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 in our lives.

Which Kinds of Tools?

What tools can we use to achieve our goal of Flourishing? 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 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), Love or Humor, 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 believes that it's important to have a definite, clear specification so we can think and talk effectively about our Toolkit. We adapted 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.

In the dozen or so years since publishing the VIA strengths, various researchers 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.

Foundational Skills

From these 24 Centric Skills, we selected a subset called Foundational Skills. This subset is small enough to be manageable -- easily kept in mind and focused upon -- and oriented toward parenting, children and education. In brief, the Foundational Skills are

Curiosity -- motivates us to learn the other character 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 -- 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 to achieve new heights.
Optimism -- gets us past roadblocks and setbacks.
Self-Control -- keeps our behavior on track.
Social IQ -- enables us to be effective socially.
Zest -- gives us the energy to fully develop, engage, perform, and enjoy.

Because of their importance especially in childhood, a separate folio is devoted to Foundational Skills, which describes each with links to resources to aid their development.

Our selection of these skills was based on work of Angela Duckworth PhD and the Character Lab -- Strengths, Skills, and Mindsets.

Centric Skills

The 24 Centric Skills are the Foundational Skills listed above, together with the ones listed below. When multiple names are commonly used for a skill, we first give the one seeming most common, intuitive, and brief. Alternatives are in square brackets. Click each for more information and links to resources.

Appreciation (awe, wonder, elevation)
The ability to recognize, value, and derive pleasure from beauty and excellence

Appreciation is valuable in domains ranging from nature to creative expression in music, art, acting or writing, to performance in sports, business, discourse or even product engineering, and everything in between. Emotions of awe or wonder are commonly aroused.

Bravery (valor)
The will to take action despite fear coming from perceived personal risk in the face of uncertain outcome

Bravery is about managing fear -- it's not about not being scared -- though it may appear fearless to outsiders. Bravery enables us to take beneficial actions in spite of physical, emotional, or social danger.

Creativity (originality, ingenuity)
Making or doing, in novel and productive ways

Creativity is not simply being original, different or weird. Benefit must be created. Creativity arises not only in traditional creative expression such as music or art, but also in solving problems and overcoming obstacles throughout life.

Fairness (equity, justice)
Cognitive judgment around moral rights and responsibilities, that treats all those in similar situations with equality, unbiased by personal emotion or popular opinion

Unfair treatment leads to harmful emotions of anger and resentment. Fairness strengthens the social fabric and increases social efficiency because people know better what to expect. Being fair benefits ourselves individually by allowing us to seize opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked due to prejudice.

Forgiveness (mercy)
Putting aside self-destructive resentment, anger, grudges or vengeance against those who hurt or offend us

Sometimes forgiving benefits the transgressor -- accepting his shortcomings and giving him a second chance. Potently, if we are victimized, Forgiveness allows us to move forward rather than being imprisoned with the emotions of a victim.

Humility (modesty)
Letting our strengths and accomplishments speak for themselves, without promoting them to impress others

Humility is being honest about our limitations, open to assistance or advice from others, and understanding our relationship to the world and people around us.

Humor (playfulness)
An ability to bring smiles and laughter to ourselves and others, to find the cheerful side of adversity, and to approach life playfully.

What a dull world without humor! And how difficult to weather life's disappointments!

Integrity (authenticity, honesty)
Representing thoughts and emotions accurately and truthfully, both to others and to our selves, and taking responsibility for them including our spoken word

As Dr. Seuss' character Horton says

"I meant what I said
And I said what I meant…
An elephant’s faithful
One hundred per cent!"

Judgment (critical thinking, receptivity, open-mindedness)
Making good decisions by searching for, welcoming and objectively weighing evidence from all sides

Judgment is an antidote to the common human tendency to favor the popular view, or one's own preconceived view, by accepting only data and viewpoints supporting them and ignoring others. This tendency is called "selection bias". The alternative names, critical thinking, receptivity (to new information), and open-mindedness highlight Judgment's function as a selection bias correction skill. So does the idea that a judge should be fair.

Not only do good decisions of Judgment lead to better life outcomes. Good Judgment also leads to a world view that is coherent. One that minimizes tangles of contradiction in thought and action, and the resulting loss and unhappiness.

Kindness (compassion, generosity, niceness)
Performing good deeds or favors for others because of the joy it gives us, rather than expectation of material gain or a sense of obligation

Random acts of kindness are a great way to increase our PosEmotions. A helping hand for those struggling can build community and increase the stability of society. Caution: there is a gray boundary between Kindness and enabling negative behavior by rescuing others from the appropriate consequences of their actions.

Leadership
Attracting, motivating, directing and coordinating followers to achieve common goals effectively

Leadership may be an amalgam of skills, rather than a single one. Yet top-five character skills don't seem consistent among successful leaders. A defining aspect of Leadership is followers. Tom Rath says followers seek trust, compassion, stability and hope from their leaders. This is in contrast to vision, clarity, and purpose which are hot buttons in most business Leadership books.

Love (and be loved)
Creating, nurturing and enjoying close relationships that are selective and enduringly attached

The relationships are with three sorts of people: those that care for and protect us, those for whom we do likewise, and a special partner. See the insightful article by George Vaillant, in which he clearly distinguishes real love from ersatz love. Real love builds close Relationships important to Flourishing, while ersatz love does not. He notes that real love is enduring rather than fleeting, eg, not a "one night stand". Further, he notes that real love is selective, in contrast to, eg, admonitions to love all men equally.

Perspective (wisdom)
Developing an understanding of issues in the large, having multiple conflicting facets, that is coherent to our selves and others and with which we can provide counsel

Perspective extends the skill of Judgment by adding consistent logical reasoning, a broad and deep base of knowledge, and a sense of priorities. Judgment ensures that data and viewpoints from all directions are fairly included in the process. Consistent reasoning, based on logic rather than emotion, is needed to realize a coherent understanding. A large base of knowledge, generally acquired with age and experience, provides the raw data.

Finally, priorities are critical because almost all complex real world issues have benefits in one area and detriments in another. Eg, a tax policy may raise money in the short term while discouraging needed investment in the long term. Or a forest preservation strategy may foster the environment while destroying the livelihood of poor farmers needing to clear land.

Prudence
Practical reasoning and self-control concerning consequences of our decisions and actions that avoids undue risks and helps to achieve long-term goals

Prudence is acting cautiously. Nowadays Prudence seems stuffy and timid, while risk-taking is glorified in popular media and by our social structures. X-Games are popular TV fare. Everyone admires the entrepreneur who risked all and won big -- we don't see the many more who lost all. Similarly, venture capitalists fund many high risk / high reward ventures to get an occasional huge success. This gives VCs and the nation the best overall financial return, yet for each startup company and their individual people, well, let's say that results vary... Giant business institutions are encouraged to take undue risk to match the high returns their competitors are getting by similar strategy, and to please stockholders having short-term focus, while knowing the government or someone will bail them out if things go sour.

However, Experienced investors and gamblers know that it takes more than three 90% gains to make up for one 90% loss. Prudence has its place.

Spirituality (faith, purpose)
Holding and acting upon coherent beliefs about the higher purpose of the universe and our place within it, and deriving from those beliefs comfort in the face of adversity

Spirituality includes but is not limited to religious belief and practice

Teamwork (citizenship, loyalty, social responsibility)
Ability and desire to work effectively for the common good as a member of a group

This includes loyalty to the group and responsibility to do our share.

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.

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 letting 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 an exact 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 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 technique 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!