2020/10/16
Imacocollabo was given an opportunity to provide online SDGs workshops for
30 high-potential leaders in key positions from around the globe at HITACHI as part of their week-long Purpose-driven Leadership Development Program.
The aim of Imacocollabo’s module,
“Exploring the SDGs through the Lens of Personal Purpose“,
was to connect participants’ deep sense of authentic purpose with the essence of the SDGs: Transforming Our World.
What does “Transforming Our World” mean to each of us?
There is no “right” answer for this just as there is no “right” way to implement the SDGs in your business. Together with the participants, we explored how we could do business with “transforming our world” in mind, while connecting to our purpose and deepest desires.
Based on the model of Theory U, participants were guided through a three-step deep listening and discovery dialogue process:
1) Looking Inward,
2) Looking Outward,
3) Looking Forward.
This process was designed to help them first explore their deepest personal core values (Looking Inward). Our “Discovery Interview” helped them better understand the essence of the SDGs, and then connect those values to the world through this understanding (Looking Outward). And finally, the participants further developed their sense of purpose in the context of their own personal vision of the future (Looking Forward).
Through the process, the participants discovered nine important aspects of themselves: three things they most value in life, three ways that they could be a starting point, and three deep desires for the future. With these nine components identified, they will have a touchstone to help them stay connected to their authentic purpose.
PARTICIPANTS’ FEEDBACK
After the workshops, some participants reported that this exploration helped them see their own values more clearly while encouraging more personal and mutually supportive ways of relating to their colleagues. Others made the connection that both their personal lives and work lives would benefit immensely by converting to more sustainable models.
** “Thanks to the interviews, I looked into myself in a deep way. Thinking about those kinds of questions by myself is kind of shallow. However, being asked by another person had a very huge impact on me.”
** “All the world is connected—but the connections are not always visible, so we need to pay much more attention to what the relationships are behind what is visible.”
** “I understood the idea of the connection between the SDGs and business in today’s session.”
** “I find the SDGs to be more relatable now. Before, the Global Goals seemed like something far away that had nothing to do with me directly, but now I see that each of us can be a starting point.”
** “I was able to dig into myself deeply, so now I’ve got nine pieces of myself to consider further what my authentic purpose is, so that was a big takeaway for me.”
** “The bad news is that everything is connected. And the good news is that everything is connected.”
IMACOCOLLABO: BEING-BECOMING
This training is one aspect of Imacocollabo’s focus on supporting global transformation by creating opportunities for people to make discoveries about themselves and about the world. Specifically, our offerings support personal integrity and leadership development using the backdrop of the SDGs and their essence of transforming our world, with a full appreciation of the crucial role that personal transformation plays in the transformation of our institutions, systems and social structures.