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An
Expanded Theoretical Framework for the LibDems
A highly
effective framework for communication and problem solving that
could, if applied, provide the LibDems a substantial
competitive advantage over other parties.
What would
it take for the LibDems to win the next election? We are
assuming that winning the next election would entail, not only
getting a majority of the votes, but also convincing the
electorate that the LibDems have an overarching ethical vision
combined with a strategy for solving a number of endemic
social problems, both at the national level, such as health,
education, transport, and crime, and at the global level,
including problems arising from globalisation, environment and
terrorism.
Why is such
a framework needed? Most people recognise, but don’t
necessarily understand, that quantum changes have taken place
in the last 30 years, both nationally and globally. This has
increased the complexity of social issues exponentially. Unless
the complexity in the external world can be matched by an
inner understanding of that complexity by policy makers and
organizational leaders, some social structures and
institutions could ultimately collapse in painful and
unpredictable ways. Deeper understanding by leadership of
the processes involved is needed to facilitate more harmonious
social transitions.
Questions
you may be asking. How is the voter profile changing now,
and in the future, and how does the LibDem plan to connect?
Who are the change voters? Why are so many young voters
disenchanted with the system? What will be the Tory party's
next position? What will be the Labour party's next position?
How do you plan to outflank, leap over, go deeper, or become a
broader tent? Does the LibDem have a plan for a major crisis?
Can it be independent on behalf of all UK? What will be the
Life Conditions in the short term and long term? Do the
LibDems really want to be in power?
Spiral
Dynamics. This framework, which is based on forty years of
theoretical and empirical research in the field of
developmental psychology, is called Spiral Dynamics. It is
based on the recognition that as social and environmental
conditions change and challenge individuals with greater
levels of complexity, new levels of consciousness, expressed
as value systems, will evolve. Each new value system
transcends and includes the previous value system, in a
paradoxical process of initial rejection and then later
integration.
Spiral
Dynamics describes 8 major value systems that have emerged
worldwide to date. Each includes a clearly identifiable
worldview and patterns of thinking. Most significantly,
individuals and organisations operating primarily in any of
the first 6 value systems, tend to judge the world only
through their particular value system. This is positive for
strengthening identity, communication and belonging, and works
well until it is discovered that certain problems that have
been created within this value system cannot be solved without
transitioning to the next value system.
Spiral
Dynamics in the UK. The primary value system in the UK is
primarily at the 5th level worldview, and has been
well expressed by Thatcher, and now Blair. They have both
tried to solve the great national problems of their time by
taking problems arising at less complex levels and imposing
level 5 solutions. Blair has further developed the approach by
including solutions from level 6. Some problems may have been
successfully addressed in this manner. However, others such as
family breakdown, drugs, social exclusion and crime have
tended to get worse. The
recent foot and mouth outbreak typified dealing with a 21st
century problem with 19th century solutions.
Matching the
complexity of the problem with the complexity of thinking.
Social problems can no longer be solved just by a shift from
an earlier value system to a later one, but by a recognition
and validation of all 8 value systems within the Spiral. This
doesn’t guarantee the sustainable solution of such complex
problems, but it significantly improves the chances by
matching the complexity of the problem with the complexity of
thinking.
Easy to
understand. The beauty of Spiral Dynamics is that although
immensely subtle and deep, it quite simply explains in a complete manner an understanding of the
real differences in people and why some change and some don't.
Professor Clare W Graves, who pioneered this work, maintained
that this theory is a systems conception of personality which
may be able to integrate everything that has been put down in
the literature about human behaviour.
The model outlines an integral psychology that explains our
development as a species, as an individual and in
organisational
life, as a complete model of human development and change.
Once explained, it is very easy to understand, communicate and
apply. This process of understanding can be further
assisted with PeopleScan www.onlinepeoplescan.com,
a demographic measurement tool, and the Vital Signs Monitor,
which can detect shifts from one value system to the next.
Does it
work in practice? Undoubtedly. The most spectacular
validation of this thinking can be seen in South Africa, where
our colleague, Dr Don Beck, advised Mandela and de Klerk on
the transition from apartheid to multi-cultural democracy.
Mandela is said to have acknowledged that the work helped
in the peaceful transformation.
How did it
work? Most significantly, at the 7th level
individuals for the first time become ‘conscious of their
own consciousness’. That is, they are able to see their own
value system and how each of the 6 lower value systems has
become integrated within their own. They are able to validate
healthy expressions of lower value systems, and to recognise
and to heal dysfunctional expressions. A deep understanding
begins to emerge as to how the lower levels can interact
either positively or negatively within the whole Spiral, and
how the health of the overall spiral is more important than
the health of the individual levels, especially when it is at
the expense of the health of other levels.
This leads
to the emergence of the 8th level. In this case
organisations can consciously re-awaken, re-validate and
re-integrate lower level worldviews, while at the same time
bringing in the thinking from the higher levels. This leads to
sustainable solutions at a global level.
In the case of
South Africa, instead of viewing the population as ethnic
groups, further subdivided by income and other conventional
demographic metrics, the population was categorized by value
system and position within the Spiral. So Whites, Blacks and
Coloureds were seen as sharing the same value systems, and
communications to each level were structured accordingly,
without ethnic bias.
In terms of
LibDems winning votes, understanding the make-up of different
value systems within a particular constituency enables the
candidate to pitch his/her message accordingly. The major
variables will be between the 4th and 5th
levels, with secondary possibilities coming from the 3rd
and 6th levels.
Understanding
how to pitch on any subject in any constituency in such a way
that each level can hear what is intended for it to hear
without losing authenticity, is a skill that can be acquired
through an understanding of Spiral Dynamics. Blair has
demonstrated this skill unconsciously. The LibDems can
understand it and apply it consciously.
A highly
ethical approach. Spiral Dynamics is not just a tool for
winning votes and solving organisational problems. It is also
a highly ethical approach for creating harmony within
societies and between nations. It is also a tool for helping
the LibDems to build on their current values, especially
freedom, justice and honesty, and to expand these to embrace
the healthy expression of all value systems at every level of
the Spiral. Instead of trying to change people’s value
systems to conform to a single dominant one, the LibDems can
validate and support individual and organisational growth,
consistent with personal and organisational needs.
We
all know that health care matters, crime, educational
failures, economic opportunity, drug use and other social
problems are all interconnected. Yet, our solutions tend to be
fragmented. We lack the models and processes for introducing
integral solutions. These will be beyond left and right wing
slants, and even deeper than "The third Way"
initiatives. The true "centre
of the centre"
might well be discovered in different thinking streams. The
political grouping that understands this first and acts with
precision may well dominate the landscape in decades to come.
We believe the LibDem
party was formed to pursue this objective but does not yet
have a map and compass to move ahead.
Our support
team includes Dr Don Beck, Founder of the Global Values
Network and the Spiral Dynamics Group, Christopher Cooke, UK
Coordinator and Dr Robin Wood, Fellow
at the London Business School Centre for Management
Development.
The Spiral
Dynamics Group - March
2002
See also www.spiraldynamics.net
and www.globalvaluesnetwork.com
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