S2 Episode 009 Transcript
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0:00
Before we begin, we would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have been the original change makers and stewards of Australia for over 60,000 years.
Their profound wisdom, resilience and deep connection to country have fostered countless stories of survival, adaptation and transformation.
0:18
The knowledge held by these communities is an invaluable resource for understanding how to create positive change and build a more just and sustainable world.
Welcome back to Change Maker Q&A, everybody.
This is our last episode for 2023.
0:35
I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone.
Oh my goodness.
It was only a year ago that I was getting back from doing all my PhD field work in India and I moved into the house that I am now living in.
0:51
On the 1st of January I began my permaculture journey.
So much has happened.
It’s been kind of a slow year for me, but also really quick.
I haven’t gone overseas at all this year.
1:08
This is the first time in my adult life that I have gone a whole year without travelling overseas, which is crazy.
I never thought this would happen, but I did do plenty of travel around Australia.
My sister lives in a van that she renovated and travels full time.
1:29
So I met up with my sister quite a few times and got to see a bit of Australia with her, which was really nice but crazy to think I haven’t gone overseas.
That was a very intentional thing for me.
I wanted to focus on finishing my the bulk of my PhD research this year and next year.
1:46
I’m really looking forward to travelling not only for fun, but also to present at some international conferences disseminate my research out there a little bit.
So really looking forward to that.
We have a resource called Change Maker Travel through the Humanitarian Change Makers Network and it is a place where you can not only find blog posts and tips and tricks and itineraries if you are interested in obviously travelling the world, but also learning about human rights, learning about different cultures and history from the perspective of social change and making the world a better place, so definitely check that out.
2:33
The website isjusttravel.humanitarianchangemakers.net.
We also have a really cool resource on there where you can book your travel.
You can book transport, accommodation, tours and if you book through that platform then a small percentage of the price that you’re already paying for the booking will go directly to the Humanitarian Change Makers Network.
3:01
And we can use that not only for our operational costs, but also to help launch our new not-for-profit, which I’m sure I will be talking about very soon either in the next podcast episode or in our newsletter.
3:18
If you do not get our fortnightly newsletter then I definitely recommend heading to our website and at the bottom of the homepage you can join the newsletter.
You’ll get a bunch of goodies.
When you sign up, you’ll get a copy of our first social change handbook, The Change Maker in You as an ebook.
3:38
You will also get a cheeky 10% discount code for our store, Change Maker Co and lots of other bonuses and goodies.
So with all of that said, let’s jump into our final episode for the year and this comes from a question that was asked by Ashley and they have asked in 2024, I’m aiming to focus more on self-care and self development.
4:09
Do you have any resources or recommendations for someone working in the not-for-profit sector?
This is a great question.
I love this question.
First of all, congratulations.
I think it’s a really good thing that you are focusing on yourself development.
4:26
I know that coming into the new year, we all have a tendency to kind of set these very ambitious New Year’s resolutions.
Sometimes they can be a little bit vague.
We kind of make these grand announcements about the kind of person that we want to be, but we don’t actually set kind of clear goals or objectives for how we might actually get there.
4:48
So I am going to talk about a framework that I think is really helpful not only for Ashley, who is working in the not-for-profit sector, but for anybody who is active in the social change space.
So whether the work that you’re doing as a change maker is your hobby, your job, your career, or your vocation.
5:08
And if you’re not familiar with that distinction, check out Episode 4, where I answered a question about doing a PhD and research.
But I talk about this distinction that Liz Gilbert, the writer of Eat Pray, Love, makes when talking about the kinds of ways in which we might relate to work or engage in work.
5:31
She talks about it in the context of being a creative person.
But I think it applies to those of us working in the social change space.
It’s this really nice distinction that kind of shows that there are different ways in which we engage in work.
And some of them are paid, some of them are unpaid, some of them might be fulfilling.
5:48
Some of them have like more of a more utility in our life than being something that we’re passionate about or something that we enjoy.
And it’s a nice way to just kind of use that to recognise the different ways that you engage with work in your life and how the work that you do as a change maker might fit into that.
6:07
And you know, there’s no right or wrong way, but I think self development is so important, if not essential for social change.
And this is something that I’ve only come to realize in the last few years.
6:24
I have not only been on a bit of AI guess spiritual journey over the past few years, but also just a journey of self development and it really came from a place of me feeling quite burnt out and I guess not really fulfilled in the work that I was doing.
6:46
I was overworked for so long and I think it’s because I almost felt guilty, like a sense of guilt for putting myself in my own needs 1st.
And obviously now I recognize that that was kind of a fallacious way of thinking about things, but the energy that we engage in the work of change with is going to be reflected in the change that we create.
7:13
And you know from the strategy that we’re taking to the approaches that we take in the planning to the execution, how we interact with people through various change processes, that’s all causally efficacious.
7:32
It is all in some way going to have an effect on the outcomes that we create.
And if we’re engaging in the work from a place of scarcity or lack, if we’re engaging with this energy of hatred or anger, that’s going to be reflected in the change that we create.
7:54
So we need to be really intentional about how we are actually showing up and not only what we’re doing, but how we are being as change makers.
And I really think that self development and social change should really be considered two sides of the same coin.
8:13
I think that we are intrinsically connected to other people and you know, whether that’s our family, our community or humanity as a whole, we can’t expect humanity or our community to evolve if we ourselves are not doing that.
8:32
So when it comes to the what and the how of self development for social change, I’m going to be diving into a framework in this episode called the Inner Development Goals.
And essentially what the ID GS are, is they are a self development framework that was developed in response to the 17 UN Sustainable development goals.
9:01
You can go back and listen to.
I think it’s Episode 5 where I kind of talk about how the SDGS came about, what they are in the context of the work of the United Nations and some of the kind of challenges that I think we kind of have when it comes to achieving the SDGS.
9:20
But essentially the SDGS are these seventeen goals that all 193 member countries of the United Nations have agreed upon.
It is part of the 2030 agenda, so that they are 17 goals that we want to achieve by the year 2030.
And they cover a really wide range of issues that involve people with different needs and different values in different parts of the world.
9:46
And there’s this really clear kind of vision or framework for what we need to achieve with the SDGS.
But a lot of the progress towards that vision has been lacking.
And part of the reason for this is because we as individuals and as a collective and as leaders of change, have a tendency to kind of lack the inner capacity that we need to deal with a lot of these increasingly complex challenges and environments that we find ourselves working in.
10:20
But there is a lot of modern research that looks at the types of inner capabilities that need to be developed, and this was kind of the starting point for the Inner Development Goals initiative.
So the Inner Development Goals puts forward 23 different goals across five different category areas.
10:43
And these are essentially goals that leaders of change need to be able to develop in order to not only work towards the goals themselves, but to lead their community, to lead people in their organisations, to inspire others around them to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
11:08
So I want to go through the different goals, what they are, kind of give you an overview of them and then just talk about a way that you can kind of begin to implement these in your life through your own self development work in 2024.
11:28
So the five areas of the inner development goals are being, thinking, relating, collaborating and acting.
Now being is all about your relationship to self and it’s really all about cultivating your inner life and developing and deepening the relationship that you have with your thoughts, your feelings and your physical body to help you be present to be intentional and particularly non reactive when facing complexity.
12:08
This is so important when so much of the work that I think we are doing, just by the nature of the work that we do in the social change space is very reactive.
So much of it is reacting to problems and challenges that arise.
12:28
Some of us might be working in a particular field or area where we are being a little bit more proactive.
So rather than addressing the immediate needs or challenges, we’re actually able to kind of build or work towards creating the solution or an alternative.
12:47
But for the most part, a lot of us are trying to address those root causes of problems and we are being a little bit more reactive to what’s happening around us.
And that’s why it is so important to develop these five inner development goals within our being in our relationship to self.
13:07
Because these once we can build these, I guess traits or characteristics or skills or the knowledge within ourselves, then we can begin to apply it externally to others, to our community, to our society, to our environment, whatever that may be.
13:25
So the first of these goals is your inner compass.
And your inner compass is all about having a deeply felt sense of responsibility and commitment to values and purposes that relate to the good of the whole.
So a lot of the work that I have done with change makers and leaders of change in the work that we do with New Humanity, which is our coaching and consulting I guess wing of HCN is really focused on this inner compass and figuring out what success looks like to you as an individual based on your unique passions, purpose and values.
14:08
The next goal is integrity and authenticity, so this is all about a commitment and the ability to act with sincerity, honesty, and integrity.
The next is an openness and learning mindset, which is all about having a basic mindset of curiosity and a willingness to be vulnerable and embrace change and grow.
14:32
It sounds very counterintuitive, but I find, and this applies to myself as well, a lot of us who work in the social change space are so afraid of change.
We don’t like change.
We like things to be predictable and organized.
14:52
And you know, we lack the, I guess, comfort that comes from being able to anticipate what’s going to happen.
And the very nature of change is that it’s not static, it is dynamic.
It is this constantly changing or evolving process and as change makers, when the work that we’re doing is focused on change, we need to get comfortable with change.
15:16
So I think this goal of an openness and learning mindset is a really important one.
Then we have self-awareness, which is the ability to be reflective in and in contact with our own thoughts, feelings and desires, and having a realistic self-image and ability to regulate oneself.
15:36
This is one that I have had to work on quite a bit myself over the past few years.
And the final goal in the Being category is presence, which is another one that I’ve really had to work hard at.
And presence is all about the ability to be in the here and now without judgement and in a state of open-ended presence.
16:00
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16:16
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16:32
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Then we have thinking, which is all about developing important cognitive skills.
And we do this by taking different perspectives, evaluating information and being able to make sense of the world as this interconnected whole rather than kind of like isolated individual parts or components.
16:58
And this is really essential for our ability to make decisions as leaders of change.
So we have another five inner development goals within the thinking category.
So the first is critical thinking, which is all about developing those skills to critically review the validity of views, evidence or plans.
17:22
We have complexity awareness, which is an understanding of and the skills required to work with complex and systemic conditions and causalities.
This is where a lot of my research for my PhD has focused on all about systems thinking and dealing with complexity.
17:44
We have perspective skills, which are the skills to seek, understand and actively make use of insights from contrasting perspectives.
This is something I spoke about in episode one of this season of the podcast, where we looked at no episode 2, sorry, where we looked at what happens now that Australia has voted no in the referendum for a voice to Parliament.
18:08
And a big part of the message in that episode was the ability to create a shared vision for the future based on the different opinions and views that different people might have as opposed to kind of creating an US versus them approach or mentality.
18:28
It’s about being able to kind of synthesize everybody’s needs and values.
And that’s what where perspective skills can really come into play.
Then we have sense making sense making is the ability and the skills that allow you to see patterns to be able to structure unknown phenomena and being able to kind of consciously create stories.
18:53
It’s the ability to kind of take abstract data or concepts and kind of make sense of it and give it meaning in the context of the work that we’re doing.
And finally we have a long term orientation and visioning which is the ability to formulate and sustain A commitment to visions that relate to the larger context.
19:16
And again this was one that we focused on in episode 2 where I looked at creating that shared vision and how we can kind of use our long term shared vision to then create a theory of change which is kind of a road map that might get us to that longer term vision that we hold.
19:39
The next category is relating.
Relating is all about caring for others and our world and we have 4 inner development goals that fall within this category.
So relating is appreciating, caring for and connecting to others, such as our neighbours, future generations or the biosphere and the environment as a whole, which can help us to create more just and sustainable systems and societies for everyone.
20:06
So we have the goal of appreciation, which is all about relating to others and to the world with a basic sense of appreciation, gratitude and joy.
We have connectedness which is all about a keen sense of being connected with and or being part of a larger whole such as our community, humanity or global ecosystem.
20:29
We have humility, which is being able to act in accordance with the needs of a particular situation without having to concern or prioritise our own importance.
And finally we have empathy and compassion, which is the ability to relate to others, oneself and nature with kindness, empathy and compassion and address any related suffering.
20:56
So I think that is going to be a really challenging category for a lot of people.
I think a lot of us think that, you know when we work in the social change space and when we care about things like environmental justice or human rights that you know, caring for others and our world is kind of at the heart of what we’re doing.
21:21
And I think it is.
But sometimes our way of relating to others isn’t actually reflective of that.
And this is where that kind of key message that I mentioned before about the energy that we engage in the work of change with is going to be reflected in the change that we create.
21:40
And when we are so focused on what we want to achieve, and, you know, this might be in the context of injustices or human rights and things like that, it can be really challenging to relate to those who have opposing views to us or differing perspectives or those that we might see as being in opposition to what we’re trying to achieve.
22:10
And we have a tendency to, I think, to see these people as being like objects that we have to overcome in order to achieve our goals.
And that is a very problematic mindset.
That mindset is part of the reason that got us here in the first place, and the ability to genuinely relate to the people that we see as being our opposition is really critical for social change.
22:40
So I think this is going to be a really key area for a lot of people in our community to focus on.
Then we have collaborating.
Collaborating is all about social skills and there are another five inner development goals for this category and collaborating social skills.
23:02
This is all about the need to make progress on our shared concerns and to do that we need to develop our abilities to include others, to hold space for others and communicate with stakeholders with different values, skills and competencies.
23:18
So this is where we kind of take that idea of relating to others in the sense of like our being and how we actually do that and turn it into some kind of like skills and actions that we take.
23:36
So we have communication skills, which is the ability to really listen to other people, to foster a genuine dialogue that advocate for our own views skilfully, to manage conflicts constructively, and to adapt communication to diverse groups.
23:52
We have our Co creation skills, which is the skills and motivation to build, develop and facilitate collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders.
And this is characterized by psychological safety and a really genuine sense of Co creation.
24:09
It’s not just about creating and kind of bringing others in at different parts.
It’s about actually like doing that together.
We have an inclusive mindset and intercultural competence.
This is a really important one.
24:26
I’m sure if you are involved with kind of a large organization or perhaps even through an institution like a university, you’ve probably done some kind of formal cultural competency training, whether that is looking at anti racism training or understanding indigenous knowledge and perspectives.
24:51
So this is kind of building on that, and it’s all about the willingness and the competence to embrace diversity and include people and collectives with different views and backgrounds.
Then we have trust.
Trust is the ability to show trust and to create and maintain trusting relationships.
25:08
This is something that I struggle with at a personal level and probably inadvertently in my work.
But you know, I grew up in an environment where you know, I would leave the house and you know, when I was a teenager I would go to a party or even now as an adult.
25:28
When we go on an overseas trip, our mum always says remember, don’t trust anybody, which I think is a, you know, pretty problematic mindset to have.
So definitely something that I have needed to work on over the years and probably still need to work on a little bit.
Even in my personal relationships, I think I have a little bit of a challenging time, genuinely trusting people.
25:52
And I always kind of think, well, you know, I’m not going to get this person to do this thing for me when I can just do it for myself.
And that’s definitely something that I think I need to work on a little bit.
Finally, we have mobilization skills, very critical.
This is the skills required to inspire and actually mobilize others, to engage in our shared vision and shared purposes.
26:16
And that brings us to the final category, which is acting.
Acting is all about enabling change.
And this is where qualities like courage and optimism can help us to acquire true agency, to break old patterns and generate original ideas and act with persistence in uncertain times.
26:36
So we have 4 inner development goals in this category.
We have courage, which is the ability to stand up for values, make decisions and take decisive action and if need be, challenge and disrupt existing structures and views.
26:52
I love that this goal says and if need be because sometimes I think we’re so focused on, like I said before, being reactive and kind of addressing the symptoms of a lot of problems.
We don’t realize that if we actually stepped back and kind of we’re a little bit more proactive and addressed the root causes or kind of created the solutions as opposed to just reacting to the problems, we might actually find that all of the problems and the symptoms naturally kind of change and go away.
27:24
So we then have creativity, which is the ability to generate and develop original ideas, to innovate and be willing to disrupt conventional patterns.
I like that definition of creativity.
I think sometimes we think of creativity in the sense of it being like being artistic.
27:42
But creativity is not really, I think like a physical skill that we have in the sense that like it’s like a technical skill about creating art or anything like that.
It’s just your ability to think in a certain way.
27:58
So then we have optimism, which is the ability to sustain and communicate a sense of hope, a positive attitude and confidence in the possibility of meaningful change.
So important.
If we don’t have hope, then we don’t have anything.
28:14
I really don’t think that you can sustain the work of change without hope.
I think that fear only motivates you so far, and fear comes from a place of scarcity.
28:31
And that is the very mindset and the kind of core underlying logic that got us to where we are so many of our problems, because we have this mindset of lack and scarcity, and we can’t overcome that with the very thing that created that.
28:51
So we need an abundance mindset, And an abundance mindset is driven by and relies on hope.
If we don’t think that things can get better, why would we act as if they can?
I don’t think anybody does something thinking that like it’s not.
29:08
I don’t know.
I wouldn’t go to the gym every day if I genuinely believed that it was impossible for me to improve my fitness, like I just wouldn’t do it.
So I don’t know.
I feel like hope is essential as well because it does build resilience and I could do a whole another podcast episode on resilience.
29:31
It’s something I’ve looked at a lot in my PhD research.
But this idea of hope is also really critical for empowerment, and empowerment is a key piece of transformative change.
I don’t want to go off on a tangent about my research, though.
29:47
The final in a development goal that we have is perseverance, which is the ability to sustain engagement and remain determined and patient even when efforts take a long time to bear fruit.
Very important.
So those are the 23 inner development goals.
30:06
I’m sure you can see that these are not only goals that would benefit you at a personal level, but they would probably also benefit the people that you’re working with, the organisations that you work within and the people that are like the beneficiaries of the work that we’re doing.
30:24
So these are really important goals, not only for our self development but for social change more generally.
Now the framework of the inner development goals is an Open Access framework, which means practitioners and leaders all around the world can use the framework within their organisations to develop the capacity of the people that they’re working with to drive change for the sustainable development goals.
30:51
And based on the Inner Development Goals framework, we have put together a completely free coaching program or the Humanitarian Change Makers Network using the Inner Development Goals framework.
So this is a self-guided course and essentially how it works is a new lesson is going to unlock every fortnight throughout 2024 that will introduce the new Inner Development goal.
31:20
So we’ll go through each of those 23 goals in more detail.
Every fortnight we’ll focus on a new goal and there are journal prompts to go with it.
There are set exercises and assessments that can help you kind of think about that goal and how it applies to your life and work on it a little better, a little bit better.
31:42
And then at the end of the five different sections, there is a self-assessment quiz or test that’s going to help you kind of engage with where you’re at with each of those.
And essentially, what you should be able to do is look at the particular inner development goals that you personally feel like you need to work on the most, whether that’s because you feel like you’re not very proficient in that area or that skill, or whether you think that that’s because it’s a particularly useful skill in the work that you’re doing.
32:19
That’s up to you to decide.
But the idea is that throughout the course of a whole year, you get walked through the entire inner development goal framework.
You can kind of build the skills for all of them a little bit, get comfortable with all of these concepts, and then figure out the ones that you need to focus on and then continue to do that.
32:39
So it’s, you know, you’re not going to become completely proficient in every single one of these skills over the course of 12 months.
Self development really is this like ongoing journey in life and that’s why we have put together this as just a little bit of an introductory program.
33:01
It is completely free for anyone in the Humanitarian Change Makers network.
So you can head to the episode description or just head to new NEW humanity.humanitarianchangemakers.net and you’ll be able to find the program through there.
33:19
I am going to be going through the whole program as well.
So if you follow New Humanity Under Score Coaching on Instagram or me personally at Tiana JTIYANA and then the letter J, you’ll be able to watch me go kind of go through all of these and talk about them from my own personal perspective.
33:38
But I am really excited to have this.
I have been working on this for such a long time to try and get a bit of a coaching program or self development program to offer our community that is completely free.
33:54
I don’t want to have a paywall up for this kind of stuff because I think it is so important and the people who could probably benefit from it the most, who are probably those of us who would kind of doing that grassroots level work, are probably the ones who need to be able to access it for free.
34:13
So it’s always going to be completely free.
This program, if you don’t start it when this episode comes out at the start of 2024, that’s OK.
It’s going to be unlocking every fortnight throughout 2024 and then after 2024 it will set so that it that each lesson will unlock a fortnight from when you start it.
34:37
So you can either jump in throughout 2024 and do it with us, but I really encourage you to actually pace it out the way it’s designed to be paced.
So doing one new lesson every fortnight, because that’s going to, I think, not only give you the time that you need to really kind of dive into each of these things and think about them a little bit more deeply and critically, but it’s going to get you into that kind of habit of making time once a week to really focus on yourself development and making that a little bit of a habit.
35:07
So that is one of the most important things I think you can do for yourself.
Development is actually just making it a part of your everyday life.
I have set habits that I do weekly or fortnightly and like little routines that I do, and I want to continue to maintain that.
35:24
Because once you start and start with the inner development goals course, once you finish that, you’ll still have that time in each week or each fortnight that you’ve kind of carved out and you’ll be able to continue to use that time moving forward to continue all of yourself development work.
35:44
So Ashley, I hope that answers your question and I invite you and everybody else to join our completely free program.
There is a downloadable workbook with like all the journal prompts.
36:01
You can just do it on your own.
You don’t need to spend any money on anything.
You can just use a Microsoft Word document, a journal, whatever you have on hand.
It doesn’t need to be fancy.
I’d rather you just start now with where you are with what you’ve got.
So if you have any questions like Ashley did, Ashley, we will be sending you some Change Maker code goodies like our Iron On patches.
36:27
If you have any questions you would like me to answer on the podcast in 2024, definitely head to our website LinkedIn.
The episode Show notes Humanitarian Change makers.net/podcast.
You can ask your question directly, you can ask it anonymously or not, but either way you can leave your details and we will send you some goodies if your question is answered on the pod.
36:50
Otherwise, I hope you all have an excellent new year.
I hope you’re ready to set some goals, not only for yourself development, but for your life more generally.
I have set a whole bunch of goals that I am really keen to dive into and I’ll see you guys in our next episode next year.
