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alpha fit
July 2009 
Don Beck in Tel Aviv
Posted on May 20th, 2007
by 
yeshe
yeshe
Neri has posted some video of Don Beck in Tel Aviv. I thought I'd post them here, with the transcriptions.
What I’m trying to say to you, as gently as I can – and I’ll say it in Palestine starting tomorrow – here is a strategy for defusing, taking the stinger, out of the radical RED-to-BLUE system. It’s not Hamas. It’s RED-to-BLUE. There are elements of Hamas that are very intelligent blue. And we met some of them. And I’m sure there are some elements in Hamas which are BLUE-to-ORANGE. So Hamas is not a monolith. And the more we can speak in terms of the spectrums of differences.
I helped FW De Klerk to see ANC RED, ANC RED-BLUE, ANC BLUE, ANC ORANGE. And once he could see ANC ORANGE, then it became possible to strike a deal, because Afrikaaner had moved to ORANGE. And with Mandela – bless his saintly heart – he would ask me: am I being BLUE enough for you? I’d say “No, you need to give a BLUE speech to your youth and colleges, insisting that they exhibit discipline”.
The assimilation contrast effect shows how spectrums of differences emerge from flamethrowers, to zealots, to ideologues, to moderates, to pragmatists, to conciliators. It was really fun watching the Hamas faces the other day when I put this (slide) up. And went through the process with them of showing that the conflict is always between the radical influence (at flamethrowers/zealots) and these elements here (ideologues/moderates) – the term ‘moderates’ is used, which I don’t like. It looks like its this extreme – Hamas type – versus Zionists over here (both at flamethrower level), when it’s really flamethrowers/zealots versus ideologues/moderates/pragmatists – for the hearts and minds of people. And the extreme positions here need for these to exist here (indicates RED/RED-blue) Because they have to convince the population that a moderate view is not tolerable, because this entire wing, all Israel, is RED, controlled by Zionists. And, from this point of view (the Flamethrowers on the Israeli side) all Palestine is controlled by radical Jihadists. Do you see that stereotyping? Which means the mid-range disappears.
We have built ways of getting more moderate systems (on both sides) to simultaneously reject their radicals. Building super-ordinate goals over here (at the level of conciliators) – Hong Kong of the Middle East – Dubai – of Palestine, as a future pull. Because it’s a hearts and minds conflict, between the radicals and the moderates for the hearts and minds of both the Palestinian population on the one side and the Israeli population on the other. And by having “vital signs monitors” we are able to actually show the patterns. It means you can anticipate what’s happening before it explodes in your face. Because today we’re so integrated, we’re so interconnected – and things happen so quickly, and spread so widely, we don’t have lead time. We don’t have float time. Float time is when you used to write a cheque even though you didn’t have enough money in the bank account to cover the cheque. And you put it in the post, knowing that it would take two or three days to get to the person you owed it to, who in turn would put it in the post to get it to his bank, who would put it in the post to get it to your bank, so seven days would go on. But today, when you write a cheque, there must be some kind of ink and paper that instantly tells your bank that you just wrote a check for $500 or 500 pesos. So we lost float time.
Things happen so quickly and are spread so widely, electronically, we simply have to have access to the information. and knowledge, that we never had to use before. I think that a lot of people learned that in the Lebanon.
New slide: I’m not asking you to change your spots, I’m just asking you to take out the garbage.
New slide: Promote power differentiation through appropriate, stratified stages and layers. And this is what’s known as “stratified democracy”. Which means that there isn’t a single version of democracy. Based on the memetic values contours here: Feudal empires, authoritarian, multi-party, social democracy. The Taliban is/was what it is because Afghanistan is what it is. So the Taliban is right there between heavy RED and blue. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. That’s why it’s so anti-female…
Just because you remove a head-knocker, like Saddam Hussein… Iraq was what it was because he was who he was, and he was who he was because Iraq was what it was. Do you get me? That’s why there are different leadership structures. And over time, you will see an emergence of democracy. But here are the Americans, trying to impose an ORANGE system on this infrastructure… No way, Jose! There wasn’t a prayer that was going to work. Even worse, the Scandinavians, our friends in Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Canada, the UN – with a social democracy here (Blue/orange/green) trying to implant that back here (purple/red/blue). What is necessary is a blue/orange system.
I hope you understand what I’m saying to you. That’s why, globally, there are different systems. And before we talk about democracy, we need to read the particular contours.
New slide: Resolve major paradoxes by implementing creative win:win:win solutions. I put that third win up there to tell you that the spiral has to win. You can have win:win:lose, and you’re both worse off. You can have win:lose:lose, and you’re in trouble. So how do we create win:win:win?
I truly believe that there is a master intelligence – I don’t mean a metaphysical thing – there is an intelligence in human development, that provides us with a touch-stone to guide us based on different configurations of humans. I don’t believe this necessarily came from God, or from Allah, I call it spiral intelligence. The dynamics of the spiral. And I’m trying to say to you that my experience has been that following that guidance – with side-views of cultures, with the necessary step-stages of change…
New slide: … that there’s an alternative to deadlock.
New slide: Because what we have found in theory and in research in terms of stages of change, what’s called the Alpha fit, everythings A-Okay…
Living this way (alpha fit) begins to produce new life conditions. Not because of our failures, particularly, but because of our successes. So by still using this value system combination here, to solve these problems of existence, we created new problems of existence. We got new wine, but were still using old wineskins. And there comes a point where there’s leakage. And that’s called the “beta condition”. Something’s wrong. And we see this in psychodynamics and neuroses of people. And entire cultures can be neurotic, can be out of step. And the education system, the healthcare system, the law enforcement system are out of date. So we get beta signs. And how we respond to beta signs – often do more of the same. Because we think that we have these life-conditions here (alpha), but really we have these life conditions here (beta).
One can celebrate what happened in 1948 about Jerusalem. But this is 2007. And one of the ways that we often cope with that is a nostalgic search. “Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me”. And during this period of celebration of the past, with the 40th and then the 60th, sometimes there’s an idealism and a selective memory of times past. It’s all right. It’s part of the stages of change. So a nostalgic search is one of the ways in which society deals with a reality that’s not the same as it used to be. And as a part of which a window opens, out of the dissonance from a beta condition, a window opens for an emergence to a new system that is designed to handle the new life conditions.
I want to try to suggest to you that that intelligence is now available. If that road isn’t taken, the danger is a regression, to what’s called the “gamma trap”. And there are a whole bunch of Arab males in gamma traps. It’s a source of terrorism.”
New slide: Nourish and replenish the natural habitat so that all life forms may flourish. Such as protecting the soil, the growth capacity to feed people, and other things. And that’s a whole different story which I can’t go into. I’m just about finished and then we’ll have questions.
Now let me show you how I put all these things together in the South Africa strategy. Which is the first synthesis in which I try to explain. Table Mountain summit. This is from the book Crucible, which I wrote with Graham Linscott in 1991. It has now been republished, with updates. Where you can actually see how we wrapped this whole technology around the emergence of South Africa.
And obviously, the spiral then, the colours, was the frame I was using. A, B, C, D, E, represent life conditions. Problems of existence. This is the letter pairs that Clare Graves used. N, L, P, Q, R, S, T, U represent coping value systems that emerge from life conditions. And you’ll see that with each emerging system, the previous systems are still alive. Because those problems are just two pay cheques away from us. Or a sudden explosion away from us. So rather than types of people, these are systems in us. The spiral is within us. Is within the culture, is within companies. And basically, that’s what we’re trying to deal with. Under certain conditions, a new one forms.
Apparently, for many, this is a hierarchy. It’s a hierarchy of complexity. Not of dominance. At MIT once, this woman challenged me: “Are you that Texan with the hierarchies”. I knew I was in trouble! So I said “I guess so.” She said “We don’t like people like you here at MIT, because you’re a racist”. Having just worked with Mandela, having worked in South Chicago black high schools for a year, I’m not particularly interested when somebody calls me a racist. They’d better be careful. Don’t mess with Texas! So I tolerated her, and said “Ma’am, is your thinking here at the MIT more complex, more sophisticated than that of George W Bush?” She said: “You tricked me!” Because if she said yes, there’s a hierarchy...
Strategy proposal: Let the players see and understand the colors
What I’m trying to say to you, as gently as I can – and I’ll say it in Palestine starting tomorrow – here is a strategy for defusing, taking the stinger, out of the radical RED-to-BLUE system. It’s not Hamas. It’s RED-to-BLUE. There are elements of Hamas that are very intelligent blue. And we met some of them. And I’m sure there are some elements in Hamas which are BLUE-to-ORANGE. So Hamas is not a monolith. And the more we can speak in terms of the spectrums of differences.
I helped FW De Klerk to see ANC RED, ANC RED-BLUE, ANC BLUE, ANC ORANGE. And once he could see ANC ORANGE, then it became possible to strike a deal, because Afrikaaner had moved to ORANGE. And with Mandela – bless his saintly heart – he would ask me: am I being BLUE enough for you? I’d say “No, you need to give a BLUE speech to your youth and colleges, insisting that they exhibit discipline”.
The assimilation contrast effect shows how spectrums of differences emerge from flamethrowers, to zealots, to ideologues, to moderates, to pragmatists, to conciliators. It was really fun watching the Hamas faces the other day when I put this (slide) up. And went through the process with them of showing that the conflict is always between the radical influence (at flamethrowers/zealots) and these elements here (ideologues/moderates) – the term ‘moderates’ is used, which I don’t like. It looks like its this extreme – Hamas type – versus Zionists over here (both at flamethrower level), when it’s really flamethrowers/zealots versus ideologues/moderates/pragmatists – for the hearts and minds of people. And the extreme positions here need for these to exist here (indicates RED/RED-blue) Because they have to convince the population that a moderate view is not tolerable, because this entire wing, all Israel, is RED, controlled by Zionists. And, from this point of view (the Flamethrowers on the Israeli side) all Palestine is controlled by radical Jihadists. Do you see that stereotyping? Which means the mid-range disappears.
Assimilation Contrast Effect
We have built ways of getting more moderate systems (on both sides) to simultaneously reject their radicals. Building super-ordinate goals over here (at the level of conciliators) – Hong Kong of the Middle East – Dubai – of Palestine, as a future pull. Because it’s a hearts and minds conflict, between the radicals and the moderates for the hearts and minds of both the Palestinian population on the one side and the Israeli population on the other. And by having “vital signs monitors” we are able to actually show the patterns. It means you can anticipate what’s happening before it explodes in your face. Because today we’re so integrated, we’re so interconnected – and things happen so quickly, and spread so widely, we don’t have lead time. We don’t have float time. Float time is when you used to write a cheque even though you didn’t have enough money in the bank account to cover the cheque. And you put it in the post, knowing that it would take two or three days to get to the person you owed it to, who in turn would put it in the post to get it to his bank, who would put it in the post to get it to your bank, so seven days would go on. But today, when you write a cheque, there must be some kind of ink and paper that instantly tells your bank that you just wrote a check for $500 or 500 pesos. So we lost float time.
Things happen so quickly and are spread so widely, electronically, we simply have to have access to the information. and knowledge, that we never had to use before. I think that a lot of people learned that in the Lebanon.
New slide: I’m not asking you to change your spots, I’m just asking you to take out the garbage.
New slide: Promote power differentiation through appropriate, stratified stages and layers. And this is what’s known as “stratified democracy”. Which means that there isn’t a single version of democracy. Based on the memetic values contours here: Feudal empires, authoritarian, multi-party, social democracy. The Taliban is/was what it is because Afghanistan is what it is. So the Taliban is right there between heavy RED and blue. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. That’s why it’s so anti-female…
Understanding democracy - Stratified Democracy
Just because you remove a head-knocker, like Saddam Hussein… Iraq was what it was because he was who he was, and he was who he was because Iraq was what it was. Do you get me? That’s why there are different leadership structures. And over time, you will see an emergence of democracy. But here are the Americans, trying to impose an ORANGE system on this infrastructure… No way, Jose! There wasn’t a prayer that was going to work. Even worse, the Scandinavians, our friends in Norway and Sweden, Denmark and Canada, the UN – with a social democracy here (Blue/orange/green) trying to implant that back here (purple/red/blue). What is necessary is a blue/orange system.
I hope you understand what I’m saying to you. That’s why, globally, there are different systems. And before we talk about democracy, we need to read the particular contours.
New slide: Resolve major paradoxes by implementing creative win:win:win solutions. I put that third win up there to tell you that the spiral has to win. You can have win:win:lose, and you’re both worse off. You can have win:lose:lose, and you’re in trouble. So how do we create win:win:win?
I truly believe that there is a master intelligence – I don’t mean a metaphysical thing – there is an intelligence in human development, that provides us with a touch-stone to guide us based on different configurations of humans. I don’t believe this necessarily came from God, or from Allah, I call it spiral intelligence. The dynamics of the spiral. And I’m trying to say to you that my experience has been that following that guidance – with side-views of cultures, with the necessary step-stages of change…
New slide: … that there’s an alternative to deadlock.
New slide: Because what we have found in theory and in research in terms of stages of change, what’s called the Alpha fit, everythings A-Okay…
Stages of Vertical change - Transformation vs. Translation
Living this way (alpha fit) begins to produce new life conditions. Not because of our failures, particularly, but because of our successes. So by still using this value system combination here, to solve these problems of existence, we created new problems of existence. We got new wine, but were still using old wineskins. And there comes a point where there’s leakage. And that’s called the “beta condition”. Something’s wrong. And we see this in psychodynamics and neuroses of people. And entire cultures can be neurotic, can be out of step. And the education system, the healthcare system, the law enforcement system are out of date. So we get beta signs. And how we respond to beta signs – often do more of the same. Because we think that we have these life-conditions here (alpha), but really we have these life conditions here (beta).
One can celebrate what happened in 1948 about Jerusalem. But this is 2007. And one of the ways that we often cope with that is a nostalgic search. “Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me”. And during this period of celebration of the past, with the 40th and then the 60th, sometimes there’s an idealism and a selective memory of times past. It’s all right. It’s part of the stages of change. So a nostalgic search is one of the ways in which society deals with a reality that’s not the same as it used to be. And as a part of which a window opens, out of the dissonance from a beta condition, a window opens for an emergence to a new system that is designed to handle the new life conditions.
I want to try to suggest to you that that intelligence is now available. If that road isn’t taken, the danger is a regression, to what’s called the “gamma trap”. And there are a whole bunch of Arab males in gamma traps. It’s a source of terrorism.”
The south africa strategy
New slide: Nourish and replenish the natural habitat so that all life forms may flourish. Such as protecting the soil, the growth capacity to feed people, and other things. And that’s a whole different story which I can’t go into. I’m just about finished and then we’ll have questions.
Now let me show you how I put all these things together in the South Africa strategy. Which is the first synthesis in which I try to explain. Table Mountain summit. This is from the book Crucible, which I wrote with Graham Linscott in 1991. It has now been republished, with updates. Where you can actually see how we wrapped this whole technology around the emergence of South Africa.
And obviously, the spiral then, the colours, was the frame I was using. A, B, C, D, E, represent life conditions. Problems of existence. This is the letter pairs that Clare Graves used. N, L, P, Q, R, S, T, U represent coping value systems that emerge from life conditions. And you’ll see that with each emerging system, the previous systems are still alive. Because those problems are just two pay cheques away from us. Or a sudden explosion away from us. So rather than types of people, these are systems in us. The spiral is within us. Is within the culture, is within companies. And basically, that’s what we’re trying to deal with. Under certain conditions, a new one forms.
Apparently, for many, this is a hierarchy. It’s a hierarchy of complexity. Not of dominance. At MIT once, this woman challenged me: “Are you that Texan with the hierarchies”. I knew I was in trouble! So I said “I guess so.” She said “We don’t like people like you here at MIT, because you’re a racist”. Having just worked with Mandela, having worked in South Chicago black high schools for a year, I’m not particularly interested when somebody calls me a racist. They’d better be careful. Don’t mess with Texas! So I tolerated her, and said “Ma’am, is your thinking here at the MIT more complex, more sophisticated than that of George W Bush?” She said: “You tricked me!” Because if she said yes, there’s a hierarchy...
Access: Public
Thank you for posting, Helen.
Now, I wonder, would there be a general explanation of the whole spiral etc. by him or anyone else that could be posted here for educational purposes? (I've read the book but still this is so much more alive…)
Here's one I love, by Thomas: Spiralized
Then there's the introduction to Spiral Dynamics by WIE, here
If anybody else has some great sources, feel free to post!
Helen,
wow! thanks for sharing these videos! i haven't seen Don Beck on video yet :)
btw, i went ahead and tagged them on Zaadz video. check it.
http://videos.zaadz.com/tagged/don+beck/
Mushin, for an overview of Spiral Dynamics without the colors, here's something from Don Beck himself.
Spiral Dynamics without the Colors
Helen.just linked your post to some Xing Forums with roundabout 5000 members together.
Indeed, as you asked me regarding dropping knowledge, how can some really global system changing dynamics be established. And for me: Equally adressing grassroot univese as global players like the ones at World Economic Forum f.e.?
Who will be in charge for this?
Who will be the leaders and architects?
Who will do the hard work?
Who is investing time..attention—life force with committement?
Who is interested in PROFESSIONALL solutions creating centers of excellence for communication/media too?
Who will follow his/her vocation/calling for putting personal risk and lifeblood into this big endevor?
Please send me the phone numbers and I will be a lucky one if two or three German numbers will be on list who belong to SDI Core Team:):)
Greetings
Albert, do I detect a note of exhasperation? Or am I just projecting?! :-D
Who will be in charge for this?
Nobody and everybody
Who will be the leaders and architects?
We will only know in retrospect.
Who will do the hard work?
I am doing some. So are you. So are others - more than we know.
Who is investing time..attention—life force with committement?
I am, you are, so are others - more than we know.
Who is interested in PROFESSIONALL solutions creating centers of excellence for communication/media too?
Check out the previous issue of Kosmos Journal on the information age.
Who will follow his/her vocation/calling for putting personal risk and lifeblood into this big endeavour?
I will. To the last drop of my blood. I do it every day. And I know you do to. And I know many others are. That's why I find it so important to find ways to connect up our dots.
Today I was listening to the first of the 2007 Reith Lectures, delivered by Jeffrey Sachs. It's a hugely optimistic and hopeful message he is giving. As I listened, my body was awash with something - I don't know whether it was adrenaline or endorphins - and I was physically blissed out and crying violently all at the same time. Because he was describing the planetary scale I am now plugged into, despite myself. The scale at which my concerns are focused.
People at the end who asked questions (all highly distinguished people who, IMO, should know better) said things like: “it's pie in the sky, because man does not change. What on earth leads you to think that this kind of human nature is ever going to change” (Sir Christopher Meyer) and ”But what is the basis, the real basis for having such faith in human nature, because I'm not entirely convinced by the empirical evidence that you've produced. ” (Terry Waite). Sachs responded: ”I thought after such a depressing lecture, for five sixths of it, that people would not simply hone in on my unbounded optimism. I tried to explain actually. I spend my time with people who are dying. Twenty-two years ago I started to say that we needed debt cancellation for the poorest countries. (APPLAUSE) It came late, but it came. I can't give up, that we are doomed. (APPLAUSE) That's why I started this lecture as I did, that too many of us think it is impossible, too many think it is unreal, but that is a dangerous defeatist belief. That's exactly where I started. We have to believe that we can make choices if we can understand them. We have to believe that the more we analyse together and reason together, especially in this house of all places on the planet, that it's possible to sort out some of these things. No part of the whole planet has done more than this institution to change the course of history in fact. Life expectancy was twenty-five years, and it's because of what this house and what it represents has accomplished, that in the rich world we're at eighty years, and in the middle income world we're at seventy years. And when I think about how Condorcet, months before he was killed in the French Revolution, talked about how we could harness reason to grow more crops and to extend life expectancy - what right did he have to be optimistic, but he got it exactly right. So what right do we have to be so pessimistic, and blind, and not moving, when people are dying on our watch?”
Well, it's my watch too. And yours. And everybody else's who reads this. How often do we hold back, through petty self concern, waiting to see whether anybody else does something and bewailing the fact that “they're” not doing what they should. I've stopped waiting. Now, i put out the call. I work with the people who respond, I go through the doors that open. I respond to other calls that I resonate with. I spend myself in joy and relief, because at last I'm no longer held back. This is our age. This is our chance and our challenge. Never before - as Lynne Twist put it - have human beings had such a chance to lead a meaningful life. Let it not be said that I held back.
So, if anybody wants to play ball, let's go chat over at Integral Action in the World.
I would like to add the Natural Design Formula piece to Albert's questions and Yeshe's answers:
I will start first with the distinction between Absolute and Relative realities: In the absolute everyone is doing his/her own share of facilitating emergence in the world.
In the relative, I tend to use the Natural Design Formula that Don Beck tested in South Africa based on the understanding of value-systems codes/colors.
Here's the Formula: HOW does WHO lead/teach/educate/etc..WHOM, to do WHAT, and WHERE…
This is a laser beam-like way to align, synergize and connect all the efforts in a natural way, and produce results. Integral means emergence in internal/external quadrants after all.
We start from the end: WHAT? what is the project, conflict, issue we are addressing?
WHERE: what are the Life Condition/Vital Signs Monitors or the habitat of the problems we are addressing.
WHOM: what are the Value-systems (colors) of the people we are trying to help? what are their needs? Clare Graves says “Do onto people what they want done onto them..” not what we think should be done for them. In other words, what is a next half-step for their life conditions, their value-systems? Plus, the SDi theory says that we can only support change in the Habitat (inner/outer life conditions) to allow of an Open system to emerge in any color and at any level. We do not take people to another level, we help them create the right life conditions that can be conducif for emergence. Example: We cannpot change a Red value-system in people who are holding on to violence, anger and revenge. We can help create a Blue density around them, or co-created with people in that culture who are ready for structure and discipline. This might change a Closed or Arrested Red into an Open Red.
And finally WHO? who are the leaders/educators/Wizards that are most suitable to lead the process and faciltate the emergence? what kind of leadership qualities are required for this natural design? For example: Iraq that was designed by an English Clerck after WW1 to host 7 rivaling tribes, needed a WHO, a Strong RED leader who is the big BOSS, with small Bosses as heads of each tribe. A week Red-Blue government now is failing to do the job.
One of the main lessons I learned from Graves and Beck's work is to step out of my own value-systems and try to see what is next for the culture I am dealing with, not what my emotions or desires are pointing at.
For many of us this 'detachment'' comes from our psycho-spiritual practices..”Getting the Ego out of the way..etc”…But I tell you, it is very hard to do when you are faced with real life situations where people are getting killed, women are being abused and children are not being fed…Oh sweet meditation, how much I need thee when I am in the Host spots of the world :)
Thank you, Elza, for wading in here! This is a message we all need to hear. I often think, as I step away from my all-too-briefly-visited meditation cushion, that I am stepping onto my surfboard and going off to surf samsara. Trying to hold on to some kind of equanimity in these fields of opulence that are our western world, where people often behave as if they are so stressed, unhappy and alienated. These are life conditions I know well, and here, too, it is hard to get ego out of the way, so it seems, to take the extra step to thank a colleague for work well done or to give a word of kindness rather than just walking past. Even these tiny things seem beyond us in our rich world. Things that are still present in war-torn Palestine and Lebanon, I feel sure. There aren't only hotspots. There are also cold spots. The pain is just as real there, and the solutions seem just as far away sometimes.
I was the air traffic radar controller on duty at LATCC “in charge” of the first ever hi-jack of an American airliner - ” to Beirut in the Lebanon ” - as was declared by the pilot in a lonnnng drawn out southern united states drawl. Whenever those words are ever “released into the ether” tears stream down my face in contemplation of man's inhumanity & injustice to man.
My own search has included the works of Graves and Beck's and I to - have learned to step out of my own value-systems and try to see what is next for the culture I am dealing with, not what my emotions or desires are pointing at. - bravo and ALL hail to ALL your comments and thanks to Helen for the postings.