What is inner led change and why do I think it is so critical to the transformation of our economy? Finally, the truth about systems change.
In my last blog post, I introduced the idea of inner-led change being the missing piece required to drive social and sustainable business from the fringe to the mainstream of our global economic system. But what is inner led change and why do I think it is so critical to the transformation of our economy?
The first time I heard the Mind & Life podcast mini-series about systems change, I experienced an overwhelming sensation that I was, finally and for the first time, hearing the whole truth. As a student and practitioner of social and sustainable business for nearly 20 years, I have always understood that for real change to happen in the global economy at scale, it is more than just policies and practices that need to change – the deep inner workings of the machinery of business need to change as well. While sustainability, leadership development, organizational change and design, etc. are important evolving practices, they still aren’t reaching far enough into the deepest layers of business as usual to create the shifts necessary to support the kind of complete and lasting change we need.
So, when I heard the podcast talking about how, in the context of contemplative approaches to systems change, when we focus on just the outer (structures, policies, practices, etc.), we are only looking at part of the problem, I took note. The podcast went on to say that the outer is intimately interwoven with a deep inner made up of psychological, social and cultural factors that make up our meta (or self-referential) understanding of the system. And that for real, lasting change to occur in any system, the inner (both individually and collectively) needs to change to meet and integrate with a new outer. And it is this change in the meta level understanding of our global economic system that I believe is currently missing from transformation conversations, and where I believe inner led change needs to play an important role.
In the first episode of the Mind & Life podcast mini-series about Exploring Systems Change, they discussed how, when we think about human systems, deep meta-level questions we may be concerned with include: Who are we as humans? What does a good life look like? How do we relate to nature? How do we relate to each other? When you apply the same idea to the global economy, the relevant questions become: What is our economy for? How should it be measured? Where and how does it fit within the context in which it operates (i.e., the physical world and human society)? Who are its stakeholders? How should they relate to each other?
These questions have been fiercely debated for years. In fact, for my application for the Executive Masters in Social Business & Entrepreneurship program at The London School of Economics, I was asked to submit my thoughts on the statement: “The business of business is social improvement.” This statement, of course, contrasts with Milton Friedman’s 1970 assertion that “the business of business is business.” I made clear in my essay, and I make clear here on my website that the global economic system exists to serve society, not the other way around. The current problem with our meta level understanding of the economy though is that Friedman’s thinking still dominates much of the world’s economic policy. You can see this reflected in motivation-related drivers of market failure, such that since the self-interest of market actors is aligned with the profit-objectives of firms, actors are motivated to behave in a way that prioritizes profit over the public good. However, in an economy that exists to serve society (one based on the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as I’ve talked about) actors will be motivated to prioritize the collective good.
The question of context is an interesting one because it cannot be argued that the global economy exists within the planet and society, yet somehow, in its current form, it operates as though it doesn’t. Absurdly, it operates as though nature and the will of the people are somehow subservient to it, which defines our current meta level understanding of it. On the other hand, a global economy based on reality is built around the real interdependence that exists between business, the environment and society, and it aligns the interests of all such stakeholders over the long- term. It is my firm belief that our collective meta level understanding of the global economy should be rooted in this physical and spiritual reality.
So, as a part of systems change, how do we make the necessary changes at this mindset level, at the level that shapes our reality, to effectively transform the global economy? This is where inner led change needs to play an important role because it recognizes that inner dimensions (individually and collectively) such as awareness, values and ways of relating play a critical role in enabling lasting change in any system.
The inner development goals (IDGs), were created to help bridge the gap between inner growth and the outer, especially in areas such as business and the economy, where the focus is still very much on external factors when measuring success. The IDGs are a set of 25 skills across 5 dimensions that were co-created by a global community of leaders from across the private and public sectors meant to capture the most important skills and qualities required to work more effectively towards the UN SDGs. The thinking behind the IDGs is that human growth and development is required to address our current and future challenges because facts (by way of technical solutions and public policy) have proven insufficient on their own to drive progress. The IDGs are not meant to be a framework but rather a lens to help institutions and organizations map their own human growth and development strategies, which are complex and necessarily emergent.
When you consider the qualities represented in the IDGs, it becomes clear that they are inconsistent with our current meta level understanding of the global economy, which is characterized by qualities such as self-interest, profit-maximization and resource extraction. Rather, when you consider IDG skills such as integrity, systems thinking, long-term orientation, relationship-building and conscious use of resources, what emerges is the picture of a global economic system that is at its core very different from the one we have today – one which provides us with a meta level understanding that can rise up to meet, integrate with and provide the fertile soil for a full-scale social and sustainable global economy.
Inner led change is a necessary part of the transformation to a full-scale social and sustainable global economy because it fosters the inner human growth and development required both individually and collectively to develop a meta level understanding of the system that can integrate with and support the related business structures and practices to enable lasting change.
