We constantly describe ourselves and others in terms of stable traits: characteristics we "have" and that are more or less fixed. This static conception of the human offers a comfortable sense of order, but it does not hold up. The Dynamic Human draws together insights from personality psychology, motivation science, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience to show what can take its place. At its core is the concept of enablement: context does not cause our functioning, it opens or closes possibilities. Central to the argument is the door-opener: a condition, action, or experience that opens a space of possibilities which was previously closed. What we take to be fixed traits is often the end point of a cumulative process we can no longer see. The book translates this perspective into concrete approaches in education, organizations, and coaching, and formulates its synthesis as a coherent proposal that reaches far enough to be testable.
