By Zuzana Harmackova

When it comes to transformations towards sustainability, focusing on policies, strategies and actions is not enough. What we need equally importantly are the deep, individual leverage points of transformation– those related to Inner Transformation.

Remember reading all the cool conference blogs? Now imagine you get the chance to write one… and what is more, at a conference on a really exciting topic – the Leverage Points of transformation towards sustainability. There is one problem, though. You are a terrible writer.

The session on Inner Transformation is your number one choice (you feel that this is exactly what you need). You are waiting for the start, in a room packed with people just as curious as you are. While the session chair Stella Veciana does a great job demonstrating that a raised hand means a signal for silence (a skill mastered by all of us later during the plenary), this is actually never needed since the room is totally focused from the first moment…

…for a good reason. Since this session gives you a great opportunity to rethink deeper whatever you (foolishly) believed you have thought through deep enough before. And it lively illustrates that leveraging transformative change can emerge from perspectives you might have disregarded in the hustle of figuring out quick practical solutions.

First, you dive into a short meditation with Jessica Böhme, guiding you directly to the question what you see as your life contribution. However daring, this question links directly to the key point of her presentation that when we talk about political, societal and ecological transformations, we often forget that they grow from a personal dimension – personal knowledge, beliefs and assumptions – which drive our actions and their far-reaching consequences.

According to: Jessica Böhme

Later on, Chris Ives shares lessons learned from interviews with worlds’ faith leaders, illustrating which leverage points to a systems transformation can be accessed through religion, including changing worldviews, forming institutions and initiating practical actions in the society.

By: Christopher Ives

Finally, a series of three linked presentations by Stella Veciana, Oliver Parodi and Kaidi Tamm shows that while we tend to distinguish between our inner and outer world, they are both inter-related and have an equal influence on the sustainability of the world around us. Therefore, the (commonly overlooked) inner dimensions of transformation needs to receive much more of our attention, since that is where our thoughts, values, needs, wishes, emotions and habits are formed, which then shape the visions, plans and actions we take.

Most importantly, they emphasise that if we want to reach a transformation, we first need to take time to talk to each other, ask the right questions, and try to earn each other’s understanding, respect and trust, which is the only path leading to a long-lasting change in our perspectives, attitudes and actions. For that, what we vitally need is the freedom to experiment and co-create new knowledge through shared experience.

By: Stella Veciana

By that time, the concentration in the room is so intensive that the only thing distracting the collective focus is your frantic typing, trying to catch everyone’s insights. (Remember people taking photos of all the slides? That’s you.)

The discussion afterwards takes uninterrupted forty minutes and lasts well into the coffee break (a trustworthy measure of a session success). Among many interesting points, the need to stop understanding own inner vulnerability as a weakness is raised – what we need instead is to find the courage to put aside pretending, perfection and certainty, and find a way to connect with others and the world we live in.

Later that evening at your blog-draft, it becomes clear that you have not reached an inner transformation to a brilliant writer this time. But still. You have experimented. Experienced new ways of thinking. Exposed own vulnerability (and writer’s block). And most importantly – you know you still have two more days of the Leverage Points 2019 conference to ask more about Inner Transformation.

Zuzana Harmackova

Zuzana is a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre. Her research focuses on a comparative analysis of resilience indicators across case studies, future participatory scenarios and social-ecological aspects of ecosystem services provision. She has been involved in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), currently working on an assessment of values in future scenarios within the IPBES Assessment on Diverse Conceptualization of Values.