Promoting Inner Development Goals (IDG), such as communication skills, leads to more effective sustainability communication in organizations.
Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian is International Course Manager at FHWien der WKW and responsible for the English Bachelor’s program in Corporate Communication (part-time, block). In her role as a specialist in sustainability communication, she was invited to hold lectures and workshops on organisational communication in the context of the Inner Development Goals as part of the UNESCO Chair for Communication at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) in Madrid from October 29 to 31. Lecturers and researchers from the Chair came together with Master’s students to immerse themselves in the topic and share their experiences.
Communication skills as a key competence
Founded in Stockholm in 2020, the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) are a non-profit initiative that aims to support people and organisations in developing inner capabilities and skills to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Among the 23 key competences in five areas, there is also the category “Collaboration”, which includes “Communication Skills”.
In exchange with lecturers and students from Spain – but also from the Universidad del Norte in Colombia – various approaches to effective organisational communication were shared, which can contribute to the cooperation and integration of different stakeholders and drive the sustainability journey of companies and communities. Leyla Tavernaro-Haidarian was surprised by the strong impact of audio:
“One highlight for me was learning about the role that podcasts and digital community radio stations played in Colombia in order to involve stakeholders more actively in the organisation of CSR activities.”
In Austria, too, IDGs are now slowly being integrated into sustainability research. rfu, a Viennese research company specialising in sustainable investments, also sees great potential and is in the process of developing an IDG rating tool to measure the internal sustainability performance of companies.