What are The Universal Needs?
The Universal Needs addresses all of the aspects missing in the other needs models, and so many more. If you are new to this model and methodology, here is a quick overview:
We have 12 Universal Needs, and those 12 Universal Needs fall into 4 groups. The 4 groups correspond to the 4 different parts of a tree.
- The Roots – Our Survival Needs
- Our foundation. Essential for life. We WILL find a way of meeting these needs whether healthy/unhealthy, empowering/disempowering, serving you/not serving you. 1 of the 3 needs here relates mainly to our physical needs. (3 needs)
- The Trunk – Our Intrinsic Needs
- Our core. The needs relating to our internal wellbeing. Our emotional wellbeing, our sense of value/worth, our connection to an internal sense of empowerment. (4 needs)
- The Branches – Our Expansive Needs
- Our expansion and interconnection. Once our foundation and core are taken care of, from there we can grow, expand and interconnect more with the world around us. (3 needs)
- The Leaves/Fruit – Our Enriching Needs
- Our journey Deeper. These are the needs that give us a deeper experience of ourselves and a deeper experience of life. (2 needs)
What is The Universal Needs Tree?
And then the WAY that we choose to meet each of these 12 needs sits somewhere on a spectrum between red and green. The red end of the spectrum are the ways that are less empowering, less ‘healthy’ and less fulfilling, and the green end of the spectrum are the ways that are more empowering, ‘healthier’ and more fulfilling.
At the red end of the spectrum, you can be doing a LOT to meet your needs, but still feel unfulfilled and depleted, at the green end of the spectrum you can be doing much less in terms of time, energy and effort, and feel your needs are being well nourished and fulfilled.
What is The red-green spectrum?
Why Now ?
We are at a pivotal time in the history of the world.
And if we really want to create something different, we have to use an approach in which we are not just taken care of at an individual level, but in a way that supports at the community, national and global levels too. In a way that is not independent, or co-dependent, but interdependent and co-created.
Because this is not just about personal resilience. This is about business and economic resilience. This is about community resilience. This is about human resilience.
And in our experience, these needs and approaching them in these revolutionary ways are the foundation of everything.
And they affect EVERY aspect of life.
- From the parent who needs to find quick, easy and simple ways to meet their own needs in order to meet their children’s needs without burning out in the process.
- To the leader who needs to learn to meet their own needs efficiently and effectively in order that they can lead according to the needs of their teams, their organisations, and their communities, not due to the lack in their own needs.
- To the worker who becomes more productive, and more effective when their needs are taken care of.
- To the social justice advocate who through having their own needs better met has the internal resources to be able to continue to advocate for necessary social change.
- To the business that needs to learn how to meet the needs of its staff, its customers, clients and its suppliers, while also supporting its own.
- To the white person (or any other person with privilege) whose needs being met provides them with the capacity to be able to face and begin to address the racial bias in themselves and injustice in our world.
- To the business development and marketing teams who can better identify, meet and communicate the needs of the customer.
- To the person who through having their needs fulfilled can bring the best of themselves to their relationships with their partner(s), colleagues, friends and family.
- To the company that knows how to take care of the needs of their employees to reduce the costs associated with the critical problems of mental, physical or emotional health.
- To the person who finally gets to learn, feel and cultivate genuine self-worth (i.e. coming FROM the self) by learning how to meet all 12 of their Universal Needs consistently for the first time in their life.