Cultivating Potential
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Cultivating Potential is provided by Mr. Biss MRED Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 12 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
Personal Profile
Mr. Biss, MRED, is a Certified Learning Provider (CLP) at Appleton Greene. He has experience in management, marketing, and operations. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a Masters of Real Estate Development from Auburn University.
He has industry experience in the following sectors: Non-profit & Charities, Real Estate, Defense, Aviation and Aerospace.
He has had commercial experience in the following countries: United States of America, or more specifically within the following cities: Washington DC, Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, Orlando FL, and Raleigh NC.
In addition to serving as a KC-130J Transport Plane Commander during global operations throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East, he served in leadership positions in aviation operations, quality assurance, and maintenance. During one role as a maintenance division officer, he was responsible for the maintenance of a $400MM fleet of aircraft and the leadership of 100 personnel.
Upon retiring from the Marine Corps, Biss pivoted professionally to pursue aspirations in human potential development and has been involved in pioneering work to bring advances human potential development and positive psychology interventions to those in addiction recovery to help cultivate their higher potential for wellbeing and a life of meaning.
Additionally, he serves as a founding member of a water NGO, where he leads small teams into rural villages in Central America to deliver innovative water solutions, having served more than 50 communities so far providing safe water to nearly 12,000 water-insecure people.
To request further information about Mr. Biss through Appleton Greene, please Click Here.
(CLP) Programs
Appleton Greene corporate training programs are all process-driven. They are used as vehicles to implement tangible business processes within clients’ organizations, together with training, support and facilitation during the use of these processes. Corporate training programs are therefore implemented over a sustainable period of time, that is to say, between 1 year (incorporating 12 monthly workshops), and 4 years (incorporating 48 monthly workshops). Your program information guide will specify how long each program takes to complete. Each monthly workshop takes 6 hours to implement and can be undertaken either on the client’s premises, an Appleton Greene serviced office, or online via the internet. This enables clients to implement each part of their business process, before moving onto the next stage of the program and enables employees to plan their study time around their current work commitments. The result is far greater program benefit, over a more sustainable period of time and a significantly improved return on investment.
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. All (CLP) programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually between 1-4 years, incorporating 12-48 monthly workshops and professional support is consistently provided during this time by qualified learning providers and where appropriate, by Accredited Consultants.
Executive summary
Cultivating Potential
About 14 years into my career as a Marine Corps Officer, I found myself at a painful crossroads. I was earning a great living, was well educated, and had many professional successes to my name. Yet, emotionally, I was dead inside. Every ounce of energy I had poured into attaining what I was “supposed to want and have in life” was for naught; authentic happiness, fulfillment, and joy were absent from my life. Then a mentor guided me to the root of my pain and helped me appreciate that living beneath my true potential was the cause of my suffering. With expert guidance and support, I shed the sinking feeling of not being enough and I was empowered toward a dream life of meaning, boundless joy, and honest fulfillment.
I am now on a mission to share a process for others to break free from false limitations and unnecessary suffering that hold them back from being their best self. Cultivating Potential is just that. This program empowers individuals to live happier, more fulfilling, and more joy-filled lives. By reconnecting with their innate wisdom and personal strengths, participants are set on the path to greater success in all areas of life and significantly enhanced contribution at work and in the community.
With human capital being such a significant investment of a company’s resources, it’s vital to empower employees to reach their potential and to bring the best version of themselves to the organization.
Participants develop increased confidence, self-efficacy, and a renewed sense of meaning both personally and professionally through the program’s step-by-step process. With the tools to take full ownership of their performance and results, participants will begin accepting complete responsibility for their actions (or inactions) and the outcomes they create. This new level of ownership and responsibility provides the freedom to live into their true potential for success, fulfillment, and contribution. And as the employees of an organization take ownership and begin leaning into their true potential, so does the company as a whole.
Why this is so important:
As society has tended toward a digital, fast-passed world, individuals in the workforce have strained to keep up with the increased demands on their energy. At alarming rates, people report being more overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed than ever before, resulting in decreased creativity, loss of ambition, and an inability to engage with their full potential.
Climbing rates of consumer debt, drug addiction, treatment for anxiety and depression, obesity, and even suicide tell the tale of how well society is coping. Look a little further, and we see increasing rates of preventable disease in an era when health care, nutritious foods, exercise, and mindfulness apps have never been more accessible.
Many people feel disconnected from the person they want to be, which takes a toll on much more than the individual; it detracts from their ability to show up fully at work and contribute to their organization’s mission.
At what cost?
For most companies, human capital is the most significant expense and the greatest asset; entire organizations succeed or fail based on the wellbeing of their employees.
In American alone, a pre-pandemic estimated $750 billion was lost annually to the economy through disengaged employees, absenteeism, turnover, and reduced production, and decreased product quality. Since the pandemic, some estimate this $750 billion annual figure has increased at least 10-20% and will continue to rise at the same rate for years to come.
This financial toll results from a workforce suffering from disengagement, poor individual self-efficacy, lack of connection to others, and a lost sense of meaning. When these symptoms are present, so are substances and behaviors that numb the pain and fill that emotional void. Sometimes, these destructive behaviors become full-blown addictions and fuel the downward spiral of despair and further erode human capital.
What can be done?
With the right tools and processes in place, there is a tremendous amount of untapped potential that individuals can harness to help themselves become their best version. Learning a few fundamental principles can empower a person to regain control of their life, become clear about where they are and who they want to become, then take decisive action toward achieving any outcomes they seek.
When an organization invests in cultivating that full potential of each employee, the return on investment is experienced in increased productivity, creativity, employee engagement, improved team dynamics, innovation, and performance. Before a company invests more in attracting new talent or reducing employee turnover, it must cultivate the full potential of the valuable employees it already has.
There is no better time than now:
On the heels of the Global Pandemic, recent shifts in the global marketplace have opened opportunities for companies to exploit and gain new ground. The organizations that will benefit the most from this shift are those with the capacity to innovate, adapt, and navigate unforeseen challenges creatively. The degree to which a company can achieve this is determined by the degree to which employees are showing up as the best version of themselves. Empowering employees to be emotionally resilient, self-confident, grounded with a sense of meaning, and able to tap into their strengths is the key to a company reaching its full potential now and for decades to come.
Solution/Process – How this program Cultivates Human Potential
Inspired by Positive Psychology’s framework for human flourishing and integrating principles for success that have been taught and refined for nearly 45 years, Cultivating Potential delivers a positivity-focused and strengths-based process for reaching one’s highest potential.
This program takes participants through a six-phase process for personal development and professional growth – building the foundation, developing greater emotional resilience, engaging with innate-strengths, cultivating positive relationships, establishing a strong sense of meaning, and developing habits for the greatest achievement.
Phase One: Foundation
The height of a building is limited by the strength of its foundation, so too is the height of one’s potential success and achievement in life. The first part of building that foundation for growth is believing that growth is possible and accepting that full ownership of one’s life is the surest path to reaching one’s full potential. This level of ownership requires each individual to accept complete responsibility for the outcomes in their life. For many, stress and a heartfelt desire to do well can force them into a reactionary or survival mindset where attention tends toward external threats beyond their control. This external focus is disempowering and promotes fears or feelings of being overwhelmed. Establishing a foundation for reaching one’s highest potential demands taking personal responsibility for one’s thoughts and behaviors. With this acceptance of responsibility comes increased self-esteem and a sense of control. Phase One is a significant step towards participants cultivating their full potential; this stage of the program instills that everything a person needs to achieve their ambitions is within their control. Their goals are attainable with their capacity to grow.
Phase Two: Positivity
“Positivity” is not about being positive all of the time – that is not attainable and would not be productive. In this program, positivity focuses on developing participants’ emotional resilience necessary to offer their best contribution regardless of the environment and circumstances around them. Positivity is about bouncing back from losses or negative situations without getting stuck in a negative emotional state or downward spiral. To bolster one’s positivity and emotional resilience, one must overcome the effects of negative biases and survival instincts that no longer serve them. Building on the benefits of accepting responsibility, this phase helps participants achieve higher levels of resilience by learning to focus on their past wins and successes. Acknowledging past achievements – from childhood to present day – is a powerful way to develop the self-esteem and confidence needed to lean into the next difficult challenge.
Phase Three: Engagement
With a strong foundation and healthy emotional resilience in place, this phase empowers participants to lean into their life and work with increased levels of engagement. Instead of focusing on unavailable resources, participants will learn to identify and elevate their experience and innate strengths to overcome future challenges. This phase provides tools to recognize and release old thoughts and beliefs that are holding individuals and teams back from their potential so they can uncover new levels of self-confidence and drive that will carry any organization forward. Following a process for developing discipline and managing willpower, participants will turn the techniques they learn into sustaining habits for positive engagement.
Phase Four: Relationships
The purpose of having an organization is so individuals can work together for the common good. This phase of the program is dedicated to helping participants build relationships that promote collaboration, teamwork, and personal growth throughout the company. While each person may have their own responsibilities, organizations rely on those individuals to contribute positively and constructively to the group’s efforts. This collaboration requires healthy relationships to be formed and maintained. Positive relationships need trust, effective communication, mutual support, and understanding to thrive. During this phase, those in leadership positions, or aspiring to be, will learn ways to encourage the growth of their team by modeling the behavior and responsibility they expect from subordinates. Leaders will also learn how to promote personal growth in others by using specific feedback methods during training and evaluations.
Phase Five: Meaning & Purpose
Purpose, meaning, and joy fuel the passionate energy that allows people to put forth their best. A strong sense of meaning has been proven to be a critical element in one’s ability to suffer through the trying times and fulfill their ultimate vision of success. Authentic joy shows up in different ways and at different times for everyone. However it shows up, joy releases natural endorphins that reduce stress, recover immune function, and improve cognitive function. Joy also increases one’s drive to engage in work that is meaningful to them. By leveraging specific tools and processes introduced in this phase, participants will find an increased capacity to contribute at work and make an impact within the organization.
Phase Six: Achievement
The final phase of this Cultivating Potential process ties together each program element to ensure the best platform for success and achievement. To make the most significant strides toward achievement, one must be crystal clear about the goals they intend to meet. While setting clear goals is an important step, what happens in execution ultimately determines success or failure. The basic principles for achievement are timeless; learning to apply these principles to today’s rapidly-evolving world is the key to success. By accepting responsibility and leveraging innate strengths, participants will discover tools that make reaching goals inevitable.
Outcomes – What Will Clients Achieve as a Result
Humans are incredibly resilient and are endowed with a tremendous amount of individual potential. With the right processes to cultivate that innate potential, people can overcome their fears and previously held limiting beliefs to attain higher levels of success than imagined before.
Cultivating potential is a process that empowers each individual to live and perform at their highest level by overcoming internal barriers to success such as a limited mindset, poor emotional resilience, and lack of self-efficacy.
A paradigm shift from a fixed mindset of preservation to a growth mindset of opportunity and advancement is what lays the foundation for becoming our best selves and cultivating our highest individual potential. While this process is straightforward and simple to comprehend, overcoming the innate biases for protection requires a systematic approach to be effective and provide sustainable results.
By the end of this program, participants will benefit from:
– a growth mindset that recognizes past successes and the ability to grow to overcome future challenges,
– an ownership of their innate strengths that can be leveraged when obstacles arise,
– self-care routines for promoting a more joy-filled and meaningful life,
– performance habits that promote higher achievements.
These benefits work synergistically to help participants reach their highest potential. As the six-phase process unfolds, participants will experience transformational shifts in their self-efficacy, positive affect, creativity, and resilience. These measures all contribute to a process of cultivating higher actualized potential from each member of the workforce, which translates to cumulative increases in workforce capital at every level.
In the global marketplace, some corporations invest heavily in developing the individuals that make up the organization – these are the companies that adapt, innovate, and expand in reach, impact, and profits.
Curriculum
Cultivating Potential – Part 1- Year 1
- Part 1 Month 1 Framing Potential
- Part 1 Month 2 Growth Foundation
- Part 1 Month 3 Promoting Positivity
- Part 1 Month 4 Fostering Resilience
- Part 1 Month 5 Enhanced Engagement
- Part 1 Month 6 Strengths Ownership
- Part 1 Month 7 Team Cohesion
- Part 1 Month 8 Spheres Leadership
- Part 1 Month 9 Established Meaning
- Part 1 Month 10 Cultivating Joy
- Part 1 Month 11 Unlimited Potential
- Part 1 Month 12 Continuous Growth
Program Objectives
The following list represents the Key Program Objectives (KPO) for the Appleton Greene Cultivating Potential corporate training program.
Cultivating Potential – Part 1- Year 1
Part 01 Month 01: Framing Potential
Cultivating Potential carries a theme throughout that each module is “positivity-focused” and “strengths-based.” This first module will introduce the concept of such an approach and its opportunities for personal growth and increased potential.
This module then aims to empower the audience with a clear understanding of what human potential is and what factors can inhibit or elevate one’s actualized potential throughout life. As participants will begin to fully appreciate, every human has an incredible amount of untapped potential within them. Each person also experiences many events, circumstances, and conditioning that limit this expressed potential behind walls of insecurity or fear. Before long, many develop a propensity to settle for results and achievements far beneath what they genuinely want and are capable of attaining.
Fortunately, the forces limiting one’s innate ability begin to dissolve once a study of human potential begins. This in-depth study of human potential introduces many concepts and principles that will be developed fully during later modules. Core concepts for this workshop include self-efficacy, positive affect, happiness setpoint, eudemonic vs. hedonic happiness, overall life satisfaction, illness-wellness continuum, and personal responsibility for outcomes. With this foundation established, participants will chart a course forward that follows a holistic and comprehensive approach that addresses each element of positive psychology’s PERMA model. PERMA, an acronym for Positivity, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement, addresses each avenue for personal growth and wellbeing.
By the end of this module, participants will be confident that they can tap into much more of their innate potential and have a clear vision for how this journey will be accomplished in the coming months. While this module is more about sharing concepts and laying a foundation for growth than it is about the application, participants will have a renewed spirit for growth and future possibilities that is itself an empowering outcome.
Part 02 Month 02: Growth Foundation
This second module shifts the focus from learning ideas to application and the Cultivating Potential process for personal transformation.
A growth foundation begins with helping participants to adopt a growth mindset. Too often, we fall prey to the false belief that we as individuals have fixed strengths, talents, and abilities. Recent neuroscience and positive psychology have shown that skills and abilities are not a fixed variable but can continue to develop throughout a person’s life. Adopting a growth mindset (the focus for this module) provides the context for tapping into innate abilities that have yet to be revealed and processing for honing skills, gaining knowledge, and developing habits that reinforce personal growth.
Once a growth mindset is adopted, the possibilities for increased performance and heightened achievement become near limitless. This change starts with learning to accept full responsibilities for our individual actions and the outcomes we experience in life. Shifting the locus of control over our outcomes to the thoughts, visions, and actions we can control is a personally liberating and incredibly empowering skill to develop. Participants will leverage new tools to analyze how they can best respond to events and circumstances to get the outcomes they seek, regardless of external factors that influence the situation.
By the end of this module, participants will be ready to give up old habits of complaining, blaming, and excuse-making to focus their attention on their personal ownership of the situation and the responses that will lead to constructive outcomes. Through process-oriented performance evaluations, leaders at every level will learn to promote a growth mindset in their team members and co-workers.
With sights set on what is possible with a proper growth foundation, any participant’s inclination to shy away from one’s most ambitious goals will be addressed through processing limiting beliefs. Too often, it is not one’s innate ability that limits their level of achievement as much as it is false beliefs about what is possible for that individual, team, or organization to achieve. These false beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies as we as individuals or groups limit our expectations for future outcomes; our performance is governed to meet the falsely perceived limitation we hold.
Part 03 Month 03: Promoting Positivity
Positivity is not about being positive all of the time. Positivity, in this sense, is about developing the emotional resilience necessary not to get stuck in a negative place for too long and to have the tools to rebound from emotional triggers constructively. As a continuation of mindset work, this module will introduce tools that participants can use to develop greater emotional resilience while improving self-efficacy. One of the most significant improvements to emotional resilience comes from applying a positivity-focused approach to our personal inventory.
It’s a natural human tendency to ruminate over our past mistakes, failures, and setbacks. Our brains are wired for survival before anything else; part of that survival is avoiding repeat behavior that may jeopardize the fulfillment of our basic needs. In our brain, this translates to, “I must keep all of my past errors top-of-mind so I don’t repeat them.” The obvious flaw in this well-intended mindset is that remembering our mistakes or shortcomings is not enough to prevent a recurrence. Additionally, being vigilant toward the negative aspects of our past only erodes our confidence today by increasing stress and depleting our self-efficacy. By understanding this negatively biased propensity of thought, we have the power to take action and change this natural tendency by adopting a new approach.
Regardless of how many perceived weaknesses, defects, or past mistakes a person has, there are always many more past wins, successes, and innate strengths to acknowledge. A simple exercise of listing out one’s past wins and successes on a comprehensive accomplishments list is a transformation exercise that starts promoting positivity. Once a habit of positive recognition is established, we are empowered for greater confidence and improved self-efficacy—these restored positive emotions fuel our creativity, mental performance, and personal drive.
Part 04 Month 04: Fostering Resilience
Resilience is a crucial ingredient to the life experience that makes happiness, fulfillment, and achievement possible. When many think about resilience, they conjure a negative association to other concepts like struggle, suffering, burnout, and surviving. While resilience is a trait that allows us to persevere through challenging times, its deeper purpose is to provide the foundation for people to experience everything worthwhile in life. It requires resilience for a person to experience the empowering emotion of eudemonic happiness. Resilience is needed to achieve eustress – the stress response that benefits health, motivation, performance, and emotional wellbeing. This fourth workshop will deliver processes for improving resilience in a positive context so participants can leverage this resilience for personal growth and increase potential.
A core element of this Fostering Potential workshop is the introduction of the “Spheres Approach.” This Spheres Approach framework provides tools for mindset and emotional resource management. A person’s mental and emotional energy is a finite resource. Too often, people allow things that don’t directly affect them or things outside of their control to consume much of their limited mental energy. This distraction of attention reduces the mental and emotional energy available to invest in professional responsibilities and other more meaningful elements of life.
The introduction of the Spheres Approach during this workshop will empower participants to clear distractions from their awareness by removing unnecessary negative concerns and other frustrations that are outside their “direct control.” This part of the process is often enough to help increase one’s resilience and improve their ability to contribute to their organization positively. This refocusing of mental and emotional energy is a significant step toward cultivating one’s higher potential.
Part 05 Month 05: Enhanced Engagement
Module five focuses on increasing individual engagement to improve personal performance and organizational productivity. This workshop allows participants to investigate various factors that promote and detract from personal engagement. Specifically, this workshop provides processes for improving personal responsibility and accountability, strengthening integrity, and overcoming elements of fear that compromise engagement.
There is no more significant influence on one’s engagement than their willingness to take one hundred percent responsibility for the outcomes they experience. During this section, participants will discover how they can alter their responses to events and circumstances in ways that will ultimately produce the outcomes they seek. Following a deductive process that promotes greater accountability, this module will empower participants with increased feelings of control and competence. The mindset shift to increased personal ownership and responsibility often inspires a cultural change where tendencies to blame, complain, and or make excuses give way to improved problem-solving capacity and resourcefulness.
Personal integrity is not just a measure of truth in one’s words; it is a measurement of the coherence between one’s actions and core beliefs. The integrity of its foundation determines the potential height of a building. So too are is the heights a person can achieve in success and the fulfillment of their potential–the foundation for human potential is built on the integrity of actions and character. Through reflection and personal inventory, participants will discover where and how they can improve their personal and professional integrity to strengthen their foundation for reaching their higher potential.
The last section of this module addresses the emotional elements of fear that manifest in various ways, consciously and subconsciously. Fear is a natural human response to facing the unknown. And we can know nothing in the future with absolute certainty. Consequently, the growth of an individual or organization requires venturing into the unknown, which makes experiencing fear on some levels inevitable. Fortunately, by understanding the variety of ways fear can show up and analyzing the root causes of fear that exists, individuals can learn to act in the face of internal discomfort and external uncertainty.
Part 06 Month 06: Strengths Ownership
It is valid for both individuals and organizations, there is nothing that either can do with the tools and resources they do not possess. It is also true that considerably more can be accomplished when full ownership is taken of the intrinsic and acquired resources at one’s disposal. Throughout this sixth workshop, participants will learn how to take full advantage of the available resources, from the innate strengths they possess to the skills, talents, and abilities they can develop. This strengths-based focus on intrinsic capacity is a process that starts within individuals and soon expands outward to positively influence resource management and promote creative problem-solving.
A primary focus for this strengths-ownership module is a shift of mindset from focusing on obstacles to concentrating on opportunities. Humans tend to have a natural negativity bias that draws their awareness to possible threats for survival. This natural attention to past mistakes, personal flaws, and weaknesses often leads to reduced confidence, increased stress, and diminished capacity for accepting responsibility. To take ownership of one’s true potential, an individual must first be aware of their innate strengths. Strengths Ownership guides participants through a process to identify and then positively affirm the character strengths within them.
The second part of Strengths Ownership focuses on maximizing one’s capacity to use their strengths through the management of willpower, habits, and discipline. With a clear understanding of how these three elements relate, participants will be empowered to manage their finite resources of willpower to improve their capacity to overcome internal resistance that becomes an obstacle to the results they seek. With this alignment of innate strengths and willpower management, participants will experience remarkable shifts in productivity, efficiency, and performance and will continue the journey of living into their higher potential.
Part 07 Month 07: Team Cohesion:
Module seven is devoted to strengthening the fabric of connection between groups, teams, and partnerships within an organization. Drawing from the Crew Resource Management model that has become popular in many industries from aviation to medicine, participants will learn practical methods for improving connection, enhancing communication, and developing relational synergies within the company. Arguably the most critical skill for Personnel Resource Management is communication. Interpersonal communication occurs in many verbal and non-verbal ways. This workshop delivers a Content/Context communication theory with tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness of communication. Once fully adopted, this communication approach will help participants diffuse anger, prevent judgment, foster compassion, and cultivate greater empathy and appreciation for others. This workshop will help individuals communicate better with others, but it also helps people understand and communicate with themselves in a way that evokes confidence and builds resolve.
Humans are social creatures that draw a lot of influence from the relationships that are maintained. Some relationships are toxic to a person’s personal growth and capacity to reach their potential. Other connections are nurturing and supportive of personal growth while providing positive accountability. Even with the best intentions and best communication skills, some relationships will not flourish. This workshop will also lead participants through a process to assess their current relationships, both personal and professional. This assessment will illuminate some connection deficiencies, relationships that individuals must avoid, and opportunities to develop new relationships or build on ones already established.
Part 08 Month 08: Spheres Leadership
Module eight builds on the concepts from the Spheres Approach that the fostering resilience workshop introduced. When adapted to a leadership philosophy, the Spheres Approach can help improve work climate, co-worker relations, employee satisfaction, and the quality of the goods or services the organization produces.
Many of the same Spheres Approach techniques used to process stress, overcome challenges and cultivate greater happiness and joy in life can be applied to one’s leadership style to create a more positive and productive team. Throughout this workshop, participants will be empowered with techniques to:
– Protect their group from outside distractions and negativity;
– Improve the working relationships of those on a team;
– Increase the individual contribution and creative involvement of everyone;
– Effectively deal with internal problems or conflicts that arise;
– Increase the performance of the team and the quality of work produced;
– Create a more positive, fun, and rewarding place to work.
During this workshop, participants will also discover ways to bring a greater sense of purpose to their role as leaders by tapping into their passion for service. Being in the service of others is a behavior with emotional, physiological, and spiritual benefits. When participants learn to shift their focus from controlling to being of service to those they lead, participants’ capacity as leaders expands because they develop the ability to cultivate the potential of those they lead. This servant leadership goes beyond managing the resources that a team has to work with and the environment within which they work; it ventures into finding and developing each person’s strengths and talents that make up the organization. During this workshop, the participants learn the most effective processes for cultivating this potential in others, including process praise and constructive feedback. Both of these promote the adoption of a growth mindset in others which is a bedrock for personal growth.
Part 09 Month 09: Established Meaning
A Will to Meaning is a driving factor that increases one’s ability to overcome adversity and navigate challenges constructively. A sense of meaning provides the capacity to endure difficult and trying times. In order to flourish in the face of adversity and tap into a person’s innate resilience, they must have a positive meaning for what they do and why they are trying to succeed. Individuals can find meaning in activities as simple as a daily task and as complex as an organization’s mission. What provides that personal sense of meaning will vary from person to person, but all people must have a strong and positively correlated sense of meaning for what they do in order to excel.
When participants have learned to establish this sense of meaning, they will tap into a source of eudemonic happiness. Unlike the fleeting hedonic happiness a person feels in a moment of indulgence or accomplishment, eudemonic happiness provides satisfaction and fulfillment that endures through life’s challenges while fueling positive self-efficacy and emotional affect. As this positive-meaning derived happiness increases, so does one’s confidence, ability to handle stress, and capacity for suffering through momentary setbacks without losing their sense of drive or future ambition.
Once a personal sense of meaning and purpose is developed, this workshop ties personal meaning with the organization’s mission. A sense of meaning for many in an organization can be drawn from a company’s mission and vision statements. However, to develop the most significant sense of meaning at the individual level, that meaning may come from a combination of personal and professional aspirations. Some draw their sense of meaning from serving as part of a team providing for a worthwhile cause. Others draw a sense of meaning from their ability to love and provide for loved ones, and some find the greatest sense of meaning from creating something new or impactful. Individuals can tie each of these sources of meaning to their role at the organization. When this meaning is first established and then focused upon, participants’ ability to reach their full potential for contribution and performance is unleashed.
Part 10 Month 10: Cultivating Joy
Joy is an essential element of optimal human functioning. Creativity, performance, and resilience all improve when individuals invite a healthy level of joy into their lives. This tenth workshop provides multiple tools that will help participants experience the benefits of a joy-filled life.
Too often, as personal responsibilities and time commitments expand, individuals sacrifice activities that promote natural feelings of joy. Sometimes seen as an indulgence that is not deserved until more work is done, joyful activities are a primary source of natural endorphins that reduce stress, improve physical health, and boost brain function. As the frequency of joy experiences diminish from one’s life, so does their capacity to handle stressful situations and to make a full contribution to work and family.
Even though they can elicit a full spectrum of positive emotions – even euphoria at times – joyful experiences are not an indulgence to put off until other responsibilities are complete. Sacrificing joy in one’s life is not an act that merely sacrifices one’s own pleasure; it is a behavior that inhibits the opportunity to put forward the best version of one’s self. Through the activities in this workshop, participants will learn to appreciate joyful experiences as a critical ingredient of a flourishing life. They will adopt tools for incorporating more joy-filled activities, which bring a range of benefits to performance and heightened potential.
Part 11 Month 11: Unlimited Potential
Building on the traditional SMART goal setting approach, this workshop will help participants adopt a SMART(Plus) process that focuses on techniques to ensure the achievement of goals, not just their setting. Built into this process are considerations for contingencies when planned actions cannot be completed and strategies to improve follow-through. Feedback about progress and performance is a vital tool for enhanced achievement. Learning to use all forms of feedback – positive and negative feedback, internal and external sources – is a strategy that can optimize resource usage and expedite process improvement times. The techniques participants will adopt are equally applicable to personal development goals, career goals, and team goals as they are for innovation and product development goals.
Part 12 Month 12: Continuous Growth
This final workshop is devoted to reviewing the entire Cultivating Potential process and tying all elements of this program together. This twelfth module will revisit some of the critical components of Cultivating Potential to make new connections and deepen the synergies between tools introduced throughout the year, allowing participants to continue their journey toward their highest potential.
Revisiting the topics of self-efficacy and positive affect that are the critical ingredients to actualized human potential, participants will engage new techniques for self-care and tools to inspire a process of continuous growth and personal improvement.
Methodology
Cultivating Potential
Program Planning (Months 1 – 2)
The Cultivating Potential workshop is not simply a sharing of knowledge and ideas about human potential; it is a process of learning, adopting, and refining proven concepts and evidence-based practices that promote personal ownership of the process and full implementation.
To effect this transformation, Cultivating Potential is delivered through experiential-learning style workshops with audience participation, group activities, combine storytelling, and demonstrations. This style of workshop presentation allows immediate implementation and sustainable results.
Cultivating Potential is a process that encompasses six distinctive phases of personal and organizational growth:
Phase One: Laying the Foundation for Unlimited Potential
Phase Two: Positivity Bias and Personal Resilience
Phase Three: Strengths-Based Engagement
Phase Four: Meaning-Centered Approach to Success
Phase Five: Group Cohesion, Synergy, and Leadership
Phase Six: Breakthroughs in Productivity and Achievement
Phase One: Laying the Foundation for Unlimited Potential
Appropriately named, the first phase is Laying the Foundation for Unlimited Potential. This phase focuses on developing that foundation for Cultivating Potential. Param