The Importance Of Hope - Dr. Shane Lopez

Shane describes himself as: “A psychologist studying hope for a living.”

A writer and researcher, he explains that hopeful people often demonstrate the following qualities.

They believe that the future will be better than the present.

They believe they have the power to make it so.

Shane outlines this research in this video. He gives an excellent presentation, even though he has to do so while people in the audience are eating their lunch.

Human beings constantly focus on the future, says Shane. Envisaging how the future can be, they set goals and have dreams.

But what if they do not see a positive future? Shane explains that people can increase their sense of hope.

One approach is to help them to focus on the acronym: GPA. Explaining this approach in the Gallup Business Journal, he says:

“Future orientation relies on three kinds of thinking – goals thinking, pathways thinking, and agency thinking – and hope theory capitalizes on them.

“Goals thinking is ubiquitous, and we all do it fairly well, but everybody could do a little bit better in refining goals to make them more attainable, to make them approachable.

“Pathways thinking is the perceived ability to create pathways or strategies to get from point A, where you are now, to point B, which is goal attainment.

“Agency thinking is the self-efficacy and the mental energy to work and pursue your identified goals along your selected pathways.

“Pathways and agency thinking work in tandem; they reverberate in such a way that the more you have of both, the easier it is to pursue and attain your goals.”

http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/26380/business-case-instilling-hope.aspx

Looking at the research on hope, Shane and his colleagues found that:

Hope costs nothing – it does not relate to income.

Hope is teachable – it is possible to teach people to be more hopeful.

Shane also goes on to explore the qualities that people want from their leaders. Looking right across the board, these were the four qualities that emerged. People want their leaders to demonstrate:

Compassion; Stability; Trust; Hope.