In a complete surrender to the past, the now and the future; this music video is the best encapsulation of my experience, today, staying in the open wave…not letting my mind control the path, just feeling into my psychological space while not getting caught in breaking water.

Recently I spent a week in beautiful countryside of Hertenstein, Switzerland, 30 minutes around the lake from Luzern, immersed in conditions created to support the development and emergence of 6 people eager to contribute to the Spiral Dynamics Group (SDG) as potential trainers. Co-leading with Christopher Cooke, new insights were revealed and seen by me, as result of dedicated, intensive and protracted interaction with Chris while “training” others.

One of those insights relates to an “open wave.”

I’ve known Cookie, as he is often called, for about 5 years now, our paths crossing in various cities across the US and many phone conversations related to the future of SDG. Chris has used a metaphor of an open wave for several years now in speaking about the process of emergence. The nuanced thing about metaphors, is they either connect and offer meaning and guidance or they miss. The open wave has usually missed with me, that is until last month. The context of this training, from Chris’ point of view is act as if we operate from second tier, which intrinsically means beyond yellow into the space of turquoise. Co-leading for the last 3 years with Don, the premise focus tends to emphasize yellow, leaving turquoise to the imagination and co-opting of first tier minds. My 10-day interaction served as an entre to dipping, full bodied, open hearted and mind twisting into a sequence of state experiences more closely aligned with turquoise than I have recognized before, leaving behind a flow that I have been surfing in ever since.

Here’s a cool video to bring the imagery and experience of surfing to this post.

As I watch in video form; what it’s like to surf a wave, I notice that, metaphorically, for the entire time I have been surfing at all (I’ll admit..much of my life has been spent on the beach…maybe even to the parking lot…not venturing into the water all) I have been inside the breaking water. Lately, and you can read several posts on my blog, here, I have written about being more in the break, where it is messy and hurts and I spill all over everything. Manly, however, I’ve gotten very good at breaking through the barriers, finding the open wave just long enough to return to the pipe waiting for the next break to appear in front of me, then working on the breaking though to the open again.

The biggest impact of revisiting the open wave metaphor, for me, was in the realization that it was time move out in front of the “breaking”, into the wide open space where the boundaries, instead of always being in front of me, shift behind me. In fact, the entire world of boundaries closes off behind me when I stay in the open wave.

Gulp!

Yet, notice that in surfing, no boundaries doesn’t mean chaotic, directionless abandon. In the open wave, as a surfer I am held in place by the momentum of the movement of the wave in combination with the competencies of practiced surfer. Controlled freedom in awareness of my surrounding conditions. AND I notice, in this place “the pulse” of the prime directive, or the pulse of evolution keeps me grounded, aligned and totally connected.

I think I might have the “hang” of the open wave. Ooops, there I go again, back in the break. Oh, well. It’s a good thing my capacity for resilience is active and strong. Getting up and out in front of the wave again is becoming easier too.

Generational stuff aside, and there is much to say about it, these are our kids pushing up from the bottom, with the eyes and ears of middle giving us these cool vids to help digest the epic change we are moving through. Question: will the top (power, influence and authority) give us a workable VISION to align around and attract “right” change down through the masses?

So far I haven’t seen it. I, for one, am tired of the rhetoric. Will anyone out there direct their investment dollars toward more complex thinking and away from policy makers and stock buys?

4:44 minutes long.

In case you are wondering, this video is by the same guy who did this amazing production!

Recently the Spiral Dynamics group I am a part of was challenged by Don Beck to read a recent article in the New York Times by David Brooks whom write a distinct characterization of Barack Obama.

I invite all to read this column by David Brooks. I would like to know whether you think there is any GT-Systemic (Yellow) thinking in Obama. If not, what is the pattern that Brooks has recognized?

Here is my response, I added some generational theory to the mix:

I also think it is important to mention the idea of visionary leadership, particularly since Obama keeps calling for VISION. Based on my understanding of generational theory, explicitly that of Strauss and Howe, Obama is part of the 13er generation (GenX). As we collectively head into what Strauss and Howe call a Fourth Turning (20 years of secular crisis and upheaval— an outer driven era) it is the Boomer generation that as they transition from leadership (midlife) to elderhood are called to also mature from moralizing causes to visionary leadership. And as the 13ers transition from rising adulthood to leadership (midlife) they are called forth to mature out of personal survival mode and bring pragmatic leadership to the constellation of generational life-cycles and meta-seasonal turnings. Strauss and Howe point out that historically, when we have had Idealist generations( which is the archetype generation born in Boomers) in prominent leadership positions, like the presidency, it’s been a less than optimal positioning (it creates misalignment) to deal with the conditions of a Fourth Turning. The Reactive generation (the archetype of the current 13er generation) is much better suited for these roles: roles of generals.

It will be the 13er generation (GenX) that Boomers “might be see as the rough-hewn tools needed to achieve lofty Boom visions” (which we haven’t seen yet), “and in return, 13ers might see in Boomers the leadership without which they might never find larger purpose in their own lives.” Perhaps we’ll have to wait another 4 years for this dynamic, however.

It is my considered opinion, that if we do a vmemetic analysis of the current generation cohorts, we would find a considerable density of warm colors in the 13ers with dominate orange and emerging yellow, contrasted with heavy cool colors in the Boom generation with a dense center of gravity in BLUE.

I suspect that we are seeing emerging yellow in Obama, and given the intensity of the prevailing and rapidly changing conditions the next president will navigate, if Obama wins, he’ll have to develop a lot more of it. What will be interesting to see is how the current US institutional infrastructure will respond; is there is enough yellow in anybody to get results atop that mess. Here’s where the scenario for a major breakdown of systems and relationships inside The Beltway looks optimistic to me.

Bang! Did this phenomena hit me or what?  What’s that, you ask.   Mercury retrograde, I answer.

I’ve known about Mercury retrograde for, oh about 5 years now. I am not a big follower of astrological information and models- but I keep an open mind. I’ve always been told that during this time to be careful of initiating any new agreements or contracts, that communication modes tend to break down very easy and electronics are subject to unusual malfunctions. This is a perfect time to reflect, to look back on has been, to see new perspectives on what is, and to use the time for integration of the past before looking to and preparing for the future.

Okay, so for a cycle that happens three times a year, I’ve noticed times when this happens to some extent or another, and I occasionally slow down for a day or two while it passes.

By no means did I plan for the last three week, but the start of this Mercury retrograde coincided with an event that literally turned the clock back. My husband packed all of his belongings and moved back to his childhood home in California, before setting out for his next adventure. But…wait, that’s another story for another time.  For me these past three weeks, I can only describe as being plunged deep into the “Mercury Retrograde” experience.

Briefly, it’s a time to take a new look at information, insights, and perceptions, and rework interpretations to prepare for the four month period that follows a Mercury retrograde. Mercury goes back over ground it’s just traversed, but during the retrograde there is an entirely new angle of view that presents itself so that some things previously unknown or unnoticed can be factored in for the future. There are curious returns that allow us to re-think some things, and find a new rhythm of coordinating our life affairs.

What is fascinating to me, and about which I am writing, besides the understanding, insights and learning gained from looking back, is the more general alignment to cosmic patterns and cycles my life seems entrained in. It’s a lot like living through the seasons. We know we will have certain experiences that differ significantly with the change of each season. So it is when life is aligned to these more subtle (and not so subtle) patterns and flows.

It’s a bit of a relief really. To rest in the flow of the solar system, the galaxy,  the Universe and other universes! It’s really out of our control. The choice is whether or not to align with them.  Much like winter, spring, summer and fall.  When we align our activities that are suited for one season to that season, life usually works better.  But it doesn’t have to.

Me, I’m finding the alignment absolutely enlivening, exhilarating even.  That is, when it’s not kicking me in the Bum!

This video came to me as an example of someone who (in this performance) “comes from soul.” Specifically, a Soul Type 5. I got chills (even before he started singing) , my heart broke open and, I too, stood up to applaud.

That’s impact!

Over the past several weeks, about 10 of us in the Spiral Dynamics Groups are conferring on a request by Christopher Cooke to update the PeopleSCAN Values Test assessment for Turquoise. It’s a known dynamic of the assessment that when a high level of acceptance is indicated for Turquoise (HU) value code, in most cases it’s a false positive of Blue looking for meta content, versus traditional systems and structures. Why? Lots of reasons, but fundamentally turquoise does not exist yet. At best, what we’ve been hearing about are altered state experiences that get interpreted by a first tier code looking at and using either the Spiral Dynamics frame or Ken Wilber’s Integral map.  When I made a comment to the group conference about our inability to understand Turquoise , it was met with an attitude of - yah, we know but let’s work the question anyway.

Fair enough.

Then Mister John Cook submitted the following suggestion and it struck me as brilliant.

” The people more likely to give clues to HU will come from generation ‘C’. I suggest we need to go back to Graves’ original research and ask this generation “what is a mature adult” to the new generations coming through. We have the technology and access to many schools, universities, communities etc worldwide. Graves’ work is 30+ years old and we may find from this or a similar approach the tools, ideas and innovations to rethink and fine tune the current systems while adding new insights.

At the moment there is an indication that high GT thinkers are capable of as much compartmental think as FS – so in organisations and in individuals we see parallel objectives with a small amount of overlap. Also we see GT thinkers become stuck/arrested in a role particularly when working for CP biased individuals. All I am trying to highlight here is we still do not understand GT and we are trying to guess at HU.”

Of course. It’s time to revisit Graves’ original research approach and ask the same question he asked 30 years when he uncovered this profound understanding of human nature. It’s a logical approach to removing the distortions of our current understanding.  Even though we use the Gravesian lens, when we update and write about GT and HU in the coming decade, this is a better approach to uncover data and information than all of us “experts” thinking through a question.  Having said that, until we have the resources for such an endeavor, I will continue my search through mediascape of human activity, differentiating and interpreting with the knowledge we do have while I pursue deepening my understanding of same!

Caution…any comments reference yellow. turquoise (GT and HU) or second tier in general found on this site or others must be taken with a grain salt. And that caution doesn’t take into account the distorted lens you bring in reading about the distortions others are writing about. But that’s another dynamic for another time.  Ah….welcome to complexity to the power of 7!

Over the past several weeks, about 10 of us in the Spiral Dynamics Groups are conferring on a request by Christopher Cooke to update the PeopleSCAN Values Test assessment for Turquoise. It’s a known dynamic of the assessment that when a high level of acceptance is indicated for Turquoise (HU) value code, in most cases it’s a false positive of Blue looking for meta content, versus traditional systems and structures. Why? Lots of reasons, but fundamentally turquoise does not exist yet. At best, what we’ve been hearing about are altered state experiences that get interpreted by a first tier code looking at and using either the Spiral Dynamics frame or Ken Wilber’s Integral map.  When I made a comment to the group conference about our inability to understand Turquoise , it was met with an attitude of - yah, we know but let’s work the question anyway.

Fair enough.

Then Mister John Cook submitted the following suggestion and it struck me as brilliant.

” The people more likely to give clues to HU will come from generation ‘C’. I suggest we need to go back to Graves’ original research and ask this generation “what is a mature adult” to the new generations coming through. We have the technology and access to many schools, universities, communities etc worldwide. Graves’ work is 30+ years old and we may find from this or a similar approach the tools, ideas and innovations to rethink and fine tune the current systems while adding new insights.

At the moment there is an indication that high GT thinkers are capable of as much compartmental think as FS – so in organisations and in individuals we see parallel objectives with a small amount of overlap. Also we see GT thinkers become stuck/arrested in a role particularly when working for CP biased individuals. All I am trying to highlight here is we still do not understand GT and we are trying to guess at HU.”

Of course. It’s time to revisit Graves’ original research approach and ask the same question he asked 30 years when he uncovered this profound understanding of human nature. It’s a logical approach to removing the distortions of our current understanding.  Even though we use the Gravesian lens, when we update and write about GT and HU in the coming decade, this is a better approach to uncover data and information than all of us “experts” thinking through a question.  Having said that, until we have the resources for such an endeavor, I will continue my search through mediascape of human activity, differentiating and interpreting with the knowledge we do have while I pursue deepening my understanding of same!

Caution…any comments reference yellow. turquoise (GT and HU) or second tier in general found on this site or others must be taken with a grain salt. And that caution doesn’t take into account the distorted lens you bring in reading about the distortions others are writing about. But that’s another dynamic for another time.  Ah….welcome to complexity to the power of 7!

I just came across this excerpt from Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change by Don Beck and Chris Cowen. It’s another nice description to help us recognized 2T characteristics.

Of the eight Spiral Dynamics® values systems, the first six are focused on subsistence. The seventh level (Yellow) marks the start of the second tier, and is characterized by a significantly different worldview that is focused on ways of being.

Due to their capacity to understand and cope with complexity, individuals with a second tier worldview have the potential to be highly evolved leaders and managers, given adequate training and a supportive environment.

According to Dr Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, authors of the book Spiral Dynamics, mastering values, leadership and change, second tier leadership is characterized by:

• Individuals taking full responsibility for the consequences of their actions, and having the freedom to accept the status quo, to try to change it, or even to walk away if they want to.
• Managers displaying servant leadership, which means they focus on ensuring that employees have everything they need to work effectively. They may also empower, enable, facilitate and inspire when required to do so.
• The team being focused on an agreed joint purpose that supersedes the person or the team itself, yet serves to make each life healthier.
• The careful and effective use of resources.
• Constructive use of human diversity, including the acknowledgment of differing competencies and intelligences.
• The alignment of individual and organizational values and goals, so that people are matched to functions they find stimulating, and are therefore naturally productive.
• Giving employees specific details of what should be done and by when, but allowing great freedom regarding how a job is done.
• People, technology, nature and procedures interwoven and integrated into the stream of work.
• The active management of conflict to promote the health of the organization.

After watching this provocative video clip from 2004 TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference (it’s about ideas worth spreading) it became even more obvious to me that the posturing we are doing around downtown development, particularly the argument and focus related to building heights, is way off the mark.Below is a link to the 20 minute talk from James Howard Kunstler’s view ‘that public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life — the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. Re-engineering our cities will involve more radical change than we are prepared for, he believes, but our hand will be forced by earth crises stemming from our overconsuming lifestyle. “Life in the mid-21st century,” Kunstler says, “is going to be about living locally.” Passionate, profane and funny, this talk will make you think about the place where you live.’

Please watch this presentation and let us know if you are ready to have a meaningful conversation about Columbia/Howard County regeneration that includes this perspective.

This is an excerpt from this video representing a point of view I share with Mr. Kunstler and am committed to being a part of bringing to the county systems of America. Starting with where I live.

“We are entering an epochal period of change in the world and certainly in America. The period that will be characterized by the end of the cheap oil era. It is going to change absolutely everything…

We are going to have to downscale, rescale, and re-size virtually everything we do in this county. And we can’t start soon enough to do it.

We are going to have to live closer to each other, live closer to work, and grow more food close to where we live. The age of the 3000 mile Caesar salad is coming to an end. We have a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of. And we have do better than that and we should have started two days before yesterday.

We are going to have relearn how to compose meaningful places, places that are integral; that are living organisms in the sense they contain all the organs of our civic life, in our communal life. Deployed in an integral fashion. So the residences makes sense deployed in relation to the places of business, of culture and governance.

We are going to have learn what the building blocks of these things are; the street, the block. How to compose public space that is both large and small; the courtyard, the civic square. How to make use of this property.

America is not prepared. We are not ready for what is coming at us, we are sleepwalking into the future. Be prepared to be good neighbors, to find vocations that make you useful to your neighbors and fellow citizens. “

Where do we start? With design, of course. And design will be a function of the conditions people live in, who lives there, what they care about, and why they care. Those answers, I assert, are only partially represented in media-scape I perceive.

What Jim Rouse began 40 years ago is a start, a beginning to this process, and one which yields an advantage for Columbia and Howard County to become a leader in this domain.

I am copying a post I found on www.c4chaos.com because I can’t (or don’t know how) to link directly to this blog. The link for the blog is the same as the home page so if you clicked on it you wouldn’t get it. Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting post, and I had a comment so I am including both the C4Chaos’ post and my comment here.

The POST:

Just finished watching watching Ken Wilber’s talk about Boomeritis Buddhism. The video is entitled, Don’t Confuse Dharma with Derrida. In it Ken talks about how postmodernism (not scientific materialism) killed introspection. He also mentioned that a structural analysis of Lankavatara Sutra would reveal that it’s a ”turquoise” document. For now, I’ll just trust Ken on this because I haven’t read that sutra yet and I’ll be the first one to admit I have yet to step into “second-tier,” whatever that means.

To me, it’s obvious that Ken has an affinity (read: bias) with Buddhism. But I wonder if Ken, or anybody else, had done a structural analysis of the Bible (or certain books of the Bible). What color altitude would the Bible fall into? Isn’t it that the analysis would depend on the stage of development of the one who analyze? Can people judge a “turquoise” document without being at the “turquoise” level themselves? Can people judge the altitude of another person who is “higher” than the person judging? Or are they merely projecting their own inherent greatness?

My COMMENTS:

Good questions, indeed. There is much to be said about turquoise, what it is and what it is not.

My short answer is…if you are looking for someone else to tell you…that’s not it, and what others tell you can inform your own recognition of your own experience of it. From my own experience of it…turquoise so much bigger and more complex than what we know now, primarily because it doesn’t exist yet (at least if we are going to include anything at all about Spiral Dynamics in our informed experience.) And anything anybody can say about it will only scratch the surface, except of course for the “fact” that whatever we would say would becoming from the deepest depths and broadest range of our existence. Oh well….

As for an analysis of the Bible, check out http://etbible.org/learning.shtml. EJ Niles and Harv Morrow have an interesting body of work in which they have Spiral coded the Bible. My favorite point (or at least the one I remember) is that according to their research and interpretation, when humans made the transition from Red to Blue, in Spiral Dynamics terms, was the time when the great prophets appeared on the planet. We had single men as heroic icons (resonating with Red worldviews) who then become the highest authority (a nice transition to Blue) around whom the grand Blue social systems (religion) arose as the gateway to our next evolutionary jump.

I remember this point distinctly because I was extremely curious. The jump from Red to Blue is big leap, certainly back when Blue was emerging as it still is now (I watch my 15 year old son struggle with this development process). So in Clare Graves model, Red to Blue is a harmonic of 3 jump (Beige, Purple, Red…Blue, Orange, Green). Graves felt that the leap to A’N’ yellow represented a momentous leap and that a harmonic of 6 seemed likely (meaning that Beige and Yellow share a resonance.) My curiosity is that this leap may also be another 3 harmonic. If that is the case, both a 3 and a 6 harmonic happen at this time…what will appear on the planet this time to assist us in our transition?!

I’ll bet it takes more than “turquoise documents”!!

I am copying a post I found on www.c4chaos.com because I can’t (or don’t know how) to link directly to this blog. The link for the blog is the same as the home page so if you clicked on it you wouldn’t get it. Anyhow, I thought it was an interesting post, and I had a comment so I am including both the C4Chaos’ post and my comment here.

The POST:

Just finished watching watching Ken Wilber’s talk about Boomeritis Buddhism. The video is entitled, Don’t Confuse Dharma with Derrida. In it Ken talks about how postmodernism (not scientific materialism) killed introspection. He also mentioned that a structural analysis of Lankavatara Sutra would reveal that it’s a ”turquoise” document. For now, I’ll just trust Ken on this because I haven’t read that sutra yet and I’ll be the first one to admit I have yet to step into “second-tier,” whatever that means.

To me, it’s obvious that Ken has an affinity (read: bias) with Buddhism. But I wonder if Ken, or anybody else, had done a structural analysis of the Bible (or certain books of the Bible). What color altitude would the Bible fall into? Isn’t it that the analysis would depend on the stage of development of the one who analyze? Can people judge a “turquoise” document without being at the “turquoise” level themselves? Can people judge the altitude of another person who is “higher” than the person judging? Or are they merely projecting their own inherent greatness?

My COMMENTS:

Good questions, indeed. There is much to be said about turquoise, what it is and what it is not.

My short answer is…if you are looking for someone else to tell you…that’s not it, and what others tell you can inform your own recognition of your own experience of it. From my own experience of it…turquoise so much bigger and more complex than what we know now, primarily because it doesn’t exist yet (at least if we are going to include anything at all about Spiral Dynamics in our informed experience.) And anything anybody can say about it will only scratch the surface, except of course for the “fact” that whatever we would say would becoming from the deepest depths and broadest range of our existence. Oh well….

As for an analysis of the Bible, check out http://etbible.org/learning.shtml. EJ Niles and Harv Morrow have an interesting body of work in which they have Spiral coded the Bible. My favorite point (or at least the one I remember) is that according to their research and interpretation, when humans made the transition from Red to Blue, in Spiral Dynamics terms, was the time when the great prophets appeared on the planet. We had single men as heroic icons (resonating with Red worldviews) who then become the highest authority (a nice transition to Blue) around whom the grand Blue social systems (religion) arose as the gateway to our next evolutionary jump.

I remember this point distinctly because I was extremely curious. The jump from Red to Blue is big leap, certainly back when Blue was emerging as it still is now (I watch my 15 year old son struggle with this development process). So in Clare Graves model, Red to Blue is a harmonic of 3 jump (Beige, Purple, Red…Blue, Orange, Green). Graves felt that the leap to A’N’ yellow represented a momentous leap and that a harmonic of 6 seemed likely (meaning that Beige and Yellow share a resonance.) My curiosity is that this leap may also be another 3 harmonic. If that is the case, both a 3 and a 6 harmonic happen at this time…what will appear on the planet this time to assist us in our transition?!

I’ll bet it takes more than “turquoise documents”!!

Turquoise…its a vmeme system that intrigues many, me included. I don’t profess to “know” turquoise, yet part of the value of the SDi lens, in my opinion, is the markings it draws in the various territories or worldviews of each vmemetic reality. So when I catch glimpses of what I call turquoise, it’s in relationship to what I have observed in first tier realities as defined or marked by Spiral Dynamics and the “new” at least for me, worlds that appear and then disappear during the course of my daily thinking (well sometimes it’s not daily, weekly perhaps).

This past weekend, however, I became aware of two indicators of what appear to me to be turquoise in nature.

The first came while watching the theatrical release movie called Next, with Nicholas Cage. This is the story of man who was born with an “ability” to see two minutes into his own future. This ability has it’s advantages, as the main character translates this gift into a magic show that’s not magic, starring in his own Vegas club act, the other is an ability to play cards at the blackjack table like nobodies business….well except it the business of the pit bosses responsible to minimize casino losses….eeew….one of the not so great sides of this “gift”…except that, of course, he can see them coming too so he is able to avoid the shakedown.

Anyway, seeing into the future, the infinite possibilities of the future, sounds very turquoise to me. What this movie pointed out to me, is how different the thinking and the follow on action will be because of it. The movie shows this character, having seen the future and chosen the one he wants to experience, acts into what will happen rather than responding to what has happened or is happening. So, as he knows, for example, a punch is coming, because he has seen it, he ducks – because this is the reality he chose. If he didn’t like that course of events, he simply (or maybe not) sees another possibility and acts into that. Some times, it takes a half a dozen times to get the outcome he desires.

It’s a very different way of moving through the world.

My favorite part came at the end, with the moral of the story. The line went something like; Take a look at the future, because just by taking a look, you change the present.

Have you taken a look at your future lately?

The second data point came while having lunch at a neighborhood restaurant with my friend Jessie. She is very good at starting conversation with anybody around her and this particular day began talking with a woman who was having lunch with her husband and 15 month on child, Darwin (it a new generation emerging too!) at the table beside us. Anyway, Jessie uncovered a connection with this woman, Erica regarding a signing class she had taken Darwin to. Signing like learning sign language. It turns out Erica is learning sign language because she wants to teach her 15 month son sign language at the same time she teaches him words. Why? Not because he will need to communicate with the deaf, but because she heard it improves overall communication skills. Multidimensional learning, folks. We are starting to raise children that will grow up in or create turquoise social structures. It seems to me, this is one example, of the “new” conditions children are developing in that will naturally make turquoise a manifested reality.

Just my purple code in action. This came across my desk and my purple code lit up. Sounds like the universe is notifying us that the Spiral is on the fast track, the 9th code is starting emerge!

Second Tier is the lexicon given to an idea that includes a worldview, a way of thinking and a stage of beingness representing what Clare W. Graves uncovered in the 1970’s. Dr. Graves described this idea as a “quantum leap” for humanity.

This idea captivated me in 2000 after listening to a presentation given by Dr. Don Beck, Clare Graves friend and staunch supporter, on Spiral Dynamics. On that day, my life turned in direction that keeps me asking and moving toward the questions; what is second tier and how will it solve the problems we face. Since 2000, I have been studying, practicing and learning from those questions. It’s kept me running as I have sought to keep up with…well, to keep up with myself.

Here is one understanding I can pass along; Second Tier is not something separate from everything else. It is everything else and more. Maybe something you read on this site will add help to connect the everything else and add just a bit more which helps you make sense of the world we live in.

On life conditions to the Power of Seven by Dr. Beck:

Since the world in which we now live is coping with the appearance of all of the vMeme cultural expressions – ethnic tribes, egocentric warlords, both dangerous and redemptive “isms,” a whole plate full of opportunists and materialists-in-the making, and a host of postmodern egalitarian political, religious, and NGO and professional structures – it should be clear that the genuine and authentic work of “2nd Tier” is to address the needs and demands all up and down the Spiral while, at the same time, keeping the Spiral itself vibrant, open, and evolving. If we as humans are not up to this task, there is no guarantee that we will outlive the cockroaches. Then, again, as dear friend Howard Bloom keeps warning me, the real contest will not be among Christianity, Judaism and Islam, or even between the United States and China, but the classic battle pitting humans versus microbes.”

If you saw War of the Worlds last summer in the theatres you’ll know that the more intelligent and complex life forms that invaded the US were not stopped by humans, but by the microcobes. Their physical systems did not adapt (in time) to the small organisms.

This is a lesson for us, lest we think higher is somehow better. Yellow will work to recover, regenerate and renew all of its “lower” intelligences structures so that it host (that’s you and me!) remains resilient, emergent and thrives.

More from Dr. Beck:

“While none of us can claim to be totally within 2nd Tier in all aspects (lines) of our lives, we can, for sure, attempt to place the set points of our thinking within 2nd Tier assumptions, and then look up and down the Spiral to search for specific applications. In short, we can use one of Ken’s lines (conceptual ability) to model how 2nd Tier thinking can unlock so many seemingly irrepressible conflicts.”

This is where our coaching training, and specifically the Balance work in CoActivity coaching, can be extremely useful. Play around in a perspective wheel with each of the vmemes/codes/adaptive intelligence to practice what a question might look and sound like from all the perspectives on the Spiral.

To do this, physically designate each space on the wheel with a color. It might be helpful to have a reminder or a cheat sheet describing how each intelligence code thinks. Just this activity may begin to light up the Yellow code within you. You might authentically have yellow thoughts as you stand in a Yellow perspective. My experience is these thoughts emerge and arise spontaneously, not by thinking them or figuring them out. And paradoxically, the practice of thinking thorough the Spiral (using a perspective wheel) may open you to those thoughts.

It’s a paradox….another characteristic of Yellow which lives within the paradox of life itself.

A little more theory applied to coaching.

Coaches coach human beings. Human beings are complex adaptive systems. Complex adaptive systems generate appropriate intelligences to cope with the conditions they live in.

Spiral Dynamics is one view of the human complex adaptive system.

Spiral Dynamics at its foundation is about life conditions and the complex adaptive intelligences that emerge in response to those conditions. As our life conditions get more complex, humans can re-organize at a higher, more complex level of thinking to meet and respond to the changes we must navigate in our lives. If we aspire to coach from the perspective of 2nd tier – using the Spiral Dynamics framework, we want begin to match adaptive intelligences with conditions.

Conditions are described as- problems, place, capacity, circumstance and time. For those also learning Ken Wilber’s model, conditions are an AQAL affair—with even more dimensionality than described in this map. Conditions are a complex- especially in the year 2006.

But let’s keep it simple.

One way to understand this is to relate to the concept to mathematics. Mathematics is an increasingly complex system of thinking. First we learn numbers, then we learn addition/subtraction, then multiplication/division, then algebra, then geometry, then trig, then calculus…and beyond. One transcends and includes the other. Meaning, I cannot execute an algebraic equation without some competency with multiplication/division, which can not be done without addition/ subtraction…got it!

Here’s an example:

Condition: Buying a loaf of bread in a store.

Thinking: Addition/ subtraction (which implies I understand digits). Anything more complex than this will create more problems than it solves…including high levels of frustration!

Condition: Rocket to the moon.

Thinking: Calculus…and beyond. You can’t execute for this goal at exclusively lower levels of mathematic complexity.

Is one better than the other? Fundamentally, NO particularly if we want to perform in either condition. AND Yes, clearly each condition is suited for a specific way of thinking. If addition and subtraction is applied to rocketing to the moon, it will produce inferior results or fail entirely.

This period of time in our history is resulting in many, if not most, of us whom are living our lives—“In Over Our Heads”. Meaning the conditions of our lives are demanding a more complex level of thinking or consciousness than we are applying to them.

As coaches, using the Spiral Dynamics map, we can help perform a function in assisting our clients to adapt to the conditions of their life, using the “creative, resource, and whole” complex adaptive intelligences that have emerged, or are emerging within them.

I suspect an often encountered scenario might be something like this: A client is dealing with purple conditions (perhaps the death of a parent). Our client applies blue or orange thinking because often we do not rachet downward easily and they most likely rejected their purple system. Additionally,the coach may be using green thinking in working with this client. Is the green coach bad, probably not, but it is not targeted nor optimized nor is it an integrated approach.

How would you coach this client to do what and where?

We do not need to get everybody to second tier. In fact, there is years of work in our first tier subsystems in need of attention before second tier can become a significant and stabilized capacity. Without a solid and dense development in the foundational first tier systems, any movement higher will eventually collapse.

In matching life conditions (which include the capacity of the client and the coaches) to the reciprocal intelligence, an important question to ask is:

How, should who, coach whom, to do what, where? This is called the integral change equation.

One assumption is a desire to not under coach or over coach clients.

That said, I am pretty confident that the life, executive and personal coaching methodologies favor individuals navigating orange, green, and a few align with very early yellow conditions. Individuals with life conditions and thinking in the purple, red and/or blue systems tend to seek other kinds of services, interventions, solutions and not life coaching.

Example: 12 step programs and football coaches are excellent in dealing with red and red to blue conditions. Not so great for those learning how to take calculated risks (orange).

So self knowledge and self management are critical, in that we don’t project our thinking onto our clients or use a coaching system inappropriate for the conditions (which includes the capacity of the client). I might be terrific and extremely skillful with green processes, but I am not nearly as effective with clients thinking under the power of the orange adaptive intelligence navigating orange conditions.

By knowing our adaptive intelligence strengths and density we can deepen our coaching competency and we can more effectively meet clients where they are.

A little more theory applied to coaching.

Coaches coach human beings. Human beings are complex adaptive systems. Complex adaptive systems generate appropriate intelligences to cope with the conditions they live in.

Spiral Dynamics is one view of the human complex adaptive system.

Spiral Dynamics at its foundation is about life conditions and the complex adaptive intelligences that emerge in response to those conditions. As our life conditions get more complex, humans can re-organize at a higher, more complex level of thinking to meet and respond to the changes we must navigate in our lives. If we aspire to coach from the perspective of 2nd tier – using the Spiral Dynamics framework, we want begin to match adaptive intelligences with conditions.

Conditions are described as- problems, place, capacity, circumstance and time. For those also learning Ken Wilber’s model, conditions are an AQAL affair—with even more dimensionality than described in this map. Conditions are a complex- especially in the year 2006.

But let’s keep it simple.

One way to understand this is to relate to the concept to mathematics. Mathematics is an increasingly complex system of thinking. First we learn numbers, then we learn addition/subtraction, then multiplication/division, then algebra, then geometry, then trig, then calculus…and beyond. One transcends and includes the other. Meaning, I cannot execute an algebraic equation without some competency with multiplication/division, which can not be done without addition/ subtraction…got it!

Here’s an example:

Condition: Buying a loaf of bread in a store.

Thinking: Addition/ subtraction (which implies I understand digits). Anything more complex than this will create more problems than it solves…including high levels of frustration!

Condition: Rocket to the moon.

Thinking: Calculus…and beyond. You can’t execute for this goal at exclusively lower levels of mathematic complexity.

Is one better than the other? Fundamentally, NO particularly if we want to perform in either condition. AND Yes, clearly each condition is suited for a specific way of thinking. If addition and subtraction is applied to rocketing to the moon, it will produce inferior results or fail entirely.

This period of time in our history is resulting in many, if not most, of us whom are living our lives—“In Over Our Heads”. Meaning the conditions of our lives are demanding a more complex level of thinking or consciousness than we are applying to them.

As coaches, using the Spiral Dynamics map, we can help perform a function in assisting our clients to adapt to the conditions of their life, using the “creative, resource, and whole” complex adaptive intelligences that have emerged, or are emerging within them.

I suspect an often encountered scenario might be something like this: A client is dealing with purple conditions (perhaps the death of a parent). Our client applies blue or orange thinking because often we do not rachet downward easily and they most likely rejected their purple system. Additionally,the coach may be using green thinking in working with this client. Is the green coach bad, probably not, but it is not targeted nor optimized nor is it an integrated approach.

How would you coach this client to do what and where?

We do not need to get everybody to second tier. In fact, there is years of work in our first tier subsystems in need of attention before second tier can become a significant and stabilized capacity. Without a solid and dense development in the foundational first tier systems, any movement higher will eventually collapse.

In matching life conditions (which include the capacity of the client and the coaches) to the reciprocal intelligence, an important question to ask is:

How, should who, coach whom, to do what, where? This is called the integral change equation.

One assumption is a desire to not under coach or over coach clients.

That said, I am pretty confident that the life, executive and personal coaching methodologies favor individuals navigating orange, green, and a few align with very early yellow conditions. Individuals with life conditions and thinking in the purple, red and/or blue systems tend to seek other kinds of services, interventions, solutions and not life coaching.

Example: 12 step programs and football coaches are excellent in dealing with red and red to blue conditions. Not so great for those learning how to take calculated risks (orange).

So self knowledge and self management are critical, in that we don’t project our thinking onto our clients or use a coaching system inappropriate for the conditions (which includes the capacity of the client). I might be terrific and extremely skillful with green processes, but I am not nearly as effective with clients thinking under the power of the orange adaptive intelligence navigating orange conditions.

By knowing our adaptive intelligence strengths and density we can deepen our coaching competency and we can more effectively meet clients where they are.

As life condition to the power of 7 (that’s the terminology used to describe one side of Dr. Graves double helix model where seven represent the complexity of conditions causing yellow to emerge) continue manifest all around us, it is even more apparent that the yellow code is brightening in many minds around the globe. There is a conscious awareness or conscious evolution that exists today, meaning that as the code brightens in minds, it (the intelligence of the code) may know that is what is happening… like right now as you read this! or you may have developed a strong enough observer with yourself that you can watch yourself as your thinking changes.

In any event, second tier remains an area of intense curiosity for most of us interested in all things integral. This was certainly true for me. Over the past five years I have been sitting in three questions: What is second tier? How do I model it, and how can it be used to meet the challenge we face, not only on global scale, but on a personal scale as well?

I’ve decided to post to this list, my own as well as other’s, thoughts about possible answers to those questions, with the intent inform, inspire and explore what the coaching field might offer in this context.

To get started here’s a segment written by Don Beck a couple of years ago I thought you might finding interesting.

“The “momentous leap” in Clare W. Graves’ language describes something of an emergence surge that appears to be much more than simply the seventh ratchet in the developmental sequence of complexity. Several of his graphics make this point dramatically and he believed this GT (Yellow) system contained greater conceptual capacity than the sum total of the first six.

He justified the notion of sets of six by the extraordinary quality and complexity in decision-making and other aspects of cognition in certain people he had tested and observed. The individuals who were expressing the 7th Level pattern had less fear, could generate many more options, appeared to be much more resourceful, etc. I believe he found early tracings of minds that were becoming aware of Problems “G” long before they become visible to the rest of us. Remember, Graves conducted his research before the age of the microchip, the end of the Cold War, the onset of molecular biology, and the more general impact of the FS code in its deconstruction and pluralistic influences. FS did, indeed, seek to cleanse and compress the Spiral by “liberating” the indigenous people (and all vMeme codes) from the dominance hierarchy. This created the memetic theatre where all the value systems that humans have expressed since the big brain emerged, thus appearing in real time on CNN – all demanding their respective places in the sun and in the higher valued niches. Herein lies the complexity that Graves could only imagine but could not directly experience. So, the Life Conditions to the Power of Seven that would require the new thinking complexity that he had observed three decades ago finally cascaded onto the scene. He knew something was up and was quite accurate in his future visions. The Gravesian blueprint will serve us well for decades to come.

Keep in mind that the ultimate texture and capacity within this 7th Code must match and/or exceed the complexity within the Life Conditions that it confronts. Those who exhibit this thinking will not be clones, nor cut from the same cloth. Each will have a unique mixture of agency or communal subtexts; each will bring diverse levels of motivation and energy to the task; and each will respond to its own internal drummer. But ALL will have an enhanced vertical perspective with the ability to transcend but include (and value) what came before, and also transcend but anticipate what will be next, thus declaring that we exist in the tension zones between ascending and descending priority systems. I also believe the 8th Code will rise in conjunction with the 7th, that we will always have a dominant expressive and dominant sacrificial system working in conjunction with other. Think of 7th Level (Yellow) as “left brain with feelings” and the 8th Level (Turquoise) as “right brain with data.” Yellow will identify the particles up and down the spine of the Spiral and will seek to surf the spine with its multimemetic tool kit; Turquoise will focus on the waves and energy flows that engulf the Spiral and will be much more comfortable in a command, control and conformity function, but only on behalf of the Life Force itself, and in its many manifestations in life forms on the planet

I hope you can see that these are not discrete steps that everybody have to climb in a uniform manner. Think of these as color chalk marks on a sidewalk that “nature” has laid down in a sequential fashion, because each is simply a complex, adaptive, and contextual intelligence that addresses the emerging complex of Life Conditions. We all play vMemetic hopscotch along these conceptual spaces, often landing with two feet on one zone but moving on one foot through the others.”

As life condition to the power of 7 (that’s the terminology used to describe one side of Dr. Graves double helix model where seven represent the complexity of conditions causing yellow to emerge) continue manifest all around us, it is even more apparent that the yellow code is brightening in many minds around the globe. There is a conscious awareness or conscious evolution that exists today, meaning that as the code brightens in minds, it (the intelligence of the code) may know that is what is happening… like right now as you read this! or you may have developed a strong enough observer with yourself that you can watch yourself as your thinking changes.

In any event, second tier remains an area of intense curiosity for most of us interested in all things integral. This was certainly true for me. Over the past five years I have been sitting in three questions: What is second tier? How do I model it, and how can it be used to meet the challenge we face, not only on global scale, but on a personal scale as well?

I’ve decided to post to this list, my own as well as other’s, thoughts about possible answers to those questions, with the intent inform, inspire and explore what the coaching field might offer in this context.

To get started here’s a segment written by Don Beck a couple of years ago I thought you might finding interesting.

“The “momentous leap” in Clare W. Graves’ language describes something of an emergence surge that appears to be much more than simply the seventh ratchet in the developmental sequence of complexity. Several of his graphics make this point dramatically and he believed this GT (Yellow) system contained greater conceptual capacity than the sum total of the first six.

He justified the notion of sets of six by the extraordinary quality and complexity in decision-making and other aspects of cognition in certain people he had tested and observed. The individuals who were expressing the 7th Level pattern had less fear, could generate many more options, appeared to be much more resourceful, etc. I believe he found early tracings of minds that were becoming aware of Problems “G” long before they become visible to the rest of us. Remember, Graves conducted his research before the age of the microchip, the end of the Cold War, the onset of molecular biology, and the more general impact of the FS code in its deconstruction and pluralistic influences. FS did, indeed, seek to cleanse and compress the Spiral by “liberating” the indigenous people (and all vMeme codes) from the dominance hierarchy. This created the memetic theatre where all the value systems that humans have expressed since the big brain emerged, thus appearing in real time on CNN – all demanding their respective places in the sun and in the higher valued niches. Herein lies the complexity that Graves could only imagine but could not directly experience. So, the Life Conditions to the Power of Seven that would require the new thinking complexity that he had observed three decades ago finally cascaded onto the scene. He knew something was up and was quite accurate in his future visions. The Gravesian blueprint will serve us well for decades to come.

Keep in mind that the ultimate texture and capacity within this 7th Code must match and/or exceed the complexity within the Life Conditions that it confronts. Those who exhibit this thinking will not be clones, nor cut from the same cloth. Each will have a unique mixture of agency or communal subtexts; each will bring diverse levels of motivation and energy to the task; and each will respond to its own internal drummer. But ALL will have an enhanced vertical perspective with the ability to transcend but include (and value) what came before, and also transcend but anticipate what will be next, thus declaring that we exist in the tension zones between ascending and descending priority systems. I also believe the 8th Code will rise in conjunction with the 7th, that we will always have a dominant expressive and dominant sacrificial system working in conjunction with other. Think of 7th Level (Yellow) as “left brain with feelings” and the 8th Level (Turquoise) as “right brain with data.” Yellow will identify the particles up and down the spine of the Spiral and will seek to surf the spine with its multimemetic tool kit; Turquoise will focus on the waves and energy flows that engulf the Spiral and will be much more comfortable in a command, control and conformity function, but only on behalf of the Life Force itself, and in its many manifestations in life forms on the planet

I hope you can see that these are not discrete steps that everybody have to climb in a uniform manner. Think of these as color chalk marks on a sidewalk that “nature” has laid down in a sequential fashion, because each is simply a complex, adaptive, and contextual intelligence that addresses the emerging complex of Life Conditions. We all play vMemetic hopscotch along these conceptual spaces, often landing with two feet on one zone but moving on one foot through the others.”