Human Capacities in the

Integral Age
How Value Systems Shape
Organizational Productivity,National
Prosperity and Global Transformation
Don Edward Beck, Ph. D.
The focus on the role of productivity in enhancing competitiveness,
while generating wealth and cultural well-being, has shifted over time
from the micro (personal, team and "circles") to the meso
(organizational design and performance) and now the macro (large
scale and complex systems). Likewise, the essential thinking around
productivity matters has emerged through systemic, strategic,
humanistic and now integral patterns and organizing paradigms. The
"profound knowledge" as described by Dr. Edward Deming is just now
becoming clear to many who applied only surface-level and tentative
versions of his massive work. We now recognize that micro-scale
solutions depend heavily on both meso-scale and macro-scale insights
and that all three must be meshed in the whole-scale application.

This presentation will introduce the concept of Spiral Dynamics, a new,

evolutionary framework that describes whole-systems thinking, details
how value systems emerge in societies, and maps out a program for
raising human capacities to deal with 21st Century complexities. The
session will introduce the notion of Memetics, the scientific study of
"DNA-like" codes and patterns that lie at the core of companies,
cultures and countries. It will describe the role of Vital Signs Monitors in
profiling human groupings, and a series of design formulas in crafting
natural systems that align focus, function, form, fit, flow and future.
Finally, it will demonstrate how to synchronize the spiral of
technological complexity, business systems sophistication, and levels
of human development.
THE AGE OF FRAGMENTATION

Never before has the planet earth carried such a rich tapestry of
human differences in the form of individuals and groups. The end of
the Cold War brought the thawing of the bi-polar ice sheet that covered
the entire planet as the deep ethnic cores began to bubble and boil
once again. Decades of deconstructionism and egalitarianism in
academic and popular cultural circles released the bent-up entities and
interests that had been subdued by European-Western hierarchies of
power and control. The microchip places an immense amount of
influence in the choice making of single individuals. DNA analyses now
make possible the specific identity of every person on the planet. Mass
customization efforts are able to target each person, and even specify
names on the inside of weekly magazines. It is as if the entire
psychological history of our species from Day One is being replayed in
real time and carried live on CNN. What an amazing time!

Likewise, we have been witnessing a significant amount of

fragmentation in the work place and around issues germane to
productivity. Our work force, in most environments, is much more
diverse than before. The shift toward a global view has, likewise,
introduced more complexity, not just in terms of different cultures, but
also in the form of a myriad of value systems that work side-by-side or,
within a whole constellation of teams and alliances. Yet, many of our
approaches to productivity still tend to be monolithic in design and
applied like a generic "cash wash" over people and work units that are
spreading apart as if they had been purloined into space a Big Bang

SIX BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT

Most people know the story of the "Six Blind Men and the Elephant."
One discovered the tail, another the trunk, while the others felt the leg,
side, tusk, and ear. Each was totally convinced he had discovered the
"truth" based on the direct experience. Of course, each observer was
"right" about the elephant, but only about a part; none was able to
sense the whole. This can also be said about the various political,
economic, religious, educational, child-rearing, and technological
theories of our own day. This also includes the various listings of
worldviews or Weltanschauungen, or the numerous psychological
packages, leadership initiatives, or managerial mandates that continue
to be popular, or have been discarded in societal dust bins. The various
and often heated debates heard at the United Nations, or in national
assembles, senates, and parliaments, will, likewise, reflect these
different views of "the elephant." Rather than continue to pit the vast
array of differences against one another in an adversarial manner, or
suffer the consequences when the conflicts surface in the form of
belligerence or warfare, might it not be useful to find a way to
construct a synthesis that can explain why each emerged, where it is
useful, and how it can contribute to the total Global Mesh?

Which of these views of the elephant-world best describe

you?
The World is. . .*
a natural milieu where humans
beige
rely on instincts to stay alive
a magical place alive with
purple
spirit beings and mystical signs
a jungle where the strongest
red
and most cunning survive
an ordered existence under the
blue
control of the ultimate truth
a market place full of
orange
possibilities and opportunities
a human habitat in which we
green
share life's experiences
a chaotic organism forged by
yellow
differences and change
an elegantly balanced system
turquoise
of interlocking-forces
*Question from The Values Test, NVC
This search for the cohesive elements that can hold so many
fragmented parts together in a new, 21st Century alignment, and
create the methodology and mechanisms for the continuation and
enhancement of all human life on the planet as well as in corporate
and work environments, will require an understanding of three
essential components:

The Evolution of Value Systems. We will introduce here a new

framework called Spiral Dynamics, a bio-psycho- social-spiritual
conceptual system that describes how and when worldviews
 emerge, and how they form themselves into spirals of complexity.
Each newly awakened Value System crafts its own unique work
attitudes, organizational designs and specific perspectives on
issues around productivity improvement
Historical Approaches to Productivity. Because Life Conditions
change, new innovations are introduced into the workplace, and
people themselves emerge into different priority "bottom-lines,"
we must rethink the whole matter of productivity itself, and what
it will take to generate the high levels of behavior necessary to
maintain the quality of our lives. We will track the shifts in
thinking about productivity through a series of Value Systems,
with an additional recognition that our own efforts have emerged
through micro, meso, and now macro applications.
Productivity in the Integral Age. If, indeed, we are dealing with
new levels of complexity and fragmentation, how should we
conceptualize the role of productivity in enriching and enhancing
the work place, or in educational systems, or in cultural and
social domains, so that we meet the challenges that confront us
in this newly emerging Integral Age?
THE EVOLUTION OF VALUE SYSTEMS: SPIRAL DYNAMICS

Spiral Dynamics is based on the seminal work of the late Professor

Clare W. Graves, Union College, New York. He described what he called
"Levels of Psychological Existence" as an emerging pattern and priority
of worldviews, value systems, and complex adaptive intelligences that
arise in response to Life Conditions. Thus, human nature is not finite.
We are not frozen into types or traits. Cultures are not static entities,
forever trapped in Flatland. As Graves explained it:

Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature

human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process
marked by progressive subordination of older, lower- order behavior
systems to newer, higher-order systems as man's existential problems
change.
The human Spiral, then, consists of a coiled string of worldviews, each
the product of its times and conditions. Yet, when a new worldview
emerges, the older systems do not disappear. Rather, they remain
subsumed in the total flow and not only add texture to the more
complex ways of living, but remain "on call" in case the problems that
awakened them to service reappear. So, there are systems within us,
miniature worldviews each of which is calibrated for different problems
of existence. Each new worldview is born out of chaos, in a nonlinear
fashion, so there is no straight arrow of time back into history. Each
worldview is a platform with its own unique paradigm and instructional
codes for organizing society. Like a DNA script, the unique adaptive
themes at each level will express themselves in terms of life-styles,
economic, political, religious, and educational systems, and views of
sex, marriage, working, the environment, and sports.

In our recent work we have fused the Graves Technology with the
fledging science of memetics, noting that each of the worldviews is in
fact a "valuesMEME", a coding mechanism that inculcates every aspect
of society. Graves work identified eight distinct worldviews or
vMEMES, with the ninth on the horizon. Yet, all of the previously
awakened systems still exist. These deep level tectonic-like
psychological plates create surface level tensions as we ratchet
through time.

QUICK SUMMARY STATEMENT OF WORLDVIEW (vMEME) CODES

THE LIVING STRATA IN OUR PSYCHO-CULTURAL

ARCHEOLOGY
Cultural
manifesta
Color Popular
Level Thinking tions and
Code Name
personal
displays
collective
individualis
m; cosmic
Level 8 Turquoise WholeView Holistic
spirituality;
earth
changes
Level 7 yellow FlexFlow Ecological natural
systems;
self-
principle;
multiple
 realities;
knowledge
egalitarian;
feelings;
HumanBon authentic;
Level 6 Green Consensus
d sharing;
caring;
community
materialisti
c;
consumeris
m;
Level 5 Orange StriveDrive Strategic
success;
image;
status;
growth
meaning;
discipline;
traditions;
Level 4 Blue TruthForce Authority
morality;
rules; lives
for later
gratificatio
n; glitz;
conquest;
Level 3 Red PowerGods Egocentric action;
impulsive;
lives for
now
rites;
rituals;
taboos;
super-
Level 2 Purple KinSpirits Animistic
stitions;
tribes; folk
ways &
lore
Level 1 Beige SurvivalSe Instinctive food;
nse water;
procreation
 ; warmth;
protection;
stays alive
Here's the key idea. Different societies, cultures and subcultures, as
well as entire nations are at different levels of psycho-cultural
emergence, as displayed within these evolutionary levels of
complexity. They have different centers of gravity. The previously
awakened levels do not disappear. Rather, they stay active within the
worldview stacks, thus impacting the nature and form of the more
complex systems. Like the Russian dolls, there are systems within
systems within systems. So, many of the same issues we confront on
the West Bank (Red to Blue) can be found in South Central Los
Angeles. One can experience the animistic (Purple) worldview on
Bourbon Street as well as in Zaire. Matters brought before city council
in Minneapolis (Orange to Green to Yellow) are not unlike the
debates in front of governing bodies in the Netherlands. Countries and
cultures are mosaics of multiple vMEME codes.

Third World societies are dealing, for the most part, with issues within
the Level 1 through Level 3 zone, thus higher rates of violence and
poverty. Staying alive, finding safety, and dealing with feudal age
conditions matter most. Second World societies are characterized by
authoritarian (Blue) one-party states, whether from the right or the left.
Makes no difference. So called First World nations and groupings
have achieved high levels of affluence, with lower birth rates, and
more expansive use of technology. While centered in the strategic,
free-market driven, and individual liberty focused perspective -- all
traits of the Level 5 (Orange) worldview -- new vMEMETICS (Green,
Yellow, and Turquoise) are emerging in the "post-modern" age. Yet, we
have no language for anything beyond First World, believing that is the
final state, the "end of history." Further, there is a serious question as
to whether the billions of people who are now exiting Second and Third
World life styles can anticipate the same level of affluence as they see
on First World (Orange) television screens. Now that expectations have
been raised by visiting "Paree," how do we expect to "keep them down
on the farm?"

Different worldviews or vMEMES fight wars

or engage in conflict but for different reasons.
 Deepest
motivation and
"bottom line"
Color Political Form
justification for
aggressive
behavior
to keep a place in
the survival niche,
Beige Survival Clans
as in the movie The
Quest for Fire
to protect the
myths, ancestral
Purple Ethnic Tribes traditions, rights of
kinship, and sacred
places.
to dominate, gain
the spoils, and earn
Red Feudal Empires
the right to rape,
pillage, and plunder.
to protect borders,
homelands, hearth,
Blue Ancient Nations preserve way of life,
defend "holy"
cause.
to advance
economic spheres
of influence, or
Orange Corporate States
access to raw
materials and
markets.
to punish those who
commit "crimes
Green Value Communities against humanity"
and protect the
victims.
Many people who knew both Edward Deming and Clare W. Graves have
remarked that the two men had a great deal in common, both in terms
of their respective worldviews and their approaches to social change
and transformation. Deming spoke of "Profound Knowledge" while
Graves' described what he called "The emergent, cyclical, double helix
model of adult bio-psycho-social development." The two men were of
similar age, stature, temperament, and style. Graves had the greatest
respect for Deming's work and it is unfortunate that they never met.
They were both "giants" in their own respective domains.

HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO PRODUCTIVITY

If one were to engage some of the sophisticated data-mining

technology with a colony of Web Crawlers to detect every use of the
term "productivity" over the last fifty years, there would be a clear
pattern to the clusters they would reveal. Productivity itself has gone
through its very own evolutionary process as it passes through the
micro, meso, and macro stages. One can also see how the various
initiatives have moved along the vMemetic trajectory as we have
sought, in each of the Value Systems, to construct what we thought at
the time would be the major advance in job performance, efficiency
and effectiveness, and the overall quality of our respective work styles.

BLUE-ZONE PRODUCTIVITY: DOING THINGS THE RIGHT WAY

Some of the initial attempts at productivity improvement focused

specifically on logical thinking, statistical measurement, connecting-
the-dots, and enhancing systems as they existed at the time. These
efforts stayed within job functions, organizational groupings, and
served to plan the work and work the plans within the established set
of givens, authority, and responsibility. BLUE ZONE PRODUCTIVITY
initiatives spawned such innovations as the early version of Quality
Circles, Total Product Quality (TPG) projects, and other efforts. This
emphasis also resulted in the creative contributions of Larry Miles at
General Electric and what became known as Value Engineering. VE
practitioners were asked to scan and monitor large capital contracts
that had already been finalized to search for ways to cut costs, avoid
duplication, and elaborate on designs which had already been set in
concrete. It is ironic that the very first psychologist who Larry Miles
sought out for advice was Professor Clare W. Graves, who was on the
Union College faculty just a few miles from GE's headquarters

ORANGE ZONE PRODUCTIVITY: STRATEGY AND BOTTOM-LINES

As BLUE ZONE PRODUCTIVITY efforts matured, it occurred to many in

the field that something was indeed missing. All of the intelligent and
highly motivated efforts to make substantial improvements in the
quality and flow of work were blocked by the nature of the organization
itself. The Quality Circles groups lacked the mandate to cross over
functional, departmental, and even geographic lines. Those people
who participated were often rewarded by a pat on the back but little
more. The improvements they designed and implemented benefited
the pay-checks of top level executives but not their own. They were
asked, even commanded, to "work harder and smarter," but soon
discovered they would not benefit from the fruits of their labors.

ORANGE ZONE PRODUCTIVITY shifted in the direction of strategy with

the massive re-engineering exercises, the entry of microchip
technology that made possible instant communication across all of the
barriers, and the onset of interest in aligning the entire enterprise to
the "bottom-lines." Governmental entities shifted from seniority-based
compensation to a preoccupation with merit awards and putting
professions into competitive postures. The idea, of course, was that
these innovations would enhance the capacity to squeeze costs, fine-
tune efforts, and see to it that every expenditure of funds, every effort
on the part of everybody, would all translated in one way or another to
"the bottom-line." VE moved to what was called Value Management as
scapulae were put to costs at the front end of contracts rather than be
locked into the big decisions that impacted, often in a negative way,
the little decisions. Unless the large flywheels were aligned to
"strategy," the smaller flywheels would continue to spin whether they
produced positive results or not.

GREEN ZONE PRODUCTIVITY: SENSITIVITY TO PEOPLE

Michael Hammer and his colleagues who were well known for the
entire re-engineering movement, had to make the major confession
after "down-sizing," brutalizing, and ripping apart many traditional
systems, that they had totally ignored the importance of people in
their activities. Big surprise. Those with the Orange vMeme virus in
their minds see nothing beyond profit, perks, and privilege. It became
apparent to many that people, indeed, were critical to any long-term
and effective effort that could sustain itself over time. A great amount
of historical knowledge was lost in companies because of both the
imposition of meritocracies and the assumption that systems –
business, technological, and strategic – would, by themselves, produce
the results that everybody designed. They did not. They could not.

At this stage a large segment of productivity thinking became focused

on people – their competencies, feelings, experiences, Humanistic work
site needs, and even personal preferences with regard to such "fringe
benefits" as athletic facilities, nurseries for children, partner privileges,
and similar sensitivities. Without question the enterprise became a
happier and healthier place as diversity programs stressed the value in
human differences, and community-based projects afforded an
opportunity for everybody to participate in social responsibility
schemes.

We also witnessed, in the GREEN ZONE, the emergence of self-

managed work teams, fully capable of functioning virtually on their
own. Trust-building exercises were introduced. Off-site meetings by the
groups were encouraged. Expansive career development tracks were
funded. Barriers in the organizational structure were lowered as rank
system were discouraged, both in external displays and in personal
relationships. Everybody was on a first name basis.

PRODUCTIVITY IN THE INTEGRAL AGE

The celebrated and romantic Age of Aquarius ended forever with the
crash of the World Trade Center towers in New York City on September
11, 2001. The Age of Fragmentation was at its high water mark, its
zenith following the end of the Cold War. Many of these identical issues
are, likewise, appearing in corporate suites, on shop floors, in trading
centers, and in business schools – from Harvard, Stanford, and the
London Business School to smaller educational/training programs
literally around the world. Witness, now, the rise of The Integral Age.
The intent here will be to discuss the ramifications of this new epoch to
the general area of productivity, with a focus on redesign rather than
fine-tuning, on transformation rather than reformation or renewal, and
on open, flow-state dynamical systems rather than closed-in, boxed-in,
and rigid, final-state models and methodologies. Here are several of
the basic assumptions and processes that implement the Integral
perspective.

THE DESIGN OF NATURAL SYSTEMS

Actually, the Integral Age is based on the 7th and 8th Level Value
Systems, the YELLOW and TURQUOISE ZONES in terms of the Spiral
Dynamics' conceptual system. The approaches to productivity in these
zones tend to favor the macro or whole-systems scale perspectives. If
these are "set right" at the very beginning, many of the micro and
meso issues and concerns will naturally follow suit. This will of
necessity unblock the constraints that have prevented the productivity
measures in the BLUE, ORANGE, and GREEN domains from actually
producing the results they desired. I worked for a number of years with
Middelburg Steel & Alloys company in the Eastern Transvaal in South
Africa. This heavy-industry organization was light years ahead of others
in that productivity efforts, and even safety-measures, were built into
the design of the total system rather than imposed as separate items
over the entire structure, operating codes, and output requirements.
Everything connected to everything else. All the decision-makers were
involved in all of the developmental programs. The requirements for
productivity improvement, safety regulation, and even diversity
development were featured on the evaluation forms for everybody. The
company was saturated with innovative versions of Value
Engineering/Value Management, and it extended from the executive
suite to the shop floor, and across all functions. This company and its
executives and staff played a major and defining role in the entire
South African transformation out of apartheid, as these principles were
applied in the Middelburg community and even into the National Peace
Accord.

Natural Systems Designs have a number of distinguishing

characteristics:

They identify the underlying vMEME codes operating in the overall

culture, the critical priority sets in key decision-structures and
which are essential in different work flows, as well as the
overarching set-points, flywheels, or deep cultural assumptions
that macromanage the whole. This is all mapped out as
underground currents on which the enterprise must be
constructed.
They skillfully align the core elements – focus, function, form, fit, flow,
fulfillment and future – in the design of the features that, when
properly set in motion, generate high levels of productivity while,
in addition, meeting the four essential "bottom-lines" that every
enterprise should now pursue – purpose, profit, people and
planet.
They design the appropriate levels in, as reflected in the three Spirals:
Degrees of Complexity in the Technology Spiral; Levels of
Sophistication in the Business/Systems Spiral; and Levels of
Emergence in the Individual and Cultural Spiral. Unless there is
synchronization in the three Spirals, tension and stress will result.
If the technology is too complicated for the business systems to
handle, or the business (motivation, communication,
compensation, information, etc) is either too complex or too
simplistic for the work force, there is serious trouble ahead. There
must be balance across all three Spirals, so that the "well-oiled
machine" or the "finely-tuned" Flow-State can function with
minimal energy lost and maximum productivity.
They focus more on the codes, maps, equations, and scenarios than on
prescriptions, patterns, and policies. For example, the following
equation is repeated over and over again:How should WHO
lead/manage/motivate/inspire WHOM to do WHAT, with WHICH
people living WHERE?
4Q/8L – HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS – HOLISM IN PRACTICE

Ken Wilber has created a powerful, imaginative, and practical template

to overlay on any situation to

identify the specific needs and capacities of individuals and groups,

and
calibrate the precise developmental or growth-related packages that fit
each unique situation.
The "All Levels" piece of his framework can be explained in terms of
the eight vMEME or worldview layers and levels of complexity. The "All
Quadrants" component consists of:

IT - Individual Brain & Organism.

I - Individual Self & Consciousness
ITS - Collective Social System and Environment
WE - Collective Culture and WorldView.
Efforts which select a single Q, or operate on a mismatched L, could
make things worse. Large scale efforts, such as cultural upliftment,
must be All Q and All L. The same holds for developmental schemes in
organizations. Too often we rely on a single Quadrant, such as the
Upper Left, in enhancing people's personal insights, skills and states of
mind – but then send them back to their same former Lower Left webs
of culture that are hostile to these new perspectives and behaviors. Or,
we place people in jobs and functions but fail to align the
compensation or management systems (Lower Right) that support the
behaviors we expect. No doubt you can offer many examples of this
problem.

The design and implementation of successful All Quadrants/All Levels

initiatives requires a new generation of decision-making formulas and
processes. While each of the vMEMES has evolved its own form of
problem resolution, the Yellow-Integral and Turquoise-Holistic
worldviews contain the intelligences to macromanage the whole
human Spiral.

PRODUCTIVITY IN THE FLOW-STATE (LIFE CYCLES)

Ichak Adizes, in his corporate lifecycle framework, has devised what he

calls CAPI – the Coalescing of Authority, Power, and Influence – so that
all sit at the same table in sorting out complex issues. (See
http://www.adizes.com. After studying thousands of companies from
all over the world over decades, he has been able to identify the
different managerial codes that are operative at different life-cycle
stages as the entity deals with its problems of existence. The codes –
P-production, A-administration, E-entrepreneurial and expansionist
thinking, and I-integrative – vary at the different stages. The
organization will always have problems; the only question is what kinds
of problems will it have, what are their dimensions, and what will be
required to handle those specific circumstances.

Huge gaps in productivity occur whenever the entity is out-of-phase

with its specific location on the corporate life cycle. Short-term, quick-
fix, or cosmetic "solutions" only make things worse. The entire entity
must be involved in creating trust, designing the appropriate structure,
finding the right people, and implementing the congruent systems. The
Adizes Methodology is, without question, the most powerful framework
that I have come across for managing complex business and cultural
streams.

VITAL SIGNS MONITORS: SENSING THE PATTERNS AND FLOWS

As humans, we exist in a wash of bacteria, viruses, genes, and memes.

All four appear to be impacted by nonlinear events, and possess the
capacity to literally re-engineer their respective codes in order to adapt
to changing conditions in the milieu. The Vital Signs Monitor is
designed to track the life forces that influence our human experiences.
Consider an operations-type room, with floor to ceiling video screens,
where the critical indicators are displayed and overlaid on top of each
other. Such a Monitor could register the pulse of aggregates of people,
both at macro and micro levels, to search for the deepest trends, major
vMEME conflicts in the making, serious sink-holes in development
projects, and the general health and well-being of global people. This
technology could provide globally focused decision-makers with the
necessary information to translate into knowledge, then formulate
actions.

Such a technology is being developed by John Petersen and his

Arlington Institute, located in Arlington, Virginia. The intent of the Vital
Signs Monitor, displayed within the Institute's Fusion Center, is to track
vMEMETIC flows and Stages of Change within the American society.
(See www.arlingtoninstitute.org. Likewise, a number of innovative
companies are seeing the wisdom of creating their own internal VSM to
collect all of the critical indicators, and display them at a single place
and time so that everyone can see everything. Conoco, for example, a
global energy company, has created what is called Dashboard, a
company-wide project and initiative designed to craft such a data
clearinghouse that takes and monitors the "pulse" of the company and
its external world(s). They may well be writing the textbook for this
technology.

Finally, we are now constructing a method for assessing the core Value
Systems in entire cultures and societies so that we can detect major
tension zones, stress points, and early evidence of major changes on
the horizon.

Cometh the Time; Cometh the Thinking.