For all who might be interested . Living near London or just staying in UK.

Spiral Dynamics In Action

London Integral Circle and EnlightenNext present

SPIRAL DYNAMICS IN ACTION: Dancing the Integral Vision

A one-day workshop with Don Beck

Saturday 14 March 9.30am-5.30pm (registration starts 9.00am)

£40 (includes lunch and refreshments) Book now



This workshop will provide an immersion into the fundamentals of Spiral Dynamics and its application in practice.


About Spiral Dynamics


Spiral Dynamics or SD is a powerful model and predictive theory of human development and cultural evolution. Under the guidance of Dr. Don Beck, it has emerged as a powerful new tool for understanding the complexity of human behaviour. SD has been successfully employed around the globe for conceiving and implementing real-world integral solutions to social conflicts and for catalyzing individual evolutionary transformation.

Among its enormous range of benefits and applications, SD can help:


Understand the complexity of global and national socio-cultural systems in order to navigate the challenges of life in the 21st. century.
Catalyse a deep recognition that understanding the processes that influence thought is itself more important than the actual products of thinking! Increasingly those who care about the evolution of human society turn to Spiral Dynamics to understand how real, integral transformation takes place in themselves, others and large-scale social systems. Many change makers around the world are using Spiral Dynamics to solve real, complex issues - from ending apartheid in South Africa to rewriting law enforcement policy in Holland to discovering new growth strategies for multinationals.


Content of workshop

In this one-day presentation you will learn about the innovative use of MeshWorks Solutions, drawing from actual examples of the work of Dr. Beck's colleagues in the Netherlands, led by Peter Merry. This system has been very effective in working on the UN Millennial Goals. You will learn how Spiral Dynamics was used with the Dutch authorities in dealing with threats from Islamic fundamentalism.
 

This workshop will also present samples from a series of second-tier (i.e. advanced systems thinking) projects in action around the globe including:

Trans-Partisan: a strategy being applied to a series of projects in the Middle East, among which are a ‘Hong Kong of the Middle East' future vision and a ‘Build Palestine' project (with Elza Maalouf of Lebanon). See: http://www.buildpalestine.org/ **
A project with the Mexican Teacher's Union to bring education to all in society (with Robert Bonilla)**
The creation of Risk Analyses and Horizontal Scanning (RAHS) technology in Singapore and Iceland, used to detect the ‘vital signs' and indications of weakness within those states' cultural systems. (Led by John Petersen and Bjarni Jonnson.) ** **In presenting these projects, Don Beck's emphasis will be ondemonstrating their practical applications. We are also hoping to beable to speak to some of these project leaders via Skype.


The workshop will cover the whole matter of transformation in complex societies including the raising of personal levels of consciousness and the potential forms of those changes. The Psychology at the Large-Scale framework, which represents a new branch of academic psychology, will be introduced. Dr. Beck, using Spiral Dynamics' Global Values Monitor, will also be profiling President Obama and the impact he thinks Obama will have on the United States and the rest of the world.The day together will offer a fast paced yet highly interactive learning experience. Subsequent to this workshop Dr. Beck will be presenting a four-day programme at Schumacher College in the UK from March 16-20.

I am glad to introduce the blog section of Dr. Don Beck who started to do so in 2008.
This entry is referring to a 2008 piece of NYT columnist David Brooks who commented a book of Gladwell.

Why Brooks and Gladwell need Clare W. Grvaves

Many colleagues and friends urged me to make available here my personal response to the latest David Brooks op-ed column in today's New York Times. So for those interested readers who do not care to scroll through 305 comments on the NYT website, and for those who happen not to be members of the SDi Discussion Group (to join, click here!), what I felt needed to be said is the following:

The meshing of the social forces and unique, individual capacities is best explained in the seminal work of Professor Clare W. Graves entitled "the emergent, cyclical, double-helix model of bio-psycho-social development," best known as Spiral Dynamics. This framework describes the pendulum swing between the I:Me:Mine (individual) and We:Us:Our (collective) values systems to form musical chord-like blends. These are systems within people, companies, cultures. This model played a major role in the South African transformation out of apartheid and is presently being used in Palestine along with Elza Maalouf. See
 
www.buildpalestine.org/

for details.

Also, this paradigm will demonstrate why David Brooks and Malcolm Gladwell have slightly different views, since it explores the deeper values system codes at the core of an emerging human nature. As such, it also includes the role of behavioral genetics as well as strategies to raise levels of consciousness, all within what Maclean's magazine in Canada once called "The Theory that Explains Everything."

Read more...

For additional links see also my blog entry from Dec 2008:

Lost in the Crowd

This a critical AND compassionate analysis from Mike Jay, spiral couch and innovator. Reflecting a speech of Dalai Lama from 2005 with the theme:

Science at the Crossroads.

The diverse passages in Dalai Lama speech are colored in Mikes blog entry. Its worth to be considred. As lots of undifferentiated applause for the communication of His Holiness already exists in abundance.

Leadership at the Crossroads

I want you to know that I hesitated when I thought about where to put this review of the Dalai Lama's speech given November 12, 2005 at the Society for Neuroscience. Do I put this in the public and endure the nature of criticism that it will evoke from the people who will see this as blasphemous? Will there be riots because I have criticized his holiness?

Then I thought, what would his holiness have me do?

So, I'm posting this here for you.

I apologize because in general I've used a coding system that only a few people will understand, although if you read my comments you'll get the idea that I'm trying to put across here...that we need to be able to view NOT just what our leaders say, but "how" our leaders say what they say. We have to be careful not to be hung upon their content, but really be able to view deeply the problem-making and solving operandi they use in saying what they say.

In a complex future, we have to begin to identify the complexity of our leaders and the capacities, capabilities and potential of those leaders to lead effectively in view of an ambiguous future.

I will say for the record that my remarks are critical of the suppositions made and how they are made...and I've tried to give you a window into why I think so.

For the review, I used the following attractors, colored, so I could point to a specific constellation of values first identified in the book Spiral Dynamics (R). My work uses some of the terminology in that system, but expands the work to Spiral 2.0.

Here are the oversimplified attractors and their colors so you can identify the review and my comments below:

Beige-Survival System (not used)

Purple-Mystical System

Red-Power System

Blue-Salvation System

Orange-Empirical System

Green-Collaborative System

Yellow-Differential System

Again, you will want to note that there is no particular agreement of the systems I use and those offered by Clare Graves and Spiral Dynamics...in fact, I'm sure they would say I've oversimplified and adulterated them, but then again, that's pretty good protection for me in that they certainly don't represent anyone's ideas but my own.

My attempt at review is done with irreverance, but with compassion.

Mike

Leadership at the Crossroads

I want you to know that I hesitated when I thought about where to put this review of the Dalai Lama's speech given November 12, 2005 at the Society for Neuroscience. Do I put this in the public and endure the nature of criticism that it will evoke from the people who will see this as blasphemous? Will there be riots because I have criticized his holiness?

Then I thought, what would his holiness have me do?

So, I'm posting this here for you.

I apologize because in general I've used a coding system that only a few people will understand, although if you read my comments you'll get the idea that I'm trying to put across here...that we need to be able to view NOT just what our leaders say, but "how" our leaders say what they say. We have to be careful not to be hung upon their content, but really be able to view deeply the problem-making and solving operandi they use in saying what they say.

In a complex future, we have to begin to identify the complexity of our leaders and the capacities, capabilities and potential of those leaders to lead effectively in view of an ambiguous future.

I will say for the record that my remarks are critical of the suppositions made and how they are made...and I've tried to give you a window into why I think so.

For the review, I used the following attractors, colored, so I could point to a specific constellation of values first identified in the book Spiral Dynamics (R). My work uses some of the terminology in that system, but expands the work to Spiral 2.0.

Here are the oversimplified attractors and their colors so you can identify the review and my comments below:

Beige-Survival System (not used)

Purple-Mystical System

Red-Power System

Blue-Salvation System

Orange-Empirical System

Green-Collaborative System

Yellow-Differential System

Again, you will want to note that there is no particular agreement of the systems I use and those offered by Clare Graves and Spiral Dynamics...in fact, I'm sure they would say I've oversimplified and adulterated them, but then again, that's pretty good protection for me in that they certainly don't represent anyone's ideas but my own.

My attempt at review is done with irreverance, but with compassion.

Mike

Leadership at the Crossroads

Presented by Newyorker.com:

Jane McGonigal talks with Daniel Zalewski about alternate-reality gaming. From “Stories from the Near Future,” the 2008 New Yorker Conference.

Saving the World through Game Design

Darina made me curious about the work of game designer Jane McGonigal. Alone the 4 Buzzwords world, save, game and design created enough attention for me. In this talk Jane presents very interesting slides and her conviction that play and gaming will develop massive momentum and impact for reality changing.

One quote of her:

"The opposite of play is not work. Its depression."

More about Jane McDonigal:

www.avantgame.com

For more background about -the economic situation too -of game design and playful game I repost this article  from John Lanchester first. and below the article a compilation of blog entries which I circled around the theme since 2006. Pursuing the powers of collaboration, innovation, change, Thrill, adventure and mystery in creating new reality on diverse levels.

1.01. 2009: London Book Review asks:

Is It Art?

From the economic point of view, this was the year video games overtook music and video, combined, in the UK.

John Lanchester enters the world of the computer game which, he says, is still unknown territory to great swathes of the educated classes. Even though, economically speaking, in the UK this year video games overtook the music and film industries combined. He makes other interesting comparisons: "Gaming is a much more resistant, frustrating medium than its cultural competitors. Older media have largely abandoned the idea that difficulty is a virtue; if I had to name one high-cultural notion that had died in my adult lifetime, it would be the idea that difficulty is artistically desirable. It's a bit of an irony that difficulty thrives in the newest medium of all - and it's not by accident, either. One of the most common complaints regular gamers make in reviewing new offerings is that they are too easy. (It would be nice if a little bit of that leaked over into the book world.)"

Read more..

 Chasing wishes and Urban Hunt

Found this featured article from Robin Goods inspiring website http://www.masternewmedia.org/ Who is Robin Good? www.masternewmedia.org/about.htm The article Is about ARG`s. Alternate Reality Gaming. The Lines between so called Reality, Fiction and Cyberspace are blurring. The evolution... More »



Emerging and Converging Realities

Posted on Jul 12th, 2007 by  Albert
Last time I sense an accelerated pace of different technologies to emerge and converge. I agree with Wade Roush in this Technology Review article: Second Earth Second Earth The World Wide Web will soon be... More » 2 Comments


Leadership Lessons from Online Games

Posted on Sep 25th, 2007 by  Albert
Though it may sound surprising, the world of online gaming can provide business leadership insights for the 21st century. The Online Gaming Industry is already expanding 4times as fast as the Internet. Its no surprise... More »  



Edge of Everything and Crack Cocaine not only of Mind..:)

Posted on Jan 2nd, 2008 by  Albert
Having read the Edge Annual Question 2008 I was again amused of the perplexing multitude of statements. Everybody -TED and World Economic Forum plus Dozens of other Edge Entities seem to initiate the year with... More »


Designing Video Games to Catalyze Human Development

Posted on Sep 15th, 2008 by  Albert
Earlier in 2006 I blogged something about Alternate Reality Games and perspectives in the nexus of gaming and creating new realties in virtual reality. Basically the 60 p Whitepaper  (as Wiki) from  International Game Developers... More »

In the new issue of Integral leadership Review the article about Integral Play is finally out. Written by Patricia von Papstein.

Are You Ready to Play the Integral way? The next Evolution of Leadership

I lifted my conclusio from bottom the front of this post, to make my personal view of things as  clear as possible for the moment. I know lots. lots more is to say, to learn and to experiment, to be tried and to put into life.


"Both of us, Europeans and Germans, Patricia and I agree that it is a challenge to ignite a new creative fire in playful ways from the "land of poets and thinkers". This is a heavy load: it seems that the terrible shipwreck of the Nazi past has created a psychic contraction. This contraction expresses itself as a great confusion. Ken Wilber describes it as pre/trans fallacy. Germans are afraid of great visions and the possibility of an evolutionary quantum jump because of this chapter of its history. Therefore, I want to make clear that Integral Play-as it is described now in length in this ILR issue-is catalyzing the vertical as much as horizontal complexity and diversity. This is by far neither a childish nor an adolescent endeavor. It can create great evolutionary heat. And it can overcome and liberate historic contraction and fear. It connects dozens and hundreds of fragments of identity in the national and global nexus-beyond conceptual and theoretical exercises.

This is a highly psycho-active process. And a subversive one? Hissing the pirates' flag in an ocean of verbal reference points? Touching politics, business, culture, gender, age, science, medicine, entertainment, identity, personal growth, global issues and the relationship between private and public spheres as they developed over thousands and hundreds of years. Beyond standards of spiritual and political correctness. Beyond platitudes of coexistence. Come together and let's share something. Beyond discourses of all kind. And ready to jump off the cliffs of conceptual references. Integral leadership on the next level will greatly benefit from Integral Play, as shown by Patricia. Far beyond issues of core business, scenario planning and drafting blueprints. It is a most dynamic process at the very cutting edge."

Are You Ready to Play the Integral Way?


The Next Evolution of Leadership



Patricia von Papstein

For Victoria and Julian



Introduction

As conscious leaders, we feel responsible for the life quality on this planet. We invent and design products and services that are sustainable and provide deep support, i.e., they are tools for life assistance. We initiate social responsibility projects. We fund creative industries. We invest in water protection, healthcare prevention and e-learning. We support projects for understanding and forgiveness between sexes, generations, political and cultural belief systems. From our individual perspective, we want to create satisfaction and peace of mind for everybody.

But we seldom utilize our playfulness when there is need to create next level solutions. This is astonishing, because playfulness is the most powerful driver for all species, including mankind, to innovate. The attentive attitude, a state with no obvious or hidden agenda in thought and action, is the most impressing expressions living creatures can produce. We can't even imagine that this is the attitude we need to shape a future worth living for. Perhaps we dream to be enlightened managers (Aburdene, 2005), but we have not cultivated our senses for humor, sensuality and magic in our business routines. Most of the time, we feel ashamed to do things playfully. This is where integral playfulness can offer relief and create a new freedom for thought and action.



Why We Reach Out for Integral Playfulness

Playfulness is the most innovative human expression for creating a high quality of life. In history there has been no lasting improvement of economic wealth and cultural prosperity out of pain and loss. War and environmental catastrophes brought out ways of survival. Times of peace and understanding made us presents like technological breakthroughs and cultural exchange. Play is the catalyst to create progress and is the mother of culture (Huizinga 1971) Through play creations that appeal like a holy ritual, e.g., Olympic games, carnival) societies cultivated their relationships and encounters.

Today, we realize our interdependencies around the globe. We face "chronic" challenges (Martin, 2006). Explosion of population, lack of energy, pollution of food, poverty and crime are not regional issues any longer. In this situation, playfulness can help to transform us. It is a powerful vision to proceed to become integrative players (Gordon and Esbjörn-Hargens, 2007), who initiate our next social metamorphosis: noble playfulness at any time for anybody.

If our minds stay "greed or sacrifice" fixated and if we see only scarcity and betrayal around us, we will produce closed-minded solutions, too rigid to create liberation from rude forms of cooperation. We have to refrain from a thought pattern that traps us in games in an either live or die modus. Human playfulness is suppressed, if we only play head games. Integral playfulness is thinking and acting. Integral playfulness focuses our attention on unexpected opportunities. We need integral playfulness to unblock our behavior when faced with anxiety and insecurity. The current global financial catastrophe shows how cheaters, who don't dare to play with our lives and possessions have paralyzed our decision possibilities. It is not enough to throw cheaters out of the game, again and again. We badly need to ennoble play rules to enter a global level of creative wealth.

read more..

Tony Schwartz spoke at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, Californiaon 4/17/2008 as part of the Leading@google speaker series. Tony Schwartz is the founder and president of The Energy Projec...


Tony Schwartz is the founder and president of The Energy Project

http://www.theenergyproject.com/home....

 He is the co-author of "The Power of Full Engagement", which has been translated into 24 languages. Tony has written three other books, including What Really Matters. Searching for Wisdom in America. His most recent article, "The Science of Stamina," was published in the October 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Demand is relentlessly rising. Our capacity is not keeping pace. The traditional solution to higher demand has been to invest more time. Unfortunately, time is finite, and most of us have no hours left to invest. Energy, however, can be systematically expanded --- and it can also be regularly renewed. To operate at our best, we need four energy sources: physical (quantity), emotional (quality), mental (focus), and the energy of the human spirit (purpose). This talk will focus on the role of energy in fueling sustainable high performance, and in motivating others.

Google At Serious Play Conference in Pasadena 2008

(These are interesting observations by Nussbaum who contributes for Newsweek about Design and Innovation. Google starts to learn about the world as journalists like Fareed Zakaria, Roger Cohen Parag Khanna and lots of others demand for years already. Of course , earlier or later some spiral awakening too should follow.

In the context of Integral Play still the engineering mind has to be revisioned and lack of emerging complexity in identity  has to be discovered by the Google masterminds:):)

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 11

I had a blast at the Serious Play conference put on by The Art Center College of Design last week. The theme: play is seriously creative and innovative if you take it seriously. Play is collaborative, iterative, experimental and generates new moves, new sounds, new music, new games. Play is natural to all primates and when you take play away, development is curbed in people—and monkeys. My takeaway: we should incorporate play, if not the principles of play, into our lives and our work to make us all more creative. Taking play seriously means taking design, design thinking and innovation seriously

Play is also culture-bound. It has rules, organization, expectations, history, leaders—everything. Which is why the talk given by Google’s director of user experience, Irene Au, was so interesting. She said that “Larry designed the first Google page” and a photo of it shows that it was pretty close to what it is today. In the early days, Google designed for itself. The idea was that the employees were the first adopters and the rests of the population would soon follow. It worked—until Google realized that much of its search was

happening outside the US. Today, 70% of Google traffic is outside the US and Google can't simply design from the inside out anymore. Google has to design from the outside in.

Google has to design for other cultures now. So it's hired an army of anthropologists to do field research in India and other countries to understand Google users. Irene points to the fact that you simply can't import Google Maps to India--because there are few street signs in Indian cities. Some other way of signaling direction has to be created.

Irene also said that it was hard to change Google's culture and turn it into an outside-in organization. Why? It is still an engineer culture that believes in traditional inside-out design. If you can't write code, you don't have credibility and the anthropologists didn't have credibility. "You have to convince the engineers to get anything done," she said. She used workshops, brainstorming sessions and cartooning--cartooning--to transmit the anthropologocial research to the engineers. With varying degrees of success, I expect.

Bottom line, Google learned that the US is no longer the center of the earth, that it needed to learn about cultures all over the world, and that it had to change its own internal culture and organization to do that.

Changing your organization and culture to engagee a multi-centered, multi-cultural world is the BIG MESSAGE. It is integral to what Fareed Zakaria is saying about US foreign policy in his book The Post-American World. GE, P&G and other corporations are moving fast to remake themselves. We all have to understand that WE ARE NO LONGER THE CENTER. We must network with the periphery. That means the old periphery of villages and towns and cities in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East--Mississippi. And it means the new periphery--the new communities being built every hour on the web by like-minded people creating their own cultures. Mommies with blond twins and green eyes. To engage them, to create with them, you must "get" them.

Design=Social Research
Innovation=Social Research

In a situation when even balanced journalists like David Brooks show nervosity and some confusion about the current global financial crisis its good to see the TOP SPECIALIST of integral large scale blueprints and natural design summarizes strategy, perspective and blueprints for global governmental action.

Here the entry from Dec 2008:

Meshworks = Thrive and Help Thrive

I would like to share with you the outcome of one of our first MeshWorks application at the large scale which you can read here.

Given the nature of our emerging problems, we are seeing Problems "G" and even Problems "H" that require what we call Second Tier Conditions which, in turn, will require systems "T" and even solutions "U."  This use of many of the HU-Turquoise thought structures will be without the heavy metaphysical  elements that many are now relying on, for good reason to them. I will write on that situation a bit later, because it is so clear what is happening in "spiritual" communities as they are now talking about "culture" and even values systems. Amazing.

As more and more functions in this country, at least, are moving into a situation where "the government" is beginning to own many of our resources that were once in the domain of the invisible hand of the free market, this means that new criteria for complex decision-making will require new processes. We will, at first, bring back the old wineskins to deal with the new wine, but they will leak.  We have yet to create these new wineskins. We will soon describe MeshWorks Solutions in greater detail, along with Transpartisan methodologies.

Of course, Clare Graves predicted all of this in his rather innocent title to his 1974 article in The Futurist
publication of the World Future Society, "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap."  That statement, in itself, caused me to make contact with Professor Graves because I knew intuitively that here was something unique and powerful. I could not put that concern into words, but I acted anyway. I doubt if any of us would have heard of Graves otherwise. I once asked him when this sort of thing would be required, did he have a time frame, and he responded: "Well, Don, no, I can't tell you when but you will know when it happens. You will feel it for sure."

I feel it now for sure, as are many of you. Many are constructing global-wide happenings, or gatherings that bring together the "wise ones" - usually those in the elite Orange-Green "enlightened" league who will meet in circles, express individual perspectives, "view with alarm," and then begin to generate a list of things to do which, alas, are based on certain assumptions regarding the capacity of people and their habitats to actually do things. We will see these meetings proliferate all over the place and that is a good thing, of course.

Yet, I have a strong sense that these collective processes, as in Theory U and others, will be unable to get to the core problems and solutions.

read more...

In his new blog entry from Qatar (Arab GCC Region)Dennis Roberts -I blog about his work at Education City since November 2007 from time to time) -mentions two Filipino guys who work in Doha/Qatar. He reflects about the often unpoken and misunderstood contributions Filipino guestworkers do in the Arab Gulf Region.

I know it from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain too.

Modern Day Heroes

He ends this way:


"..People like Ryan and Marcos are genuine, striving, and committed people who are truly "Modern Day Heroes." They serve as grocery store clerks, security guards, grounds workers, and many other roles. They are from throughout the world and they make an incredible difference because of their kindness and willingness to encounter each other. I'm renewed by them all... "

In 2007 I forewarded an article from Nina Terol about a Filipino Forum which considers the American TED Forum as model.

Heres to Ninas article. it shows that Filipino ingenuity, passion and readiness to grow is such a great potential. Spoke with Rommel about how to present Spiral Dynamics Integral Approach to young countries too.

Filipinos Dared to Ask: Why not?

And heres to the new updated forum for all who are seriously interested about Filipino emergence:

www.whynotforum.com

As G 20 Summit this year in UK/London is coming nearer its good to look at the radar screen in a way Alan Tonkin from Global Values Network does for Integral Leadership Review, Issue March 2009. its a view on Gaia in itself in light of stratified realities. And it makes sense once again to remember what Alan Tonkin had said again and again:

"The basic split in the world is that around 70% of the world population cover the spectrum Purple/Red/Blue with the other 30% covering Blue Order, Orange Enterprise and Green Environmental issues. If the UN was based on a Security Council based on one man one vote it would become a Red/Blue organisation. Until there is a fundamental shift in values the developed world is going to battle to get Western style democracy to work however much they might like to think it will work. In terms of our findings with the Global Values Monitor (GVM) there are minimal percentages in Yellow Integral with almost no Turquoise to speak of."

Global Values Update 2009


In looking at our world with all its challenges in 2009 there are many opportunities for the better understanding of how “values” play a key role at all levels of our global society.

At one end of the spectrum there is the global financial crises as well as the possibility of the nations of the world adopting protectionist policies in order to protect employment levels at home. At another level there is the real risk of global instability caused by loss of employment as well the scramble for scarce resources in the developing world including water, land, education,health and reasonable housing.

Politics also needs to be reshaped as many citizens across the globe are raising their voices against corrupt and ineffective politicians who are only in politics for what they can take out. This is particularly true in the developing world where corrupt politicians are more often the norm rather than the exception.

What Values are Required in 2009 and Beyond?

We are currently experiencing a regression to the trend of more control and regulation of the global financial system by many governments around the world. This is a necessary step in ensuring confidence in the global economic system. At the same time over regulation can produce adverse effects that can adversely retard and hold back a reasonably rapid global recovery.

In order to ensure stability in global markets it is essential that countries around the world work constructively to ensure that measures put in place are effective. This will involve sensible regulation while at the same time ensure that the fruits of legitimate enterprise are rewarded. It is also important that with the increasing importance of emerging nations, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, their voices are heard in the deliberations of global institutions. This means a more important role for the recently formed G20 grouping with the countries represented being given an important role to play in the shaping of the 21st Century global economy.

Equally, at the same time responsibility is another key issue, which is more than ever required of all countries. This will involve the new entrants to the “enlarged top table” behaving in a way that correctly reflects the required new global values. It will also require added responsibility from the emerging economies.

In order to ensure an integrated approach to the current global flux it is an absolute requirement that global leaders who understand the need for an integrated approach come to the fore. This is a unique opportunity to better ensure that the following issues are appropriately dealt with:


Blue Order: An awareness that Order and Stability are the key components in building a secure global base for growth.
Orange Enterprise: Positive approaches to globally sustainable growth based on free-market principles but with checks and balances.
Green Environmental Issues: The understanding that the world as a whole needs new integrated approaches to environmental issues. Strategically linking all of the above will go a long way to ensuring a more sustainable and better future for all the players in this global drama. In addition to the above issues a stronger stand is required on the following:


Red Power: The global community will need to implement a more effective approach to global “hot spots” with particular reference to issues such as international terrorism, organized crime, and the drug trade. There is little chance that an integrated approach will work without the full support of the developed nations in effectively tackling the issues of global terrorism and crime. This in turn will require the full commitment of all nations to funding effective agencies to tackle these issues on an ongoing long-term basis. It will also require a shift in values for many developing nations in a shift from Power Red to Blue Order.

What is also required is a deep understanding by the developed nations including China and Russia on how to handle the Tribal Purple and Power Red. Generally, developing countries such as those in the BRIC better understand these values, as they experience these at home on a daily basis.

However, these values are generally poorly understood and managed by the developed nations and Western style democracy is decades away from the values mix and current level of development of the developing world. These values move from the Collective to Individual values as set out by Dr. Don Beck in terms of Stratified Democracy (see graphic below).



In looking to the future, what is required is a significant values shift in terms of the global majority in Purple Tribal Order and Red Power leaning towards the model of developed Blue Order and Orange Enterprise as otherwise it is predicted that we will continue to experience greater levels of unrest across the globe linked to the financial meltdown. There is however, a clear historical trend, which can be used by countries and regions as a template on how to move forward. (See graphic below.)

GVN Program for 2009

During 2009 the GVN Group will be focusing on the key global issues and linking these to how the emerging global values can assist in shaping the 21st Century. We live in a time of great challenge as well as great opportunity and believe that the role of values is pivotal in the emerging global map. Equally, in order to fully appreciate and understand the required global tapestry it is important to realize that there is no one quick fix. This is a process, which is part of the historical global mix as well as its emerging future. Countries and organizations that appreciate the opportunities are destined to be the global leaders in the future.

The GVN Group are in the process of compiling a “Global Values Handbook” which will provide real life examples of how different values influence our world. We anticipate this will be available later in the year. This book will include photographs and cartoons to illustrate different values in practice. We value your comments on these issues as well as highlighting real examples of how values work in practice. We look forward to your ongoing participation.

Alan Tonkin
Chairman: GVN Consulting Group

The Art and Science of Meshworking

What can brain science teach us about complexity
and self-organizing in whole systems?

From:

www.creativityatwork.com


This month’s newsletter is guest authored by associate Marilyn Hamilton PhD CGA, founder of www.integralcity.com

It may be, as philosopher Andy Clark has suggested, that our minds are a kludge (or bricollage) of different kinds of intelligence: some intelligent abilities arise out of decentralized and parallel processes, others from centralized and sequential ones…. (Delanda, 1995)

What is Meshworking?


Meshworking is a term derived from brain science to describe how the brain integrates hierarchies and self-organizing webs of relationships. The brain builds itself by laying down large synaptic highways which become the scaffold of communication corridors from which secondary and tertiary corridors emerge, until a vast “hairnet of axons” covers the brain. Once this hairnet is in place then we have a brain that is able to self-organize an infinite number of connections, thoughts, ideas, innovations and learnings while at the same time behave and direct behaviour in dependable, learned ways.


Meshworking seems to combine both the self-organizing results of complex-adaptive human systems with the replicatable backbone of hierarchical organization, capturing the best of two operating systems. In strict terms, brain scientists use meshworks in relation to self-organizing neural nets, and hierarchies in relation to reinforcing levels of hierarchical operations.


The brain builds itself by laying down large synaptic highways which become the scaffold of communication corridors from which secondary and tertiary corridors emerge, until a vast “hairnet of axons” covers the brain. Once this hairnet is in place then we have a brain that is able to self-organize an infinite number of connections, thoughts, ideas, innovations and learnings while at the same time behave and direct behaviour in dependable, learned ways.


Some researchers even relate key synaptic connections in the brain (modulated by the major neurotransmitters like serontonin, dopamine, choline, noradrenalin etc.) to sets of values that allow for regulated brain/body function.

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I have already introduced Mike Jay in 2007 here. As recession on a worldwide scale is proceeding and homes, jobs and security is taken away in many forms, new forms of integral reslience are in demand. Professionally, in Business, relations, dealing with money and energy in many ways.

No magic thinking, wishing, prayers of change, so called secrets, and even the "Yes,we  can" mantra will do it. Breakdowns and breakthroughs are closer together than ever before.

Business and professional life in al areas are profoundly affected by the turbulences. And I know top professionals who are afraid -and confess it - to loose their jobs, health and realtional sanity. These confesssions are only the tip of an iceberg.

The areas of working, jobs, money and business are going through rollercoaster drives next months. And for sure, next years too. Oscialltion between confusion, despair and hopelessness on the one side and wishful thinking, regress to magic thinking and simple mantra solutions is dominating the radar screens.

I offer this piece of Mike Jay as the first one this year which deals directly with personal, professional resilience in an integral way. explicitly using the term "Integral" in the widest way. Once again somebody from the Spiral Dynamics Integral camp is dealing with these quesions of life conditions in a leading way.

Personal growth an resilience. This time in business:


Leadership and Winning?

"Why Athletic-Style Coaching Fails The Coach and The Client In Business"

In our society, at least the developed world, there is a lingering question about winning. I found this piece from Coachville's new leader Dave Buck on a declaration on coaching that is directed towards winning.

I'm going to use it to show you the contrast in leadership styles from Dave's winning style to my leadership philosophy: Generati.

I'm not doing this to show up Dave, although I'm not shirking from pointing out where I have serious differences with him. I'm doing this to help you understand that as long as we focus on the outcome, rather than the journey, we are dooming leadership to a cul de sac. [a road that leads to a dead end]

My comments are in blue.

I want to set this up in terms of context. Dave's declaration below comes from a new R&D effort led by Dave at Coachville and is probably not the final version, lest you find it here and realize there are other versions. By writing this muse I hope to influence those who to see the cul de sac Dave is constructing.

Years ago I gave up athletic-style "win-based" coaching, from which in large part Dave Buck seems to draw his motivation. The reason I walked away after having a pretty good collegiate football career with numerous coaching offers is that I had had enough of the "winning game."

Again, my remarks are in blue.

Dave's remarks are left in black.

You will also want to note that the context here is professional coaching, and not athletic-style coaching which more than likely influences Dave's writing I suspect.

-------------excerpted with permission

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This is about a book of Riane Eisler which deals very concretely, powerfully and globally with some underlying dynamics of the current financial, economic and cultural earthquakes. Its a rabbit hole with lots more ressources about Rianes work, projects and publications, offerings and very practical steps.

www.rianeeisler.com

The Real Wealth of Nations
Creating a Caring Economics

America is teetering on the precipice of economic disaster. Commentators blame deregulated markets and a few bad apples at the top. But these are symptoms of deeper problems. Eminent social scientist and bestselling author Riane Eisler points the way to a sustainable and equitable economy that gives value to caring for our greatest economic assets: people and our natural environment.

This powerful book shows that the great problems of our time - such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation - are due largely to flawed economic systems that set th wrong priorities and misallocate resources. Conventional economic models fail to value and support the most essential human work: caring and caregiving. So basic human needs are increasingly neglected, despair and ecological destruction escalate, and the resulting social tensions fuel many of the conflicts we face today.

Eisler offers a bold reformation: a caring economics that transcends traditional categories like capitalist and socialist and offers enormous economic and social benefits. She describes business policies and practices, innovative economic indicators that incorporate caregiving activities, and new social structures. And she lays out practical steps we can take to move towards a society based on this more humane and effective economic model.

read more..

And an invitation from Riane to get involved even more:

RWN Blogs

Here's another exciting development! The Real Wealth of Nations is inspiring blogs. Not just bloggers, which is also happening, with reviews and articles posted on a variety of blogs. But brand new blogs inviting people to reflect on the caring economics introduced in The Real Wealth of Nations.

Ann Kramer and Jennifer Young designed and put up RealWealthEconomy.com inspired by Nancy Peden's blog. Ann and Jennifer want the blog to help create the momentum for change.

We invite you to blog on these sites! Please also tell your friends about these blogs.

A great example for Meshworking from Peter Merrys Blog. You can get the whole report from his homepage. I took the Abstract and one more explanation what meshworks are and how they are guided for a specific purpose. Differentiating them from mere networks and coherence flows.

Lots to chew and to digest.

Rewards are exponentially:):)

http://www.petermerry.org/

Developing a Roadmap and Meshwork for Millenium Development Goal 5

 

Check out UNDP Info:

What are the Development Goals?

Abstract
The experience from "Parliamentarians Take Action on Maternal and Newborn Health"
sponsored and convened by the World Health Organization (WHO), Inter Parliamentary
Union (IPU) and the House of Representatives of Dutch Parliament is relevant to people
and organizations committed to achieving large-scale change, particularly in complex,
multi-stakeholder challenges. It is often stated optimistically that we have all of the
solutions and resources needed to meet the most demanding challenges of our time. It
is clear from WHO data that this is true for Millennium Development Goals 4&5,
Maternal and Newborn Health. This document outlines a process which builds on work
of the WHO, IPU and the vision and advocacy of Chantal Gill'ard, Member of Dutch
Parliament and her initiative "Meshwork for Mother Care" brining together and aligning
people, organizations, resources and solutions to achieve MDGs 4&5.
The process supported by WHO Department of Making Pregnancy Safer, combines
leadership and convening by WHO and IPU, facilitation (by Center for Human
Emergence Netherlands (CHE)), online collaboration and monitoring (supported by
Gaiasoft) in preparation for large-scale implementation. This case study puts the
Parliamentarians Take Action conference in the context as beginning Step 1 of a 3-step
process to achieve large-scale change. Step 1: Develop a country MDG 4&5 roadmap and
template; Step 2: Test and refine that template. Step 3: Scale implementation.
This case study reflects a longer term collaboration process for achieving MDGs 4&5
using "meshworking" - a highly effective collaboration of people and organizations,
introduced by Dr. Don Beck, CHE Global, to achieve a shared purpose. This event
"Parliamentarians Take Action!" used a rigorous process to develop pillars, conditions
and success stories as a roadmap for in-country achievement of MDG5.

The roadmap
draws on experience of Chile in achieving MDG1 on poverty reduction and on the EU
funded MIDIR project global best practice research findings. This roadmap provides the
framework for collaboration within and between countries and the basis for in country
monitoring and evaluation of progress and inter-country benchmarking and peer
learning by finding what works, systematizing and replicating solutions. This case study
introduces CHE's term meshwork, provides a summary of the facilitation and knowledge
capture process used, introduces Gaiasoft's technology support for meshworking and
large-scale change, and provides candid insights from facilitators on what worked and
how to improve on it. In conclusion, continuing this process will significantly improve
the synergy, speed and cost effectiveness of achieving MDGs 4&5.
...

 

Meshworking
The term Meshworking was introduced by Dr. Don E. Beck of CHE Global to describe a process for highly effective collaboration. Meshworking creates radically more effective partnerships able to develop systemic solutions for complex multi-stakeholder challenges for example, Millennium Development Goals, National Transformation and Climate Adaptation and Mitigation. CHE Netherlands brought meshworking to MDGs 4&5 in facilitating the development of the Meshwork for
Mothercare. CHE was privileged to be given the opportunity to assist in conference design and to facilitate group work.

The definition of a meshwork offered to participants is: " a structured collaboration community. A meshwork aligns people around a shared purpose within a common framework. A meshwork connects people who have interests in particular locations and particular topics. A meshwork connects people across role, sector and organizational boundaries. A meshwork enables knowledge-accidents -
helping people to find and ‘bump-into' the people and resources they need to play their part in achieving the shared purpose1."An effective meshwork is distinguished from a network or group in that interests, beliefs, behaviors
and functions are aligned to and serving a common purpose. Many smaller parts act together as alarger functional whole. At one level, a meshwork is an alignment of hearts and minds around acommon purpose. At another level, a meshwork is an alignment of forms, functions and resources toeffectively achieve a larger functional purpose. In this conference, the goal was to continue
development of a global human and online meshwork which will go forward to implement a solution
of MDG5 in countries. This case study shows how an intentional facilitation process can be used to rapidly develop a roadmap for large-scale change. In this case, the roadmap developed is a roadmap for in-country achievement of MDG5. The diversity of the group increases the depth, breadth and wisdom of the resulting roadmap. The approach emerges or reveals collective wisdom, the ‘wisdomof the crowd' and develops a coherent vision and roadmap for achieving it. Configuring Gaiasoft's
software meshworking and knowledge sharing platform was an essential and integral part of preparing for and facilitating the conference.
..."

 

Additional Links connected to the text:

 

Gaiasoft

CHE Netherlands

Inter-Parliamentary Union

 

From Timothy Garton Ash, co-founder of European Council on Foreign Relations.
As ususal, with humor and radical impatience. He is pointing towards a greater European impact in global ways. Like his co-founders in thisOpen Letter to EU Leaders too.

His diagnosis is mostly correct. His prognosis lacks in depth understanding of the vmemetic European and global landscapes. See Alan Tonkins Global Values Update 2009 for these dimensions.

I am listing below the article a small compilation of blog entries I have written with refererence to TGA positions. His take is always provoking and in sharp insight.

Lacking- in contrast to his great understanding of cultural diversity -his understanding of vertical complexity. Though sensing quasi bodily and energetically the emerging tensions and birth pains of this necessary integrational movement.

The G 20 Summit in London will be missing one Great Power. Guess who?

By Timothy Garton Ash - 26 Mar 09

This article first appeared in the Guardian on 26 March 2009.

When President Barack Obama comes to London next week, he will find one great power missing at the world's summit table: Europe. Five of the 20 leaders at the G20 meeting will be Europeans, representing France, Germany, Britain, Italy and the EU, but the whole will be less than the sum of its parts. There will be plenty of Europeans but no Europe.

Gordon Brown told the European parliament this week, on the first leg of his pre-summit globe-hopping, that Europe was "uniquely placed to lead the world" in meeting the challenges of globalisation. Placed, maybe, but at the moment it's spectacularly failing to take that place. Europe's response to the biggest financial and economic crisis since the process of European integration began more than 50 years ago has been weak and divided.

China and the United States have both launched massive fiscal stimulus packages. By comparison, Europe has so far brought peanuts to the table. The French economist Nicolas Baverez recently estimated the total of Europe's stimulus packages at some 1.5% of gross domestic product, compared with 12% in the US. While doing so relatively little, Europeans have engaged in two other characteristic activities: squabbling among themselves about who gets which peanut, and carping at the Americans.

Thus, for instance, the economist Christoph Schmidt, one of the five so-called sages who give the German government economic advice, complains bitterly about the US pumping up its national debt and risking future inflation by printing money. True enough - but at the same time, Germany once again waits for American consumers to lift its export industry out of the doldrums by spending those dollars. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

read more.

3 more entries with reference to TGA, Values, collective identity and Europe as example:

 Enlightened Fundamentalism or Racism of Anti-R
acists?

Posted on Dec 15th, 2007 by Albert
A snapshot of fierce discussions in Europe about MUlti-Culturalism and different values. Provided by: sign and sight Thats again stuff for considerations about national and stratifed global democracy. About stratified Values and  Integral Considerations on... More »
 
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Posted on Jan 14th, 2008 by Albert
I am giving some background more for the global discussion: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Its all about a complex, values based and in depth understanding of cultural codes, conditions, colors and critical tensions and frictions in... More » 

  Broadening Global Constellations and International Anthem

Posted on Jan 25th, 2008 by Albert
   Timothy Garton Ash did it again. here are two insightful articles about the state of the global world. So far no World governement even in sight, but relevant considerations about the next stage . TGA... More »