I just returned from two weeks in Europe, designing the Renaissance2 Great Shift Conference in Perpignan France for October 22-26; and workshopping Integral City in the Netherlands with Centre for Human Emergence NL, EnlightenNext NL, The Hub, the Integral Institute for Sustainability and Danslab.
Europe is in a much more positive frame of mind than North America right now!! What a relief. I spent two weeks with people whose direction of consciousness is aimed at very high purpose. They are not just talking about Enlightened Enterprise — they are doing it using technologies like Spiral Dynamics integral. They are not just talking about Renewable Energy — they are already using it in the form of solar voltaic and wind turbines. They are not just talking about Resilient Environments — they are applying it through Meshworking and Cradle-to-Cradle.
I see the Europeans (particularly the Dutch) leading the world in the technologies, intelligences and practices that Gaia needs now to address climate change, alternative energies and financial impasses. My European contacts, colleagues and co-conspirators are designing new currencies, new economies, new business models, new neighbourhoods, new governance systems with clients, governments and stakeholders of all kinds. They have stepped out beyond the development of individual consciousness and are reaching for a collective intelligence that is shifting them into active co-creators of a culture that transcends and includes a complex world of values, ethnicities, races, beliefs, expectations and intentions. Europeans see the glass as half full and are acting as if they intend to top it up and revitalize themselves with the whole drink.
North Americans (including Canadians) however are seeing the glass as half empty right now and are struggling to prevent it from draining further. This inspires me to remind Canada, that in 2001 I had the same dream of a Great Calling for our country.
On the history changing day of September 11, 2001, I vowed to bring Spiral Dynamics integral to Canada to change our sense of who we are and what our role is in the world. I wanted to wake Canada up to its natural contribution to the world — to see itself as a catalyser, leader and supporter of new paradigms for global change. In a country, blessed by all the natural resources the world needs most — from water, to oil, to food, to people, are Canadians sleep walking through a time when we should be wide awake, creating new capacities, like our EU cousins??
Canada has the city with the most diversity in the world – Toronto. But do we have the governance systems needed to live with such a concentration of cultural differences? BC is about to host the 2010 Olympics — but are we ready to ski over and around the world class economic bumps that have jumped onto our path? Vancouver is the city most often named the most livable city in the world, but have we the commitment and capacity to make it resilient in the face of rising sea levels?
I have never over-promised what Spiral Dynamics integral can contribute to the change the world needs now. But after working with SDi for 10 years, I can vouch for the fact that it can open your eyes to the developmental, evolutionary nature of these times. It can help you understand the natural bio-psycho-cultural-social ways that people change, and how to support their purpose, principles, profits, priorities and planet in that change. It can show you a trajectory of possibilities for designing meshworks, partnerships, collaborations, teams, organizations, communities and governance systems. The Spiral Dynamics integral Community of Practise introduces you to ideas, technologies and people who can integrate what you are doing now with a larger purpose, deeper consciousness and peer support for you to make the momentous leap that will shift your world into a new Renaissance.
