Evidencing the inner

Our work around ‘evidencing the inner’ is primarily aimed at funders, academics, practitioners and organisations seeking to provide evidence of particular inner-led approaches. Measuring such impact brings a wealth of creative tensions and opportunities.

Often the impact of inner approaches is most painfully evident by the absence of tools and capacities in contemporary Western society that support us to navigate the fear and other uncomfortable feelings and emotions that arise in the face of uncertainty - and the increasingly turbulent times we are facing.

It is the lack of support and resourcedness around inner-led change that has lead to polarisation, projection, 'othering', blame, oppression, conflict, unhealthy power and group dynamics, burnout and our escalating mental health crises more generally.

Our approach to measuring and evaluating the emergent impacts of inner-led change is two-fold:

1) Collating an evidence base: We are collating, summarising and signposting to existing evidence of the role of inner-led practices in the process of social and ecological change.

2) Exploring inner-focused measurement. How could inner-led perspectives contribute to a deeper understanding of emergent impact and success of social and ecological change approaches?

Collating an evidence base

Having evidence of the efficacy of inner-approaches can enable learning, development and wider acceptance of such approaches. We have been collating an evidence base of the impacts of inner-led change, and gathering a range of measurement tools to document and evaluate how the inner is currently being ‘measured’ in different situations.

What does inner-focused measurement look and feel like?

In the spirit of walking our talk, we are also inquiring into what ‘measurables’ look like from an inner-perspective, and the relative usefulness of developing inner-led measurement criteria. For example, how do we already use our inner experience to: 

  • measure our impact and success
  • navigate and creatively respond to difficulty
  • challenge and source transformative ways forward without recognising that we are reliant on our inner experience for this?