Moral Independence and the Bildung Rose Model

 I got to interview Lene Rachel Anderson of the Bildung Rose Group about her moral model, the Bildung Rose. 

Bildung is the German idea of self cultivation.  It's a model of human moral development.  The Bildung Rose is a tool developed by Lene Rachel Anderson as a way to help us all think about the moral interconnections between different aspects of society, culture and corporations.  In other words, it's a really cool way to think about applied humanistic management. 

Here is a link to the video and to the resources Ms. Anderson talked about during our interview: http://humanisticmanagement.international/using-the-bildung-rose-as-a-strategic-diagnostic-tool/

My takeaways:

Basically, our moral development as humans moves from childhood, where we are largely emotional beings to our teens where were become rational beings to adulthood where, ideally, we become morally independent beings. 

It is when we become morally independent that we get TRUE freedom. Before then, we are limited by our emotions and the limits of our reasoning. Think of becoming morally independent as a state of enlightenment where are emotions and our rational selves are fully integrated and we can think independently of others about what is moral and not be swayed by immoral people. Freedom!

The Bildung Rose is a really helpful to me for organizing and integrating my thinking by helping me to explicitly list all the various things I should take into account when engaging in moral reasoning.   Here is a link to the website and the rose: http://bildungrose.com/  She explains it in the video which is linked above. 

The cool part her model was the fractal nature of the rose she uses to illustrate the tool. This can be you as an individual, you in group, the group in community/company, the community in state, state in country, country in world.  At all levels, the elements of the rose are in play. The challenge is, to balance them. 

What helps integrate the elements of the rose is the bottom part, narrative and ethics. It is what helps us want to make sure our thinking is inclusive and holistic. And this in turn, helps us create better outcomes and better more holistic solutions and yes, this is directly applicable to workplaces and problem solving in a business context.

The other thing I liked is that she is sure that when talking about ethics companies should bring in philosophers to help lead these discussion.  So – bring in me!