The document discusses Spiral Dynamics, a psychological framework developed by Dr. Clare W. Graves and popularized by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, that explains the evolution of human values and behavior through formative models. It identifies various stages of human development, from survival instincts to integral ecological mindsets, and highlights the emergence of 'teal organizations' that emphasize self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose. The text emphasizes the importance of adapting to new life conditions and collective problem-solving for complex challenges like climate change.

1. SPIRAL DYNAMICS
25 June 2018
Adam Jorlen, Futurist. MSc, MMgmt Strategic Foresight
Member Association of Professional Futurists,
World Futures Studies Federation
@adamjorlen @enkelcollective
Spiral
Dynamics

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4. What is Spiral Dynamics?
A psychological approach
that offers insights into
people's worldviews, and
how these shape values and
drive behaviour.

5. History - Theory
“Briefly, what I am proposing is that the
psychology of the mature human being is an
unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiralling
process marked by progressive subordination
of older, lower-order behaviour systems to
newer, high-order systems as man’s
existential problems change”
Dr. Clare W. Graves (1914 – 1986)

6. Beck & Cowan
• Don Beck and Chris Cowan
turned Graves’ model into an
easier-to-understand colourful
model.
• Mastering values, leadership and
change.
• Training, consulting,
organisational work.
• For ex. 1995 strategy to unite
South Africa through rugby.

7. Spiral Dynamics
• The model describes and makes
sense of the enormous
complexity of human existence
• Spiral Dynamics reveals the
hidden complexity codes that
shape human nature, create
global diversities, and drive
evolutionary change.

8. Spiral Dynamics
Describes emergence within
humans of new bio-psycho-social
systems in response to the
interplay of external conditions
with neurology follows
a hierarchy in several dimensions.

9. Spiral Dynamics
• HOW people think about
things (as opposed to “what”
they think)
• WHY people make decisions in
different ways
• WHY people respond to
different motivators
• WHY and HOW values arise
• The nature of CHANGE

10. A Developmental
Model

11. Remember:
The Map is not the Territory!
Alfred Korzybski held that
many people do confuse
maps with territories, i.e.
don’t confuse models of
reality with reality itself.

12. 12
Beige Vmeme
Survivalist/Instinctive - starting 100,000
years ago
• Worldwide:
A natural milieu where humans rely on
instincts to survive
• Mindset:
Do what you must to stay alive. Food
warmth, sex, and safety have priority
• Manifestations:
First human societies, starving masses,
African Bushmen, street people

13. 13
Purple VMeme
Magical/Animistic - starting 50,000 years ago
• Worldwide:
A magical place alive with spirit beings and
mystical signs
• Mindset:
Keep the tribe’s nest safe and warm;
observe tribal customs and seasonal cycles
• Manifestations:
Family rituals, shamans, blood oaths,
magical New Age beliefs

14. 14
Red VMeme
Egocentric/Impulsive - starting 10,000 years
ago
• Worldwide:
A jungle where the strongest and most
cunning survive
• Mindset:
Avoid shame, get respect, and do what
you want
• Manifestations:
Feudal kingdoms, rebellious youth, epic
heroes, “terrible twos”

15. 15
Blue VMeme
Purposeful/Authoritarian – starting 5,000
years ago
• Worldwide:
An ordered existence under the control of
the ultimate truth
• Mindset:
Life has meaning, direction, and purpose;
enforcing principles of rightful living
• Manifestations:
Puritan America, codes of honour

16. 16
Orange VMeme
Achievist/Strategic – starting 300 years
ago
• Worldwide:
A marketplace full of possibilities and
opportunities
• Mindset:
Play the game to win; cultivate
optimistic and risk-taking self-reliance
• Manifestations:
The Enlightenment, Silicon Valley,
Fortune magazine, corporate states

17. 17
Green VMeme
Humanistic/Egalitarian – starting 150 years
ago
• Worldwide:
A human habitat in which we share life’s
experiences, freed from dogma
• Mindset:
Seek peace in the inner self and explore
the caring dimensions of community
• Manifestations:
Human rights movements, communes,
Woodstock, multiculturalism

18. Questions?

19. 19
New Life Conditions cause new
Adaptive Capabilities to emerge
The problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of
thinking we were at when we created them.
Albert Einstein
“We are shaping the world faster than we can change
ourselves and we are applying to the present the habits of the
past.”
Winston Churchill
“Any challenge as complex and multifaceted as climate change
is not susceptible to simple solutions. It requires a holistic
approach and the combined efforts of the global community to
both mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.”
Roger Ferguson – Vice chairman of the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System, 2006

21. 21
Yellow VMeme
Integral/Ecological – starting 50 years ago
• Worldwide:
The world is a chaotic organism forged
by differences and change
• Mindset:
Flexibility, functionality, self-responsibility
and spontaneity have highest priority
• Manifestations:
Integrative structures, systems thinking,
“Third Way” politics

22. 22
Turquoise VMeme
Holistic/Global – starting 30 years ago
• Worldwide:
An elegantly balanced system of
interlocking forces
• Mindset:
Experience the wholeness of existence
through mind and spirit
• Manifestations:
Holonic, intuitive thinking; global
networks for global results

23. Questions?

24. Spiral Dynamics

26. Teal Organizations
This paradigm refers to the next stage in the
evolution of human consciousness.
When applied to organisations, this paradigm
views the organisation as an independent force
with its own purpose, and not merely as a
vehicle for achieving management's objectives.

27. New Power vs. Old Power

28. Turnstile
“The way you see people is the way
you treat them, and the way you treat
them is what they become.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The system with turnstiles symbolises
a perspective on humanity that
assumes from the beginning that they
will do the wrong thing when nobody
is watching.

29. Three themes
• Self-management. Teal organizations operate effectively, even at a
large scale, with a system based on peer relationships. They set up
structures and practices in which people have high autonomy in their
domain, and are accountable for coordinating with others. Power and
control are deeply embedded throughout the organizations, no longer
tied to the specific positions of a few top leaders.
• Wholeness. Whereas Orange and Green organizations encourage
people to show only their narrow “professional” selves, Teal
organizations invite people to reclaim their inner wholeness. They
create an environment wherein people feel free to fully express
themselves, bringing unprecedented levels of energy, passion, and
creativity to work.
• Evolutionary purpose. Teal organizations base their strategies on what
they sense the world is asking from them. Agile practices that sense
and respond replace the machinery of plans, budgets, targets, and
incentives. Paradoxically, by focusing less on the bottom line and
shareholder value, they generate financial results that outpace those
of competitors.

31. Questions?

32. More resources to google!
• Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral
development
• Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
• Susanne Cook-Greuter’s Nine Levels Of Increasing
Embrace In Ego Development: A Full-Spectrum
Theory Of Vertical Growth And Meaning Making.
• Jane Loevinger's stages of ego development
• Bill Torbert’s Seven Transformations of Leadership
• Jenny Wade - Changes of Mind: A Holonomic
Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness