Welcome
This resource provides 75 micro-VCoL exercises for developing the skills and qualities described in the Inner Development Guide (IDG). These exercises are designed for use by individuals. Each of the 25 IDG skills has three exercises, giving you options to find practices that fit your context and resonate with your development needs.
The inner capabilities described in the IDG framework—such as self-awareness, systems thinking, empathy, and courage—are essential for the work of sustainability transformation. They help us navigate complexity, build the relationships needed for collective action, and maintain commitment when progress is slow. These capabilities can be developed, but not primarily through reading about them. They are built through practice.
How Adults Build Skills
We often try to develop skills by acquiring knowledge about how to do something, perhaps combined with practice exercises during a training session. But research on how the brain actually builds skills shows that real skill development requires repeated practice in authentic situations.
Consider how you learned to cycle. No amount of reading about cycling could give you the ability to balance. You needed to get on the bicycle, try, fall, adjust, and try again—over and over until it became embodied. The same applies to the inner skills in the IDG framework.
The VCoL Learning Cycle
The brain has an inbuilt way of learning that has been formalised in a model called VCoL—the Virtuous Cycle of Learning—developed by Theo Dawson and colleagues at Lectica. The cycle has four steps:
Set the goal: Become clear about which specific skill you will practise and what it looks like in action.
Seek opportunities: Actively look for situations where you can practise the skill.
Apply: Do what you set out to do in a real situation. This is where learning happens.
Reflect: Pause afterward to examine what happened. What worked? What might you adjust?
What Makes a Micro-VCoL?
A micro-VCoL is small enough to be completed in real time, in the midst of everyday work, without requiring special preparation. These exercises take seconds rather than minutes and can be practised directly in the situations where the skill is needed.
The point of making exercises small is that they can be repeated frequently. A skill you practise once a week develops slowly. A skill you practise ten times a day rapidly becomes automatic.
How to Use This Resource
Choose one or two exercises to start with. Select exercises that address something you genuinely want to develop and that you will have ample opportunity to practise.
Practise the same exercise for at least a week. Building a skill takes time. Give each exercise enough repetitions before moving to the next.
Reflect briefly each day. Even one minute of reflection significantly strengthens learning.
Be patient with yourself. You will forget to practise and miss opportunities. This is part of learning. What matters is that you continue.
The Five Dimensions
The IDG framework organises 25 skills and qualities into five dimensions. Click on each to explore the skills and exercises:
Being
Cultivating Our Inner Life — developing our relationship to ourselves, our values, and our capacity for presence.
Thinking
Understanding Our Complex World — developing cognitive skills for navigating complexity and thinking long-term.
Relating
Caring for Others and the World — developing our capacity for appreciation, connection, and compassion.
Collaborating
Building Trust and Working Together — developing skills for effective teamwork and inclusive co-creation.
Acting
Leading and Enabling Change — developing courage, resilience, and the capacity to mobilise action.