I still remember the first call I had when I initially contacted the people behind the Inner Development Goals initiative.
Sitting in my little home office, I zoomed in with Staffan and Jan. Jan, the executive director, took the call from his car. Next to him was his Ukrainian grandmother, who he had just picked up from the border, driving her to his home in Sweden. There was no business talk. No small talk. There were human beings meeting for the first time, immediately sensing that we had something in common. We believe that we need to be more human. We need to develop our inner human capacities to be able to tackle our global challenges together.
And this is why I fell in love with the #IDGs: The idea is so simple. We need to develop ourselves, to work on our global challenges together. Whilst some might have already incorporated this inner work into their private lives, the idea to improve inner skills to improve our capability to deal with global threats hasn't reached the board rooms and parliamentary halls of this world yet.
But the IDGs don't call for us to meditate alone behind closed doors. On the contrary, they are a real force that can help us get closer to the aims we have set with the Sustainable Development Goals and, as such connectable to anyone working on the #SDGs.
And here's one more thing I love about them: they are not the umpteenth new project that sounds great, and everyone would love to be part of it - if only we had time to. They are a narrative that gives a framework to all who are already working with (parts of) this philosophy - and by that, a huge chance to unite our efforts.
This is also why roughly half a year after this initial call, I found myself standing on one of these beautiful islands just outside Stockholm last week, surrounded by many of the people who have initiated the IDGs and helped them grow over the past three years. This time, not simply as a curious admirer eager to learn more about their idea. This time as an official team member.
And this is also why I am super happy to announce that I have decided to dedicate part of my time to joining the IDG core team as their Chief Experience Designer, taking on the lead of the summit 2023.
I couldn't be more grateful and honoured to become part of this journey with Jan, Michael, Tomas, Jakob, Daniel, Kristian, Klaudia, Åsa, Hannah, Fatima, Magnus, Maria, Pontus, Samuel, Staffan, Mats, Alina and many more!