Or, for a short SD intro, go here... http://www.spiraldynamics.com/reviews/SD/SDreview_Dinan.htm Winston
----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Roberts" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, May 18, 2002 3:51 PM Subject: Re: "empowerment" is a disempowering concept > I wonder how many here are familiar with the book "Spiral Dynamics", by Don > Beck and Chris Cowan, both students of the late Clare W. Graves. It's > become an important idea for Wilber, and there is currently a lot of cross > pollination between SD which has (currently) 8 Levels of psychosocial > development and Wilber's 4 quadrants: thus the Wilbeckian's (as some wags > call them) use the term 4Q/8L as shorthand for their conceptualizations. > > The reason I mention that here is that a key premise of Graves is quite > divergent from some of what I am hearing here...ideas that there is (for > example) something wrong with command and control environments, or > conceptualizing about a relationship where one entity empowers another. > > From the SD framework, that idea itself is actually very disempowering > because it de-legitimizes the developmental diversity that undergirds the > global spiral of development which we all take part in. In that sense, SD > provides a lens for a much more ethnographic and anthropological > examination. > > SD recognizes that social structures, like individuals, pass through, > various stages in a spiraling towards whatever maturity is, and that their > place on the Spiral is not static...there might be some kind of centering > around one level, but there is a flowing quality, just as there is in our > own lives. It looks at what works for what social groups, when and > why...and when does the group get stuck in its level, and/or move up or > down on the spiral. > > There is also a process that the social structure goes through to move > through the levels: entering, consolidating and exiting. > > A key point of the whole approach involves respecting that the social > structure's place in the spiral and its process of moving through the > spiral is entirely appropriate. It is epochal in scope, recognizing that a > social structure NEEDS time to complete it's integration at one level > (which may include periods of being arrested) before moving onto another. > > According to Beck and Cowan, this kind of vision is a critical kind of > awareness if one wishes to be a SPIRAL WIZARD rather than just a CHANGE > WIZARD. Beck and Cowan elaborate on the differences between the two early > in the book...and when I first read it I realized that part of my own > stuckness was in seeing life out of the eyes of a change wizard rather than > the eyes of a spiral wizard. > > Here's a bit of spiral wizard talk from what I believe is the world's > oldest extant books of spirit: > > When people see some things as beautiful, > other things become ugly. > When people see some things as good, > other things become bad. > > Being and non-being create each other. > Difficult and easy support each other. > Long and short define each other. > High and low depend on each other. > Before and after follow each other. > > Therefore the Master > acts without doing anything > and teaches without saying anything. > > Things arise and she lets them come; > things disappear and she lets them go. > She has but doesn't possess, > acts but doesn't expect. > > When her work is done, she forgets it. > That is why it lasts forever. > > Releasing those kinds of labels (beautiful, ugly, good, bad, etc) has been > one of SD's gifts to me. It's created a real shift in my own head, and a > deeper willingness than I had before to accept without judgement (or > anywhere near as much judgement, anyway) the current state of affairs as I > look (for example) at the vast majority of first world government, ngo and > for-profit institutions, or (another example) at the way life works inside > a country that is set up as a fundamentalist theocracy. > > Instead of seeing them in such negative terms (the Emperor's new clothes > metaphor sums up my prior view), I've come to see them in terms of where > they are on the Gravesian SD model. And it's not that I don't take account > of how soul-deadening life can be in an organization that is stuck in a > command-control paradigm (I lived in a Dilbert world for 15 years!), or how > terrible it can be for women (I have two daughters!) to live in a society > that institutionally deprives them. > > The shift in my perspective SD provided has opened me up in new ways to > contemplating and conceptualizing how I might creatively play with these > structures right there where they are NOW, rather than trying to overtly > impose my own kind of change agenda upon them...or (even less useful) > getting caught up in some of the other emotional reactions I had had > previously: inward rejection, even disgust at the current stuckness of > many organizations; a sense of having either to "fight the power", or > retreat entirely from the front lines where much of life is lived. Those > of you who have read Dee Hock's saga, Birth of the Chaordic Age, will > remember his own struggle at this very juncture: how reluctant he was to > get involved in the world again, for just those kinds of reason, after > leaving VISA. > > If you haven't yet read Spiral Dynamics, I can't recommend it too highly. > My very brief explanation here is entirely inadequate to the richness it > has not just as metaphor, but as meta-metaphor...a paradigm shifter for us > paradigm shifters. > > Best, > Paul Roberts > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected], > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
