The shortcut to solutions and communities for an integral age |
||
 |
|
Home If you like this site please consider supporting its development. Thank you. |
Last
updated: 25 Oct 07 'Worlds
Apart: Integral Solutions to the Rescue' by Petra Pieterse
While none of us can yet claim fully emerged second tier capacities in all aspects of our lives, it may indeed be possible to reach for Integral solutions cognitively or conceptually. Only by doing so can we hope to achieve the required sweeping vista up and down the whole Spiral in order to survey, monitor, align, integrate and synergise everything simultaneously across the full spectrum of human ecology – and attempt to bring cohesion and order, and healing, to our fragmented fitful world. What might the traits of this new thinking be? Some tentative indications include: • the ability to recognise and embrace vertical stages of transformational development in individuals, groups, organisations, societies, nations, as well as horizontal, translational growth. • the ability to respect, honour, and legitimise all the first tier levels of development and the unique, essential contributions of each to the whole of life; the authentic desire to protect and foster the well-being of the entire Spiral of human development. • the ability to recognise the crucial difference between the 'container' and its 'contents': between the developmental stage – the values system or worldview itself – and the surface-level manifestations of that particular stage. • the ability to recognise, honour and address complex issues in systemic ways acknowledging multicausation rather than attributing blame to simplistic single causes. • the ability to recognise the necessity of shaping and nurturing natural 'habitats' for self-development instead of attempting to engineer people. • the ability to put on the 'masks' or 'costumes' of the prior developmental levels in a congruent, authentic manner, and to engage with prior worldviews with natural ease and highest caring for all, acknowledging that healthy transcending demands the healthy inclusion of all former stages.
In
Search of 2nd Tier – Don Beck
Since these are ways of thinking and not types of people, what are the unique and distinguishing markers of Second Tier? Only the "Shadow knows" what is in the hearts of men and women. But we can identify basic behavioral patterns – what people say and do. I test myself (and others) on the following: 1. Can I differentiate between positive/negative or healthy/unhealthy aspects of each of the vMeme codes? 2. Do I respect and legitimize each of the First Tier codes and recognize their essential contribution to the overall life and well-being of the Spiral? Do I value positive Purple, Red, Blue, Orange and Green? 3. Do I accept that individuals, organizations, and societies must acquire these All Quadrant capacities in a step-by-step or developmental process? 4. Do I acknowledge that the full Spiral operates WITHIN a person or human grouping rather than anybody being ON the Spiral at any whorl? 5. Do I sense that change in the multiple variations follows self-organizing principles and timetables so that no one can "grow" people or predetermine what they will be. (One of my favorite Gravesian quotations is: "people cannot be until they are!") 6. Have I, personally, learned "when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em, and when to walk away?" Can I resist the need to control or engineer people? 7. Can I respond in a congruent manner to each of the vMeme levels by wearing their "costumes," demonstrating the appropriate leadership style, and communicating on their unique frequencies? 8. Am I able to differentiate between the original vMeme code and the surface level expression of that code at a time and within a context? To illustrate, capitalism is not the same thing as the Orange code; religion is not the same thing as the DQ [Blue value meme] code; and political correctness (or cultural creatives) are not identical with the FS [Green value meme] code. Each of these codes and the themes they represent can be expressed in different forms in this Integral Age. 9. Can I think systemically by addressing complex issues from a multi-case [multi-cause?] perspective rather than isolate a single culprit. For example, the Reagan administration was rebuked recently for supporting a more militant version of Islam in the "war" against the Soviet "empire." No doubt that administration is open to criticism. But, one should not isolate that single act without judging it within the context of the connecting couplet. Same goes [for] specific actions of the Clinton, Blair or any specific administration. Reagan saw himself in a war against Soviet-Sino violence and bloodshed. The problems, then, were systemic – within the total systems themselves. So, seeing issues as foil and counter foil, thesis vs antithesis, and the Blue-Orange (DQ-ER) dance against the Red-Green (CP-FS) dance, one can best understand how to respond. Perhaps you would like to add to this tentative list. Brian Gibb took up Don's suggestion and offered these additions: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spiraldynamics/message/3844 I have been ruminating about Don's list of nine capacities of second tier thinking and would like to suggest the following additions: 8. Addition to 8. Understands the multiple surface level manifestations of the different codes. 9.
Additions to 9. Can I think systemically by: 13. Do I understand the life conditions required to support a level on the spiral and a [also?] those that will give rise to a shift to another level. 14. Can I diagnose the situation of a person or organization in the change cycle and facilitate movement to a level consistent with life conditions. Dr. Don Beck, who – like everyone seeking integral solutions – can often get a fair bit of flak, also suggests this test for 2nd tier thinking: "As a test, simply ask people how they plan to deal with all of the diversity, the turbulence, the conflict etc. Challenge them to give you their global solution… and watch them hesitate and fumble around. I do this as a matter of habit… I want to put our second tier thinking and strategies alongside theirs, so we can compare. Otherwise the ‘cheap shots’ from the ‘cheap seats’ will continue from people who are incapable of forging their own conceptual system… they would rather criticize what others are suggesting. Let’s ask them to go off and write their own book and when they have done so, to return and we will have a look at what they have written. Only then will meaningful dialogue be possible. Finally, be aware that it takes three or four years to explore the depths of this concept, be patient." (Spiral Dynamics e-group, Oct 24th, 2002)
Copyright © 2007 Matthew Kalman |
|
|
|
