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Archive for April, 2011

Conscious Leadership in Action – Barrett Brown’s PhD Research

Posted in B. Individual Intelligences, Building - Structures, C. Collective Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Inner, Inquiry, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , , on April 24, 2011 | 3 Comments »


Congratulations to Barrett Brown who just defended his dissertation on Leadership for Sustainability. Barrett designed an integral methodology to study integrally-informed leaders working in sustainability. His Findings differentiate amongst leaders who work on the system (Strategists), with the system (Alchemists) and as the system (Ironists). This research illuminates the path of both consciousness and action as leaders in the sustainability sector grow capacity in contexts that stretch from the humanitarian challenges of the developing world to the environmental assaults of the developed world.

Barrett comments on his study:

“I’ve spent the last two years researching the question, “what does conscious leadership look like in action” - specifically exploring how change agents with complex worldviews design and lead complex change initiatives.

“The bottom line is that these individuals represent less than 5% of the population, and in some cases, less than 1%. They are true outliers in how they see and understand not only the world around them, but also their own inner experience.

“The leaders I researched in my Ph.D. dissertation have achieved a level of development that represents the farthest reaches of what science can currently measure. I was curious to discover how these people actually lead. What do they look like in action when they engage with today’s intense societal challenges?

“In my work, I focused specifically on the context of leading sustainability change initiatives.  In the process, I interviewed and assessed nearly three dozen leaders from business, government, and civil society. This group includes senior executives from global companies and the UN system, as well as NGO directors and consultants.

“The long-term purpose of this research is to support the creation of advanced leadership development strategies that can help address the global economic, social, and environmental challenges humanity faces. If humankind is to succeed in crucial objectives such as those articulated by the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, we will need to employ some new strategies.

“We know that some of our change efforts toward this more sustainable world will work, while many will not. Amongst the success drivers for a change initiative, a key one is the design of the initiative itself. And one of the most important influences on the design of change initiatives is the worldview of the designer. It is this leverage point – the actions of those with a “conscious” worldview – that I studied.

“As it turns out, leaders with a more complex worldview have access to enhanced and new capacities that others don’t. This strengthens their ability to respond to sophisticated challenges.

“Research indicates that such leaders are perceived as more effective, for a whole variety of reasons. While this isn’t uniformly true – context and personality also really matter – there are real advantages that these folks have.

“I wanted to understand more; I wanted to look into their minds and actions and see what insights they might offer to other leaders and change agents. Ultimately, by better understanding how these individuals respond to complex challenges, I think we can help more leaders develop the sophisticated, and at times, powerful capacities offered by complex worldviews.

“This study has significant implications for leadership practice. The results provide the most granular view to date of how very rare and “conscious” leaders and change agents may think and behave with respect to complex change initiatives.

“The leaders in this study appear to: (1) Design from a deep inner foundation, including grounding their work in transpersonal meaning; (2) Access non-rational ways of knowing, and use systems, complexity, and integral theories; and (3) Adaptively manage through “dialogue” with the system, three distinct roles, and developmental practices.

“Additional results include: 15 advanced leadership competencies; developmental stage distinctions for six dimensions of leadership reflection and action; and 12 practices that differentiate leaders with a unitive perspective from those with a general systems perspective.

“If you are a leader, change agent, or someone who helps to develop either, I think you’ll find these results not only deeply useful, but even potentially transformational.”

In the months to come, Barrett will be blogging about these findings, offering insights about how you can use them to improve your own ability to lead. Tune into Barrett – here

Below you will find links to download the following files:

Brief Overview of Dissertation (Excerpt with some of the key findings)
PowerPoint Presentation of Dissertation Research Results (Showcases some key findings)
Full Unabridged Dissertation (Highly recommended, especially Chapter 5 which summarizes all findings)

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Neuroimaging Research Confirms Values Preferences Are Visible in Brain Patterns

Posted in B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 24, 2011 | 1 Comment »


Dr. Clare Graves(1) (and many researchers since) proposed that human values systems emerged in alternating stages of Individualistic expression and Collectivist embrace. He had the insight to propose that evidence would be found in the biological domains (as well as psychological and social) long before technology like fMRI scanning had been invented.  Graves proposition is fundamental to the framework (developed by Dr. Don Beck) that has become Spiral Dynamics integral.

Now Dr. Marc Lucas and his research colleagues in Cologne Germany are proving Dr. Graves’  propositions were quite correct. In a just published article they summarize their findings, showing that distinctive brain patterns can be associated with Individualistic versus Collectivist preferences .  With permission, we have reprinted the Abstract below. Click on the title to access the full article.

Moral Concepts Set Decision Strategies to Abstract Values

Abstract

Persons have different value preferences. Neuroimaging studies where value-based decisions in actual conflict situations were investigated suggest an important role of prefrontal and cingulate brain regions. General preferences, however, reflect a superordinate moral concept independent of actual situations as proposed in psychological and socioeconomic research. Here, the specific brain response would be influenced by abstract value systems and moral concepts. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying such responses are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a forced-choice paradigm on word pairs representing abstract values, we show that the brain handles such decisions depending on the person’s superordinate moral concept. Persons with a predominant collectivistic (altruistic) value system applied a “balancing and weighing” strategy, recruiting brain regions of rostral inferior and intraparietal, and midcingulate and frontal cortex. Conversely, subjects with mainly individualistic (egocentric) value preferences applied a “fight-and-flight” strategy by recruiting the left amygdala. Finally, if subjects experience a value conflict when rejecting an alternative congruent to their own predominant value preference, comparable brain regions are activated as found in actual moral dilemma situations, i.e., midcingulate and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Our results demonstrate that superordinate moral concepts influence the strategy and the neural mechanisms in decision processes, independent of actual situations, showing that decisions are based on general neural principles. These findings provide a novel perspective to future sociological and economic research as well as to the analysis of social relations by focusing on abstract value systems as triggers of specific brain responses.

Citation: Caspers S, Heim S, Lucas MG, Stephan E, Fischer L, et al. (2011) Moral Concepts Set Decision Strategies to Abstract Values. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18451. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018451

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Reference:

(1) Graves, C. (2005). The Never Ending Quest: A Treatise on an Emergent Cyclical Conception of Adult Behavioral Systems and Their Development. Santa Barbara, CA: ECLET Publishing.

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12 Intelligence Principles for Integral City to Celebrate on Earth Day

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, B. Individual Intelligences, Building - Structures, C. Collective Intelligences, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Ecosphere, Emergence, Inner, Inquiry, Integral Maps, Lifecycle, Master Intelligence, Meshworking, Navigating - IVSM, Outer, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , on April 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »


P 1. Ecosphere Intelligence
1. Honor the climate and geography of your city.
2. Steward the environment.
3. Add value to the Earth space.

P 2. Emerging Intelligence
1. Survive so holons serve each other’s existence.
2. Adapt to the environment.
3. Create a self-regenerating feedback loop, by interconnecting human regeneration cycles so that they replenish the environment.

P 3. Integral Intelligence
1. Map the territory integrally (horizontally through four quadrants, vertically through eight plus levels of development, diagonally through its change states, and relationally through its nested holarchies and fractals of complexity).
2. Create and sustain an integral mapping system at the highest sustainable level of complexity, that is appropriate to the capacities of city management.
3. Learn from and update the maps annually or more often.

P 4. Living Intelligence
1. Honor the dance of life cycles in the city.
2. Integrate the natural cycles of change within the city.
3. Learn how to zoom in and out at different scales to dance with the fractal patterns of the city.

P 5. Inner Intelligence
1. Show up and be self-aware, present, mindful.
2. Notice the city intelligences and map them integrally.
3. Grow leadership in heart, mind, soul.

P 6. Outer Intelligence
1. Manage personal energy.
2. Seek bio-physical well-being for self and others.
3. Nurture healthy leaders.

P 7. Building Intelligence
1. Manage life- sustaining energy for all.
2. Design from the center, at all scales for all holons.
3. Build structures that integrate self-organizing creativity with hierarchies of order.

P 8. Story Intelligence
1. Respect others.
2. Listen deeply.
3. Speak your story, and enable others to speak theirs, to co-create communities of integral practice.

P 9. Inquiry Intelligence
1. Ask what’s working (and not) and co-generate a vision for the city’s contribution to the planet.
2. Create an integral city and community plan.
3. Implement and manage the plan appropriately at all scales in the city.

P 10. Meshworking Intelligence
1. Catalyze fractal connections within the human hive.
2. Build communication bridges across silos, stovepipes and solitudes.
3. Enable meshes and hierarchies that transform, transcend and transmute capacities.

P 11. Navigating Intelligence
1. Select the future destination of the city based on its vision.
2. Design and implement integral dashboards, using integral indicators of well-being for the city.
3. Notice outcomes and make course corrections to enable progress naturally.

P 12. Evolving Intelligences
1. Expect the unexpected.
2. Pay attention to the principles and rules.
3. Enable emergence and resilience by transcending and including integral capacities at Level 8 and beyond.

Master Principle:

  1. Take care of yourself
  2. Take care of each other
  3. Take Care of this Place.

Reference:

Hamilton, M. (2008). Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers. p. 268-269

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Almere Principles Guide City Growth

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, B. Individual Intelligences, C. Collective Intelligences, D. Strategic Intelligences, E. Evolutionary Intelligences, Ego, Ethno, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2011 | 3 Comments »


Almere NL, a city of 190,000 is getting ready for a “scale jump” to double in size by 2030. Seeking guidelines to renew and transform itself, in 2008, it invited Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart to craft principles by which the city could grow sustainably in balance with its unique polder environment and with its challenge to settle people and grow jobs that contribute to an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable future.

The seven Almere Principles are intimately connected with “an act of culture and the expression of an optimistic approach of the future (1)”. Like the Integral City intelligences the Principles describe the need for Contexting, Capacity Building, Strategy and Evolution. Using the Integral City sequence, but quoting verbatim from the manifesto (1), here are the Almere Principles:

CONTEXTING:

Connect Place and Context: To connect the city we will strengthen and enhance her identify. Based on its own strength and on mutual benefit, the city will maintain active relationships with its surrounding communities at large.

Combine City and Nature: To give meaning to the city we will consciously aim to bring about unique and lasting combinations of the urban and natural fabric, and raise awareness of human interconnectedness with nature.

CAPACITY BUILDING:

Empower People to Make the City: Acknowledging citizens to be the driving force in creating, keeping and sustaining the city, we facilitate opportunities for our citizens to pursue their unique potential, with spirit and dignity.

Cultivate Diversity: To enrich the city we acknowledge diversity as a defining characteristic of robust ecological, social and economical systems. By appraising and stimulating diversity in all areas, we can ensure Almere will continue to grow and thrive as a city rich in variety.

STRATEGY:

Design Healthy Systems: To sustain the city we will utilize “crade to cradle” solutions, recognizing the interdependence, at all scales, of ecological, social and economic health.

Continue Innovation: To advance the city we will encourage improved processes, technologies and infrastructures, and we will support experimentation and the exchange of knowledge.

EVOLUTION:

Anticipate Change: To honour the evolution of the city we will incorporate generous flexibility and adaptability in our plans and programs, in order to facilitate unpredictable opportunities for future generations.

Since their inception The Almere Principles have a provided strong framework within which to make difficult decisions related to infrastructure development, green space management and re-negotiating relationships between the municipality and the residents. As the new “scale jump” for the city comes on stream, it is hoped the principles continue as the backbone for minimal critical structure that enables the full blossoming of the city coming of age.

Reference:

Feddes, F. (Ed.). (2008 ). The Almere Principles. Almere, NL: The Municipality of Almere.

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Almere NL New Town Appreciates, Celebrates, Blossoms

Posted in C. Collective Intelligences, Ecosphere, Emergence, Inquiry, Integral Maps, Lifecycle, Storytelling - Cultures, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on April 18, 2011 | 2 Comments »


Last week Almere Netherlands was the location of my learning and the focus of my attention. Attending the fifth Centre for Human Emergence, NL, fifth Spiral Dynamics Integral Confab, Almere was featured in case studies to explore the city with Integral City related lenses.

Almere was created as a New Town, 30 years ago, using the principles of the Garden City. It is not only a New Town but is situated on New Land – created from Lake Marken and the North Sea.  Thus it has the unique quality of having an ecology that has emerged in just the last 60 years, when the polder was drained, the land desalinated and a new freshwater biology seeded.

Almere has grown from zero population in 1970 to 190,000 people today and is the 7th largest city in NL.  The city was designed to be a second Amsterdam (relieving population pressures in the capital city) and also to preserve the green space in the rest of NL.

Almereans have now produced the first generation of residents who have been born in Almere. It is no longer a New Town suffering the growing pains of childhood, but has now reached the stage of its adolescence. The case studies we explored revealed all the attendant teen-stage angst associated with discovering its own identity and re-storying itself as a unique place, with its own economic, environmental, social and cultural resources.

Case studies explored the oldest residential area of Haven, a health care opportunity in Poort and an educational challenge in Buiten - three very different nodes of Almere. What we discovered in the case studies was a tension of values systems between residents, municipality, local agencies, federal government, civil society and the private sector. In many ways the residents sought opportunities for greater contributions and expression that were being discounted by well-meaning bureaucracies.

However, using the lenses of Appreciative Inquiry - Discovery, Dream, Design and Deliver – we explored the case studies and discovered a core of energy that wants to emerge to take the city into its next natural stage. The key words of this attractive energy were identified as: Appreciate, Celebrate, Blossom.

Appreciate reminded Almere to tell its story to itself.  The City is a Miracle!!  Much of what is working is not being communicated internally within the communities or the city. People did not know the story of how many international cultures or accomplishments had been achieved in the last generation or how the city’s sustainability values were being fulfilled.

Celebrate projected Almere’s value out to the rest of NL. The story of its great success at creating a city of 190,000, providing jobs for Amsterdam and saving green space for the rest of NL demands to be told and re-told so that Almere can shed unfair comparisions to Amsterdam and become a self-confident city appreciative of  its own virtues.

Blossom related both to the trees and profligate greenery of Almere -an environmental success story beyond all expectations – and the new stage of the city’s lifecycle - a time to shift energy from its roots to the blossoms on its many branches. This new stage demands that self-making resources home grown in Almere replace many of the well-meaning but suffocating support systems controlled by other levels of government.

The liberating energy of  Appreciate-Celebrate-Blossom is that it forms the “integral intelligence” around which Almere can develop a whole systems meshwork for moving forward to embrace its new challenges of growing the city to a population of 350,000 with 100,000 new jobs by 2030.

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