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Posts Tagged ‘spiral dynamics integral’

Integral City Map 1: Loving the Polarities in the City

Posted in Integral Maps, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2013 | 9 Comments »


Integral City how do I map thee? Let me count the ways … starting with Map 1.

Integral City Map 1:The Four Quadrant Eight Level Map of Reality(Adapted from the work of Ken Wilber, Don Beck)

Integral City Map 1:The Four Quadrant Eight Level Map of Reality
(Adapted from the work of Ken Wilber, Don Beck)

When I started to explore the Integral framework for cities I was influenced both by the work of Ken Wilber and Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics model. Meshing the insights from both, I settled on what is now called Map 1 because it gives a comprehensive whole-systems view of the city.

I have described the merits of this map in the audio (and printed) book, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences in the Human Hive. I also discussed it with Ken Wilber during our Integral City 2.0 Online Conference (and Integral Life) Interview. Map 1 as a whole captures the Integral Intelligences of the city. It also frames the context of each of the intelligences in the four quadrants: Upper Left / Inner, Upper Right / Outer, Lower Left / Cultural- Storytelling and Lower Right / Systems-Structural. (I have blogged extensively about all these intelligences elsewhere – just follow the links if you want the details.)

Today, let me explore this 4 quadrant, 8 level Map 1, with the language of Pattern Dynamics (TM), developed by Tim Winton. Map 1 could easily be related to several of Winton’s Patterns. Because it is by definition a whole systems map, it integrates many elements in one Map – so it could relate to the Dynamics Pattern. And it is also has an appearance of a strong Structure Pattern. And in the very centre of Map 1 is the evolutionary spiral – so it relates to the meta-pattern of Source.

But what fascinates me most about this Map 1 is that it depicts the many Polarity Patterns in the city and reveals how the interplay of opposites in the city naturally creates energies that arise from the tensions between the poles.

Polarity Pattern Dynamics (tm)

The Polarities in the city that can be traced in Map 1 follow spectrums with directions that can be anchored horizontally, vertically and diagonally. They represent Perspectives, Realities and Worldviews. Here is just one way we can simply name them, just experimenting with one directional anchor for each set.

Perspectives (vertical)

  • I vs WE
  • IT vs ITS

Realities (horizontal)

  • Intentional vs Bio-physical
  • Cultural vs Social

Worldviews/Values Systems (diagonal – 8 Levels in each quadrant)

  • Objective Integral vs Intersubjective Integral
  • Subjective Post-Post Modern vs Interobjective Post-Post Modern

Map 1 reveals aspects of the Pattern of Polarity because it reveals seven qualities identified by the language of Pattern Dynamics (TM):

1. Expansion/Contraction: Map 1 is a fractal pattern that can be applied to human systems in the city at multiple scales: an individual life, a group of people, an organization, a community or a city.

2. Concentration/Diffusion: Map 1 has both a center and a boundary that captures the concentration of the energy of individual humans, and special interest groups (e.g. recreational teams, reading clubs or professional associations)  and the diffusion of this energy across the many groups of humans in the city such as families, work places and neighbourhoods. (We will talk more about this in another blog, when we discuss Map 2.)

3. Input/Output: The Polarity pattern suggests that there is a directionality and/or tension from the input of the centre of one pole/quadrant to the perimeter of that pole/quadrant in the city; e.g. this might show up in business supply chains where more complex integral worldviews (of say, advanced IT systems) transcend and include less complex post-modern, modern and pre-modern worldviews.

4. Flows/Stores: One pole/quadrant can act as a store from which others emerge: e.g. collective values systems contain and influence individual values systems.

5. Order/Chaos: The self-organizing quality of chaos in Map 1 is not so readily apparent. Map 1 appears very ordered and one has to assume that chaos is ever-present as an invisible quality of this map (and be comforted by the discovery in complexity theory, that we “get order for free” as systems do self-organize). We will discuss this quality more easily when we look at Map 3 (in subsequent blogs).

6. Competition/Cooperation: This quality as it is embedded in Map 1 is usually associated with the tensions between worldviews (particularly the competitive I-Me-Mine levels of complexity and the cooperative We-Us-Our levels of complexity). Clare Graves had the insight that the human species had evolved a survival strategy, that kept it alternately, swinging between the individuated “Express Self” poles (where innovation often occurs) and the collective “Sacrifice Self” poles (where shared governance can emerge).

7. Masculine/Feminine: This gendered aspect of polarity is not readily apparent from Map 1. But with interpretation from research on masculine/feminine qualities, many studies indicate that the masculine is more commonly attracted to the objective (action) and interobjective (systems) poles, while the feminine is more commonly attracted to the subjective (emotional) and intersubjective (relationship) poles.

Integral City how do I map thee? Map 1 reveals a richly polarized system where opposites both require one another to strengthen their own anchor of expression and also constantly change one another in order for the whole city system to survive. If you love the possibilities that emerge from the polarities of the city, Map 1 shows the evolutionarily adaptable opposites that give a whole new meaning to “pole dance” at a city scale.

In future blogs we explore other ways to map the whole city system through the Integral City Maps identified as Maps 2, 3, 4, and 5.

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Cherry Blossom Happiness Factor of City-Centric Inner Intelligence

Posted in Inner, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2012 | 1 Comment »


The Inner intelligences of the human condition relates to a person’s subjective sense of wellbeing and happiness. The Subjective I is the psycho-emotional-spiritual way I experience the city. The Subjective I feels inspired and uplifted by the personal pleasure of walking down a street lined with cherry blooms, imagining the excitement of expressing ideas, with friends and colleagues, at the community coffee shop.

When I have done research into the subjective sense of happiness, people identify a trajectory of factors that contribute to happiness including: having the simple basics of life, being able to bond with their families, experiencing a sense of personal power or expression, living with others in a way that embraces respect and order, the opportunity to work and support themselves and their families, tolerating diversity while creating the conditions for inclusion in community.

Interestingly these happiness factors seem to emerge as a kind of personal contribution to the “wisdom of the crowd”, where individuals identify one or two of the factors being important to them. However, when we look at the full spectrum of factors we can see the hierarchy of values that emerge from the research of Clare Graves (which focused on how to describe a healthy human being) and has become the trajectory mapped by Beck and Cowan in Spiral Dynamics and by Ken Wilber in the Integral Model.

The value of examining the wellbeing and happiness aspects of the subjective experience of a single life, is that it gives us the container to appreciate the emergent qualities of consciousness. It seems to create a kind of container for me to consider my attention and intention – even my personal purpose – related to this trajectory of inner intelligence. In doing so I open the door into “the examined life” and I gain the capacity to make life worth living precisely because I choose to examine it.

In doing so I can discover that my happiness and wellbeing have ever-widening spheres of consideration. I start with the ego-centricity of focusing on my own happiness (delight at the cherry blossoms). Then I discover that happiness is embedded in the ethno-centric circle of my family, clan and neighbourhood (sharing cherry blossoms with others). When I cross the street away from the cherry blossoms, I experience a wider connection with the city, where happiness embraces the attention and intention I engage through the purpose of my work place, educational and healthcare systems and communities outside my own. Perhaps when I progress from ethno-centric to city-centric experience, I create the platform for an awareness of how my wellbeing and happiness also derives from an intuitive sense of the wellbeing of my city’s eco-region and the planet as a whole (opening into a world-centric sense of wellbeing)? When I contemplate this circle of happiness and wellbeing it often leads to an even more profound sense of happiness and purpose at a deep spiritual level (which has been called by Wilber a kosmo-centric sense of awareness) – where I experience my evolutionary unity with the cherry blossoms.

Ultimately all attention and intention in the city is experienced at the level of the individual. Almost magically, when the coordination of multiple individuals seeking happiness along the trajectory of values aligns, a political will or purpose emerges (the vestiges of hive mind?).

The challenge we now face as a species is not only to define how our individual bio-psycho-cultural-social purpose aligns with the purpose of our city, but how can my personal happiness be balanced in support of achieving my purposes at the same time that others are experiencing and unfolding happiness for themselves?

On the broadest scale, we need to create a life-long learning system that optimizes human potential with appropriate attention and intention. Developing our citizen intelligences will determine the extent to which our cities will be sustainable. To do this in an evolutionarily respectful way, we must design our education system(s) so that it allows individual, family and cultural variation. Such variation needs simple rules that allow

learners to experience learning unique to their potentials (ie. not one size fits all) while at the same time creating citizens able to contribute to the achievement of city, in ways that we can each and all enjoy the happiness that cherry blossoms bring.

References

Hamilton, M. (2008). Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers.(pp. 61-64)

Hoornweg, D., Ruiz Nunez, F., Freire, M., Palugyai, N., Villaveces, M., & Herrera, E. W. (2007). City Indicators: Now to Nanjing: World Bank  Policy Research Working Paper No. 4114.Wills, E. H., Hamilton, M., &

Islam, G. (2007). Subjective Wellbeing in Bogotá (B), Belo Horizonte (BH) and Toronto (T): A Subjective Indicator of Quality of Life for Cities. Bogotá: World Bank. Wills, E. H., Hamilton, M., & Islam, G. (2007). Subjective Well-being in Cities: Individual or Collective? A Cross Cultural Analysis. Paper presented at the Wellbeing in International Development Conference.

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This blog is a prologue to the Integral City webinar conference  City 2.0 Co-Creating the Future of the Human Hive . We are inventing a new operating system for the city.  Click to get more details re the Free Expo and eLaboratory membership  scheduled September 4-27  2012. You are invited to attend and participate.

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Sense in the City Spring 2012 – Generating Change in the Human Hive

Posted in Global/Worldcentric, Inquiry, Storytelling - Cultures, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2012 |


Spring Equinox Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City  

Today’s Integral City Sparkies for City Diversity Generators:

What city in the world has developed a course of study and practise that enables a person to methodically progress from cradle to peak prformance at the defined levels of complexity that deliver leadership to the powers 1 through 8?. p.120

Preparing leaders to the Power of 8, involves capacity development with a curriculum and experience that aligns knowledge, values, structures and life conditions.. p.123

We may be standing on a whole new threshold of human capacity emergence that will make the Level 8 leadership competencies (which we explored in some detail in Chapter 5) look primitive.p.140

 Our senses, our learning and our science now tell us that behaviors in the city can become more intelligent. Our aspirations tell us that we must become more intelligent. p.144

Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive

2012 is a year pregnant with the anticipation of change. Many look to the storylines presaged by the Mayan calendar, that this year is the end of an old way of Being, and the beginning of a new way of Becoming. The shifts from theatres of war to congresses of peace; the revisiting of the first Rio sustainability conference; the many tensions of the 2012 US election; the craziest aberrations in weather patterns; and the continued ambiguities of the old monetary system – all these life conditions call attention to the scale of change that is occurring at a global level. We sense the uncertainties of the future, the non-linear jumps in our experience of time, place and moral influence, the continuous flow of scientific discovery that reveals the amazing miracle of life and the surprising practise of compassion that embraces the deepest tragedies of human and kosmic shifts.

It is a time for the Diversity Generators of the Human Hive to intensify the messages in their dance that show new resources, new directions, and new potentials for the City – the most complex of Human Systems. It is time for the intelligence of the Human Hive to be recalibrated to the Power of 8 and beyond. In 2012 Integral City will initiate the course of study that enables the City to learn through the lenses of the Integral Paradigm. We are ready to open the doors of an eLaboratory where we invite all who are part of the Brain Trust to collaborate on designing and putting into practise a new operating system for the City.

Integral City will leverage the change climate of 2012 to meshwork the What, the So What and the Now What of action learning, to integrate scientists, philosophers, designers and practitioners into a community of People, Purpose, Practise and Priorities in service to the wellbeing of our Cities and our Planet.

 1. INTEGRAL CITY e-LABORATORY 2012:

See the invitation and mark you calendars for September 2012  - Integral City Meshworks in partnership with Integral Initiative and Integral Leadership Review is sponsoring the Integral City e-LABORATORY throughout September 2012. Modelled on the smash-hit of 2011 the Integral Leadership Collaboratory the e-LABORATORY will explore how Integral Frameworks and Best Practices are evolving intelligences in cities around the world. With Keynote Speakers from City Leaders and the Integral World; Design Labs with Global Developers and Civic Managers; and Community Circles Lead by Activists and Civil Society Entrepreneurs we will deliver four weeks of non-stop exploration about the City, that will open your eyes to environmental breakthroughs, career opportunities and evolutionary collaborations, all at the convenience of your nearest e-screen. Details will be released in the months ahead. Let us know if you’d like to volunteer, support, sponsor and/or be part of our powerful list of speakers and panelists already confirmed (including Hazel Henderson, Don Beck, Bill Rees, Bob Willard, Richard Register, Ann Dale). Get on our Early Bird update list by sending an email to eLAB@integralcity.com

2. 2012 Learning Events:

  1. Birth 2012: Co-Creating Planetary Shift – Join Evolutionists, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston, Stephen Dinan and the Shift Team on Conception Day – April 22, 2012 to celebrate and plan for December 22, 2012 to create a planetary shift. Free Registration is at: http://conceptionday2012.com . Let’s create a wave for change that exceeds the 100 million people this event intends to attract.
  2. Apply Integral City principles to a Community of Interest in April, 2012 at Royal Roads University Sustainable Community Development Graduate Certificate. The Capital Regional District of Victoria will be our Community of Interest and we will be working with them on their Master Pedestrian and Cycling Plan for our second Graduate Certificate Course. Click here for Registration Details. Or contact us if you’d like to nominate a location for a Community of Interest rru@integralcity.com . You supply the place, we supply a cohort of highly motivated Action Learning researchers!
  3. Join Dr. Don Beck at the Adizes Graduate School in Santa Barbara for his timely Spiral Dynamics: The Quest for the Master Code . April 9-14, 2012. For registration, contact stephanie@adizes.com
  4. Foresight Canada www.foresightcanada.ca is offering a course on systems mapping as one of the foundational skills for seeing and shaping the future, March 22 & 23, 2012 in Calgary. They are also offering in Ottawa, April 26-27 Is our Civilization Sustainable;  May 10-11, in Victoria, New Tools for Foresight; and October 18-19 in Calgary, Governing Whole Systems for our Shared Future. Contact Ruben Nelson, ED at foresightcanada@shaw.ca
  5. Center for Human Emergence is sponsoring a Global/Local Change series in October/November 2012. Send inquiries to CHEChange@integralcity.com . Stay tuned for dates and locations.
  6. Order the DVD of the August, 2011 Embody Integral Sustainability Conference sponsored by Experience Integral at Venwoude, NL. This DVD includes presentations by Barrett Brown, Marilyn Hamilton, Irini Rockwell, Anouk Brack +++.

2. Recent Blog Postings from marilyn.integralcity.com include:

…meshful blessings for this season of Birth and Generativity … 

 Marilyn

Useful Links:

Twitter: integralcity; LinkedIn: Marilyn Hamilton

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Grok,Talk, Walk & Rock and Bridge the Great Divides at World Future Society

Posted in Classroom course, F. Training, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »


Join us for two integral-spiral designed sessions at the WFS, Vancouver, BC July 8 & 9 2011.

Bridging the Great Divides: A Spiral Dynamics Workshop on Cultural Integration, Global Cohesion, and Our Multiple Futures. Dr. Don Beck, Elza Maalouf and Said Dawlablani present July 8. 

The end of the Cold War has not brought us peace in our time. New and often explosive social mixtures have overwhelmed our current institutions and modes of decision making. While we continue to focus on the surface level manifestations—dangerous intra- and intercultural tension, threats to environmental sustainability, racial-based conflicts, revenge and pay-back motives, along with growing gaps in affluence and access to technology—the solutions we have to offer appear to often make things worse, not better.

The focus will be on the underlying value systems (vMeme currents and contours) in Building Bridges among the diverse and even competitive economic, political, health care, education, religious, and community-based models. Everything connects to everything else. This session will use the current Israeli–Palestine crisis as a case study; will focus on the nation building dynamics in Iceland following the financial collapse; and will sketch in the master geopolitical code with the power and precision to facilitate the movement of 6.7 billion humans through developmental layers, waves, and worldviews. The workshop will offer bold, innovative, and multidimensional forms of Building Bridges in the twenty-first century.

Who should attend: Individuals looking for better ways to understand diversity, complexity and change and those seeking practical solutions to complex problems and searching for ways of providing practical methods of creating seamless organizations and societies.

Details are here http://www.wfs.org/content/c-6-bridging-great-divides-spiral-dynamics-workshop-cultural-integration-global-cohesion-and

Grok, Talk, Walk, Rock: Choreography for Four Generations: Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, Dr. Barbara Marx-Hubbard, Cherlynn Beck, Vanessa Fisher present July 9.

In today’s Human Hive, how do generational cohorts align (or not) as they clash, coordinate, collaborate, and constellate? What differentiates those born before World War II from the baby boomers, Gen X, and the millennials? How are these four generations archetypal in their thinking, behaviors, relationships, and systems? Join our quartet as we voice the worldviews, capacities, and complexities of four generational patterns and how we open and/or block effective practices and strategies in today’s city. As we Grok, Talk, Walk, and Rock, presenters will reveal the four generational cohorts we represent. Research from Integral City will underline the dynamics of generational values in decision making and resource allocation. This session will finish with a performance that choreographs cosmic cycles with the resilience cycles of the Human Hive.

Who should attend: Anyone who needs a new paradigm for succession planning. Anyone interested in how generational lifecycles affect city dynamics. Anyone who would like to explore theory, research, and non-linear methodologies for shifting relationships in human systems.

Details are here http://www.wfs.org/content/grok-talk-walk-rock-choreography-for-four-generations

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Connect to the Simplicity Within the Complexity of Our Times

Posted in Classroom course, F. Training, tagged , , , , , on June 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »


The Values That Move us Through Conflict to Understanding -
Discover the Foundations of Spiral Dynamics integral* in Edmonton, July 14-17, 2011.

Why do people make such different decisions, given the same information and opportunities? How do
values develop and spread among people? How can we bring our diverse ways of thinking to create a
community that feels good to all of us? How can we make our way through conflict constructively in the
workplace and in our communities?

Over the years I have found that, Spiral Dynamics integral (SDi) is a model for people who think about complex systems –
neighbourhoods, communities, corporations and organizations. It is a way of understanding the
different values or “world views” that people use to make their decisions. Using SDi, leaders can
reduce the tensions in those differences, and create positive change in social and business
systems.

Based on the research of Clare Graves, Don Beck and Ken Wilber, this 3 day course reveals a
complex adaptive model for leadership, team, organizational and community development. You will
explore value conflicts with the intention of seeing opportunities move forward concretely.
SDi offers you tools to:
• Communicate with, and motivate, people in ways that matter to them.
• Construct organizations and relationships that align with the work to be done, the people
who will be doing it, the management that fits those people and the technologies that apply
naturally.
• Weave people, purpose, priorities, profits, programs and processes to bring about change
that is ecologically informed and operationally integrated.
• Discover the origins, foundations and common tributaries that generate human value
systems over time.
• Learn how human values show up and connect individuals, teams, organizations,
communities, regions, countries and the globe.
• Explore the themes generated by value systems in human history and current affairs, and
how they inform our choices in todayʼs complexities.
• See how value systems contribute to the quality and health of our communities,
governments, health institutions, education systems, economic agreements, financial
institutions, production processes, and leadership codes.
• Explore how value systems affect our perceptions, choices, decisions and relationships.

Who attends SDi learning events?
• environmental leaders
• change managers
• city managers
• technology leaders
• health care leaders
• social service leaders
• community leaders
• HR and OD practitioners
• community developers
• entrepreneurs for the 21st C
• university presidents, faculty and admin
• senior leaders in finance, economics
• senior government leaders
• manufacturers
• coaches, mentors
• young president organizations
• resource management leaders
• community planners
• analysts, strategists
• education and learning leaders
• board members

Instructors
Marilyn Hamilton PhD CGA, is the founder of Integral City Meshworks Inc. She supports teams,
projects, and organizations across Canada to chart new directions and strategies for themselves
and their communities. Marilyn is a researcher, facilitator, teacher, writer and blogger. Marilyn
serves as faculty at Royal Roads University, the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser
University, JFK University, The Banff Centre, California Institute of Integral Studies and the Adizes
Graduate School.
Marilyn applies Spiral Dynamics and Integral tools across Canada and internationally by serving
executives of multinational companies, as community foundation president, chamber of commerce
president, designer of sustainable community development programs and as the developer of
Integral Vital Signs Monitor for City Wellbeing. Marilyn is the Canadian leader of Spiral Dynamics in
the Integral Age, a charter member of the Integral Institute, and represents Canada at the Center for
Human Emergence International. She is author of Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the
Human Hive, and a jury member of the Globe Sustainable City Awards. Marilyn is a co-founder of
the Center for Human Emergence: Canada

Beth Sanders BA MCP MCIP RPP, is the founder and President of POPULUS Community
Planning Inc., where she is engaged by individuals, communities, corporations and organizations
seeking to align people, purpose, priorities, profits, programs and processes. As a city planner,
Beth is regularly in the heart of conflict and political wrangling, ranging from siting hog farms or
homeless shelters, to the chaos of building North Americaʼs fastest growing city: Fort McMurray.
Beth applies Spiral Dynamics and Integral tools across Canada with elected officials and municipal
administrators, public and private corporations, a universityʼs board of governors, numerous
community boards, as faculty at the University of Alberta and Brandon University, on the board of
the Community Planning Association of Alberta, and as a convener of tough conversations that lead
to wise action. She received the Mayorʼs Medal in Urban Issues (Winnipeg) for her work in public
engagement. Beth is president of the Alberta Professional Planners Institute and a co-founder of
the Center for Human Emergence: Canada.

For Details and Registration
Full course details and online registration:
http://integralcity.com/discovery-zone/workshops-and-training_current%20trainings.html

*Accredited by Dr. Don Beck, Founder of the Center for Human Emergence and The Spiral Dynamics Group

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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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Systems and Resilience Cycles for Sendai Restoration

Posted in A. Contexting Intelligences, Integral Maps, Lifecycle, Panarchy, tagged , , , , , , , on March 21, 2011 | 1 Comment »


How do you integrate five of the resilience models that I have used in Integral City?  How can they help us understand how to respond, repair and restore the city as a living system in disasters like we have seen this year in Brisbane, Christchurch and Sendai?

Integral City(p. 43)  illustrates the four stages of the resilience cycle as they progress through different degrees of connectedness and potential. It seems to me that each author I have cited in the book and below (Adizes, Bloom, Eoyang, Graves and Holling)  has used a 4 stage cycle and because these are applied at different scales of the human system, they help us understand the dynamics of the city — both in good times and in disasters.  Essentially these five resilience cycles are embedded in one another.

(Note this model illustrates the 4 stages in a 4 quadrant model that is different than the Integral 4 quadrants. It is especially important to notice it is a CYCLE model that appears to apply to all living systems. In terms of the Integral Model you can imagine the Integral Model progressing through each of these stages as it develops or evolves.  I have mapped the authors and their cycle description in the two images below – one a Legend and the other a “stacked” map of the cycles.)

Systems Cycles Legend    Resilience Cycles Co-Exist in the City

In order to illustrate this I am going to use the city of Sendai Japan because the cycles are all in very high activation and differentiation at the moment.  I don’t know much about Sendai except through the news, and I offer this with the greatest respect of the difficulties they face at this time.(I hope this is helpful to see the dynamics of systems in the city, in play before our eyes. On many occasions they are hidden because the change states are not changing much – but this is a very vivid example.)

Holling describes the stages of an ecosystem. (He uses the Panarchy reslience model that he co-created).
Sendai is a coastal city, whose ecosystem was at a steady state Conservation stage. The earthquake/tsunami plunged it catastrophically into a Release stage where all the elements of the ecosystem are still connected but no longer ordered. As it responds to the emergency it will attempt to move from the Release stage into the Reorganization stage where the elements will actually be reorganized to deliver higher potential with new systems.
Bloom describes the stages of species systems (for bees and I have borrowed it for Humans).
The Human Species who lived in Sendai were probably also at a steady state of Conformity Enforcement where daily life was governed and moderated by supportive bureaucracies and agencies. After the disaster it was forced out of Conformity into the first stages of Diversity Generation (DG) just to stay alive. We are already starting to see DG move from an entry stage into a more mature stage as so much emergency response kicks into gear.
Eoyang describes the stages of self-organizing sectors or organizations.
Within Sendai let us imagine that there was a retail sector selling electronic devices (handhelds etc.). It was not doing so well before the tsunami – so it was already in a Disconnected stage. After the tsunami there was nothing left of the business neighbourhood, office buildings, the employees or most of the customers. So this retail sector has shifted into a stage of chaos.
Adizes describes the stages that single organizations go through as they mature.
Within Sendai let us imagine there was a Startup Company that was selling new nutraceuticals including Iodine tablets (used for radiation remediation). The demand for its emergency supply nutraceuticals and radiation skyrockets and it was located on high ground and survives the tsunami. It must move from a startup phase into heavy production to meet the demand.

Graves and Beck describe the stages of change that individuals go through (these have sounds that I often illustrate when I am speaking or lecturing – alpha is the happy humhmmhmm; beta – is the uhohuhoh something is changing; gamma is the “oh shit – there is no way back”; and delta is “wow, a clear day has dawned; new alpha is the return to happy humhmmhmm but at a new level of capacity because of the learning that has happened through progressing through each stage.
In Sendai let us say there was a woman who had just picked up her child from school (alpha). The tsunami roars in on her way home (plunging her thru beta right to gamma). Somehow she and her child miraculously get swept to high ground – she has a Delta relief to have survived. But when when she looks around her and none of her house, family, neighbours survived she realizes that life has changed forever (back to gamma).
(Note that in the resilience model I have made the Graves stages of change double barrelled eg. alpha-beta etc. to better represent the ranges that would occur in each of the Resilience quadrants.)

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What the above attempts to illustrate is that the Relience framework has been discovered and modelled at each level of scale of a living system by different researchers. All the cycles are ongoing – but at different different speeds. It appears that the Panarchy model illustrates the upshifts and downshifts in the cycles much the same way as Spiral Dynamics describes the vertical dimension of the Integral Model.

If any readers are familiar with Weisboard’s “Discovering Common Ground” or “Productive Workplaces Revisited”  he actually identifies the appropriate response to support systems at each stage of the cycle. These are instructive to consider when conditions are stable in a city.  But in order for Sendai (and its sibling cities who have been affected by disaster) to restabililze what it needs most now is attention to the spiral of complexities through which cities evolve and out of which resilience emerges.

Sendai needs the basics of life (people are winuclear thout food and shelter); family relocation and support systems (they have been torn apart – the sense of belonging has been traumatized); a focus for energy and healthy tolerance of risk (to align warrior spirits and release the powerful blockages of grief); restoration of order and authority for dependable city infrastructures (obliterated and/or multiply threatened); strategies for successful economic results (to re-establish economies and social systems) ; caring and sharing across cultures and/or castes (to bridge cultural silos, stovepipes and solitudes which have emerged from the disaster. And all of this requires systems thinking (to align and re-align attention to all of the needs concurrently demanding attention) and a worldcentric consciousness (that embraces the intensity of immediate needs and the evolutionary spirit of our ever-evolving resilience cycles).

The culture of the Japanese seems to have developed a remarkable resilience (noted by many) because of its life conditions which has created a history of surviving natural disasters. They are providing a model for other cities around the world to learn how to work together and re-build the resilience systems that support people at all levels of scale, even under the most challenging conditions.  Keeping both the resilience cycles and the spiral of needs in view, the world can be effective in offering assistance to help restore Japaneses cities to their full sense of wellbeing over the months and years ahead.

References:
Adizes, I. (1999). Managing Corporate Lifecycles. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press.

Beck, D., & Cowan, C. (1996). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Bloom, H. (2000). The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. New York: John Wiley & Son Inc.

Eoyang, G., & Olson, E. (2001). Facilitating Organization Change: Lessons from Complexity Science. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer.

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.

Gunderson, L. C., & Holling, C. S. (Eds.). (2002). Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems Washington, DC: Island Press.

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

Weisbord, M. R. (2004). Productive Workplaces Revisited: Dignity, Meaning and Community in the 21st Century. San Francisco,: Jossey-Bass.

Weisbord, M. R., et al. (1992). Discovering Common Ground: How Future Search Conferences Bring People Together …. San Francisco,: Berrett-Koehler.

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The Change the World Needs Now!!

Posted in Classroom course, F. Training, G. Levels: Developmental/Evolutionary, tagged , , on July 6, 2009 |


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.

Since September 11, 2002 we have offered Spiral Dynamics integral Foundations and Advanced training, based on the research of Clare Graves and Dr. Don Beck (and licensed by Spiral Dynamics Group) in nine Canadian locations. I personally invite you to join us for the 25th training on August 13-15, 2009, of Spiral Dynamics integral Foundations  in Vancouver BC. It is time you added your gifts and talents to the Spiral Dynamics integral Communities of Practise and its Centres for Human Emergence, that can do the change the world needs done now.
 
You can find full details and online registration at http://www.integralcity.com/DiscoveryZone/Training/SDiL1%20generic.html . Please feel free to contact me about donation, scholarship and instalment options and share this invitation with your networks — especially with those you know who are ready and just waiting for the right time — the right time is now!!. (We have extended the Early Bird rates till July 13 to make this easy.)
 
With passion and optimism that we can all take the momentous leap of human emergence!!

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10 Summer Learning Opportunities

Posted in Classroom course, Dialogue, F. Training, Telecourse, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »


May Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City     Today’s Integral City Sparkie for the City Mind:
A city which can merely feed, clothe and shelter its citizens lacks the intelligence to sustain itself, because the intelligence for sustainability comes from a commitment to learning about self, others and our shared life conditions.  Hamilton, M., 2008, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive, p.175  

The summer of the New Renaissance is upon us. We offer you a sumptuous festival of 9 capacity building opportunities to entice, inspire, mesh and lead you into expanded Integral City capacities of all kinds.  Even as the world contracts, this summer is exactly the right time to reflect, realign, renew and reach outward. Also check out our FALL Preview of the World Forum below. Learning locations range from Teleconference to France, Washington DC to Vancouver, Dallas to Whidbey Island and points in between.  

 Listen to an interview on Integral City & The Agenda for Changing the World in the next 10 years, with Jim Garrison Co-Founder of The World Forum: Integral Life http://integrallife.com/node/43328 (also available at Integral Naked http://in.integralinstitute.org/).   Mark these events on your Agenda (join me at all the ones marked *, where Integral City will be presenting or attending)   *1.   Spiral Dynamics integral Confab May 28-May 31, 2008 join Dr. Don Beck  Spiral  Dynamics integral Level Two  ”Cultural Dynamics and Nation-Building and SDi Train-the-Trainer Training”.  Details are available here   http://www.sdiregister.com/SDi-Level2-Confab.php   Dr. Beck will be joined by Elza Maalouf LLD,  Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, Dr. Bruce Gibb and the their team of colleagues from Canada plus livewire sessions. You will learn how Dr. Beck is using large-scale psychology to build nations and how to present the Spiral Dynamics body of knowledge in a user-friendly and sophisticated manner. May 25-27, 2009, Dallas, Texas  Join Dr. Don Beck for SDi Level One. Details are available here http://www.sdiregister.com/   

*2. How Communities Learn to Thrive in Challenging Times

Moving from Concern to Action: Communicating for Change

Date: June 11, 2009 Time: 9:00 am – 4:30 pm (registration opens at 8:45 am)

Location: Surrey Museum, 17710-56A Avenue Surrey BC

Details & Registration: http://www.bchealthycommunities.ca/Content/Our%20Vision/Learning%20Events.asp

This workshop will support you to develop your knowledge, skills, and abilities to effectively influence change through your communications with diverse audiences. Using the framework of Spiral Dynamics integral it helps you understand how you can translate your message/communication so that people can hear it and align your message so that people can act to support it.
This workshop helps to uncover a common, unifying, and integrating approach that can guide us in times of turbulence and promote physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, and social values and community capacity building that considers the whole person in the whole community.

 

*3. New Tools for New Times – Spiral Dynamics integral Introduction

June 17, 2009, Canadian Memorial United Church, 1825 West 16th, nr Burrard, Vancouver BC

Donations at the door

Limited Seating: pre-register sdi@integralcity.com

Why do people make such different decisions, given the same information and opportunities?  How do values develop and spread among people?  How can we bring our diverse ways of thinking to create a community that feels good to all of us? 

Spiral Dynamics integral is a model for people who think about complex systems – like neighbourhoods, communities, and organizations.  It is a way of understanding the different values or “world views” that people use to make their decisions.  Using Spiral Dynamics integral, leaders can reduce the tensions in those differences, and create positive change in social and business systems.  

The Spiral Dynamics integral model helps us understand our next steps towards creating a constructive community atmosphere in a changing situation―wherever we are in our work at this moment. It shows us what’s working, what’s blocking progress, and how we can dream for our future.

Learn how communities, associations and professionals from Halifax, First Nations, Winnipeg, Abbotsford, Creative City, New Westminster, the Netherlands, UK and South Africa have used Spiral Dynamics integral for practical solutions.

Presenter: Michael Keller MT, MA, Introduced by Marilyn Hamilton PhD CGA

*4. Renaissance2 Great Shift Partner Gathering

June 22-23, 2009,

Integral City, Master Class, June 24, 2009

Le Chateau Apollinaire, Perpignan, France

Details & Registration: http://www.renaissance2.eu/home/index.html

 

Join leaders who have had deep experience in creating the next wave of social, business and technological innovation. We invite you to become a part of this exclusive group of social innovators to share your insights and celebrate each other’s success. Between being inspired by the keynote speaker panels, you’ll gain even more taking part in one or more of the working groups centred around four innovation crucibles vital to our future. Your contributions will help catalyze their success and develop your own practical insights and valuable connections.

 

We now have all the tools and technologies we need to co-catalyze a new Renaissance. At this event we use them to take the next step in accelerating open source innovation

between business people, social entrepreneurs, innovators, cultural and spiritual

leaders, civil society and governments, to address the most challenging issues facing

human civilization today. Work together with the partner organizations and leading

members of Renaissance2, a not-for profit foundation whose mission is to catalyze socially innovative world-centric businesses, on the four innovation crucibles we need to make this dream a reality:

 

* Renewable Energy         *Resilient Environments

* Enlightened Enterprise  *Integral Governance

http://www.summerleadershipinstitute.com/invitation

 

5. Summer Leadership Institute

 

Sunday, July 5 3:00 p.m until Friday, July 10 2:00 p.m., 2009
Shawnigan Lake is an hour’s drive from Victoria, BC

 

Details and Registration: http://www.summerleadershipinstitute.com/invitation

 

Week- long leadership inquiry that will provide:

  • Increased resilience and capacity to move into the future
  • A sense of purpose in the chaos
  • Insight that triggers initiative and action
  • Practical strategies for leading in your life
  • An ongoing community of practice
  • Access to resources and leading edge approaches
  • Learning about yourself, others and leading

Faculty: Diana Smith, Michael Keller, Mary Martin, Sandy MacIver

*6. The Map, The Mesh and the Human Hive: 3 Module Telecourse

Location: Telephone Bridge Line to be Advised After Registration

Time:   Noon to 12 noon to 2pm Pacific Daylight Time (GMT+8) for all dates

July 8, 2009   The Map (Integral Capacity)

Aug. 5, 2009   The Mesh (Complex Relationships)

Aug.26, 2009    The Human Hive (Resilient Adaptiveness)

 

Each session is recorded and three chapters of the Talking Book Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive will be downloadable and included in the fee.

 

Each session includes: Introductions, a Mini-lecture from me, Facilitated Discussion, Q&A, Summary.

 

Register for the course by emailing marilyn@integralcity.com with Telecourse in the subject line.

 

 

7. Integral Education Seminar FROM CRADLE TO KOSMOS

Whidbey Island August 2-7, 2009. Get the details at www.i-edu.org .

 

 

*8. SPIRAL DYNAMICS integral CERTIFICATION SEMINAR :

 

 

Spiral Dynamics integral Level 1 Certification Training

Vancouver, BC, August 14-16, 2009 

Details & Registration: http://www.integralcity.com/reg-forms/Current%20Trainings/current%20trainings.html#sdi trainings

 

*9. The 16 Ways Level One: Energy Fundamentals

With Dylan Newcomb, August 12-13, 2009 Vancouver, BC

Participants qualify for Student Registration Spiral Dynamics integral, Level 1, Vancouver, BC, August 14-16, 2009

Details & Registration: http://www.dylannewcomb.com/Dylan_Newcomb/16_Ways-Level_1.html

 

By engaging our whole self – on the levels of body, mind, emotions, and breath –  and moving them from one dynamic into it’s opposite, back and forth,  the natural abundance of energy contained within each polarity opens up and becomes much more available to us.  We start to naturally respond with more ease and joy to the constant changes in our life. The 16 Ways offers a simple and powerful way to access a greater range of experience and expression.

 

In this two-day level one training, you will:

 

Learn to access the fundamental energies of The 16 Ways in your body, mind, and emotions

 

gain an intuitive, practical understanding of your own subtle energy patterns and learn how to work with them

 

complete the ‘16 Ways Polarity Questionnaire’ which tracks your daily feelings and behaviors and traces them to energies of the The 16 Ways.

 

practice using the polarities of The 16 Ways to explore and enhance relationship

 

 

 

 

 

*10. FALL PREVIEW

2009 STATE OF THE WORLD FORUM: Mobilizing to Save Civilization – A Ten Year Plan to Address Climate Change
November 12-14, 2009 in Washington D.C.

Registration and Details: http://www.worldforum.org/2009conference-overview.htm

 

This Forum will bring attention to the critical issue of climate change and to catalyze a ten year plan to green our economies that the State of the World Forum is convening a three day conference November 12-14, 2009 in Washington D.C. The 2009 Forum will launch a ten year campaign that will meet in a different world city each year.
Our intention is to catalyze a demand for new standards of moral leadership. Our goal is to empower people everywhere, personally and collectively, to create greener and more resilient lifestyles and communities.  In order to realize this plan we are bringing international thought leaders, specialists and activists together to begin work on what a ten year plan to green our economies would actually look like, even as we appeal to our governments to take immediate and decisive action.
We are in a time of enormous transition, when the present is crumbling right from under our feet, but the future is not quite clear enough for us to grasp. What is needed is imagination and a sense of possibility to bridge the gap between present and future.

The State of the World Forum is committed to working with partners worldwide to catalyzing the imagination needed and the collaboration required to both envision and implement the world we must fashion as humanity moves beyond the War on Terror into the next phase of human development. Joining together to make this commitment can generate a veritable renaissance of international solidarity and good will.

Please join us in this global initiative to change the course of history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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