John Roberts' book "Igniting Inspiration" really is "A Persuasion Manual for Visionaries." It's a humorous, practical look at the art of inspired communication. But it's more than that. It's a psychological roadmap to the mind-blowing times we live in.
Drawing on mythic archetypes, Spiral Dynamics, and the developmental psychology of Claire Graves, John Roberts describes 8 ways of being human. As a former Jazz drummer, he calls these "musical notes on the scale of human experience." Wonder what people see in Sarah Palin? Wish you could captivate an audience like Barack Obama?
Robert's description of the emergence of human consciousness gives you an amazingly simple, yet very practical way of understanding of how people think, which values they cherish, and the metaphors they live by. These thinking systems advance through tribalism and heroism to absolutism, individualism, humanism, and systems thinking.
Each one is identified with a color, so that Absolutist Blue is blue-collar, Ronald Reagan, and the religious right; while Individualist Orange is Donald Trump, survival of the fittest, and agnostic. Most inspiring though, is his description of how the global challenges we face, and the global tools and technologies we are using to solve them are spurring humanity to a new level of consciousness.
"Mass emergence of the systemic/yellow thinking system is the ongoing breakthrough of our times," says Roberts. Think the sustainability movement, cultural creatives, yoga, organic everything, Google, Richard Branson, and yes, Barack Obama.
And what's the point?
The point is that: "This new thinking system is our greatest tool for creating new, inspired communication systems and leadership platforms that can move us out of collective global deadlock and towards a future where hope is celebrated."
If this sounds like the 2008 election, it is. The reason this book is so important right now is because it describes exactly what's happening in our time.
Inspiration. Hope. Change.
These are not just campaign slogans. They are signs that society is undergoing a massive shift. And John Roberts has given us a powerful tool for bringing it on. Bravo!