Are your teams’ inner skills the missing link to achieve the SDGs?
Jamie walks into the kitchen and turns on the radio. She takes a blue mug from the cupboard, places it under the espresso machine, puts fresh coffee in the grinder and starts the machine. The grinding sound fills the kitchen.
She leans against the cupboard and turns the radio up a notch to listen to the morning news.
A wildfire in the US burned 1,000 ha of forest. A landslide was reported in Germany following days of torrential rain. It's not even 7.30 am, and she's already feeling distressed. For a moment, again, she feels despair and helplessness about humanity's future.
She shakes her head as if trying to shake off the news, turns off the radio, puts the mug in the kitchen sink and heads to the door. She picks up her keys and her lanyard with her employment badge. The letters on the badge read "National Environmental Agency".
"Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been." -- António Guterre, Secretary-General, United Nations [i].
The 2023 UN progress report found that half the SDG targets had "moderate or severe deviations" from the intended trajectory since 2015 and 30% had had no progress or had regressed [ii].
So, how do we close the gap? And what does this have to do with Jamie's story?
The founders of the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) believe personal development is necessary for societal change. Their thesis: We need to support the development of abilities, skills, and other inner qualities so that people and organisations can work more symbiotically if we want to achieve the SDGs.
Recent research shows support for this thesis. It highlights that developing inner skills and team dynamics can promise better outcomes than traditional training or approaches. But this is not necessarily a new insight.
This month's spotlight discusses whether organisations need to focus more on the inner capabilities of teams and organisations to drive outer change. This blog post will discuss why individual contributors, like Jamie, or managers and leaders should pay more attention to their personal development. It will also give you concrete steps to start today practically.
What are the Inner Development Goals (IDG)?
IDG is a global non-profit and open-source initiative that researches and promotes the 'inner' skills needed to accelerate sustainable development and human flourishing. They believe that the cognitive and emotional skills and other qualities we need to achieve large-scale transformation go beyond what most people usually learn in schools and higher education.
Their goal with the IDG framework is to empower individuals and organisations to develop inner capacities and co-create a more sustainable world.
Based on research and expert input, the organisation has identified 23 skills grouped into five pillars that form part of the inner development goals (see picture).
Being – Relationship to Self
Cultivating our inner life and developing and deepening our relationship to our thoughts, feelings, and body help us be present, intentional and non-reactive when we face complexity.Thinking – Cognitive Skills
Developing our cognitive skills by taking different perspectives, evaluating information and making sense of the world as an interconnected whole is essential for wise decision-making.Relating – Caring for others and the World
Appreciating, caring for and feeling connected to others, such as neighbours, future generations or the biosphere, helps us create more just and sustainable systems and societies for everyone.Collaborating – Social Skills
To progress on shared concerns, we need to develop our abilities to include, hold space and communicate with stakeholders with different values, skills and competencies.Acting – Enabling Change
Qualities such as courage and optimism help us acquire proper agency, break old patterns, generate original ideas and act with persistence in uncertain times.
What is the evidence for investing in inner skills for the SDGs?
Can the climate anxiety Jamie experiences while listening to the morning news affect her work performance?
Studies into climate anxiety confirm that there are increased mental health concerns for individuals, but not much research has been done into the performance effect of such stress. Recent research by the University of Plymouth, UK, using the IDG framework as a basis, shows results that point in the direction that there is an effect. [iii]
"[research highlights ..] the significance of nurturing personal development and emotional connection as integral elements in motivating individuals and teams to engage in climate action." [iv]
Specifically, the research tested a new climate coaching programme that connects approaches and theories on intrinsic motivations (inner drivers), personal meaning, and self- and situational awareness with specific strategies and actions. The coaching progressed from discussing individual meaning to personal action, then to team meaning and team action. Researchers compared this climate coaching programme with the results of a second group undergoing a live carbon literacy training programme. The carbon literacy training was delivered using a mix of formats, including discussion, reflection, fact-finding and application modules.
The first group showed better improvements in motivation and teamwork for climate action compared to the carbon literacy training group. Although limited in scope, this research highlights the significance of nurturing personal development and emotional connection as integral elements in motivating individuals and teams to engage in climate action.
Effective goal pursuit requires personal and team resilience, coupled with inner skills and qualities. Developing inner skills and team dynamics can show promise for better outcomes compared to traditional training or approaches.
While research into the IDGs as a framework linking inner development to achieving the SDGs is new and needs to be further tested, the idea that an individual's behaviours and attitudes link to how they interact with the environment is not.
The Staff College[v] conducted an empirical study to show how a systems approach to leadership may help them navigate increasingly complex systems. The integrated systems leadership model that emerged has three rings:
The Public Service Context: The circumstances in which you are working.
Systems Leadership: The qualities/actions needed by those leading complex organisations through change.
Systems Leader Qualities: The personal styles and behaviours needed of systems leaders. The dimension of the third element are not dissimilar to the IDG framework and are defined as: Ways of feeling; ways of perceiving; ways of thinking; ways of relating and ways of doing. and ways of being.
"Self Mastery is important because a leader has to know himself better in order to relate with others and with the world. The concept is not new: relating with self, relating with others, and relating with the world. These three have to align to make positive change lasting and more meaningful." [vi]
While certainly more research needs to be done, individuals with good emotional regulation, creative thinking, relationship skills, collaboration skills and implementation skills are what organisations need to tackle the complex problems on the way to reaching the SDGs.
By turning inward, the individual can strengthen their connections to the external world and realise their potential in the service of others.
How can you and your team develop your inner skills?
Engaging with the framework as an individual contributor
In my coaching leaders, I repeatedly see that the way to tackle new, complex challenges is not by doing more of the same but by reconnecting my clients to themselves, discovering new ways of working, managing stress effectively and harnessing their strengths and motivations to act.
Working individually with the IDG framework or with a coach, Jamie might start incorporating mindfulness practices to find ways to manage her emotions to stay in the present, seeking to reduce her fatalism in thinking of the future. She might write or draw her vision for the future and how she contributes through her work. She might recognise that her collaboration skills are insufficient to push through some of the policy changes she wants. She might actively seek mentorship to establish shared ownership across teams.
Jamie's skill development journey starts with an understanding of the current baseline.
We invite you to take the mini quiz to engage with the Inner Development Goals.
Self-assess on the five skills areas, identifying where and how you could grow, both as an individual and in relation to the world around you.
For each of the five areas, you'll get several practical action steps you can take right now to increase your strength in this skill area.
NB: This quiz is not endorsed by the IDG nor is it a scientifically proven model. It's a tool developed for ReformWorks readers to help them engage with the model.
Engaging with the framework as a manager and team leader
IDG found that organisations engaged with the framework through the initiative of one employee. A passionate colleague takes the initiative to learn more about the IDGs, and invites other colleagues into the conversation – and they soon find themselves presenting the case for the concept to an influential group of employees or the leaders.
Maybe this is you?
To kick off, here is a three-step process to get you started [vii]:
(Individually or as a team), list the top 3 strategic, performance or organisational challenges your team (or organisation) faces.
Choose one main challenge that is primarily adaptive. [viii]
Reflect on the degree to which inner development in general and practising the 23 IDG qualities, abilities or skills might help you address the adaptive challenge.
Using this baseline, you might decide to vote/pick the three most relevant skills for your team now and engage your team in a brainstorming exercise on how you can jointly increase this skill. You might refer to the quiz results page for ideas for skill development practices.
We can bridge the gap to achieve 'lofty' goals.
Jamie's daily routine highlights the psychological impact of global environmental crises, reflecting a broader challenge faced by individuals and organisations alike: How to bridge the gap between these global SDGs and their application within individual organisations, especially when employees may question the impact of their efforts on such lofty goals.
The IDG framework, focusing on five core areas - Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting - may provide one approach to address this gap.
Albeit recent and in low numbers, recent studies underscore the importance of nurturing personal and team resilience, suggesting that traditional training programs may fall short compared to approaches that foster inner growth. But more importantly, the principles behind IDGs align with established leadership models, which emphasise the interconnectedness of self-awareness, relational skills, and systemic thinking. Leaders who master these inner dimensions are better equipped to navigate complex challenges and drive sustainable change.
How can you apply this in your work?
As an individual contributor, engage with the IDG skills area by self-assessment. It can help you identify growth areas and implement practical action steps. Define specific upskilling, training and work with a coach to integrate it into your work.
As managers and team leaders, choose one main challenge your team/organisation faces right now and use IDG as a lens to experiment with a new approach to solving this challenge.
In essence, achieving the SDGs may depend on our ability to look inward, develop our inner capacities, and connect more deeply with ourselves and others. Doing so can unlock our full potential and drive meaningful, sustainable change.
This article was originally published on the ReformWorks blog.
References
[ii] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2023/
[iii] 2023, Inner Development Goals and the Meaning, Awareness and Purpose (MAP) Model for Climate Coaching, University of Plymouth, https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/psy-research/426/
[iv] 2023, Inner Development Goals and the Meaning, Awareness and Purpose (MAP) Model for Climate Coaching, University of Plymouth, https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/psy-research/426/
[v] 2024, Systems Leadership: Exceptional leadership for exceptional times, Synthesis Paper, Staff College, accessed via https://thestaffcollege.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/VSC_Synthesis_complete.pdf
[vi] 2022, A Qualitative Study on Relating the Inner Development Goals to the Leadership Development Approach of a CSO in a Developing Country, https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1665084/FULLTEXT02
[vii] 2023, IDG report, Orienting inner development in organisations, https://innerdevelopmentgoals.org/about/resources/
[viii] The IDG define adaptive problems as: “A problem or challenge, often unknown or hard to identify, in which the solution is likewise unknown and requires collaboration across actors or parts of the organisation (and often the broader ecosystem the organisation is a part of) to address. Obstacles are less tangible (e.g. values, behaviours, culture) and the solution requires learning. As distinguished from technical challenges. The term was coined by Harvard professor Ronald Heifetz. Related concepts include wicked problems and complex problems.”
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