System and method for personal development training
A computer-implemented system and method for personal development training. User input is obtained comprising the user's vision and goal, possible outcomes, influencing factors on the possible outcomes and relevant data for each of the influence factors. For each influence factor, the risk associated with the influence factor is reduced to an acceptable level if the risk is too high relative to the importance of the influence factor. The user input is processed and an action plan based on the user input is generated and displayed.
1. A computer-implemented system for personal development training comprising:
user input comprising the user's goal, possible outcomes, influence factors on the possible outcomes, the weight of the influence factors on the possible outcome, creative solutions for positively affecting the influence factors, and the weight of affecting the influence factors;
a processor for processing the user input and generating an action plan using a methodology based on the weight of the influence factors and the weight of affecting the influence factors.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the user input for each of the influence factors further comprises:
the effect of the influence factor on the possible outcome;
a statement about what drives the influence factor;
the timeframe under which the influence factor operates;
the risk of affecting the influence factor; and
the willingness to take the risk.
3. The system of claim 2 wherein the user input further comprises:
risk reduction actions for reducing the risk associated with affecting the influence factors; and
the weight of acting to reduce said risk.
4. They system of claim 3 wherein the action plan comprises:
weighted and prioritized influence factors;
weighted and prioritized creative solutions;
risk-weighted and willingness-weighted creative solutions; and
prioritized risk-reduction actions and weights.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the system is implemented using at least one of a group consisting of software; a semiconductor device; a graphical user interface; a command-line interface; and a menu-driven interface.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the action plan further comprises a video component for heightening the user's motivation and sense of accomplishment.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the action plan is downloaded to a destination selected by the user.
8. The system of claim 7 wherein the destination is selected from a group consisting of a Palm Inc. Palm™ handheld, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an ACT!™ data store, an Outlook® data store, a personal information manager (PIM) data store, and a world-wide-web-based internet data store.
9. The system of claim 1 wherein the action plan is displayed on a display device selected from a group consisting of a computer monitor, a portable computer display, a personal digital assistant display, a CRT, an LCD, a plotter, and a printer.
10. A computer-implemented method for personal development training comprising the steps of:
obtaining user input comprising the user's goal, possible outcomes, influence factors on the possible outcomes and creative solutions for positively affecting the influencing factors;
for each influence factor, reducing a risk associated with the influence factor to an acceptable level if the risk is too high relative to the importance of the influence factor by iteratively querying the user for risk reduction actions;
generating and displaying an action plan to the user based on the user input.
11. The method of claim 10 , and further comprising for each influence factor:
obtaining the effect of the influence factor on the possible outcome;
obtaining the weight of the influence factor on the possible outcome;
obtaining a statement about what drives the influence factor;
obtaining the timeframe under which the influence factor operates;
obtaining the weight of affecting the influence factor;
obtaining the risk of affecting the influence factor; and
obtaining the willingness to take said risk.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of risk reduction comprises:
comparing the influence factor's risk to the influence factor's importance;
displaying the creative solutions for positively affecting the influence factor;
obtaining the risk reduction actions for reducing the risk associated with affecting the influence factor; and
obtaining the weight of acting to reduce said risk.
13. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer instructions stored therein for generating an action plan based on user input, the computer program product comprising instructions for:
obtaining user input comprising the user's goal, possible outcomes, influence factors on the possible outcomes and rankings of the weight of the influence factors on the outcomes and the risk of affecting the influence factors
generating and displaying an action plan to the user using a methodology based on the user rankings of weight and risk.
14. A computer-implemented method for guiding a user through a decision-making process on a particular issue comprising: obtaining a goal of the user in resolving the issue; obtaining possible outcomes related to the goal; obtaining influence factors on the possible outcomes and rankings of the importance of the influence factors; iteratively eliciting creative solutions for positively affecting the influence factors, and obtaining rankings of importance and difficulty of positively affecting the influence factors, until a solution having an acceptably low difficulty-to-importance ratio is obtained; and generating a strategy unique to the user's particular issue using a methodology based on the rankings of the importance of the influence factors and the importance and difficulty of positively affecting the influence factors.
15. A computer system having software code that implements the method of claim 14 .
16. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer instructions stored therein for generating a high end strategy based on user input, the computer program product comprising instructions for:
obtaining user input related to the user's goal, possible outcomes, influencing factors on the possible outcomes, and a quantitative ranking of the weight of each of the influencing factors; and;
generating and displaying an action plan to the user using a methodology based on the quantitative ranking of the weight of each of the influencing factors.
17. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the user is iteratively queried to reduce the risk if the weight of the influence factor on the outcome, the risk of affecting the influence factor and the willingness to affect the influence factor are each relatively high.
18. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 17 , wherein the weight of the influence factor on the outcome, the risk of affecting the influence factor and the willingness to affect the influence factor are each ranked by the user on a scale of one to ten, and wherein the user is iteratively queried to reduce the risk if each of these rankings is greater than five.
19. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the action plan is generated by prioritizing the influence factors by the weight of the influence factors on the outcome, by prioritizing the solutions by the weight of affecting the influence factor, the risk of affecting the influence factor and the willingness to take the risk.
20. A computer program product as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the methodology prioritizes the influence factors by their weight on the outcome.
21. A computer program product as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the instructions further comprise:
obtaining solutions for affecting the influence factors, the weight of affecting the influence factors and the willingness to take the risk of affecting the influence factors, and wherein the methodology prioritizes the solutions by the weight of affecting the influence factors, the risk of affecting the influence factors and the willingness to take the risk.
22. A computer program product as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the ranking of the weight of each of the influencing factors is on a scale of one to ten.
23. A software product for assisting a user in developing an action plan for achieving a desired outcome comprising:
means for obtaining one or more influence factors on the desired outcome and one or more creative solutions for positively affecting the influence factors;
means for obtaining quantitative rankings of the influence factors and the creative solutions; and
means for generating the action plan by prioritizing the influence factors and creative solutions based on the quantitative rankings.
24. A software product as claimed in claim 23 , wherein the quantitative rankings comprise:
rankings of the importance of the influence factors;
rankings of the importance of positively affecting the influence factors;
rankings of the difficulty of positively affecting the influence factors; and
rankings of the willingness to positively affect the influence factors.
25. A software product as claimed in claim 24 , and further comprising means for reducing the difficulty of affecting the influence factors by eliciting risk reduction actions when the quantitative rankings are relatively high.