Developing Human Resources through Actualizing Human Potential.

Abstract

The key to human resource development is in actualizing individual and collective thinking, feeling and choosing potentials related to our minds, hearts and wills respectively. These capacities and faculties must be balanced and regulated according to the standards of truth, love and justice for individual, community and institutional development, health and well-being.. These cognitive, affective and conative faculties are the dynamic focal points for effective interactions with our environments, and are key aspects of learning and development actualized in pursuing the spiritual principles of truth, love and justice. Human nature is conceptualized as consisting of physical, psychological and spiritual qualities. The dynamics among them are considered. The mind, heart and will are associated with the cognitive, emotional and moral intelligences. A brief description of these capacities, faculties, standards and intelligences are given and their importance for human resource development explained. Developing human resources is an intellectual, emotional and moral endeavor. I propose truth, love and justice as the guiding principles for human resource development and actualizing potential. People involved in developing human resources, whether as professionals or as leaders, often waste tremendous energy, as well as social, political and economic resources, on helping others be more productive in beliefs and practices that are not only ineffective, but counterproductive. As a teacher, counselor and administrator since 1972, I have been actively involved in human resource development through actualizing human potential. Whether in helping children and youth develop their capacities or working with adults to help them realize their potentials so they can effectively contribute to their own and others’ welfare and prosperity, I have sought to enable others to become the most they could be. I have also been involved in developing human potential and resource through my study of and involvement in the Baha'i Faith. My learning about human development has included academic study and experience in several different contexts and countries. As I learned more about development, I tried to be more systematic and thoughtful in my approaches. In that process, I have tried to identify the key capacities and principles of development. Below, I will briefly share some of what I have come to believe is true in the hope it may be of some assistance to the reader and of service to humanity. It is my belief that this knowledge will help others to achieve their potential and promote the welfare of the world more effectively. Human Potential We have enormous potential, much of it unrealized and unknown. Our physical, psychological and spiritual capacities continue to develop and unfold as we extend our frontiers of knowledge and possibility. As human health, development, productivity, research and their benefits continue to evolve, the technical, intellectual and moral life of humanity progresses. How can we help to stimulate that growth in our world and ourselves? First, we need to understand what constitutes human nature and potential, and then how to develop them. Clarken, Developing Human Resources p. 3 Humans, individually and collectively, have three basic aspects that are important to consider in developing human resources and potential. The most obvious and accepted by all is our physical nature. To be human means to have a human body. Scientifically, our bodies place us in the animal kingdom; therefore, part of our nature is common to other animals with whom we are genetically very similar. We have physical needs that must be met to an adequate degree if we are to be able to effectively develop our distinctive abilities to think, feel and choose that make us unique from animals. The psychological qualities to know, love and choose are faculties of our minds, hearts and wills. I believe these three capabilities have an immaterial or spiritual nature that some call the soul. The soul is defined as “the complex of human attributes that manifests as consciousness, thought, feeling, and will, regarded as distinct from the physical body” (Encarta Dictionary). In other words, the rational soul is what causes our minds, hearts and wills to manifest in our physical bodies, resulting in the psychological qualities of conscious thought, feeling and will. Attending to all three natures and all three faculties is important in developing potential. Our thoughts, feelings and actions can be directed by either our bodies or our souls. Whichever nature predominates determines the character and condition of the individual and group. In our physical nature we see the animal characteristics of survival of the fittest and competition for resources as driving forces, and in the other we see altruistic and transcendent motives directing our behavior. Current theories of human resource development tend to emphasize the physical, material and animal aspects of human nature and neglect the spiritual, immaterial and transcendental parts of our nature. We prosper when our spiritual nature influences how we think, feel and choose. It can direct our minds, hearts and wills in healthy ways. If our animal nature prevails, then we actually become more destructive than any animal, with our increased powers of thought, feeling and action being driven by our baser desires and impulses. Developing Human Resources Human resource development can be explained and understood as the interaction and realization of these natures operating through the three basic faculties of mind, heart and will that possess the thinking, feeling and acting powers or capacities for developing human potential. When our thinking capacity is directed toward knowing ultimate truth, our feeling toward valuing altruistic love and our doing toward choosing justice, we flourish. As we build unity in the diversity of expressions of truth, love and justice, through grass-roots efforts and the involvement of all parties, we increase our capacity to inform and transform our communities and institutions. Using and encouraging the assets of all parties is the key to effective human resource development and actualizing human potential. In developing human resources, the earliest years are the most important, beginning with prenatal development. Good nutrition and health form the foundation of later development. Later, training and forming the character and capacities of mind, heart and will are added. Education in intellectual, emotional and spiritual endeavors to prepare for the advancing demands of life follows, with special attention to each person’s abilities, talents and inclinations. Eventually we should take on the responsibility of our own and other’s development. Clarken, Developing Human Resources p. 4 Thinking, feeling and willing are directly related to the cognitive, affective and conative domains that must be properly nurtured, developed and harmonized for individual, community and institutional health and well-being. These cognitive, affective and conative faculties are the dynamic focal points for effective interactions with our environments, and are key aspects of learning and development actualized in pursuing the spiritual principles of truth, love and justice. Our growing consciousness or awareness of these potentialities and principles allows us to develop our practice of realizing life-enriching authentic, valid knowledge, altruistic, sincere love and autonomous, virtuous will. To be effective, human resource development must practice and be based upon truth and authenticity, love and altruism and justice and autonomy. Truth, love and justice relate to the Greek ideals of truth, beauty and good and their expressions and manifestations in science, arts and morals. Each develops an individual and collective ability, skill, or capacity. Figure 1 illustrates these concepts and their relationship.

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