The Cave Experiment

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“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”
-Plato

The Cave Experiment is a project that offers an alternative development model based not on a platform of skills or competencies but on a platform of human qualities or ‘virtues’. This approach allows for your spherical development as human beings, and aims to your overall wellbeing, not only your success as professionals. However, the model is designed in such a way that provides a perfect correspondence to business skills and competencies, and allows for its targeted application to every business context.

To lead a well and meaningful life, knowledge and skills are not enough. We need to have certain qualities or virtues that drive our will and characterize our actions and overall behavior. These qualities comprise our value and worthiness in the social context we live and work.

Most of these qualities are universal and are reflected in our values (e.g. justice, integrity, honesty, meritocracy etc.)

We feel happy and content when we have these qualities and our actions are aligned with them.
We feel unhappy and discontent when we lack these qualities or we have them but our actions are not aligned with them.

According to Aristotle our ultimate goal behind every other smaller goal in life (gaining money, social status, acknowledgment for our achievements, creating a family etc) is wellbeing or in other words a state of content and happiness. He states that it is an absolute prerequisite of wellbeing to have a set of virtues and live your life according to them.

The first step to wellbeing is Awareness & Self-Awareness. What are these qualities and the implications of the lack of them for your personal or professional life? How these qualities are expressed in your thinking, choices and actions in your everyday life? What are the qualities you have and those you have not and need to develop? Socrates said that nobody can be considered that has a virtue if this person doesn’t know in depth “what is” the virtue. (Needs Assessment & Training)

The second step is development. The development of these qualities is a difficult task that demands conscious, tentative everyday effort and exercise. It is actually a personal task that can be initially supported by adequate guidance (Mentoring & Coaching).

The third step is dissemination. It is good and useful to share with others the same mentality and culture because in this way you help others and at the same time you facilitate your further development and wellbeing. You may use the tools and channels you wish in order to share with others the Cave Experiment. (Cavistas)