Taking Personal Responsibility for Delivering On Human Ingenuity

In the debate on how we, as a race and as a collection of societies, continue to meet the ever increasing needs of an ever increasing population there are two extreme schools of thought 

• one is derived from the works of Thomas Malthus,a highly influential 18th Century Political Economist, whose assessment was that the only solution involved  constraining population growth and restraining the use of resources.
• the other comes from Robert Solow, a Nobel Prize Winning Economist, who proposes that the problems of scarcity which arise can always be solved by human ingenuity

The challenge for the Malthusian philosophy in today's world - where most western, and increasing numbers of emerging, economies are run by democratically elected governments - is that policies of constraint and restraint do not make for good politics. In this environment - and indeed within commercial environments, where leaders are searching for compelling messages to engage employees - the alternative offered by Solow's prescription would appear to be far more attractive. The issue, then, becomes how to realise this potential for human ingenuity. 

While at a macro level the focus may be on the systems and processes in a society or organisation which encourage this outcome, FranklinCovey's work in this area is based on starting from 'the inside out'. By this we mean, engaging (and energising) individuals at a personal level so that they think differently about the possible contribution they can make.

Our experience is that many (if not most) people either find themselves to be 'too busy' to contemplate this or simply fall into habits of 'doing what they have always done', and so never realise their full potential. Some people are fortunate in that they come into contact with a person who inspires them to do this, but in the absence of such a figure, the majority need to look to themselves for this inspiration. FranklinCovey's vision recognises this issue explicitly, in that we aim to enable millions of people around the world 'to live, work and achieve their own great purpose'. 

To help translate this vision into reality, our latest thinking provides a framework of 5 Choices to help individuals achieve their own extraordinary outcomes. The secret of this approach is that it first stimulates the awareness in people of what is possible and inspires them to realise their potential. It then provides them with specific guidelines for what they can do differently to make this happen - for themselves, their family, their companies and their communities.