An Introduction to the IDG Framework
The Inner Development Goals, or IDGs, arose from a group of practitioners, researchers, and academics in the field of sustainability, and were a response to the Sustainability Development Goals of 2015. The process of developing the IDGs involved a multi-year process and several revisions with input from over 2,000 individuals in 170 countries and specifically incorporating indigenous wisdom. The core the question was “What do we as individuals need to do to be better equipped to create the change that the world needs?
The Inner Development Guide consists of five thematic areas with five skills under each heading.
This framework can be utilized as a valuable tool in assessing, improving, and growing the skills and attributes in a wide variety of areas:
- Personal integration
- Professional development
- Team identity, agreements, and functionality
- Organizational values, mission, and vision
- Strategies and commitments for wider systemic change
Bringing the IDG Framework to Culture Work
In April of 2026 I spent four days at a retreat center on a Swedish island with twenty-four colleagues from fifteen countries to become certified as one of five hundred global Inner Development Goals Ambassadors.
As an IDG Ambassador, I facilitate programs, coaching sessions, and change initiatives using the depth and range of this framework to produce results that previously were not possible in such a comprehensive and integrated way. After twenty-five years of doing this work, I feel like someone has given me a box of jewels!
