Just like breathing

These are just (some) soft skills.

Yes, just like breathing.

The conversation is inspired by the scepticism I sometimes encounter when talking about the benefits of working with Inner Development Guide (IDG). Since this scepticism often comes from the standpoint that only hard skills yield results, with soft skills excluded from the solutions, I tend to acknowledge the claim, but with a slight twist.    

Yes.

Twenty-five Inner Development Guide’s skills are soft skills. Anyone can access and use them without much specific training, instruction, or strategy. Same as anyone can breathe.

However, not many can do it in the right way, anytime, anywhere. Conscious breathing is a skill that only experienced meditation practitioners and top professional athletes get to master. So is the conscious use of IDG skills.

What I have learned in my professional practice is that no matter how good the strategic plans, blueprints, roadmaps, certificates, standards, and frameworks are, eventually it all comes down to the simple question: what will people in the organization do?

People value blueprints, roadmaps, certificates, standards, and frameworks, but are moved, mobilised and aligned through shared values, mindsets and purpose.

In all that we do, the inner dimension is the cause while the outer is the effect of its quality. Blueprints, roadmaps, certificates, standards, and frameworks are the effect of the inner, teleological quest. They are the consequence and the manifestation of “Why?”.

We know by now that the companies’ sole purpose (The Why) is not simply and solely increasing the value for shareholders.

Value creation that does not intrinsically include in its proposition the environmental and social value for shareholders is not future-proof. Companies and organizations play an important social role. They breathe purpose into human activity. But the century behind us taught us that the value of any activity needs to be expressed in some sort of metrics.

For the past century, we were stuck with GDP, a quick fix driven by the need to boost economic growth after the devastating Second World War. But let’s not forget that GDP as a measure has been used for lees than a century. It has served its purpose, and now we can move on, towards “…the day is not far off when the Economic Problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and that the arena of the heart and head will be occupied, or re-occupied, by our real problems—the problems of life and of human relations . . .” These words were not written recently by any de-growth, new age, utopian moralist but by John Maynard Keynes, in 1931.

If you can measure it, you can manage it. Soft skill and wellbeing are hard to measure. But there are ways to do it. One I particularly see having the potential to spread is the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, but there are, and there will be more.

IDG, Human Flourishing Program, CoFSA, and many other fantastic initiatives are just the beginning of the journey that will help keep humanity within the planetary boundaries.

In the past century, our wellbeing was tied to the strength of our economy. In the century ahead, our wellbeing will be tied to the strength of our communities.

My understanding of sustainability transformation is deeply intertwined with the notion of inner transformation. And my journey into this notion began with the teachings of Prof. Christine Wamsler, whose lectures included:

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

For me, sustainability transition and regeneration go hand in hand with the inner compass that steers our decisions and choices. These need to extend into eco-systems and value chains and be included in our individual and collective answer to: What needs to be sacrificed for the whole to succeed?

Yes. We need soft skills.