Spiral Dynamics and Center of Gravity

Center of Gravity

https://www.typepunchmatrix.com/pictures/39423_6.jpg?v=1592661697
Spiral Dynamics

It is an interesting exercise, identifying self in a real way- an honest way. So often, the self we present is a self or selves, not the Self. I suppose it is the Self that directs the selves, recognizing immediate need of others within context and pushing forward an identity that is truly just part of an unknown whole.

 

I think in systems: systems driven by need. Values, however, drive. It is at the value level that clarity comes. 

 

The values of orange with sights on green appear to be and have been at my center of gravity. Orange is where I have lived for years, really decades. While I can see how and when I’ve progressed through each level, I can’t help but think that orange was a silent partner in progress. They say that animals that engage in great migrations pass on routes in their mitochondrial DNA to their young. Orange, for me, feels like such a vestigial relic. And just as I see orange as a biological characteristic of what defines me, it is also what socialized me. 

 

Orange when I was Blue demanded that I buck systems biased towards white men of any kind and women dressed in power, with brooches as their badge.  I played by Blue’s rules but thought with an Orange mind. Orange has served me well- knowing Blue, equally so. I see now, however, that I am revising the sequence of my routines. Routines that eek out the primacy of orange and create space for green. I don’t really see that I have the choice, nor want the choice. 

 

Green is where I think the answers might be. The age-old questions asked again and again and answered in ways that failed again and again call into question the questions we are asking, not the answers we are giving. Green seems to be this next space. Space where perception demands interrogation. To step inside multiple shades of reality and to recognize value in what is presented to accommodate with a caveat: status quo is not the goal, it is an explanation. The better we understand the status quo the better we understand direction. The better we understand the direction, the better understand opportunity within our status quo.

 

I am reminded of a childhood story I read until it creased: “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” A little boy named Harold wanted to go for a walk in the moonlight. To do so, he drew a moon and a path to walk on. From there, the story continues as Harold draws what he needs and knows only to have what he had known about what he needed to be inadequate or wrong. The story concludes with him returning to the beginning space but having gone on the walk. He came back different because he saw where he was differently. 

 

While Green is where I sit at times aside Orange, Yellow is on my horizon as a place of curiosity. I have a feeling that this space of Green will become too simplistic a reference. I suppose that this space of Yellow, this second tier, is the place of faithful curiosity. Where concrete is understood through abstractions and abstractions made more concrete by what might be understood, pulling in the merit of each color that preceded as a means to sharpen, rather than to dull: if one understands each color from a place within and without one can see distinctions; if one can see distinctions one can see purpose. In other words, each place is really a way and with each transcendence more way than place. With way, there is less need for place. Similar to what Webber spoke to when describing “human potential” as a composite that individuals experience in contours (Wilber, 2005, p. 3).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hobfall's Conservation of Resources (CoR)- SCT and Adaptive Leadership

Image
Conservation of Resources An interesting title for a theory that I've come to learn is associated with crisis management.  Bajaba et al., (2021) interject Hobfoll's (1989) theory as a means to explain how particular managers recognize and are able to adjust resources that create conditions necessary in a time of crisis. These resources are not limited to physical assets. These resources include personality traits and skills of individuals within the organization that advantage opportunity and overcome challenges in times of crisis: traits and skills that become invaluable resources in times of stress. "COR theory, a motivational theory introduced by Hobfoll (1989), defines resources as "those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for the attainment of these objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies" (Bajaba et al., citing Hobfoll, 1989, 2021, p. 3);  The authors prese...
Read more

Looking past the 'what we do' and focusing on the 'why we do'

Image
I was watching a movie last night with my family- Inception. The storyline is very complex but it goes something like this... invading the dreams of others to learn more about what they know and why they do what they do in order to change or explain what has been and influence the actions of the dreamer (at the subconsciousness level) to change a future outcome.  One scene has the character seeking out the sage advice from another character, attempting to dig deeper into the subconscious dreamworld of another. The advice was simple, one cannot assume that merely entering and influencing sufficiently changes the course of action. One must delve into the idea at a point of inception- the place in which the idea is reduced to its simplest form. If you enter anywhere higher up the perspective-evolutionary ladder, you risk obfuscating the idea and calling it something that it isn't holding the belief that this "is", which means that the change you incite does not change the o...
Read more

Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings: A Commentary

Image
  Conservation of Resources Steven E. Hobfall Individuals hold on to the things that are central to their perceived wellbeing and safety. O bjects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies when “threatened, lost,[or] believed to be unstable" are recognized as having value and are perceived to be of value. W hen "individuals and groups cannot set a path to the fostering and protection of [these] resources through their joint effort” stress is experienced (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 342); w hen such conditions persist, the "stress resistance" within the individual or the group is compromised. Furthermore, a  persistent loss of resources contributes to further loss of resources, enabling a cyclical process referred to as a loss spiral, leaving individuals and groups even more vulnerable (Hobfoll, 1998). In such times of loss, individuals and groups take great effort to adapt in ways to conserve and utilize available resources . If such adaptation is successful, there ...
Read more