Editing Human Potential Movement (section)

== In Europe==
[[File:Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs2.svg|alt=|thumb|480x480px|Maslow's hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom<ref name="honolulu">{{Cite web |title=Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs |url=http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.hatm}}</ref>]]
Interest in Human Potential concepts is growing in Europe thanks to training courses aimed at managers, graduate students, and the unemployed, mainly funded by the [[European Union]] in public development courses in the 1980s and 90s.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Implementing European Union Education and Training Policy. A Comparative Study of Issues in Four Member States |publisher=Springer |year=2003 |editor-last=Phillips |editor-first=D. |editor-last2=Ertl |editor-first2=H}}.</ref> In these courses, modules such as communication skills, marketing, leadership and others in the "soft skills" area were embedded in the programs, and enabled the familiarization of most of the Human Potential concepts. A key role was played by "EU Strategic objective 3, 4, and 5" that explicitly included transversal key competences, such as learning to learn, a sense of initiative, entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness".<ref>Official Journal of the European Union, Council conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training, 2009/C 119/02</ref>

These training programs, lasting as much as 900 to 1200 hours{{efn|For context, 1200 hours translates to 150 days of full time training at 8 hours per day}} aimed at enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, and contained at all levels of education and training Human Potential concepts. One of the core concepts, [[Maslow's hierarchy of needs]], a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs, became popular in Europe in the 80s mainly as a support to understanding consumer's needs, and only after its use as a key marketing concept. Philip Kotler's book "Marketing Management" was particularly influential in the 80s in popularizing several human potential concepts that were "embedded" in the book<ref>Kotler, Philip (1984), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control.  Published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., first edition 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-13-557927-5}}</ref> and entered in the working and management community.

Specifically targeted books on Human Potential have emerged in Europe and can be found in the works of specific authors. For the "Anglo" cultural area, the work of [[John Whitmore (racing driver)|John Whitmore]]<!-- also a noted writer on leadership and coaching --><ref>Whitmore, John (1992), Coaching for Performance: Growing Human Potential and Purpose: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership, Brealey Publishing (first edition)</ref>
contains a harsh critique of mainstream approaches to human potential as fast cures for self-improvement: "Contrary to the appealing claims of [[The One Minute Manager]], there are no quick fixes in business".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitmore |first=John 2010 |title=Coaching for Performance: Growing Human Potential and Purpose: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership |publisher=Brealey |edition=4th |page=2 |chapter=Introduction}}.</ref>

For the "Latin" cultural area, an early approach to Human Potential can be found in the work of [[Maria Montessori]]. Montessori's theory and philosophy of education were influenced by the work of [[Jean Marc Gaspard Itard]], [[Édouard Séguin]], [[Friedrich Fröbel]], [[Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi]]. Her model emphasized autonomous learning, sensory exploration and training children in physical activities, empowering their senses and thoughts by exposure to sights, smells, and tactile experiences, and later included, problem solving.