What is Spiral Dynamics?

" Spiral Dynamics Integral is one of the first integral psychologies now available and, as presented by Don Beck, I give it my highest recommendation. It has profound implications for business, politics, education, and medicine, and it will give you the tools to begin applying these revolutionary ideas in your own field immediately. Don't miss it!"
~ Ken Wilber, author-philosopher and president, Integral Institute

For live seminar details, click here:  Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics Integral. . . is an advanced extension of the bio-psycho-social systems concept originated by the late Dr. Clare W. Graves of Union College, New York. Spiral Dynamics is the model that Canada's Maclean's Magazine rather grandly dubbed "The Theory that Explains Everything."  This applicable system explores the core intelligence and deep values that flow beneath what we believe and do. The result is a dynamic model of emergent thinking systems -- how values arise and spread, why people make decisions in different ways, and what to do with those differences to create positive energy within the system. Spiral Dynamics is an integral theory, which maps out specific strategies and tactics in the "meshing" of healthy systems, and illustrates the deep tributaries that produce crossroads in development in human evolution - affecting societies, communities, organizations, families, and individual interactions.

Where can I find more information?

The latest live video with Dr. Don E. Beck and Dr. Ichak Adizes, (and the famous wombat flash) is available here.

A vast collection of introductory material, articles and interviews, as well as audio material with Dr. Don E. Beck and other leaders in this realm of thinking, probably (almost) the most up-to-date material available on Spiral Dynamics, can be found at the WIE.org website (What is Enlightenment? magazine).

A website on Dr. Clare Graves foundational conceptual work is available here. 

New projects world wide include the Centers for Human Emergence. Engaging with those Centers provides an opportunity to network with leading thinkers and activists in the self-organizing Spiral Dynamics community. The primary organizational link is here and includes links to the Centers already established in various countries, and those recently initiated.

MP3 Clips:   Click here to hear Dr. Clare W. Graves discussing his point of view... on the need for honesty in dealing with FS (Green) ...introducing the theory in 1974 ...a caution about looking at value systems ahead ......and on psychological development as an infinite process. 

Who should learn Spiral Dynamics? This unique construct attracts individuals interested in understanding social change and the tempestuous relationships between societies and cultures, and between opposing political and organizational entities. In business - Spiral Dynamics identifies the intrinsic values that impact or facilitate corporate mergers and acquisitions, and that affect business management decisions in both the long-term and short-term, from the board room to the production line.  In individual life - Spiral Dynamics illustrates basic human motivational factors, the values that evolve as we grow and learn, and explains how these factors lead us to interact or react in healthy or unhealthy ways.

Spiral Dynamics answers questions like:

• IF it is time for change, then change FROM what TO what?
• WHY do people respond to different motivators?
• WHY and HOW do values arise and spread?
• WHAT is the nature of change?
• HOW should who lead whom to do what, and when?

When using Spiral Dynamics, you:

• communicate with people in ways they understand best on their terms, not yours.
• motivate people in ways that matter to them, at this time, in this place.
• construct organizations that align the work to be done, the people who will be doing it, the management style that fits those people, and the technologies that apply naturally. 
• design natural systems within a coherent framework.

Spiral Dynamics can be applied to:

• understanding why medicine cannot prevent the spread of HIV
• understanding why global crises, such as terrorism, exist and are resistant to diplomacy,
• integrating and aligning the efforts of stake-holders in complex global hot spots
• integrating and aligning the efforts of stake-holders with regard to domestic economic and social development issues

Spiral Dynamics and AGS . . .

Adizes Graduate School is the only school authorized to teach Spiral Dynamics for credit. The courses are intended to draw from a global student body in order to create the diversity and interaction required to further cross-cultural research in the field of managing change. Whether you are a life-long learner, work in the for profit, non-profit, government, industrial, social or community sectors, each course will be thought-provoking, and have relevance and applicable concepts.

Spiral Dynamics is taught in an eleven-week online class - entirely online, and in an accelerated format that combines the six-day live seminar and three-weeks of continuing online dialogue. Watch the AGS Newsletter for announcements regarding new class options!  To subscribe to the quarterly e-newsletter, fill out the form here: Contact Us!

 To find out more about AGS. . .

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