Why Sustainable Development Must Start with Inner Development
6 minute read
In the years since I was born, nearly three-quarters of the species I knew as a boy have disappeared.
It’s not an isolated statistic. September saw the annual pilgrimage of world leaders, business executives and a host of hangers-on travel to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. It was an opportunity for an annual checkpoint on progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are due to be met by 2030. We’re past the halfway mark and according to the 2024 report, progress appears to be about as slow as the traffic in Manhattan during UNGA. Only a worrying 17% of the targets are on track. Unlike New York’s gridlock, however, some key areas – such as biodiversity and gender equality – are not stagnant; they are regressing.
Today’s multilateral institutions and their annual gatherings simply aren’t working. We need change – and the IDGs are an invitation for us all to do just that.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, lamented the lack of progress, citing the pandemic, multiple ongoing wars and a $4 trillion funding gap. Fair enough. However, neither he nor any of the other world leaders are likely to lose their jobs by missing the 2030 targets. The trouble is that when everyone is accountable, then it probably means that no one really is. This lack of accountability highlights a deeper issue: achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will require more than just funding – it demands a fundamental shift in how leaders think and act.
New money may help, but it must be accompanied by a new mindset – a new and deeper level of consciousness within the leadership ranks of all institutions. What we now face is not simply a sustainability crisis but a behavioural crisis. If we are to drive change on the outside, might we first have to look deep inside?
That’s the implicit question posed by The Inner Development Goals (IDG) movement whose annual Summit was held in Stockholm on 16-18 October. This was my third summit; once again, it was a breath of fresh air. These people are my tribe – a diverse group of activists, entrepreneurs and corporate changemakers who, like me, believe that sustainable development must go hand in hand with inner development. In many ways, the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) feel like a natural extension of what this tribe stands for.
The IDGs describe themselves as a “non-profit, open-source network focused on inner development towards more sustainable futures”. Despite being in its infancy, it has the hallmarks of a movement whose time has come.
What makes this summit so different? For me, it’s the acts of vulnerability. They don’t pretend to have all the answers but they’re prepared to honestly name the problem. Today’s multilateral institutions and their annual gatherings simply aren’t working. We need change – and the IDGs are an invitation for us all to do just that. Vulnerability set the tone for the summit, creating a space where serious reflection met creative expression in moving ways. The main programme was a bold mix of thought-provoking sustainability content combined with restorative theatre, music and meditation – one part Davos, two parts Glastonbury.
There are five main pillars to the inner development framework:
- Being: This is your relationship to self. How might we deepen our relationship to our thoughts, feelings and body to help us be more present, intentional and non-reactive when we face complexity?
- Thinking: Our cognitive skills. Not in short supply in the very brilliant, but too often these skills are linear and narrow in the business world. Can we expand them by taking different perspectives, evaluating information, and making sense of the world as an interconnected whole?
- Relating: Caring for others and the world. Can you name anyone who’s against that? It’s more than just appreciating each other. It’s about challenging ourselves to feel more connected to future generations and the biosphere and to create more sustainable systems and societies for everyone.
- Collaborating: What are our social skills? They’re not talking about social media skills here. It asks us about our abilities to include, hold space, and communicate with stakeholders with different values, skills, and competencies.
- Acting: Enabling change. The doing to balance the being of the first goal. Can we find the courage and optimism to break old patterns, generate original ideas and act with persistence in uncertain times?
“A bold mix of thought-provoking sustainability content combined with restorative theatre, music and meditation – one part Davos, two parts Glastonbury.”
Gib Bulloch
A few reflections I cherished from the summit:
Spaces of serious reflection take creative courage.
The curation team took risks to explore deep and difficult issues. Summit moderator, Katerina Moser, skillfully set the context by sharing the process that the team had gone through in deciding to host polarising sessions and that even as the speakers walked on stage, she acknowledged that there was disagreement within the organising committee about the wisdom of certain decisions.
The question is not, ‘How do we build bridges?’ but ‘How do we become the bridge itself?’
Standing ovations after profound and moving discussions may have made them feel vindicated. Yet I sense that this group cares less about who is right and who is wrong – and more about providing a safe space for dialogue.
What if life is like music and the point is to appreciate it and dance?
I marvelled at a musical meditation led by singing coach, Rachelle Jeanty, who toured with Celine Dion. She managed to turn a gentle hum into a swaying, clapping, pop-up gospel choir within the space of an hour.
Joy is the great driver of action.
I’m sure there will be plenty of people pointing fingers at all those who travelled to the summit and at the organisers who invited them. I felt this dichotomy as I conscientiously dropped my plastic bottle in the PET recycling in Stockholm airport before boarding the flight home. I also left with a sense of joy, hope and inspiration. It’s far more than an annual summit – it’s a movement and it has momentum with over 630 local hubs who are co-creating its future. That feels exciting. They left us with a call to action: The times are changing; ensure your leadership is, too.
Gib Bulloch spent 20 years in Accenture, most of it as the “intrapreneur” Founder and Executive Director of the company’s not-for-profit consulting business, Accenture Development Partnerships. His changemaker journey was chronicled in his first book, The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a corporate insurgent – a personal story of the challenges of driving change in the face of the “corporate immune system”. Bulloch is now focused on growing Craigberoch, an exciting new platform for social and environmental innovation and more conscious leadership in business.