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Product Description
Product Description
- Increasing cultural diversity.
- Powerful new social responsibility initiatives.
- The arrival of a truly global marketplace.
This is an inspiring book for managers, consultants, strategists, and leaders planning for success in the business world in the 21st century.
From the Back Cover
Spiral Dynamics is an extension and elaboration of the biopsychosocial systems concept of the late Clare W. Graves; work that Canada's Maclean's Magazine called 'The Theory that Explains Everything'. The authors mesh UK biologist Richard Dawkins' concept of 'memes' with Gravesian 'value systems' in crafting a timely transformational change formula and process. Their concept of MEMES represents the first major statement of the new 'Science of Memetics.'
Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan, who were closely associated with Clare W. Graves, apply the principles of Spiral Dynamics worldwide in both corporate and top-level governmental sectors. They helped transform South Africa out of race categories, design organizational and marketing systems for a wide range of industries, and revitalize local communities, educational and professional institutions, and sports programs. Based on motivational MEMEs, they also designed a "hearts and minds" strategy for the South African rugby union team, winners of the 1995 World Cup.
Beck and Cowan were on the faculty of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, for a number of years before forming the National Values Center.
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While these are chaotic and turbulent times, they are hardly crazy ones. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
The book is complete but I am missing something,
By A Customer
This review is from: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change (Hardcover)
I would suggest looking on the Internet for an overview of the Spiral Dynamic theory and THEN buying this book to learn more.Essentially, Spiral Dynamic is a well chosen name for a theory defined by Clare Graves back in the fifties and given a pompous name by him which can be found in the book. Beck and Cowan are FAR better writers than Graves, but they acquired some of his professorese style unfortunately. So you will have to be prepared for that. They also distract the reader with stuff about matters such as Gympty Dumpty which did not seem to this reader to have anything to do with anythng. As for the theory itself, it begins with the fact that has been known since ancient times that everything evolves in cycles. This was known to Plato and is the basis for the pseudo-science of astrology. Graves did not discover it. Graves adds to that the insight that at one end of the cycle everything is about ME and on the other end everything is about THEE. The cycle is therefore a cycle between MR and THEE, between self centeredness and other centeredness. Thus the "let them eat cake" crowd is at one point in the cycle and the "social consciousness" crowd is at the other. Graves further adds that we do not stay at ME or THEE but oscillate between these two. Reagan therefore started out as a Democrat (THEE) and ended up a Reagan oriented Republican (ME). Most people do become more conservative (ME-oriented) as they grow older. To that Graves adds the interesting insight that instead of thinking of cycles as circles we think of them as spirals. Every time one completes the cycle one ends up on a higher level. This is indeed a major insight. From there on it seems pretty ordinary to this reader. At an abstract level that is pretty much it. At a content level the book points out that some people belong to fundamentalists religious cults and others belong to street gangs. Some people are entrepreneurs and others are tree huggers. Well, that is certainly true, but my reaction is that anyone who has been awake for the past ten years should know that. It seems like the classic No Jive Headline. One is reminded of George Bernard Shaw's fictional dialogue with Pavlov. P's great discovery was that if you show hamburger to a hungry dog, his mouth waters When asked how long it took him to figure that out, Pavlov answered twenty five years. To which Shaw's fictional reporter answers that he could have told Pavlov that in twenty five seconds. Forget twenty five years. I mention this because it apparently took Graves twenty five years to figure out that some people belong to street gangs and others start businesses. Maybe I am missing something but I just could not see what is so profound here.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, but not easy,
By
This review is from: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change (Paperback)
Spiral Dynamics is a big topic to master. Created by Clare W Graves by the unusually discplined approach (reversing a convention for social science) of first collecting and analysing the data, and then producing a theory, it covers a hugely complex task - that of describing how society evolves, through the individuals in it and the values that they live by. There is an elegant simplicity that emerges the far side of the theory, but you have to go through the complexity to get there.This is very apparent from Beck and Cowan's work and it is not for the faint-hearted. It is an academic text, published by an academic publisher. It is accessible to an intelligent and motivated layperson, but you need to be willing to do the work. It is worth it. There have been attempts to present the theory more accessibly. Don Beck's own CD series (SoundsTrue - listed elsewhere on Amazon) is excellent. There are also interviews and summaries available through the web (take a look at wie.org for instance). This might lead you to where you want the understanding from the more authoritative approach that this book takes. There is a lot of conflict taking place over some of the attempts to integrate SD with wider thinking - most noticeably that of Ken Wilber. This has alienated some of the more purist thinkers who believe that Graves theory is being contaminated. I think that some of the reviews here reflect that conflict. Readers will form their own conclusions, but it is inevitable that such a powerful theory will get extended - sometimes well and sometimes not. The core is presented in this book, and I believe is sound in Don Beck's work (he worked very closely with Graves and has more right than most to claim that he is faithful to his theory). Don't let the confusion around the periphery put you off. This is a first class book - even with its stylistic flaws. It just might not be the easiest point of entry.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Book,
By
This review is from: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change (Hardcover)
This book has been well described by other reviewers and is a must read. It is also the book Ken Wilber presently uses in his integral philosophy. The memes presented in this book are clear and very useful. Since Wilber believes there is a third tier, and concentrates very much on second tier, it would be useful to get a second edition providing Cowen and Beck's views.Wilber also uses this book as the spring board to his Boomeritis book and the green meme. A must book.
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