Spiral Dynamics What is Spiral Dynamics Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics

What is Spiral Dynamics? • Spiral Dynamics is a powerful model and predictive theory of human development and cultural evolution • Successfully employed around the globe for conceiving and implementing real-world integral solutions to social conflicts and for catalyzing individual evolutionary transformation. • Theory and Tool for change

If you haven’t changed your mind lately, how can you be sure – You still have one?

Meme Defined • • A world view A value system A level of psychological existence A belief structure An organizing principle A way of thinking A mode of living

When there is a memetic shift, everything changes Tangible: Actions, Icons, Events, Places, people and behavior Intangible : Ideas, beliefs, theories, Courses, trends, ethics, norms and issues

Meme Components Why? Context How? Code Value Systems Life Conditions Ways of seeing world What? Display Surface manifestations

Example : Someone goes to a traditional function on a Sunday. Why? To get insurance contacts – Orange For the ceremonies – Purple

• Danger : By looking at behavior to judge what will be the color • Need to ask Why? Otherwise we may foolishly make a judgement about their meme color. • Birds of same feather flock together is about the meme color, not skin color.

Some clarity on SD • Memes are not types of people but forms of adaptive intelligences in people • Spiral is not a pre-determined script. There is no ultimate outcome, everything is produced by dynamic interaction with life conditions • At each level say 5 need to manage that and the lower systems, that’s why higher levels are more complex • Transcend and include. Everyone is passing through all stages. Cant destroy anything • Individual will have pieces of the spiral. The spiral is more cultural • Spiral is inside of us. We are not on it • Systems gyrate in us. We are musical cords. We are blends of systems • Hierarchy is not about better. But about different for different life conditions • Orange is above blue because orange can include blue; blue can’t include Orange

Some clarity on SD • When orange hits population goes down. When green meme hits people don’t get married or stay married. • Healthy people don’t have major vacuum in earlier memes, lets say for example when they come to yellow • Depending on life conditions we can regress to lower memes temporarily • There is a hierarchy involved, but it is more factual than evaluative. It is about “more complexity”

• Your thriving depends if you can have a full range in your repertoire. • Memes do not represent a hierarchy of "better, “ • Each can be expressed in a positive and negative way • The whole spiral with its assortment of meme codes is inside the person and may be called upon in response to the demands of their changing Life Conditions

First Tier "Subsistence" value. MEMES Basic needs, Competing

BEIGE Instinctive/Survivalistic MEME – starting 100, 000 years ago Basic theme: Do what you must just to stay alive

• Uses instincts and habits just to survive • Distinct self is barely awakened or sustained • Food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority • Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life

Examples • Cast away movie • The only real BEIGE that exists today in its pristine condition is hidden away in Indonesia and parts of Africa. • Street people who are basically hunter-gatherers, who get what they eat where they find it. • In the horrible conditions of extreme poverty in Somalia or Ethiopia, where it's a hand-to-mouth existence. • Some people, when exposed to a catastrophe, may regress to BEIGE. Higher-order priorities suddenly vanish in the midst of personal tragedy, extreme suffering, or deprivation

PURPLE Magical/Animistic MEME – starting 50, 000 years ago Basic theme: Keep the spirits happy and the tribe's nest warm and safe

• Bonding with people • Obeys the desires of the spirit being and mystical signs • Shows allegiance to chief, elders, ancestors, and the clan • Individual subsumed in group • Preserves sacred objects, places, events, and memories • Observes rites of passage, seasonal cycles, and tribal customs • First evidence of human bonding—the sense of a kindred spirit, that "I'm someone because I belong to a certain clan or certain tribe. " • First sense of the metaphysical • Hearing inner voices, the voices of spirits. • The PURPLE meme is heavily laden with such so-called right brain tendencies as heightened intuition, emotional attachments to places and things, and a mystical sense of cause and effect.

• Sacrifice to the wishes of the elders, spirits and ancestors to gain safety and security for the tribe like group in a fighting world • Heavy superstition, charms • “The good spirit protected me”. So I need to keep good spirit • We see world as a battle between good and bad spirits • Purple sense of time is not watch time; it is nature; season time

Examples: • • • • Bad omen if a cat crosses the road Talisman AD – going to my parents house before I go abroad Keeping peacocks feather in our books Pumpkin to ward off evil Black dot on cheeks of children Personification of nature Family rituals Magical new age beliefs Using reiki to ward off spirits in Africa, if the moon is full and the cow dies, the PURPLE mind connects the two events, one causing the other Rumors of downsizing in business – Purple threat. Overemphasis on what the chiefs say (To counter this enhance purple bonding to people / product) Vibudhi – Really true from purple lens Rites of passage (age 13/14 – coming of age), memorable events, anniverseries

Examples • Don’t mess around with purple; dangerous stuff; Use It • Indian Weddings – lots of rituals; purple stuff. • Not all purple is about superstitions and mystical. It is also about bonding; If bonding order is dissolved and nothing is put in place we have a whole society in chaos • Royalty – keeper of purple

RED Impulsive/Egocentric MEME – starting 10, 000 years ago Basic theme: Be what you are and do what you want, regardless

• The world is a jungle full of threats and predators. A jungle where the strongest and most cunning survive • Breaks free from any domination or constraint to please self as self desires • Stands tall, expects attention, demands respect, and calls the shots • Enjoys self to the fullest right now without guilt or remorse; To hell with others so as to find instant gratification and avoid shame in a world of ‘dragons’, pleasures and excitement • Conquers, out-foxes, and dominates other aggressive characters • Gratify impulses and senses immediately • Fight to gain control at any cost

• Punishment reinforces Red. Egocentric coping mechanism – acts tough, assertive, bold and action oriented • Tends to be guiltless, believing that “you should get everything you can get away with” and that “might makes right” • Depends only on the self – trusts no one else • Red’s time frame – Now • Incentive system has to be directly connected to behavior • Its all about me • Loves big challenges to prove itself • Live fast, Love hard, Die young

Examples Example: • • • Movies like Thirupatchi AD-10 years back when I used to drive fast AD-When someone cuts me on the road I overtake Lot of our politicians, movie stars Rebellious youth In RED, we see high crime rates, we see all kinds of rage and rebellion, but we may also see wonderful spurts of creativity, heroic acts, and the ability to break from tradition and chart a whole new pathway Rock and Roll Cant wait for savings; cant put money in bank How to bait red – Prove it to me; You can do it. Prove your macho. Work on their impatience. (Instead of pushing red up the wall find positive ways of dealing with them. If we come down too hard on them we freeze them in – TRAP. If we let them do what they are doing- a life time of ego. Need to do something to control. Not threatening. Red must respect you

BLUE Purposeful/Authoritarian MEME – starting 5, 000 years ago Basic theme: Life has meaning, direction, and purpose with predetermined outcomes

• • • Bonding with ideas In BLUE there is a search for a transcendent purpose, a recognition of the importance of order and meaning, a universe controlled by a single higher power One sacrifices self to the transcendent Cause, Truth, or righteous Pathway The Order enforces a code of conduct based on eternal, absolute principles Righteous living produces stability now and guarantees future reward Impulsivity is controlled through guilt; everybody has their proper place Laws, regulations, and discipline build character and moral fiber Here for the first time is the capacity to feel guilt (RED feels shame, but not guilt) Righteousness, discipline, accountability, stability, perseverance, and order prevail. Purple is personal. Blue is more systems oriented. Good Vs Bad A negative side of blue heavy dogmatism Key element is finding meaning and purpose. Then conformity follows

Examples • • • • Institution of Family AD - Many of the principles of truth and value I am upholding All the isms, religions of the world Mysticism – Purple / Blue 8 fold path of the Buddha Enlightenment - Sacrifice self for later Faith – Organised belief (Purple is more primitive) Ancient nations. An ordered existence under the control of the ultimate truth Taliban – Blue to handle Afghanisthan – Red Education; Going to college Mandella Blue. Other Africans Heavy Red Literacy – onset of blue; makes it possible to spread the truth Heavy nationalism

Examples Red to Blue: Transition is very difficult – Gorillas dying for a cause – Permission of blue : • Terrorist • Rogue police officer Dying for cause is typically Red to Blue

The greatest obstacle to discovering the Truth is being convinced that you already know it. Each one is saying : Follow me to the Truth. There is a blue parade each with different contents. Fundamentally Christianity, Islam, Hinduism all have same meme structures

ORANGE Achievist/Strategic MEME – starting 300 years ago Basic theme: Act in your own self-interest by playing the game to win

• ORANGE is about advancement, improvement, and progress • Change and advancement are inherent within the scheme of things • Progresses by learning nature's secrets and seeking out best solutions • Manipulates Earth's resources to create and spread the abundant good life • Optimistic, risk-taking, and self-reliant people deserve success • Societies prosper through strategy, technology, and competitiveness • Play the game to win, cultivate optimistic, risk taking self reliance • Measurement – Trial and Error • Learns how to invest time and money for payoff • If you want upliftment to orange think differently. – Build richer digital sense. Digitalization : Commit ideas and events to numbers – Skills training around strategy and measurement. Cant just say develop

• Quantification with high hopes • Multiple thinking. Looking at various options • More pragmatic way of decision making; less based on ideologies • Key element in orange is changeability

Examples • • • India is going through this now Industrial revolution AD – My drive to build my business Scientific method. From qualitative to quantitative measurement Some fascinating things happened in the European brain that seemed to occur for the first time in the 1700 s—the mathematical sense, the sense of cadence, the linear sense that made possible written music, that made possible quantification and measurement Orange takes many forms not just material; Strategic – for example Mahatma Gandhi For a conference Gandhi did not wear the appropriate dress. Behavior looks red. But we need to ask why? Strategy. Orange Marketing research Executives in companies look at the amount of money one makes as a way of keeping score. They compare bonus. Never enough Vision : can see something completed Medicine Cell phones

GREEN Communitarian/Egalitarian MEME - starting 150 years ago Basic theme: Seek peace within the inner self and explore, with others, the caring dimensions of community

• Seek peace in the inner self and explore the caring dimensions of community • The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma, and divisiveness • Feelings, sensitivity, and caring supersede cold rationality • Spreads the Earth's resources and opportunities equally among all • Reaches decisions through reconciliation and consensus processes • Refreshes spirituality, brings harmony, and enriches human development • The focus shifts from personal achievement to group- and community-oriented goals and objectives—for GREEN, we are all one human family. • Spirituality returns as a nondenominational, nonsectarian "unity. “ • True green has orange embedded in it. Otherwise it is false green

• Feelings are most important – not truth, not power, not safety, not material • Everything is relative, truth is a matter of context and the situation • Explore the inner being of self and others • Reach decisions through consensus • Egalitarianism : The guarantee of “equality” for each person to develop his/her potential • To seek peace with the inner self and others, thus producing a harmony and tranquil society • Decision takes more time; they have to express feelings • Rise of women

Examples • AD – My people value driven way of building People First Consultants • Green Peace • Human rights movements • Multi culturalism • Gender roles are derigidified • Social class distinctions blurred • Group therapy • Never satisfied with handling inner child

Mean Green Meme • Absorbs rather than contribute • Attacks Blue and Orange • Short step but important step to go to Yellow • Anti competitive; will hamper progress

There are both positive and negative expressions to all the memes

From 1 st to 2 nd Tier • Completely different thinking patterns, different minds emerging; new quick and effective capability of solutions emerge • Not driven by status; Not driven by fears; No internal restrictions • Not the next step. But a Leap forward • Healthy expression of all memes

Second Tier "Being" value. MEMES

YELLOW Integrative MEME— starting 50 years ago Basic theme: Live fully and responsibly as what you are and learn to become

• • Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies, systems, and forms The magnificence of existence is valued over material possessions Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority Differences can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows Understands that chaos and change are natural Planet is a total ecosystem Sense the big picture and the interconnection of everything Has an enhanced vertical perspective with the ability to transcend and include and value what came before, and also to anticipate what will be next • Think in flow systems

• Less caution. Less fear. No arrogance • Not attached to any particular idea or movement • Recognizes billions of people are passing through 1 st tier today. It does not erode any code. Each code is essential; Blue in middle east; 1 st world – orange +; People who move through these stages constantly. • Yellow : Interior system of judgement: wisdom of others not always better than one’s own • Expresses self, but never at the expense of others or earth, so that all life (not just my life) may continue in the most natural fitting ways • Their closets are full of meme colors. They enjoy experiences in each of the systems. Yellow has all 1 st tier systems. Choices. No meme conflicts • Shame not there. People don’t like you. So? Far too authentic for that

• • • Accepts inevitability of nature’s flow Focuses on competencies, functionality Every meme has truth Self Interest without harm to others Experience fullness of living on earth Demands flexibility and open systems Does not beat itself for what it has done in the past Not affected by status Recognizes split world. Does not rush in to artificially to heal wounds Responds to competency and reason Satisfaction from doing well but anathema to praise. When endowed with lavish praise gets uncomfortable. Because it is self determined. Challenge of doing something keeps it alive, not praise • Free from inner compulsiveness but can enjoy the best of life

• • • • Open to learn at any time from any source Rely on what’s necessary, natural Displays 2 nd tier lifestyle priorities and preoccupations Complex in design and simple in execution. Energy is put upfront Existence ethic is the foundation stone for behavior that is rooted in knowledge and reality Takes what is and deals with what is – Reality based systems What was right yesterday may not be tomorrow Deals with paradoxes If it is realistic and appropriate to be happy. Fine. If it is realistic to suffer then suffering is appropriate. Value comes from magnificence of existence. We are alive. We can exercise choice. Rather than our selfish or group interests In 1 st tier there is conflict of memes. In 2 nd tier if we know it is orange to green system we give orange to green solutions. Mobilizes whole community. All efforts focused laser beam Transforming forms. Changing forms not just changing behaviors

YELLOW "left brain with feelings" TURQUOISE "right brain with data. "

TURQUOISE Holistic MEME— starting 30 years ago Basic theme: Experience the wholeness of existence through mind and spirit

• Work on behalf of the Life Force itself, in its many manifestations in life-forms on the planet • The world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind • Self is both distinct and a blended part of a larger, compassionate whole • Everything connects to everything else in ecological alignments • Energy and information permeate the Earth's total environment • Holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions are to be expected

Cycles of Change I: Me: Mine We: Us: Ours Individual Focus Collective Focus Ratcheting towards Complexity

That pendulum swing Creates Emergence Swing between Individual focus And Collective focus Self Expression Vs Attuning with nature

I: Me: Mine: Take charge, make change, move against nature, control the external world Task: Explore the outside Locus of control : Inside

We, Us, Ours: (more of sacrifice) Accept the inevitable, live within nature’s constraints, focus on making peace Task : Fix the inside Locus of Control : Outside

Expressive Systems Inner Directed Red: Impulsive, To hell with others Orange: Express self – now calculatively, not to arouse the ire of others Yellow: Express self Now – But not at the expense of others

Sacrificial Systems Value and Behavior influenced by external focus – Outer directed Purple: Sacrifice self now to the wishes of tribe, spirits, chieftan Blue: Sacrifice self now to obtain later; Eg going to college to acquire a skill, degree Green: Sacrifice self now to obtain now for self and others

• When any warm color rises we will have harmonics of warm color. • For example if orange is on rise, Red will be on the rise.

Start looking at the world with yellow lens

A person can be self actualized in any level

Countries • • • Singapore – Blue / Orange India – Orange Dutch – Orange / Green Russia – Blue / Orange Iceland – Purple / Orange

• • • Pre Modern : Purple, Red, Some blue Modern : Blue, Orange Post Modern : Green Yellow : beyond post modern Yellow and Turquoise : Celebrate pre modern, modern and post modern

Practical Applications • See spectrum of people as supposed to stero types. Not treating everybody in the same way • When problem solving, we need to decide where to address, Which level? • When we change behaviors and then put them back into the same systems and structures, does not work • How to motivate people? Wrong question. I need to know what kinds of people. What kinds of thinking. Otherwise we assume a commonality or a unified nature of group which may not be the case. We need to get into the habit of being specific. How would you express it to Purple, Blue, Green etc

Practical Applications • Company may be yellow thinking, however some departments may require a different meme person who is the best. Eg marketing – Orange • Place yourself in different environments to activate various memes from time to time – Then there is much more natural move to 2 nd tier. • To gym various memes can do it in many ways – music, movies etc • Corporate: Compensation depends on what kind of people are there : Red: Pay Cash. Blue: Can delay – retirement programs

Bring Into your lives • • Noble Purpose – Blue Responsible Profit – Orange Sensitivity to People – Green Respect for ecology and planet (not from survival mode but from Authentic care mode)- Yellow