Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

A growing body of research highlights the important role that self-regulation and executive function skills play in helping adults achieve success in the workplace and at home.[1] They are the skills that help us to carry out day-to-day tasks and achieve life goals that are important and meaningful to us. They help us plan, monitor our actions and their consequences, and control our responses to things. They also help us remember important information and follow multi-step processes or instructions. Although the foundations for self-regulation are formed in early childhood, the brain remains particularly malleable into young adulthood, creating an opportunity to acquire and strengthen self-regulation skills through deliberate development and practice.

Neurological and behavioral science research has demonstrated that chronic exposure to high levels of stress can have adverse consequences for the development and use of self-regulation skills in both adults and children. For families living in poverty, the negative effects of stress on self-regulation have been well documented in early childhood—long-believed to be the developmental period for these skills—which ultimately may continue into adulthood. Moreover, experiences of sustained, intense stress and adversity have been found to inhibit an adult’s ability to access and exert these necessary skills, even an individual with strong self-regulation skills.

Executive skills are important because they are the skills we need to be future-oriented. They play a critical role in helping us to set and achieve our goals. Successful goal achievement requires that our behavior be purposeful and effortful. By better understanding the link between self-regulation and goal achievement, we can be more directed and more effective in how we deliver services and provide support.

This presentation will first provide an overview of the science of self-regulation and executive function skills and how applying the science to the program design and delivery can build clients’ skills, reduce sources of stress, and create responsive relationships. Second, we will describe how executive skills are the “engine” that fuels goal successful goal achievement and, in turn, how routinely practicing goal pursuit can engage and build these skills. Finally, we will introduce a goal achievement framework for how to support and build executive function skills in human service and workforce programs. This framework—Goal, Plan, Do, Review/Revise—a simple, replicable process that emphasizes the importance of precision and adherance to the science in goal pursuit. For example, when setting a goal, it must be meaningful to the participant and achievable. In addition, plans must be clear and include a series of well-defined small steps. Also, participants who identify an internal obstacle and potential work around (an if/then plan) are 2-3 times more likely to achieve goal success. This presentation and framework sets the stage for the presentations that follow.

[1] Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2016). Building Core Capabilities for Life: The Science Behind the Skills Adults Need to Succeed in Parenting and the Workplace. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.