A National Conversation: What Kind of World Do We Actually Want to Create?

In our work at Transformation Nomads, we are regularly invited to share our view on how organizations trying to change. Surprisingly, little has changed in the way people actually behave, communicate or make decisions. This time, I was invited by an independent national Dutch newspaper to discuss our views in its podcast.

We have seen organizations where the strategy made sense, but trust had disappeared. Where people knew something was wrong but no longer felt free to say it. And where success was visible from the outside while pressure was quietly increasing inside. It raises a question that goes beyond organizations.

If human beings created the systems in which we live and work, what kind of world do we actually want to create?

That question lies at the heart of the Real Human Goals.

If human beings created the systems we live in, then human beings also have the power to imagine and create something different.

Ronald, Founder Transformation Nomads

A different starting point

The Real Human Goals began with a question I had been asking myself for years. We have goals for economies, organizations, sustainability and development. But what are our goals as human beings? We tend to talk about healthcare, education, technology, companies, governments and economies as though these systems somehow exist independently of us. They don't. We created them, operate them and continue to make choices about how they work. So I wanted to turn the usual question around.

Instead of starting with the system and asking how human beings should adapt to it, what happens if we start with the human being and ask what our systems should ultimately contribute to? That thinking became the 17 Real Human Goals. They are not seventeen rules for creating a perfect society. They are a compass for you and me: an invitation to think about qualities and conditions such as truth, integrity, trust, compassion, purpose, resilience, discernment and responsible leadership. Because these large ideas eventually become visible in very ordinary moments.

If an organization wants trust, somebody has to be trustworthy when it becomes uncomfortable. If it values integrity, somebody must be willing to say what is actually happening. If we want openness, we must also be prepared to hear things we may not want to hear. That is where ideals meet reality.

A national conversation

The Real Human Goals became the subject of a wider public conversation when I was invited by an independent national Dutch newspaper to discuss them in its podcast. For around 40 minutes, we explored where the idea came from, what the 17 Goals represent and why I believe sustainability should not only be about preserving economies, organizations, resources or systems.

How sustainable is the human being within them?

I explained the Real Human Goals our part of our larger Human Sustainability Framework™. The framework gives us a structure for moving from insight towards implementation. Within it, the 17 Real Human Goals provide the compass, while the Five Domains of Human Sustainability provide a developmental path from the individual towards wider responsibility. Those five domains move from Alignment, through Discernment, Humanity and Community, towards Stewardship: from inner stability and clarity towards the way we relate, collaborate and ultimately take responsibility for something larger than ourselves. This means Human Sustainability does not remain an abstract aspiration. It can become something people and organizations actually work with.

Organizations don't transform. People do.

This distinction matters. A company can change its organizational chart tomorrow. It can introduce a new strategy next month. It can purchase new technology, establish new KPIs, appoint a new board or launch another transformation programme. But none of those interventions automatically changes the human beings inside the organization.

Sustainable transformation requires both: structures that serve people. And people capable of acting with awareness, discernment, responsibility and care within those structures. That is why the Human Sustainability Framework moves from the inside out. Not because systems don't matter. But because human beings create, operate and ultimately change them. And that brings us back to the question behind the Real Human Goals: If we have the ability to create something different, what do we actually want to create?

Perhaps we want organizations in which people can tell the truth without fear. Leaders who understand that responsibility is greater than status. Work that contributes rather than merely consumes. Communities in which disagreement does not automatically become dehumanization. Technology that serves human beings rather than gradually reducing human beings to data. And systems whose success is ultimately measured by how well they serve life.

Utopia? Well, so far, yes. However, we all know that none of that begins somewhere far away. Change begins with choices made by human beings. So that's you. And me. The Real Human Goals are therefore not a description of a perfect future. They are an invitation to remember that we have a role in creating the future we want to live in. And perhaps that is one of the most important forms of human intelligence (and our human sustainability) of all.

For more information:

Explore the 17 Real Human Goals and discover the Five Domains of Human Sustainability.