A European Story of Beauty and Freedom
By Lene Rachel Andersen
Statement by Lene Rachel Andersen about The Nordic Secret and the Inner Development Goals, December 20, 2024
Read the statement below
Author Lene Rachel Andersen
Lene researched, developed, and wrote The Nordic Secret. She came to the Nordic secret from the bildung and folk-bildung angle, i.e. the angle of culture, cultural heritage, community, adult education, and the Nordic tradition.
Lene has written 20 books about big history, technological development, complexity, economics, the future, and bildung since 2005. She is the co-founder of the think tank Nordic Bildung, of the Global Bildung Network and Global Bildung Day. Lene is also the creator of the Bildung Rose and she is a member of the Club of Rome.
If you are interested in keynotes and collaboration regarding bildung or in joining the global bildung movement, please reach out to Lene at .
You will find The Nordic Secret here: https://www.nordicbildung.org/the-nordic-secret/
Statement by Lene Rachel Andersen about The Nordic Secret and the Inner Development Goals
This is an awkward video for me to make, I never thought I would have to do something like this, and I am not happy about it. But here it goes:
For the past number of years, some of my work has been used to legitimize and promote something called the Inner Development Goals.
The Inner Development Goals I would characterize either as complete nonsense or as a harmful misuse of developmental psychology.
You cannot set goals for people’s inner development. If we could, there would be no criminals.
My name is Lene Rachel Andersen. From 2015 to 2017, I wrote a book called The Nordic Secret.
The Nordic secret – that is: the secret behind the success of the Nordic countries – is an educational movement that started in Denmark in the 1850s and 60s and travelled to Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
This educational movement was based on the German concept called Bildung.
Bildung is a rich and complex concept that includes culture, spirit, poetry, formal and academic education, community, arts, crafts, aesthetics, life experience, and, yes, moral and emotional inner development.
And this is what my work and The Nordic Secret are about.
Unfortunately, the editor of the first edition, Tomas Björkman, has since travelled the world promoting my book as his own — and me as his co-author.
He and some business consultants have then come up with the Inner Development Goals, which they are trying to sell globally, piggybacking on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and on my work.
I therefore have three objections:
2: The misrepresentation of my work, The Nordic Secret, and of the historical development in the Nordics.
Plus the fact that nobody has ever asked me if they could use my work to promote the Inner Development Goals. I would have said No.
1: The appropriation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. This is unethical.
3; as any serious educator or pedagogue knows:
When you educate and when you work with people in general, when you work with inner development, you cannot predefine the outcome. You can only define the input.
Trying to cram people into a predefined mould does not work and it is unethical.
The Soviet Union tried it; they called it Soviet Man. It was an oppressive disaster.
Humans are complex beings with individual emotions, experiences, talents, and abilities and therefore, whenever you try to educate or engage people, it will always land differently in each individual person.
All individuals have their own desires, intentions, and dreams, and that is what will drive them and contribute to their inner development. You cannot force inner development goals unto people. You cannot develop people for a predefined outcome.
If people are interested in their own development and in certain goals that are meaningful to them, yes, then you can coach or guide them towards those certain goals. But it has to come from them. You cannot set goals for other people.
It seems that after a couple of years, the inventors of the Inner Development Goals are beginning to realize this themselves. So, now they are reducing the Inner Development Goals to what they call “a communication strategy.”
Which basically means that they have a communication strategy that has a name that does not communicate what the content is.
That is their choice. But I cannot condone that they use my work for this.
If you would like to create societal change, if you want emancipation and human flourishing, and if you have the courage to let people develop and cultivate their true self, look up Bildung.
Bildung and bildung philosophy have a 175-year-old track record in the Nordic countries.
And that is the secret behind the success of the Nordic countries.
It is an open-ended and liberating philosophy.
And that is the Nordic secret.
Lene Rachel Andersen
December 2024
Editor of the 1st edition: Tomas Björkman
Tomas was the editor of the first edition of the book and came to the Nordic secret from the ego-development and leadership development angle, i.e. the angle of developmental psychology, cognitive science, and entrepreneurship.
Tomas is the founder of Ekskäret Foundation and is a meber of the Club of Rome.