This is the “IDG Challenge” | 10
Ullrich Silaba
chief dot connector | collaboration pilot | business romantic | on the quest to build beautiful organisations
Thinking — Cognitive Skills
Developing our cognitive skills by taking different perspectives, evaluating information and making sense of the world as an interconnected whole is essential for wise decision-making.
The final one for this dimension ...
Long-Term Orientation and Visioning
Long-term orientation and ability to formulate and sustain commitment to visions relating to the larger context.
When I asked my wife what her ideas are on long-term orientation and visioning, she came up with this quote:
“The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life”
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Some sources ascribe it specifically to Rabindranath Tagore, others say it’s generally Indian, again others say it’s Greek. Wherever it comes from, whoever coined it, it is so fitting to the world of today.
Especially fitting to the purpose of the IDGs, since this is about supporting the Sustainable Development Goals for keeping the world a place where humanity can strive in harmony with itself and with all of nature.
And before anyone starts complaining: the “he” in the quote should be understood as standing for every human being, no matter their gender. Just saying …
There is a quite recent word in German: “enkelgerecht” (roughly “intergenerationally equitable”), somehow a synonym for “sustainable” but with the additional connotation of being beneficial for the generations after us. Our grandchildren, to be precise.
Our generation (whatever that means for you personally) may not have caused the effects that we today may not even really suffer from ourselves (saying this very consciously as an affluent middle-aged white male from Europe). But though we might not have the immediate and direct responsibility for – let’s say – global warming, or global social inequality, or systemic racism, or gender disparity, … , we still have the responsibility to change these – and other – ?things for the better for the generations to come.
Just because we are in charge, right here, right now.
As Austrian Nobel-Prize winner Konrad Lorenz once said: “We have not inherited this earth from our parents, we have borrowed it from our children”.
We owe it to our children, and to our grandchildren, down to the “seventh generation”.
We owe them to not think “after me the deluge”, but to advocate and act accordingly for those not having a voice yet. A commitment beyond our own benefits.
Did I mention one of my favourite books ??“The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson ?
Read it …