Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change [Paperback]

Don Edward Beck (Author), Christopher Cowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1405133562 | ISBN-13: 978-1405133562

Spiral Dynamics introduces a new model for plotting the enormous economic and commercial shifts that are making contemporary business practice so complex and apparently fragmented. Focusing on cutting-edge leadership, management systems, processes, procedures, and techniques, the authors synthesize changes such as:

• Increasing cultural diversity.
  
• Powerful new social responsibility initiatives.
  
• The arrival of a truly global marketplace.

This is an inspiring book for managers, consultants, strategists, and leaders planning for success in the business world in the 21st century.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Spiral Dynamics reveals the hidden codes that shape human nature, create global diversities, and drive evolutionary change. These magnetic forces attract and repel individuals, form the webs that connect people within organizations, and forge the rise and fall of nations and cultures. This book tracks our historic emergence from clans to tribes to networks and holograms; identifies seven Variations on Change, and adds power and precision to the design of human systems and 21st century leadership.

Spiral Dynamics is an extension and elaboration of the biopsychosocial systems concept of the late Clare W. Graves; work that Canada's Maclean's Magazine called 'The Theory that Explains Everything'. The authors mesh UK biologist Richard Dawkins' concept of 'memes' with Gravesian 'value systems' in crafting a timely transformational change formula and process. Their concept of MEMES represents the first major statement of the new 'Science of Memetics.'

Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, who were closely associated with Clare W. Graves, apply the principles of Spiral Dynamics worldwide in both corporate and top-level governmental sectors. They helped transform South Africa out of race categories, design organizational and marketing systems for a wide range of industries, and revitalize local communities, educational and professional institutions, and sports programs. Based on motivational MEMEs, they also designed a "hearts and minds" strategy for the South African rugby union team, winners of the 1995 World Cup.

Beck and Cowan were on the faculty of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, for a number of years before forming the National Values Center.

About the Author

Don Beck is Co-founder of The National Values Center, Denton, Texas. He taught at the University of North Texas; played a major role in the South African transformation; and applies and enhances Gravesian/Spiral Dynamics concepts in corporate, educational, and geopolitical initiatives worldwide. He is active with Ken Wilber in the Integral movement.

Chris Cowan is Co-founder of The National Values Center and is based in Santa Barbara, California. He is partner in NVC Consulting which seek to continue and build on the legacy of Dr Clare W. Graves through research, application, and publications.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (August 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405133562
• ISBN-13: 978-1405133562
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 130 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarification Concerning Previous Reviews July 29, 2000

By Alex Burns

Format:Hardcover

A brief note regarding comments made by the previous reviewer:

When Blackwell Business Publishers published Spiral Dynamics, they did not include an index developed by Don Beck and Chris Cowan (mistakes like this do happen sometimes with academic publishers). Interested readers can contact the authors directly at ... for further details and updated research. Any initial "X-Files" feeling is dispelled once you become more familiar with the model, and the milieu that it evolved from.

Spiral Dynamics draws extensively upon over 40 years of research by Beck, Cowan, and their mentor Clare W. Graves. The original research data includes over 500,000 interviews conducted over five continents, and is comparable to other "biopsychosocial systems development" research conducted by Jane Loevinger, Stanley Milgram, Laurence Kohlberg, Erik Erikson etc.

What makes Graves unique however is that he created a dynamic model of human consciousness evolution which can assimilate other models and worldviews. He also recognised that insights from Cognitive Psychology, Genetics, and Neurophysiology would need to be examined. Fans of NeuroLinguistic Programming, General Systems Theory, Memetics and the Human Potential Movement will find a wealth of material, plus reading resources for further specialised research.

SD has been applied to resolve racial tension in South Africa, in education systems and government, by the World Future Society State of the World Forum, Arlington Institute, and Integral Institute, and by major companies such as Nedbank and SouthWest Airlines. Anyone questioning its credentials simply haven't done their research.

Its scope and depth surpasses what masquerades as "snake-oil" solutions: SD asks "why" such solutions are posed; what the prevailing "life conditions" are in an individual's life, company's growth, or country's situation (the interaction of historical times, geographic place, human existential problems, and social circumstances); and in examining change, questions "from what . . . to what?"

151 of 162 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars May be one of the most important books of the millennium April 19, 1999

By David O'Gorman, Sr. ([e-mail])

Format:Hardcover

The flaws in this book should not obscure the fact that this may be one of the most important books on human behavior of the millennium-probably even more important than even the authors realize. For this is the first book to link two of the most important concepts in human behavior of our time-the theories of psychologist Clare Graves and the concept of memes.

(I have been working with Graves' theories for about 25 years, and had the pleasure to collaborate with him on a consulting project in 1976. Regarding memes, I have been teaching about them for about 5 years.)

Graves integrated "bio-psycho-and socio-" in a way that resulted in the identification of clearly distinct levels of existence, with each level having its own psychological and behavioral characteristics. This was a remarkable revolutionary achievement, especially in light of the subsequent work of others that corroborate the characteristics of each level. Beck and Cowan have conveniently provided excellent references for each level.

A second revolutionary idea comes from the 1973 work of Richard Dawkins, who while discussing the need that genes have to replicate themselves ("The Selfish Gene"), also posited the existence of another replicator, a unit of cultural transmission, which he dubbed a "meme" after the French word for imitation. After lying dormant for many years (except at Microsoft-see Richard Brodie's "Virus of the Mind") the concept of memes has arrived. And although I have been teaching about memes for five years, even I have underestimated their importance until recently, thanks to Susan Blackmore's book "The Meme Machine." Since Beck and Cowan are the first to write about the linkage of Graves' theories and memes, they are blazing the trail for what may become a major field of study in the future.

And now for some nit picking. The authors use colors (Red, Blue, Orange, etc.) to identify the Gravesian levels. I understand why they did so, because I, too, have grappled with the issue of whether to use Graves' original nomenclature or some other scheme. I personally prefer Graves' original nomenclature, and believe colors have more disadvantages than advantages.

Somewhat more troublesome is the authors' tendency not to clearly differentiate Dr. Graves' theories from their own extensions of his work. While I have no trouble separating the two, the average reader would have trouble doing so. Nor am I comfortable with calling the various levels "vMEMES," because it implies that each Gravesian level is primarily memes as opposed to a complex combination of a neuro-chemical predisposition and memes that are compatible with it.

One major advantage of Graves' theories is that it allows for prediction of second tier characteristics based on the characteristics of corresponding first tier levels. The authors missed the opportunity to project what the "Coral" (Graves' C'P') level would look like. The authors also omitted consideration of where Graves got some of his memes. They don't mention the early influence of Gerald Heard ("The Five Ages of Man") or the work of Harvey, Hunt and Schroder ("Conceptual Systems and Personality Organization").

Aside from these relatively minor criticisms, Beck and Cowan's book is extremely important because it ushers in a new focus on Gravesian levels and memes-a terrific combination for understanding and predicting human behavior. Hopefully their book will stimulate academic research as well as a wide range of practical applications.

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Continuing Development of Spiral Dynamics May 31, 2006

By Dr. Richard G. Petty VINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

The speed of personal and societal change can seem bewildering, and there have been many attempts to try and make sense of what is going on in the world.

Spiral Dynamics is one very interesting model that was originally developed by the psychologist Clare W. Graves. He was a friend and colleague of Abraham Maslow, who had developed the well-known Hierarchy of Needs, ascending from basic biological needs to the more complex psychological motivations - belongingness, esteem, cognitive, esthetic and self-actualizing - once the basic needs have been satisfied. In Maslow's scheme, the needs at each level need to be at least partially satisfied before the needs of the next level start to determine action. But Graves' research lead him to believe that there were levels beyond self-actualization, and that different people achieved different kinds of development at different times in their lives. Over the last 30 years, Spiral Dynamics has been developing in a number of new directions. Ken Wilber has been working with Don Beck and has incorporated many of the ideas into his Integral Psychology, and I have recently shown how some of the ideas are immensely helpful in the field of health and wellness.

One of the important concepts of Spiral Dynamics is the meme. The word meme was first introduced by the Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who used the word to mean things that are transmitted or broadcast through culture. Good examples would be songs, ideas or fashions in clothes, which are quickly disseminated through a culture, rather like a virus spreads around a population. These are now called "little memes." Spiral Dynamics takes a broader view. Each level of development is represented on a spiral and is called a "Value Meme" (vMeme), which expresses itself through the "little memes." You will normally see "vMeme" abbreviated to Meme, with a capital "M" to distinguish it from the "little memes." Each Meme is a code, or a system of information. We are each composites of memetic levels.

I was very interested to hear what Don Beck - one of the most important figures in the development of Spiral Dynamics, and heir apparent to Clare Graves - had to say about the current state of the model. There is one thing that marks out Spiral Dynamics from many other models: it has been successfully applied in some very difficult situations around the world, most famously in the post-Apartheid era in South Africa.

On the first CD, which Don has entitled The Dance of the Double Helix: How Humans Emerge, he begins with a broad overview, which includes a recoding of Clare Graves himself. For people not familiar with Spiral Dynamics, it might be necessary to go back and listen to the first CD again later: he uses a small number of terms without defining them.

On the second CD - The Codes by Which We Live -Don Beck provides a lucid description of the first six developmental levels. This is the clearest description that I've ever heard or read.

The third CD - The Leap into Second Tier - discusses a quantum jump in consciousness and the emergence of new moral codes and ways of thinking and behaving that promise t revolutionize the world around us.

On CD Four - The Dynamics of Leadership - Don gets very practical, in applying the model to leadership, natural organizations and the importance of understanding that people and organizations often have multiple bottom lines.

The Fifth CD - The Many Dimensions of Change - is the most dense of all of them in terms of concepts: Don discusses the phenomena of human emergence, the eight change variations, and the three components of change. His discussion of alpha fit, beta condition, gamma trap and delta surge is terrific for anyone who has ever tried to negotiate changes in relationships or in organizations.

Finally, CD Six - Stitching Together Our Wounded World - is a series of very practical lessons in how Spiral Dynamics can and has been used, and some pointers for the future.

These CDs are well produced and come with a small booklet and color chart. All the materials are of the same high quality that we have come to associate with Sounds True who produced and published the CDs.

If you are a complete beginner in the field of Spiral Dynamics, these CDs are sure to get you oriented very quickly, and you should be able to see how the theory applies in your life. The booklet contains some precise questions for helping you map your vMemes. It can be immensely helpful to do this exercise with people with whom you are in relationship. If you are already familiar with some of the concepts of Spiral Dynamics, you will likely still find some interesting material and a stimulating discussion. You may want to use the CDs to flesh out you understanding, before going on to the book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.

Whichever group you are in - beginner or more advanced student, you may well need to listen to some parts of the CDs more than once.

Highly recommended.