Project Trinity: I-I, SDi, Neurotechnology

Spiral Dynamics Without the Colors

Below is an email sent by Dr. Don Beck to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius in response to his op-ed article about Thomas PM Barnett’s The Pentagon’s New Map. In it Don gave David a crash course in Spiral Dynamics without using colors (Don used numbers instead). I find the overview very crisp and with clear examples.

Thanks to SeattleIntegral for sharing this information. Big thanks to Don Beck for giving me permission to post this here.

---

David:

Thanks for your quick reply. Maybe the following will give you some sense of what I mean.

"Spiral Dynamics" is a fancy word that describes how "value systems" emergence in people, organizations, cultures etc. as "adaptive intelligences," calibrated with and sparked by Life Conditions. Thus far research has uncovered eight such priority systems that transcend racial, ethnic, religious, and political stigmas, stereotypes, and forms of polarization. Original research was done by the late Professor Clare W. Graves, Union College (New York) in the 50s through 70s, largely beneath the radar scope of the academic community. I was teaching at the University of North Texas in l975 when I became aware of his work, and I was truly impressed. MacLean's magazine in Canada called his work "the theory that explains everything!" While that requires a tongue in cheek to even say, this conceptual model has an immense amount of power in it to get beneath surface level categories and issues in order to deal with the deepest dynamics at work.

The Memetic Spiral

COLORS of Thinking

The Memespread Project was successful in spreading a meme into the blogosphere. Just imagine if the memes of Spiral Dynamics will spread as fast, and as far. Then the world will be a much more colorful place (for better, or for worse, remains to be seen).

This is not an experiment. But for those who care: spread this meme, link to it, replicate it, mirror it, send it to your friends, your parents, your spouse, your grandparents, your bosses, your doctors, your priests, your philosophy professors, your yoga teachers, your gurus, even to strangers. And let this meme put some new colors into everyone's perception.

Stages of Social Development

"...cultures should not be seen as rigid types, having permanent traits. Instead, they are core adaptive intelligences that ebb and flow, progress and regress, with the capacity to lay on new levels of complexity (value systems) when conditions warrant. Much like an onion, they form layers on layers on layers. There is no final state, no ultimate destination, no utopian paradise. Each stage is but a prelude to the next, then the next, then the next."
- Don Edward Beck, Ph D.

On October 2000, Don Beck presented an essay entitled The Twelve Postulates at the State of the World Forum that tackled the issues of globalization in the context of stages of social development.

In spite of all of the money spent, expectations raised, programs imposed, "good deeds" celebrated and "good works" performed, our problems persist. Why?

The central thesis of this document is that external approaches designed to improve the human condition are faulted unless they also include, as parallel and simultaneous tracks, the essential steps and stages in interior social development. In short, economic, political, and technological efforts must correlate with the levels of complexity of thinking within individuals and entire cultures. Unless the external efforts match, in their respective operating codes, the existing capacities within leadership cadres and the general population in specific countries, they will make things worse, not better. Like the deep sea diver who gets the bends by coming up too rapidly, or runs out of air if the ascent is delayed too long, entire societies are vulnerable to this too much: too little dynamic. This discussion will describe (1) the eight stages of social development; (2) the economic and political models appropriate to each stage; and (3) twelve postulates to employ in the search for global cohesion in this age of societal fragmentation.

What is Spiral Dynamics integral?

There is a 30-minute audio introduction on Spiral Dynamics integral on Integral Naked. The introduction is presented by Don Beck himself.

NOTE: Take advantage of the Integral Naked FREE-MONTH offer. Use this coupon. Offer available as of this writing 12/10/2003.

SDi in a Nutshell: Integral Waves of Development

by Steve @ formlessmountain.com click here for the interactive version [ back to Project Trinity Index ]