We can unlock human potential

Science provides the roadmap

Today, we have new insights into the human brain and our biology that challenge long held but false assumptions about talent, learning, and human potential. In short:

• Talent exists everywhere, not on a bell curve.

• The human brain is malleable well into young adulthood.

• No matter the starting point or how many obstacles get in the way, all humans can develop to their fullest potential, contribute to the world, and live fulfilling lives.

Human beings are wired to develop, learn, and grow. Great potential is there. It’s up to us to unlock it and maximize it.

So how do we do that? It starts with relationships. It makes me crazy when people talk about relationships as the “soft stuff”. Our brains are electrical structures, and their primary energy source is human connection.

Trusting relationships produce oxytocin which helps set up the conditions for curiosity and exploration. It’s a state where we don’t fear embarrassment and feedback is welcome. It’s a state of biologic readiness where our minds open to possibility and creativity, ready to absorb something new. It could be knowledge we are introduced to, and we want more of it, it could be a new skill and a coach helps us see it is within reach.

The chemical in charge of this is a neurotransmitter called dopamine. The dopamine pathway is our salience and reward pathway. It is released when we are introduced to something that matters to us a lot, very often by someone who matters to us a lot.

Think about a time when someone showed you something you didn’t believe you could do and then you did it—that feeling, it’s a rush—that’s dopamine. And the neural cocktail producing this experience is oxytocin and dopamine.

Educators and coaches are in the business of activating the biology of learning, of building what teacher-educator Zaretta Hammond calls “cognitive muscle”. Training the brain can be a struggle, but if done right, it is a productive struggle. Over time, skills that were new and seemed hard become automatic and fluent. Performance gets easier, even fun, and inspires more effort. Picture a flywheel, a positive one with rising momentum.

In the process, and with the support and expertise of a trusted teacher, a young person learns something about the value of struggle, overcoming disappointment, and perseverance. This is how deliberate practice comes about. This is how the highest levels of performance, expertise, and mastery emerge.

This is how we unlock human potential.