Conscious Living Systems Design

02/07/2023

In Part 1 of this article, we examined some of the critiques and confusions surrounding terms such as “Meta-Modernism”, “Integral,” and the vertical development movement in general, including the love/hate relationship many have with Spiral Dynamics. This article includes my critique of “altitude sickness” and “the danger of unintegrated polarities.”

In Part 2, we get into how viewing human development from the perspective of complex, evolving living systems can get us out of this mess and provide some clarity about what works and what we need to shift to address the poly-crisis we find ourselves in.

We also see how assemblage theory and the work of Manuel de Landa, Edward O Wilson, and other natural scientists and historians explain the dynamics of cultural and psychological evolution. This counterposes the natural stratification of living systems and cultures in the fossil record of civilization with the ability of components/modules in different layers to plug and unplug into other layers, whether genetically, linguistically or memetically. This catalyzes the evolution of what might otherwise become a fossilized monolith. Strata are a natural phenomenon; dominator hierarchies are a primate/human invention.

Deconstructing dominator hierarchies and narratives is the work of genetic, linguistic, and memetic coders and decoders, and that is precisely the kind of work I've been engaged in for 50+ years on four continents, liberating human potential

In Part 1 of this article, we began by examining some of the critiques and confusions surrounding terms such as “Meta-Modernism”…

01/24/2023

With 12.75 billion search results on Google, is clearly an important topic globally. Yet 95% of the information on teams, teamworking, team roles, and psychological "type" assessments (e.g. MBTI, Enneagram etc) are seriously out of date.

Despite all the talk about organizations, 's and other self-organizing teams and organizations, there is an empty void when it comes to understanding the core dynamics and potential of teams and organizations, and the individuals within them.

So, I've taken my four decades of experience in this field and put together a science-based approach to teams and teamworking that applies evolutionary, complexity and cognitive science approaches to human beings, their doings, and collaborations.

This is the second of two articles that provide an overview of the three key criteria by which team performance can be evaluated, along with the three core team enhancers, organized into a coherent method.

Call it metamodern or integral science, the name doesn't really matter. No one ever said it was going to be easy getting from Game A to Game B, but at least we can free ourselves from the first-tier delusions of how to develop incredible, world-shifting teams and organizations.

In my last article: “What Makes a Great Team?”, I explained teams from an evolutionary perspective, which gave us powerful insights into…

12/29/2022

What drives the transition from one center of gravity in the symphony of human development to the next? Here's a clue: the evolutionary epistemology-universal Darwinism-universal Bayesian (EE-UD-UB) framework. It sounds complex, and it is, but I've managed to explain it in plain English in the article below. As evolution and adaptive learning proceed, life effectively performs statistical inference and updates its model's "beliefs" (Memes-Values) about the world in a Bayesian fashion.

Answers to the questions: “What really matters to me”; “What is of ultimate concern”; “What are my top priorities?”, evolve as we adapt to changing circumstances. Common sense at one level, but how this process unfolds and its implications for humanity’s future and for each of us, with radical consequences.

In developmental terms, “cool” value systems absorb the energy from the chaos created by the “warmer” value systems. When things are in danger of cooling down too much, the warmer value systems are ignited by life conditions to rebalance the system- at all scales, from the micro to the macro. Either way, order is created out of chaos, as the emergence of more complex platforms helps dissipate the energy flowing through the system at ever higher levels of complexity.

This is also true of all social animals and insects, from bees to primates- nature and evolution always strive for balance, even if that has meant five mass extinctions to reboot systems no longer capable of adapting to changing life conditions. The sixth mass extinction is now underway as humans face the consequences of fossil-fuel-driven growth disturbing the fragile Holocene balance that has enabled civilizations to emerge.

This emerging synthesis is powerful, and the integration/ consilience across many disciplines is radically empowering in many ways.

“If we have learned anything from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run- and often in the short one- the most…

12/01/2022

Valuable tips on developing your own insights into mastering the interaction between your “Being Zones” & “Life Zones” to thrive

Much has been written about happiness over the past few millennia. But what I am going to do in this short article is to change the way you…

11/06/2022

Healing for crisis-troubled souls- I review Greta's Climate Book & extract 10 mind grenades. https://bit.ly/climatebook-greta

08/29/2022

In developing strategies for thriveability, strategic gaming is one of the most powerful ways in which we can arrive at the most thriveable outcomes, reduce the risks we face, and deal with the shocks, surprises, and sudden changes of fortune that invariably accompany our lives.

By scanning the horizons of the future as widely as possible, we pick up early warning signals that alert us to potential dangers as well as real opportunities. We learn to anticipate not only possible events but the actions and strategies of our competitors and collaborators. We become “future-fit”.

More than 50 years ago people paying attention noted the Limits to Growth report issued by MIT and the Club of Rome and began incorporating environmental awareness into their consciousness. Today this consciousness is now going viral around the world as the direct consequences of only 1.1C of global overheating become known to every person on earth in the form of endless heatwaves, droughts, floods, storms, food shortages, electricity blackouts, and a fraying social fabric where unscrupulous politicians play ecocidal games with each other and our planet and its people.

In the spirit of the meme: “There are no prizes for forecasting the rain, only for building the ark”, I began building my own ark more than 20 years ago. Each one of us needs to become an island of coherence in the sea of chaos and uncertainty if we are going to make it through to the 22nd century.

In part one of this inquiry into the kinds of thinking that will help us survive and thrive now and in the future, we asked the question…

08/13/2022

How to Make Social Emergence and Synergy happen More Often

My life’s work has revolved around helping social and organizational emergence happen more frequently to realize beneficial outcomes- what I’ve called “Game B- Regenerative, Inclusive, Developmental Multicapitalism” in numerous articles and books. Unlike many fluffy-tailed starry-eyed agents of change, however, I’ve also had to learn to survive the shocks, surprises, and sudden changes of fortune inherent in taking on the “Game A- Degenerative, Exclusive, Hierarchical Monocapitalism” system and mindsets that currently rule our world. So far, supervenience is evenly balanced with emergence and synergy in this tale, as Game A and its consequences become almost overwhelming for even the best prepared.

So, for me, the fundamental question is how to make beneficial social and organizational emergence and synergy happen more often than the supervening forces that push us backward.

In these “interesting times”, there appear to be three very different responses to the existential challenges we face (see my recent…

08/01/2022

Two existential questions for thoughtful human beings
https://bit.ly/2existential

After 8 books published, hundreds of articles written, and 48 stories published here on Medium outlining pathways to a thriveable future…

12/23/2021

As leaders and change agents, our ability to understand the key issues we are facing today (and how to address them with the least effort and precision) is critical for us survive our current global transition. We need to be aware of cooperation and "coopetition" as we coordinate a "race to the top" which involves working together to rebalance our unbalanced world with only about a decade to do it (to avoid risk of human species extinction).

🌍 Follow the link provided to see this and other videos in the series on our website, http://globalchangeagent.com/race-to-the-top

This "change agent insight" on the topic of "Race to the Top" is brought to you by GlobalChangeAgent.com - The premier source for information, tools and training for leaders and change agents working together to save humanity and build the foundation for the new human society that is emerging. These...

12/19/2021

How can we align ourselves to shape a flourishing world by 2050? What channels the energy at the micro-scales into the forces of transformation at the grand scale? What's needed for this new world?

Listen to the Renaissance lesson in the free, Momentous Leap mini-course at www.themomentousleap.com to find out.

Then join us for our final clubhouse session, "Renaissance - Co-creating a Game B World" on 2021 20-12 at 18CET. We pull the entire free mini-course topics together in this inspiring conversation. https://bit.ly/gca-ren-ch

We're looking forward to hearing from and seeing you on our last Monday 18CET clubhouse session of 2021!

Monday, December 20 at 6:00pm CET with Dr Robin Lincoln Wood, Lennart Bjurström, Brett Thomas, Donna Nelham, Michael Sillion, Bert-Ola Bergstrand, Jacqueline Quinn. How can we align ourselves to shape a flourishing world by 2050? What channels the energy at the microscales into the forces of transf...

12/19/2021

Zooming out on the big picture can fill us with new energy and motivation about our transition, and keep things in perspective. All that we love, all that we know on earth, is a mere, small speck in the vast, spaciousness of the galactic darkness. So small, and yet, it is so full of life, so precious, so beautiful. And it is all we have. As we become skilled as global change agents and agents of transformation, we're able to see the very big picture, what Peter Drucker called getting into our strategic, psychological helicopter and transcending the problem, enabling our challenges to be viewed from multiple perspectives, producing breakthroughs at emergent, unprecedented levels of thinking.

🌏 Follow the link provided to see this and other videos in the series on our website, http://globalchangeagent.com/the-blue-pearl

12/16/2021

Regenerative Design turns out to be one of the most important insights into transformation and how we can be better, more effective agents of change and transformation. Understanding regenerative design is a critical component to creating a regenerative, inclusive, collaborative and developmental model, “Game B” from the crumbling, degenerative, exclusive, hierarchical model, which we call “Game A”.

🌍 Follow the link provided to see this and other videos in the series on our website, http://globalchangeagent.com/regenerative-design