Gratitude encompasses both awareness and thankfulness. First we become aware of good things in our life and the source of those good things, especially when the source is outside ourselves. The source may be another person, nature, divinity, or simple good luck. We become aware that, if not for that source, we wouldn't enjoy that good thing. Then we become thankful. We express our thanks by words, prayer, reciprocal gifts or actions, or silent appreciation, as appropriate to the source.

Gratitude builds many of the elements for Flourishing. The "Three Good Things" exercise, in which every night we acknowledge good things that happened that day, is one of the most famous in positive psychology. Research shows this exercise leads to better sleep, better health (thus Vitality), better Relationships, and more PosEmotion -- three of the PERMA-V elements of Flourishing.

Importantly, Gratitude is opposite to the debilitating mindset of entitlement. Entitlement means we expect that the world owes good things to us and will deliver them. This is different from Optimism, which is expectation that we can overcome challenges and obstacles. (Note this definition is more useful than the popular "glass half full / empty" one, which actually blurs the boundary with entitlement). If we believe we are entitled, there seems no need to even try to overcome challenges -- we expect the good things should just be magically delivered. What could be more damaging to developing Optimism? Are we likely to have Grit? Humility? Love of Learning? When the world fails to deliver to our entitlement expectation, what happens to our PosEmotion? Can good Relationships be based on a feeling that others always owe us? What false Judgment and Perspective when expecting entitlement?

For all these reasons and more, Gratitude is a Foundational Skill.

Grit (persistence, perseverance, industriousness)
Passion and perseverance to complete long-term goals
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Grit is a skill to persevere, to finish what we start, to complete goals with time frames on the order of years. In short, a skill for long-term goal Achievement, one of the key elements of Flourishing. Self-Regulation is the other Foundational Skill heavily contributing to Achievement. Self-Regulation entails aligning actions with a goal without being distracted by momentarily more-alluring temptations. In contrast, Grit is having a single superordinate long-term goal, and putting sustained effort toward it. Grit and Self-Regulation are generally but not perfectly correlated.

Research shows that Grit and Self-Regulation predict objectively-measured Achievement in domains including West Point training, National Spelling Bee, Special Forces, teachers, sales agents, and Chicago public high school graduation. Perhaps surprising to many people, they predict above and beyond domain-relevant talent measures such as physical fitness, IQ, and SAT tests.

Early research suggests that Grit begins with strong commitment to a superordinate goal based on perception of

extremely high benefit from the goal, translating to passion for reaching the goal
acceptable cost, including opportunity cost, to get there
high likelihood to attain the goal, ie, Optimism

From this strong goal commitment, how does Achievement occur? Grit appears to invoke behaviors including

simply showing up -- as Woody Allen says, is 80% of success. Gritty individuals tend to be more conscientious, and just walking the talk, following through on commitments when others don't, goes a long way toward Achievement
deliberate practice (per Anders Ericsson) or effort -- a large number of hours spent striving, at a skill level exceeding one's current capability or against significant challenge
coping with emotions of confusion and frustration -- these often arise during deliberate practice or effort at high challenge levels
accepting mistakes -- these too often arise at challenging levels

Our world presents various factors making Grit a difficult skill to attain

fixed mindset -- [Carol Dweck's book][mindsets] notes common beliefs that Achievement comes from innate talent rather than effort, the many hours of effort and struggle generally being hidden from popular view, and a corollary belief that effort being required is a sign of inadequate talent, ie personal inadequacy. Naturally this inhibits deliberate practice or effort. Dweck suggests such a harmful fixed mindset can be converted to growth mindset.
attention deficit -- our world today is geared toward endless options, opportunities, distractions, and multi-tasking, making it difficult to commit to a single superordinate goal
popular oversimplification -- Achievement is commonly portrayed during an hour or so of media time, making the cost to achieve any real goal appear unacceptably high by comparison

By the way, Grit doesn't mean never quitting. It means not quitting just because of difficulty, frustration, failure or boredom.

Angela Lee Duckworth PhD in the Duckworth Lab at UPenn is Widely acclaimed as the leading Grit researcher. Her Research Statement at that site is a definitive summary of the latest Grit and Self-Control (aka Self-Regulation) knowledge, and many of the ideas above are derived from it.

Because Grit is a key driver of Achievement, it is a Foundational Skill.

Growth Mindset (love of learning)
Willingness to make efforts that grow our skills and knowledge and that achieve new heights, based on belief that skills are not fixed and that growth and achievement requires effort rather than coming naturally
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In her book [Mindset][mindsets], 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.

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.

Because a Growth Mindset is critical to growth of the other skills, and informs us of the effort that is required for that growth and for achievement, it is a Foundational Skill.

Optimism (hope, confidence)
Believing that our efforts can overcome challenges and achieve goals, even if multiple attempts are needed
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Optimism is a belief that the future can be good, in response to our efforts. The last clause is critically important. Optimism is not simply viewing "the glass as half full" or "seeing the bright side of life". Optimism is about our agency, about cause and effect, about our ability to affect the future for the better.

When challenges or setbacks occur, it is the skill of Optimism that gets us past them. We "try, try, and try again". When we rise to the challenge or overcome the setback, our brains learn the cause and effect between the efforts we make and the successes that result. This learning builds our strength of Optimism in a virtuous circle.

Closely related is our explanatory style, that is, how we explain the causes of bad events. A pessimistic explanatory style interprets causes as unchangeable and pervasive -- "I failed and will always fail" and "I failed at this and I'll fail at everything". This leads to "I can't do it, why try?" which of course leads to more failure, establishing a vicious circle of learned pessimism.

In contrast, an optimistic explanatory style interprets causes as temporary (changeable) and specific -- "I failed this time, but next time I'll study and get it" and "I failed at art, I'd better concentrate on science where I'm better". This leads to trying again until success, establishing a virtuous circle of learned optimism.

Self confidence is another name for Optimism. Most of us intuitively see its value and dearly want our children to have it. Since about the 1950's, this has manifested as "positive thinking", "you can do it" encouragement, and faulty "everyone gets a medal" praise. When it contradicts our experience, hearing "you can do it" comes across as simply an annoying lie. With the best intentions to build self confidence, faulty praise decreases the cause and effect linkage, and hence perversely undermines self confidence. It is our actual experiences mastering challenges, and our explanatory style, which build self-confidence or Optimism.

Because life is full of challenges and setbacks that must be overcome, and if we quit trying our growth will cease too, Optimism is a Foundational Skill.

Self-Regulation (self-control)
Ability of our conscious mind to control our body, behavior, emotions and mental processes, despite impulses that could divert us.
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Self-Regulation helps us Achieve our goals and avoid debilitating vices.

Self-Regulation is well-illustrated by the classic "marshmallow test" measuring delayed gratification in children four to six years old, performed by Walter Mischel and colleagues about 1970. A researcher places one desirable treat (marshmallow, cookie, etc) on a child's desk, and tells him that he will leave the room for 15 minutes. The child may eat the treat, but if he delays until the researcher returns, the child will receive two to eat. A minority ate the treat immediately, and about one third were able to delay gratification long enough to receive the second treat.

Follow up studies showed those children who delayed longer had better life outcomes measured by SAT scores, educational attainment, body mass index (BMI), and other life measures. Since then, extensive research has confirmed that the skill of Self-Regulation as measured in children predicts many aspects of health, success and Flourishing in adulthood. The effect is comparable to that of general intelligence or family socioeconomic status. While the trait of intelligence and the externality of family status are mostly fixed, the good news is that Self-Regulation appears to be malleable and may be a powerful lever for preparing our children to Flourish.

Angela Lee Duckworth PhD in the Duckworth Lab at UPenn provides a Research Statement which summarizes interesting findings about Self-Control (aka Self-Regulation).

Self-Control is significantly domain-specific. Eg, a person with strong Self-Control about gluttony (ie, overeating) may succumb to drug abuse or some other temptation. Certainly each of us has different strength at Self-Control generally. The surprise is that the variance for one of us across these different temptation domains (eg, gluttony, drug abuse) is twice as large as the variance in general Self-Control between individuals. This is important because it means that Self-Control is primarily a multi-faceted skill. Like a golfer who must practice driving, chipping, and putting, so we must practice and build our Self-Control skill in each temptation domain.

A further intriguing tidbit is that this skill variation across domains results from differing strength of the temptation (eg, food vs drugs) rather than differing perception of the harm (eg, obesity vs addiction). From this, G E George speculates that education or threat about possible harm is not an effective way to increase Self-Control in each domain. Somehow we must reduce the strength of the temptation -- how is a question that Duckworth and colleagues are researching.

Negative life events (eg, parental fighting, perhaps "stress" generally) are shown to decrease Self-Control in adolescence. An important open research question in such cases is whether the strength of temptation impulses increases, or our ability to control them decreases.

Another open question is what happens when we are Self-Controlled successfully for a period, and then lose control, eg, relapse by a recovering addict.

Because Self-Regulation is a key driver of Achievement and Vitality, and an immunization against debilitating vices, as well as contributor to other elements of Flourishing and Centric Skills like Learning, Integrity, and Prudence, it is a foundational skill.

Social IQ (social or emotional intelligence)
Recognizing and understanding emotions and motives of our selves and others, to guide our actions concerning relationships, such as in intimacy, trust, persuasion and political power
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Social IQ helps us create and maintain healthy Relationships, as well as Achieve persuasive or team goals.

General components are

awareness -- sensing others by reading intonation and facial and body language
model -- building a mental model of others' feelings, desires, and motivations
facility -- what we do with our awareness and model

Because we live not individually isolated but in a world peopled around us, and it directly drives Achievement and Relationships, two of PERMA-V elements of Flourishing, Social IQ is a Foundational Skill.

Zest (vitality, enthusiasm, vigor, energy)
Approaching life wholeheartedly with mental and physical energy and excitement
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Zest is the energy that powers us through life. It tends toward active and proactive behaviors -- away from passivity and lethargy. It occupies the nexus of mind and body. Indeed physical and mental Zest stimulate each other.

In these days of increasingly sedentary virtual life, building Zest takes significant effort and seems to be swimming against the current. Development of lethargy leads to feeling of malaise, which feels tiring and in need of additional rest, leading to less activity and a vicious circle of declining Zest. Conversely, using Self-Regulation and consciously practicing Zest mentally and physically leads to a virtuous circle of growth. Simply put, it's "mind over pillow".

Because Zest is the energy, the fuel, that powers all of life, it is a Foundational Skill.

In addition to the information available by clicking one of the above Foundational Skills, there are detailed folios for some skills here or by browsing with the "next" button.

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Foundational Skills

Foundational Skills Overview

Importance

Origin

The Eight Foundational Skills

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