Shared Values in all Cultures: Spiral Dynamics summarized

Looking through the “glasses” of the Spiral Dynamics theory of prof. Claire W. Graves we can see universal Value systems emerging around the globe. Only not every region is going through the same faze.

In studied Spiral Dynamics with Chris Cowan and Natasha Todorovic. Chris was working with Graves, together with Don Beck, the co-author of their first book about the Craves theory, wherein they transform the Gravian double letter code to a colour code and renamed the Graves theory in Spiral Dynamics.

To help readers of my blog understand my way of using the Value System colours better, I try to summarize Spiral Dynamics. Which is a dangerous thing to do, because its quality is the richness of insights inside the theory and by summarizing we will and up using the simple explanations. And people who know more about it will struggle and fight my interpretations. Still I cannot ask my readers to deeply study the theme first, before coming to my blog, so summarizing it will be.

Who wants to know more, I will link in an article I wrote, together with Judith Donkers, a few month ago that explains Spiral Dynamics a bit more respectful and connects it to the skills and values of our Youth and new generations. To read the article of FMM Magazine April 2012 klick here!

Spiral Dynamics starts with basic colours and levels of existence . For now I will leave them out. Beige (survival), Purple(family) and Red (power).

The “Bleu” way of organizing, teaching and monitoring progress is common in every culture we have seen or heard of.  In Bleu, people tend to feel part of a system.  That feels save and quiet. But if You don’t feel happy about it, You “know” that You have hardly any influence on changing Your role and Your position.  Bleu has developed itself to tremendous heights and efficiency during the industrial age. If everything is controlled, planned  and governed You are in Bleu.  This is great for industrial processes and production efficiency. If one wants to make something real in the real world we all need the skills and the getting things done mentality of  Bleu.

The next level in Spiral Dynamics terms is Orange. This is an individual state of mind in where You want to expose Yourself and make notice of Your possibilities. The change to Orange is what happens in China, now that millions of people feel the freedom to make their own choices. To gain wealth, to be someone and show it to the world. In the western society we got there a little earlier and we start to focus on the next level: Green.

Green oriented people know they have to work together. And that we cannot keep on exploiting the planet and our resources  the way we used to do (and still do). In Green feeling good and doing good is seen as quality time. There is more in life than hard work and buying expensive products. To take care of one’s body and social wellbeing, Green has to feel part of a community with people sharing the same way of living.

As Green oriented people want to do everything to stay a valuable member of their precious community (what is a kind of a pitfall to Green because it slows down their development possibilities) the people who want to go forward try to jump to Yellow.

In Yellow the individual knows he has absolute freedom to make his own choices and that he is responsible for what he does or does not do. Yellow thrives for Synergy and pragmatic logic solutions. Yellow wants to think about what they and others do, WHY it needs to be done and HOW it can be done best in this particular case, before they start repeating the things that everybody does for years, without considering what value they add.

Creativity needs the co-creating mind-set of Green and the individual freedom of mind values of Yellow. As well as the knowledge and solution orientation of Orange and the practical and thorough attitude of Bleu. So an effective team needs to be a creative coalition of people from out every mentioned colour.

In real life one is never only one dominant colour. We all live by a set of values. Each coming to the surface as soon as we think a certain context demands for a certain response. Which one's are developed and dominant at a certain point depends on the life You live, the situations You got into and the lessons You learned from it. Every time You find that more of the same will be no solution to the problems You have to solve, You start looking for another level of looking to the world. Your set of possibilities grows, Your paradigm shifts and You start acting differently to create a better fit with Your surroundings = the context You are facing.

This connection of context and behaviour is the very basic strength of Spiral Dynamics. And that is precisely  the reason it is so useful to our business. As we try to create the best possible environment for our customers to Enhance their Excellence, Spiral Dynamics can be used as a guide. To the levels of complexity of the demanding society, to the behaviour we need to face that complexity with and the physical surrounding (environmental qualities as we call them) that will accustom and facilitate that behavior.

If You wantto know what set of colours You have You can take a free test on our website. Klick here!

Unfortunately this one is only available in Dutch at the moment.