With the Organic Scorecard Dutch business expert and psychoanalyst Marc Grond has developed a methodology for measurable self-development, as he calls it. He writes that people develop by unlearning what they have learned in life but turns out not to be theirs.
Babies are born with an intent for their life’s journey, he says, but they stray from their intended paths because they encournter traumas and develop survival strategies to cope with fear, sadness and pain. Most of us adapt to what we think other people want from us, starting with our parents. Parents usually love their children, but rarely in the perfect and unconditional way that babies desire.
Most people have a feeling deep inside that they could do better, be happier, that life could be easier. Unconsciously they long for how they were before their traumas happened and their survival formula developed. But they get stuck in their survival. The brain encourages people to repeat their survival strategies endlessly, even searching for confirmation in the people, situations and experiences they encounter.
The Organic Scorecard is meant to help people recognize the original and healthy version of themselves. The author introduces the autogenetic principle that allows the organism to return to their authentic life line by learning lessons that life has served but have not been learned fully yet. The organism subsequently reinterprets all lessons that followed, but from the new and healthier perspective, repairing itself from experienced traumas. Traumas won’t disappear from memory, but people get emotionally detached from them. They grow towards a happier version of their pasts.
Starting the journey to become who you are can be experienced as very scary, because you need to say goodbye to the surviving formula that has served you so well. But if our survival system keeps us less occupied, there is less noise and we can be more receptive to how life unfolds through us.
I found the philosophy behind the Organic Scorecard fascinating and much better to understand than the Scorecard itself. It consists of twelve domains (for example Motivation, Ambition, Structure), collected in a circle. They can be combined in pairs, triples and cross axes. Each domain shows up differently, based on the dominant part of the brain (reptile, limbic, neocortex). I even did an online test to get my scorecard, but it didn’t mean a lot to me. I assume the true value of the Organic Scorecard only reveals itself when people hire a coach to work with them on the results.
Marc Grond. De Organic Scorecard. Routeplanner naar meetbare zelfontwikkeling. Heart Media, 2023