Disclaimer
This is first draft, putting ideas to paper, just for myself: to capture what I think. It has not been edited or re-written for an audience of readers. The goal is to potentially take this contents and re-organize and re-write it so it readable and conveys a number of key messages in the most effective way.
About this page
This page addresses the question 'Why' .. why this initiative, why is it important, why is it so absolutely crucial for our society and future
Why does the world needs this 'revolution' in the way we look at human potential in development and work.
By use of these very broad terms we say that this is something about both education and business/industry.
So it's fair to say that this page is about sharing a vision at the highest level, at a level beyond practical implementation. It's a 'I have a dream' or 'man on the moon' picture in the sky.
Problem statement
In today's society worldwide, and then we're mainly taking the perspective of the developed countries, we have organized a system of education to support and guide people in their development, so they can develop capabilities to take part in society, contribute through work, earn a living .. so all together we, and this system, sustain a standard of living to fulfill basic and advanced needs. At this point we don't want to go into the fact that the system may have to be tuned to not do this at the expense of our mother earth ai climate and resources, or at the expense of exploited parts of the human population on the planet.
Between age 3 and 23, say, our children grow up to learn the basics (reading, writing, maths, .. as well as social behavioural skills) to function in society, plus specific functional capabilities oriented to categories of jobs (eg scientific, engineering, business, languages, theater, ..). Society cares about the first part so much that this first step is compulsary by law. The second part is already more flexible, a result of individual skills, orientation, motivation, and chances offered.
From then onwards, from say 25 to 45 broadly speaking, the typical person (and we're talking in generalized terms), steps into society by choosing/finding a job, a partner .. and develop a professional career, a family, and an organized life (ai a place to live, a social network, ..).
Responsibility for getting in tune or finding resonance with one's drives, the intrinsic talents and whatever part of one's deeper self that is looking for expression through life, is mainly with the individual. Support is offered by the employer (eg training & development, ..) as well as society (services like unemployment, outplacement .. ).
In this period, society get's the return of the investment in the individual (20 years x 10 months x 4 weeks x 5 days x 7 hours = 28.000 hours) by getting a productive work element with a promise of some 35 to 40 years work until age 60 or 65, that is: 40 x 200 days x 8h/day = 64.000 hours.
I want to zoom into what happens half way, when people reach what is called the mid-life transition at around age 45. At this time, the individual has developed it's identity and life, has a house and family, professional skillset/cv/career, .. ai a natural phase of development towards certain life goals flows to its end.
Let's now look a bit closer at two separate aspects of this situation, from different perspectives:
A) What it is, the current situation
- as the life perspective or world view of the person changes, issues start to occur in terms of intrinsic motivation and drive, increased focus on life purpose and fulfillment, .. and companies sometimes find that people who were high potentials at age 25-30 no longer 'fit' or deliver a return. The company has changed, and so has the individual, and although companies rotate individuals across functions and career plans connect to the individuals' developed capabilities and development potential .. in the current world it appears the gap has started to grow and widen. How and why this is, a sign of the times or not, is a different discussion that I don't want to go in here (maybe re separate page).
But the above effect is what leaves companies with a suboptimal work base that they want/need to trim, flush, refresh. They want the right people on the bus. Employees who have been loyal but are no longer at the same levels of performance or motivation .. are expensive for the company to carry along or let go. And when it happens, society finds itself with a segment of people around 50 and a 'problem' to re-integrate these people into the economic system. The companies that employed the people for the first 20 years have gotten the best of that phase, and disappear from the scene with no responsibility. They got the juicy part and used it to gain economic return, the rest of each individual's story is not their problem.
There are of course so many ways that a person can use in that path/trajectory to connect with and/or get aligned with one's 'inner self, ao:
1 - continuous learning, training and development .. get into interest area's and develop capabilities (functional expertise, practical know-how, ..) .. note this includes people who develop their passion as hobbies besides their daytime job, as well as people who creatively find ways to express themselves in whatever job they started (see 'Flow') ai it's with support of the employer or not
2 - change jobs and context, hop and surf, iterations to sense and look for, and converge closerby one's 'calling' (= what feels like flow and fulfillment to one's inner self)
3 - become an independant to find a more personal expression of 'self', be able to make own choices
B) What it actually is but isn't .. so what it could be or should be
When a person turns 45, they have reached a level of maturity where they have learned, built experience, and have the mix of energy and targettedness, focus, efficacy. Which they lack at age 25 where they have of course a wealth of energy, drive, potential but the energy is rather unchanneled and naieve ai not enriched by professional nor life experience. So there is a difference in perspective, also a difference in the how one does something, and the why.
My claim, vision, belief is that people are actually at their best at this age, offering a combination of ripeness, maturity, expertise, and especially, a motivational energy of a different nature or quality. One of the dimensions is that, whereas a person at age 25 thinks in terms of ego-building and 'me', a person at age 45 has built the 'me' and has widened the view and operates in the world with a zoomlens working with and through people, and/or for a greater common cause or benefit. (zoomlens better fitted to the worldview where we are all one, in consciousness, society)
Now in my current view and humble opinion, the or one of the key factors in this is the alignment with fulfillment energy that comes from the connect with one's inner self (see also analogy picture of coil and magnetic field lines through and across Dilts Bateson and GTD layers). In fact, it doesn't really matter at which age a person find the optimum connection, it could be at any age. But, maybe or not maybe, the midlife transition offers enhanced chance to find this connect.
Notes (these are placeholders for related thought items)
1 - what is described here in generalized terms ..
- may not be relevant for the full population, ai it is very relevant for some segments and may be less or not for others
- is depending on the individual, ai some people have the purpose crises at age 25 and drop out of school and go their own way, some become very successfull, others fail
2 - on the importance of 'integrity'
- see the work of Werner Erhard and a group of people he works with, ao in this paper on Integrity, I have had personal contacts with Alan Sherr who is also in this group, see eg this page
- the point is that in the current workplace, business practices, processes and communication has a different level of 'truth' compared to what really matters. There are plenty of ways indivuals either consciously or unconsciously are shielded or hide from what really matters because the system is full of acceptable circumstances that results in a different level of truthfullness .. and which quite obviously impacts performance. The point is that the individual will behave and have a conscious choice, depending on his personal deeper connection with the company, cause, collegues ..
3 - references to be used and points to be expanded
- lack of 'flow', see the book on Flow
- the mechanics of motivation, eg
Drive (Dan Pink), see the RSA animation on Drive, or also the book Drive or the TED talk about Drive
Start with Why (Simon Sinek) , the TED talk on Start with Why, the book Start with Why, or the website Start with Why
- the plentitude of books, websites, courses and events around & about: Purpose of Life, Callings, leading an authentic life, Personal & Authentic Leadership, ..
So Why? Why this matters
This is not just for the greater happyness of the individual. It sounds soft and fluffy, it's not the tangible argument companies or society would listen to. And they don't. There is hardly much listening because of the current operational system that has everyone trapped into 'the whole system just functions this way' and the resulting fear uncertainty risk about change, doing things differently.
We are here to learn. As individuals, as people with different minds, egos and bodies .. we are here to learn. We learn through ourselves, through others, through fate.
We are here to express our talents, identity and deeper self. Maybe talents and character are what our spirit choose as the best way to learn the lessons it wanted to learn. Clues for setting the compass into the direction of the wind of the universe may be found in our birth chart, in our personality/character, in where we are born, in the people we meet, in the coincidences and synchronicities, ..
Importance to grow
love and consciousness
Work purpose in life has as what and a how component
individual central
not for sake of individual
but together in context with others
greater benefits
Four dimensions
1/ the person, individual
2/ the company (in industry), or more generically the organizational system we functionally operate in with daily actions and impact
3/ society and culture, say at the greater scale with boundaries of language, state, cultural values ..
4/ the planet
from a personal perspective:
- personal
- family & friends
- professional
- community circle