“In the midst of mounting economic political and environmental challenges comes this extraordinary book as proof of the birth of the new leadership needed to save our planet. What Don Beck and his colleagues have penned on these pages is nothing short of genius…This is a must-read for leaders who are serious about becoming conscious trailblazers for our planet.”

John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market

“Don Beck is not only a creator of new knowledge and a thought leader of repute but also a superb advisor, supporter, encourager with practical insight.”

George Lindeque, PhD, Former Executive Director of ESKOM

“Spiral Dynamics in Action gives a lens which illuminates trends amidst the world's diversity that were invisible before. More importantly, this book gives us a perspective through which we can understand current affairs, crises and conflicts, and attempts to use this knowledge for the betterment of society, the environment and mankind. This field guide is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand and positively impact the world around them.”

Rabbi Anton Klein, Union of Orthodox Synagogues (UOS) and Director of the Beth Din (The Jewish Ecclesiastical Court)

“As with many such visionary-creative spirits, while being profoundly on target, Dr Beck may also be just slightly ahead of his time. This book represents the leading edge of Integral thinking-in-action. We now have a north star that can point our way home if we are willing and able to read our charts. This is the map.”

Bert Parlee, PhD

“Spiral Dynamics in Action took me on an exhilarating ride of self-discovery, and provided me with the tools to thrive in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural environment. The authors of Spiral Dynamics in Action made Clare W. Graves's work on the ‘Emergent, Cyclical, Double Helix Model of Adult Biopsychosocial Development’ meaningful and practical to implement in everyday life. Reading the book has transformed my life. It is a must-read.”

Herman Bruwer, Sale Engineer, InterSystems, South Africa

“Spiral Dynamics in Action shows Beck still has as much to contribute as a geopolitical consultant and provocateur of global and societal level change, now focusing on the wicked problems and social messes of 2017 and beyond.”

Darrell Gooden, PhD, Certified Associate & Instructor, Adizes Graduate School

“In today's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, diversified leadership is required for driving productivity. Spiral Dynamics in Action transcends neuroscience to learning opportunities that shape the business world.”

George Maluwi Damien, Employee Engagement and Communication, Damang, Ghana

“The richness of this book is in its presentation of the concept of Spiral Dynamics in both the theoretical and practical forms in a bid to advance human consciousness. By understanding ‘the deep underlying archetypes of humanity’ and analyzing people's mentality, leaders can engage and address the people's needs at all levels of society without exclusion. This book acknowledges the formulation of new paradigms as people constantly adapt to their dynamic environments and advocate for multifaceted government structures that are accommodative to the differing value systems that exist.”

Dr Joyce Toendepi, Leadership and Change Facilitator, Mandala Consulting www.mandalaconsulting.co.za

“This book brings together the most important concepts and approaches for dealing with large-scale, complex, human challenges. Social problems such as poverty, crime and corruption, education disparities, and political polarization become tractable using a practical framework that embraces complex dynamics and a deeper understanding of human nature.”

Kevin Kells, PhD, Team Earth http://team.earth

“This book will be a valuable and essential tool assisting companies in understanding and managing diversity in the workplace.”

Henk van Zyl, HR Executive and Specialist, Co-determination, South Africa

“I now rely upon this essential cognitive framework each day to solve complex business challenges and make integral contributions to my clients. I am forever indebted to Dr. Beck.”

Joseph Rende, Social Infrastructure Development Executive

“This book creates a pathway towards a society that is characterized by inclusivity, authenticity and one that values deep wisdom. Through listening to all the voices in the system, leaders are empowered to ask the questions that lead to synthesis and building the adaptive capability to benefit society at large.”

Dr. Anna-Rosa le Roux, Consulting Psychologist and Master OD Practitioner, South Africa

“The fundamental problem mankind faces before it self-destructs is that it must understand its true identity and ultimate destiny. We are witnessing Dr. Don Beck's vision that further defines mankind's true identity and provides a plan for actualizing that destiny. Beck offers a paradigm to transform mutually exclusive communities of thought into an organic unified whole. Beck's subtle yet practical model demands that we embrace this new paradigm, providing us with the instruments and controls to master our collective destiny.”

Emanuel C Perlman, Founder and CEO of Destination Peace International

“At last, at last! If you want to make intelligent decisions read this book.”

Lawrence Bloom, Secretary General, Be Earth Foundation (a UN Inter-Governmental Organization)

“A great seminal work which condenses the codes of human evolution for action and micro- meso- and large-scale change. A masterpiece.”

Albert Klamt, Philosopher

“This book should be mandatory reading in every school and university. It is the master code of human nature, like the DNA of human psychology, which explains a great deal about human motivation and behavior. Once you understand it, you can see the underlying forces which explain so much in politics, business, leadership and society.”

Nicholas Beecroft, Consultant Psychiatrist and Director, Future of Western Civilization Project

“This is truly pioneering work—essential reading for those engaged in a momentous leap forward. I am honored to recommend it.”

Nancy Roof PhD, Founding Editor, Kosmos Journal

“This is a breakthrough book, emphasizing the critical importance of early developmental stages as they contribute to the whole person. This knowledge is essential for any person who designs and implements strategies in service of human evolution.”

Tom Feldman, Founding Member, Coach and Facilitator Association of Transformational Leaders, SoCal

“This book elegantly balances the science and art of people involvement in co-creating improvement. Underpinned by a mature understanding of change, Spiral Dynamics in Action practically guides the empowerment of people within the organization to integrate the changes into their context and social system.”

Ansie Prinsloo, Specialist Quality Healthcare Improvement Advisor

“Spiral Dynamics in Action is an extraordinary book, showing how the ‘theory’ of Spiral Dynamics has been the foundation of critical, dramatic changes in the world, as well as in the development of individuals, organizations and countries. Don and his partners have provided the complete pathway, and the work they have done in this remarkable book is absolutely amazing.”

Laura Frey Horn Ed.D

“A must-read for those who want to affect change with people, organizations, countries and, ultimately, the world.”

Jim Chandler, Former Total Quality Leadership Director, Naval Warfare Assessment Centre, and an advocate for the Deming Coorporative and Deming Institute

“Every page of this book offers authentic hope that can guide the way. Read it and then act on it. Dr. Beck is always reminding us to ask the question, ‘What needs to be done?’ Spiral Dynamics in Action: Humanity's Master Code masterfully gives us the keys to decoding value systems, worldviews and mindsets that crack the codes that shape our multidimensional lives so that we can evolve to a new order of thinking and being for the benefit of the whole. At this challenging time in history, what could be more important than that?”

Diane Williams, Founder & President, The Source of Synergy Foundation

“Dr. Don Beck and his gifted team of international co-writers should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Spiral Dynamics in Action is nothing short of a masterpiece and I encourage all leaders, and aspiring leaders alike, to sleep with it under your pillow. Read it each morning when you awaken, and each evening before you go to sleep. Doing so will change how you are inspired to inspire change, and unleash your greatness as a leader.”

 Katherine Woodward Thomas, MA, MFT, New York Times Bestselling Author of Conscious Uncoupling: 5 Steps to Living Happily Even After

“This book is a legacy to the life of my family, and I couldn't be more proud of my dad, my mom, and my siblings Belinda and Matt. If I pass along to my daughter, Jillian, nothing more than a bit of wisdom garnered on the plains of Zululand, then well done to you, Dad.”

Don Beck Jr.

Spiral Dynamics is arguably the first, major, systemic, conceptual system and complex way of thinking about everything that addresses the “big picture.” Holistic perspectives, that are currently in vogue in cutting-edge executive leadership thinking, provide a mechanism and methodology for looking at macro and micro issues simultaneously. These perspectives lay down a specific, practical and usable change technology that aligns and connects all of the variables; stakeholders, cultures, sub-cultures and other interests within an elegantly designed organism. The perspective in this book is one that integrates technology, business systems and human dynamics within a seamless, interactive process. Nothing similar to Spiral Dynamics can be found in any applied literature, journals, bestseller books, academic programs or consultant packages. It stands alone. This makes it difficult for many to get their minds around the whole because we are so trained to focus on parts. We are accustomed to looking for quick fixes, single-cause analysis and solutions, car-wash interventions or micro-applications.

For me, the reason for the existence of Spiral Dynamics, as cited in Chapter 12 of this book, says it all. What I then have to say can only whet the appetite for the formidable work that Clare Graves and Don Beck in America, Loraine Laubscher and Rica Viljoen in South Africa, Said Dawlabani and Elza Maalouf as Lebanese Americans, Teddy Larsen and Sergey Solonin as Europeans, and the innumerable others cited in this book, have accomplished to further the lot of individuals, organizations and whole societies across the globe.

I first met Don Beck in South Africa, early in the 1990s, after reading his extraordinary book, with co-author Graham Linscott, The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future. I immediately gave Graham a call, as I was in the country at the time, and asked him, “Who is this man, Don Beck, and how I can meet him?” With due humility, as such, I became the midwife for the first book by Don Beck and Chris Cowan entitled Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change, some two decades ago. This formed a key part of our then Blackwell series on Developmental Management.

It was no accident that this seminal work would emerge out of a meeting Don and I had in South Africa, as the new country was being born in the early 1990s. For it was in South Africa that I had already met Rica Viljoen, and thereafter Lorraine Laubscher, in the context of a project on South African Management. This was the first of its kind, and is still today the only one that attempted to uncover the role that Africa had to play in management. Central to our work on such was Spiral Dynamics, and the multi-faceted cultural memes that thereby underlay that great “rainbow” country. Why then was the Spiral of such seminal value to us?

Before answering that question, let me move across to Israel and Palestine, where I have spent so much of my life outside of Africa and Europe, and where great work was done, as we shall see, by Beck, Maalouf and Dawlabani. For decades now we have been grappling with the dynamics of economy and of enterprise in that region of the world, in a way that takes account, not only of the organizational and personal dynamics we find there, but of the overall societal ones. Again, the insights provided by the cultural memes of Maalouf were incredibly important. For how else would we uncover the genius of a place, of a people, notwithstanding all the trials and tribulations along the Palestinian–Israeli way, if we were not to take account of all these, including their dynamic interaction, for good or ill?

And now we go to the Nordic countries. Norway has played such a key part in the now faltering “Middle East” peace process. In fact, living in Europe as I do, though Africa and specifically Zimbabwe is my place of birth and origin, I have always felt that these Nordic nations were the evolutionary catalysts on the European continent, if only they rose to the occasion. In fact, my erstwhile Indian co-author, Sudhanshu Palsule, spent many years teaching at a college in Denmark when writing our Managing in Four Worlds. Thereby I was introduced to Danish “northern” folk traditions, and the folk colleges born out of this. Our book at the time, in the mid-1990s, was duly informed by such, as well as by folk traditions of the east, west and south.

So we have America, South Africa, Palestine and Israel, Denmark and also Russia, where I recently made my latest writing journey through Integral Advantage: Emerging Economies and Societies. There I discovered the “Second Tier.” This was the ultimate wisdom of that great country, if you like, that both communism and capitalism have completely by-passed. Let me then return to my earlier question: what is so special about Spiral Dynamics in Action?

It is the very fact that it crosses all these frontiers, from east and west to north and south. What is so tragic about most of the literature on leadership today is that the “West,” primarily America, leads, and the rest follow. It is as if Donald Trump ruled the world! Yet, via Beck and Graves, together with Laubscher and Viljoen, Maalouf and Dawlabani, Larsen and Solonin, we have that other America, that place where all worlds meet, rather than their being “melted down” into one amorphous mass.

And now I say the final word. The reason why, some two decades ago, we immediately saw Spiral Dynamics as the center-piece of our Developmental Management Blackwell series, is that it addresses, simultaneously and interactively, not only the four corners of the globe, and its center, but, at one and the same time, the individual, the organization and society in each. The catastrophe of leadership theory and practice, today, is that it assumes one size, duly melted down, fits all, and that the individual can “lead” in isolation of her or his community and society, if not also their organization. The authors of this book show us that it can be otherwise.

Ronnie Lessem, Co-founder, Trans4m, France, and

Professor of Management, Da Vinci Institute, South Africa

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Albert Einstein (nd)

We live in a complex, peculiar and dangerous world.

Why, after half a century of international diplomacy and peace-brokering, can't Israel and its neighbors make peace? Why do some African countries continue to spawn brutal political regimes that destroy their own economies, kill their own people and rape their own women? Why is America so polarized that collegial debate on issues now seems a faint memory of an earlier age? When did America and its close allies in Northern Europe begin to think so differently on global issues? And why did that happen?

These are the kinds of questions we need to answer. And we won't find the answer by looking at the surface. Today's headlines are just revealing the symptoms – not the cause.

We each have many ways of seeing things – lenses that color our perception of the world. We don't all think alike. We don't all have the same values. We don't all see the world through the same lens. That is what makes the twenty-first century so complex and dangerous. We now have more than six billion humans with different world views connected by migration, air travel and the internet into one intermingled whole. Most of us are convinced that our view is right, our values are right. We are pushing and shoving and growling and threatening and carrying banners that say, “My way or no way.” Some of us are even killing each other.

How did we get here? And how do we get out of this mess? How do we structure systems that handle the complexity of our interconnectedness while allowing people to grow and move naturally through the stages of human development?

The answer to that is a quest I've been on for 40 years:

I am an optimist. I believe in the power of humans for regeneration. As a baby, my mother would sing the state song of Oklahoma to me, “There's a bright, golden haze on the meadow,” followed by the chorus, “Oh, what a beautiful morning …” Never mind that Purcell, Oklahoma situated in the Great American Plains was part of “tornado alley,” and we lived with the constant threat of losing everything every time dark clouds came up from the southwest. I was a child from the land of the golden haze. I knew all was well.

But more than just an intuitive feeling, history confirms the validity of an optimistic outlook for human beings. Our history is one of regeneration as we time and time again tackle challenges and create new ways of living and thinking to solve those challenges.

As a young professor, I was looking for the Rosetta Stone¹ of human development. I spent 20 years delving into the best and the newest of what psychology had to offer, and was well on my way to being recognized as an emerging leader in dissolving conflict. I knew that solutions to conflict lay deep in the human psyche, deeper than most of us could explain. I also knew that if we understood human development, not just how we changed but why we changed, we might be able to successfully address any number of human dilemmas.

When in 1974 I read Dr Clare Graves’ article in The Futurist² on human emergence I found what I was longing for – a meticulously researched explanation of why humans emerge and how they do so. Emergence is not an event. It is a never-ending process. We are always engaged in the process of becoming something more than we were and not yet what we will be.

Graves, the professor emeritus of psychology at Union College in New York, had spent decades unlocking this process – one research subject at a time – until tens of thousands of individual cases yielded a pattern for human emergence. The name he gave his discovery was as exacting as his collection of data. Graves called his discovery “the emergent, cyclical, double-helix model of adult bio-psychosocial behavior.” That is a mouthful but it boils down to this. When challenges come up that we cannot solve at our present level of being, we make a leap to a newer, higher-order system biologically, psychologically, socially and spiritually. Later, this theory became known as Spiral Dynamics.

The old system does not go away, however. It remains a part of us, accessible to us when we need it. Clearly, we have a powerful and dynamic mind. It recalibrates itself in response to life conditions, and it does so quickly. While human genes take their own sweet time to bring about change, codes on the evolutionary spiral can pop up virtually overnight.

What Graves's research showed was an explanation of how humans emerge. He named eight levels, and declared more levels will come. Six of these constitute First-Tier codes and include the organizational structures with which we are familiar, such as tribes, empires, holy orders, strategic capitalism. These are the systems, each convinced of the rightness of its code of values, which are battling each other today for supremacy. The future lies, however, in what Graves saw as a great leap to a Second-Tier system. His research found a few individuals who were expressing a new view that encompassed all of the First-Tier codes. These individuals understood that to move forward from here, humans must accommodate each level of emergence by providing healthy conduits for movement through the codes. And the answers to doing that lay with a new way of thinking.

Humanity is in a state of constant motion. We are shaped by the code of the Spiral. In short, we can change our own psychology. The brain can rewire itself. Society is not static. Today's problems are yesterday's solutions. Evaluation and revolution are part of our future. We are on perpetual treks of the mind. Many believe we are now passing through such a momentous transformation, a major turning point, a history-making sea change. A new different pattern of thought is beginning to emerge worldwide, and in various fields of human activity. Graves, in Roemicher (2002, p. 125) predicted: “The present moment finds our society attempting to negotiate the most difficult, but at the same time the most exciting transition the human race has to face to date. It is not merely a transition to a new level of existence, but the start of a new movement in the symphony of human identity.”

That is what this book is about. It is about the Universal Master Code, the underlying code that contains all past codes and all codes to come. Understanding humanity's Master Code will not only solve today's challenges but will take us further faster with less conflict than we thought possible. And we must understand this code. Not just because we have people with Attila-the-Hun mentalities eyeing nuclear weapons as a means to build their personal empires, but because we also have biochemical and medical technologies that are challenging our very concept of what it means to be human. We have to deal with both these extremes and do it well.

It can be done. I have field-tested Graves's research for 40 years, adding both to the research and practical applications of this body of knowledge. I have embedded myself in every code. I found practical ways to create what I call the Power of the Third Win – you win, I win, the planet wins. This book is about that journey, the journey to find Humanity's Master Code.

With this book, I attempt to offer new insights and ways to challenge societal, business and political leaders alike, with doing things differently. The book extends into a website with the name www.spiraldynamicsglobal.com where a depth of articles, blogs, newspaper clips, academic theses and other sources of Spiral Dynamics application can be found. This body of knowledge will also emerge and deepen over time.

I will gently suggest that many of our usual constructive dialogue and leadership ways are limited whenever we are phased with complex, wicked, systemic problems where the risk to polarize is inherently present. Here I challenge leaders to construct sustainable cultures where leadership develops, propagates and updates a compelling vision, a sense of transcendent purpose and a series of superordinate goals to create a common cause for a complex culture.

In the words of Ken Wilber (spiraldynamics.net: np): “spiral dynamics is one of the first integral psychologies now available, and as presented by Don Beck, I give it my highest recommendation. It has profound implications for business, politics, education and medicine, and it will give you the tools to begin applying these revolutionary ideas in your own field immediately. Don't miss it!”

My hope is that through my life's work and this book, I can leave a legacy of value-adding social systems and functional geo-political spheres, while simultaneously inspiring individual leadership to co-create a future we all want.

In this part of the book a compilation of different figures and graphs is presented for the easy synthesis of the reader. It serves as reference to the various colors, codes, value systems and thinking structures that inform the different codes that are at play in Spiral Dynamics.

Readers are invited to familiarize themselves with the different archetypes, and organizing patterns and illustrations of how each code will inhibit different ways of creating meaning and integration. Further, emphasis should be placed on how the different codes pose different questions of existence – not one better or more desirable than the other. The original quote of Graves is not that one value system is better than another. He stressed that the best system for a specific set of conditions will be the most congruent one.

Readers are also reminded of The Crucible, Forging South Africa's Future by Beck and Linscott, originally published in 1991 and reprinted in 2006, 2011 and 2014; and the classic Spiral Dynamics, Mastering Values, Leadership and Change by Beck and Cowan, published in 1996 and reprinted in 2006. Various other publications described in Part 5 also elaborate on the theory and the diverse implications thereof.

Beck reminds us that while studying the different maps presented here, we must remember that the codes are not notes but chords, that a person is not a color, rather that there are codes in people, not codes of people.

Understanding the different codes and their unique intelligences and gifts but also their side effects is a critical leadership skill for the future world of work, and for ensuring sustainable cultures and a sustainable planet.

• Introduction – The Lay of the Land of this Book
• The Architect of the Existential Staircase – Clare Graves
• The Code Book
• Natural Design – The Ever-Emerging Ecology