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Developmental Innovation
Professor Clare W. Graves has artfully provided us a window into human nature that provides actionable insights into the three core orienting questions of existence: Where were we? Where are we? Where will we be? Follow the experiences of these "Third Generation Gravesians" as they use Graves' maturation map to empower, free, and realize possibilities totally new for our times. Who would benefit from the information in Innovative Development ? - Leaders responsible for healthy cities, states, countries, non-profits and businesses. - Educators guiding students from elementary school through university. - Economists concerned with money, finance, lending, and what is next for capitalism. - Policy-makers dedicated to disabled, impoverished, and other underserved citizens. - Those wishing a deeper yet practical understanding of large systems changes. Who would gain from the information in Developmental Innovation ? -Thinkers who want to know why Comte fell asleep in Vianne's shop window. - Therapists, counselors and coaches wanting a more nuanced view of their roles. - People longing to make sex, romance, and the rest of intimacy all it was hoped for. - Lifelong learners who love personal stories of challenges, triumphs, and epiphanies. -Those who wish a deeper and more practical understanding of themselves and others.
316 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 4, 2018
DEVELOPMENTAL INNOVATION: EMERGING WORLDVIEWS & INDIVIDUAL LEARNING (Integral Publishers, 2015) is generally a good book for someone who wants additional reading in Spiral Dynamics (SDi). It is a collection of essays (edited by late Tom Christensen—you did a very good job here, Tom, and I wish you a blissful journey in the afterlife, whatever and however it is in actuality) and articles which are focused mostly on psychological dimensions. I appreciated some of the articles, such as the biographical pieces by some of the authors (including that of Keith Rice and that of Michael Keller). Keith Rice’s article on applying SDi to psychotherapy was also helpful in terms of seeing how the ideas of SDi are applied to psychology and therapy.
John Dupuy’s material on Integral Recovery is, of course, worth reading. Integral Recovery is a cutting-edge vision of how one can create holistic environment for healing drug and alcohol addicts. For additional information I recommend John’s book INTEGRAL RECOVERY. It is truly a good book. Solid.
The material complied by Peter Merry and Ard Hordijk, included in this volume, contains some interesting ideas on what constitutes Turquoise, the highest vMEME/level of consciousness that is listed in SDi (there are other developmental frameworks which actually research later stages of development, but here, in this volume, there is only this limited view of this particular higher vMEME). Specifically, I agree with their vision of the growing awareness of importance of the energetic dimension of life force.
The concluding chapter “The Spiral of Intimacy” by Rafael Nasser is probably the best or among the best essays included in the book. It offers the author’s view on the evolution of couples across the evolutionary spiral. It contains very good descriptions of what could be Green and Yellow relationships (Green: sensitive lover; Yellow: evolutionary lover). It also provides a good exposition of the historical Life Conditions that accompanied the emergence of each evolutionary vMEME.
The Turquoise description seems like a weaker point in this chapter on relationships, but the entire Turquoise vMEME notion is not well-developed in the essays in this book and the main books on Spiral Dynamics (Keith Rice says in his chapter that Chris Cowan admitted that he and Don Beck didn’t have much understanding of Turquoise when they were writing their main Spiral Dynamics, 1996). Turquoise is sometimes conflated with transpersonal (which doesn’t seem right to me as well as to some other thinkers and practitioners, such as Ken Wilber or Susanne Cook-Greuter) and often ascribed magical realities related to states of consciousness.
It seems that Susanne Cook-Greuter’s research on post-autonomous stages of Ego Development (including Construct-Aware and Ego-Aware which can be roughly correlated with Turquoise) provides much more nuanced differentiation of this exquisite later stage of meaning making—all of it can be used as a kind of supplement to the main SDi framework that adds meat to the bones of higher stages of human consciousness. Cook-Greuter’s research is built upon the solid Jane Loevinger’s foundation and is known for its meticulous standards, so it is worth checking out. Also of interest here is Ken Wilber’s latest contribution into the field of vertical development and adult developmental psychology made in his book THE RELIGION OF TOMORROW. In that book he describes the full spectrum of consciousness including both the first tier and the second tier, and he goes on exploring the third tier (based on Aurobindo’s contributions as well as those of other rare researchers and investigators—and his own explorations, too), which is truly a transpersonal, transrational, spiritual developmental tier which unites states and structures of consciousness. It is a rare vision of holistic comprehension that embraces all vertical structures and all horizontal stages, which could be very useful to Spiral Dynamics practitioners as well as a supplementary point of view.
Spiral Dynamics seems to be a very solid practical framework that can introduce basic and also complex developmental ideas (the notion of vertical development) into multiple disciplines such as business, organizational development, practical psychology, spirituality, and psychotherapy. Yet it requires additional expansion by incorporating other theories and methodologies in order to get a fuller view of what a human being in relationships with oneself, others, and the world is. The best places of application of SD seem to be business and organizations and wherever one needs a fairly simple yet nuanced framework to understand the evolutionary trajectories of life spiral that are present in each and every occasion. Yet, once one zooms in, additional differentiations, methods, and theories are required (for instance, Keith Rice points out that Spiral Dynamics doesn’t take into account much of unconscious processes; Wilber’s AQAL Integral approach highlights certain obvious inadequacies of Spiral Dynamics when dealing with states of consciousness as well as with spirituality in general—there seems to be a conflation of states with stages, and those two are very different vectors of development, each forming its own axis or path; Rice also points out the necessity of using typological and characterological systems in order to gain additional insight into human dynamics—I appreciate his use of Eysenk’s model as well as the attachment theory as established by Bowlby).
In overall, however, Spiral Dynamics is an elegant and valuable approach that can be applied to a large number of disciplines. It especially goes well if used shoulder to shoulder with the Integral AQAL Meta-Approach as developed by Ken Wilber and his colleagues at what’s known as the Integral Institute (which is now, in 2018, acting more like a network of activities rather than a centralized institution).
John Dupuy’s material on Integral Recovery is, of course, worth reading. Integral Recovery is a cutting-edge vision of how one can create holistic environment for healing drug and alcohol addicts. For additional information I recommend John’s book INTEGRAL RECOVERY. It is truly a good book. Solid.
The material complied by Peter Merry and Ard Hordijk, included in this volume, contains some interesting ideas on what constitutes Turquoise, the highest vMEME/level of consciousness that is listed in SDi (there are other developmental frameworks which actually research later stages of development, but here, in this volume, there is only this limited view of this particular higher vMEME). Specifically, I agree with their vision of the growing awareness of importance of the energetic dimension of life force.
The concluding chapter “The Spiral of Intimacy” by Rafael Nasser is probably the best or among the best essays included in the book. It offers the author’s view on the evolution of couples across the evolutionary spiral. It contains very good descriptions of what could be Green and Yellow relationships (Green: sensitive lover; Yellow: evolutionary lover). It also provides a good exposition of the historical Life Conditions that accompanied the emergence of each evolutionary vMEME.
The Turquoise description seems like a weaker point in this chapter on relationships, but the entire Turquoise vMEME notion is not well-developed in the essays in this book and the main books on Spiral Dynamics (Keith Rice says in his chapter that Chris Cowan admitted that he and Don Beck didn’t have much understanding of Turquoise when they were writing their main Spiral Dynamics, 1996). Turquoise is sometimes conflated with transpersonal (which doesn’t seem right to me as well as to some other thinkers and practitioners, such as Ken Wilber or Susanne Cook-Greuter) and often ascribed magical realities related to states of consciousness.
It seems that Susanne Cook-Greuter’s research on post-autonomous stages of Ego Development (including Construct-Aware and Ego-Aware which can be roughly correlated with Turquoise) provides much more nuanced differentiation of this exquisite later stage of meaning making—all of it can be used as a kind of supplement to the main SDi framework that adds meat to the bones of higher stages of human consciousness. Cook-Greuter’s research is built upon the solid Jane Loevinger’s foundation and is known for its meticulous standards, so it is worth checking out. Also of interest here is Ken Wilber’s latest contribution into the field of vertical development and adult developmental psychology made in his book THE RELIGION OF TOMORROW. In that book he describes the full spectrum of consciousness including both the first tier and the second tier, and he goes on exploring the third tier (based on Aurobindo’s contributions as well as those of other rare researchers and investigators—and his own explorations, too), which is truly a transpersonal, transrational, spiritual developmental tier which unites states and structures of consciousness. It is a rare vision of holistic comprehension that embraces all vertical structures and all horizontal stages, which could be very useful to Spiral Dynamics practitioners as well as a supplementary point of view.
Spiral Dynamics seems to be a very solid practical framework that can introduce basic and also complex developmental ideas (the notion of vertical development) into multiple disciplines such as business, organizational development, practical psychology, spirituality, and psychotherapy. Yet it requires additional expansion by incorporating other theories and methodologies in order to get a fuller view of what a human being in relationships with oneself, others, and the world is. The best places of application of SD seem to be business and organizations and wherever one needs a fairly simple yet nuanced framework to understand the evolutionary trajectories of life spiral that are present in each and every occasion. Yet, once one zooms in, additional differentiations, methods, and theories are required (for instance, Keith Rice points out that Spiral Dynamics doesn’t take into account much of unconscious processes; Wilber’s AQAL Integral approach highlights certain obvious inadequacies of Spiral Dynamics when dealing with states of consciousness as well as with spirituality in general—there seems to be a conflation of states with stages, and those two are very different vectors of development, each forming its own axis or path; Rice also points out the necessity of using typological and characterological systems in order to gain additional insight into human dynamics—I appreciate his use of Eysenk’s model as well as the attachment theory as established by Bowlby).
In overall, however, Spiral Dynamics is an elegant and valuable approach that can be applied to a large number of disciplines. It especially goes well if used shoulder to shoulder with the Integral AQAL Meta-Approach as developed by Ken Wilber and his colleagues at what’s known as the Integral Institute (which is now, in 2018, acting more like a network of activities rather than a centralized institution).
December 6, 2016
Hard to score this book as it very different chapters. For sure it's a book for someone familiar with either Spiral Dynamics or Graves developmental theory. Once you know it, I think some chapters are very interesting and valuable and some were quite boring, esoteric or dull.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews