In This Story
The Inner Development Goals (IDGs) are a new framework of 23 leadership competencies that were developed in 2021 through a collective process involving some of the biggest names in organization development, coaching, and adult development, including Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, Robert Kegan, and many other names you would likely recognize. The competencies were in response to a 2020 report of the Sustainable Development Goals that reported no progress had been made toward the 17 goals in their five-year existence.
What about the beautiful goals that depict a world that works for everyone was not moving forward? The answer was simple: Without inner change, outer transformation cannot occur.
“Rooted in extensive interdisciplinary research, the premise is straightforward: Without a foundational shift in human values, understanding, and leadership capacities, external solutions may prove to be too slow, inadequate, or short-lived,” according to Ankrah et al. (2023, p. 82).
In short, inner development is needed for all of humanity—not just leaders--to navigate the poly-crisis we currently face. We understand the need for inner development in Organization Development and Knowledge Management through our understanding and practice of use of self. The IDG framework is a comprehensive and universal model of inner development, and with the focus of that development within ODKM, the IDGs and ODKM are an easy fit.
Penny Potter, Stacey Guenther, and Mary Zackius-Shittu, with ODKM alum Tracie Taylor, introduced the IDGs to Cohorts 28 and 29 in spring 2025 as part of the coaching classes. This was the first time the framework was used in the program, and that introduction stimulated interest among students. In fact, students who are planning the first Learning Community event in the fall have chosen the IDGs as the topic for the gathering.
As anyone who has completed the ODKM program, inner development has been baked into the program for the 30 years the program has existed. But until now, there has not been a framework for discussing the personal transformation that many students experience.
Plans are underway to research and analyze the program for elements that invite inner development, particularly by looking at the 23 competencies included in the IDGs.
The first Cohort 29 Learning Community this academic year on Saturday, September 13, 2025, in person on the Arlington campus will focus on inner development and will include an exploration of the IDGs. See more about the September LearnComm in the accompanying article.
What are the IDGs?
The IDGs started in 2021 when a few leading scholars and business leaders gathered on a Swedish island to discuss the pressing issues of climate and what was needed to accelerate the slow pace of progress toward the United Nations’ 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From the dialogue, a seed of an idea emerged. These big complex “wicked” problems (Rittle & Webber,1973; Weick, 1995) can’t be tackled unless we collectively tend to our own inner capabilities. Essentially, each of us needs to upgrade our own “inner operating system” to up-level the collective system.
Once arriving upon this conclusion, a self-organized group of researchers set about gathering data by crowdsourcing and iterating sets of questions and distilling the data into a simple framework consisting of five overarching categories and 23 capabilities:
In August 2024, Penny Potter and Stacey Guenther, ODKM alums and faculty members, began talking about inner development within the ODKM program. Guenther’s scholarship focuses on group coherence and emergence, while Potter’s scholarship includes various theories of adult development (Cook-Greuter, 2004; Fischer & Bidell, 2006; Kegan, 1982; Wilber, 2006). Similar to Piaget’s (1952) stages of child development, these various theories describe levels of development for adults. Together, Potter and Guenther immediately saw the complexity embedded in the deceptively simple IDG framework.
As alums of ODKM, Potter and Guenther realized that over its 30-year history, the ODKM program has consistently maintained an implicit “hidden curriculum” aimed at fostering students’ inner development, with the explicit goal of cultivating reflective practitioners.
In the 2025 spring semester, the duo agreed to make the implicit explicit by lightly introducing the IDG framework to first- and second-year students. It resonated with many, yet they seemed unclear what to do with the framework. This has been Potter’s experience in IDG hub discussions as well as Guenther’s experience as an IDG Ambassador—many are quite enthusiastic, and all struggle to identify the enablers of growth and development, possibly because they do not have the foundational understanding of adult development.
This is the other side of the same coin adult development scholars have been stuck in: complex theories and frameworks that are too complex for lay practitioners to fully embody in the hustle and bustle of the everyday working environment. Is this an impasse or can the gap be bridged?
How do IDGs fit with ODKM?
So many of us went through a transformative process as we navigated through ODKM. Not only were we expanding our knowledge and learning theories, but we were also engaging in practical application of OD and KM through projects as well as in-class exercises and activities. And additionally, beginning with the group dynamics course, many of us experienced a profound inner shift, which was preparing us all to be reflective practitioners capable of reflection-in-action (Schön, 1983). This preparation enabled our use of self as an instrument for change.
But missing from the curriculum has been a simple framework—beyond use of self—to support students as they make sense of the inner transformation that occurs during the program.
“When we started looking at the 23 goals, we realized that all 23 of them are already in the ODKM curriculum—and always have been,” Potter said. “Inner development has always been the important bedrock of the program.”
Beginning in fall 2025, a team will begin the work of mapping the 23 IDG competencies to the ODKM program through the use of case studies, personal anecdotes, and an analysis of the ODKM pedagogy.
“We plan to look at each of the 23 competencies and track how they are engaged from course to course,” Guenther said. “By the end, we hope to have a grid that maps the competencies to the coursework accompanied by stories and personal experiences.”
The IDG framework provides a structure for viewing and understanding the personal transformation that occurs with many ODKM students.
If you are interested in getting involved in this project, which we hope will result in a co-authored journal article at the end of the process, please contact Guenther at sguenthe@gmu.edu. Work is estimated to begin in October.
The IDG framework provides a structure for viewing and understanding the personal transformation that occurs with the ODKM community. To see how this inner development takes shape in practice, don’t miss the September 13 LearnComm, hosted by ODKM students to learn more.
References
Ankrah, D., Bristow, J., Hires, D., & Henriksson, J.A. (2023). Inner development goals: From inner growth to outer change. Field Actions Science Reports (special issue 25).
Cook-Greuter, S. R. (2004). Making the case for a developmental perspective. Industrial and Commercial Training, 36(7), 275–281.
Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic development of action, thought, and emotion. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), Theoretical models of human development. Volume 1 of Handbook of Child Psychology (6th ed., pp. 313–399). Wiley.
Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Harvard University Press.
Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children (M. Cook, Trans.). International Universities Press.
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.
Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books, Inc.
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. SAGE Publications.
Wilber, K. (2006). Integral spirituality: A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Shambhala Publications.