What It Takes to Make Progress When the Future Feels Out of Control
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Turn breakthrough ideas into real results at the virtual HBR Innovation Summit this November with top CEOs and masterclasses on AI and growth. Register by September 30th and save 25%. Learn more at hbr.org slash innovation summit. I'm Adi Ignatius. I'm Alison Beard and this is the HBR Ideacast.
So Alison, here's my question for you today. What does it take to make progress when the future feels out of control? So I think the psychologist that I've talked to over the years would say when you really have no influence on external factors, you've got to change your own mindset and behaviors. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. It is a simple idea.
It is not at all simple to execute. And it's actually an essential part of the argument that today's guest is making. Martin Seligman is a renowned professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and after decades of studying optimism, resilience, and human flourishing, he has set his sights on agency, on how we can have more of it to achieve positive outcomes. He defines agency as being made up of three things: efficacy, the belief that you can achieve a goal now, optimism, the belief that you can achieve it in the future, and imagination, the ability to envision possibilities that don't yet exist.
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