Introducing Spiral Dynamics to Friends & Family

[Boethius]

Has anyone tried introducing Spiral Dynamics to family and friends? I've tried to explain the evolution of Orange to Green to certain people in my life, as a way of making sense of what's happening politically in contemporary society. I find that some people find it super intuitive and most others don't see what the purpose could be of such a "theory". I'm curious to know about other peoples experiences in this regard!

[trenton]

Most of my family was interested in how I explained spiral dynamics and demonstrated the conflicts of mankind.  I try to be very careful about leaving the impression that some states are better than others, but my sister still thinks of it as liberals are better than conservatives.  Meanwhile, my grandma was interested in learning spiral dynamics, but she interpreted the model as Donald Trump being stage yellow.  My brother is more interested in understanding how societies evolve, the implications in geopolitics, and what to expect in the future.  He noticed that societies often evolve by the older worldviews dying off and becoming irrelevant.  Then the younger generation repeats The cycle.  My brother, two cousins, and my grandma on my mother's side seem to get The most benefit from research and development theories and we don't argue much at all.

The interesting part is when I tried to apply spiral dynamics to the conflicts in my family.  I strongly hesitate to say that I'm stage yellow as if I am the most developed in the family, as that would be an obvious sign of self bias.  I also found that individuals can be very mixed and it is hard to say that they are just at x stage.  They seem to be a mix of stage blue and green.  Much of this is caused by our family's history of drug dealing.  My family reacts strongly to psychedelics because of this, but on the other hand they also practice yoga, are open to other religions, and appear mostly liberal. 

Most of the conflicts in my family are the parts which are stage blue vs the parts which are stage green.  For example, my grandma on my father's side is still saying the n word and calling Obama a Muslim.  My grandma on my mother's side looks at her like she is stupid because we can have whatever religion we want.  Most of my family is close minded to research into psychedelics, so I only discuss it with three people in my family.  My transgender cousin appreciates me saying "him" as this becomes a point of conflict sometimes.  My family seems to have very mixed feelings about abortion when they argue about it.  I tried to tell my family that I would rather have a quieter discussion of politics as we compare and contrast many different sources to see what can find.  My mom said that would be no fun and she just wants to make my sister upset.  Meanwhile my sister thinks that the research isn't worth her time.  So far the best I have managed to do is change the topic from politics.  My brother is often disappointed in politics because it devolves into people shouting rather than learning.  We share our research with each other and don't really argue.

How would you approach this kind of family?

[Barbara]

34 minutes ago, trenton said:

Most of my family was interested in how I explained spiral dynamics and demonstrated the conflicts of mankind.  I try to be very careful about leaving the impression that some states are better than others, but my sister still thinks of it as liberals are better than conservatives.  Meanwhile, my grandma was interested in learning spiral dynamics, but she interpreted the model as Donald Trump being stage yellow.  My brother is more interested in understanding how societies evolve, the implications in geopolitics, and what to expect in the future.  He noticed that societies often evolve by the older worldviews dying off and becoming irrelevant.  Then the younger generation repeats The cycle.  My brother, two cousins, and my grandma on my mother's side seem to get The most benefit from research and development theories and we don't argue much at all.

The interesting part is when I tried to apply spiral dynamics to the conflicts in my family.  I strongly hesitate to say that I'm stage yellow as if I am the most developed in the family, as that would be an obvious sign of self bias.  I also found that individuals can be very mixed and it is hard to say that they are just at x stage.  They seem to be a mix of stage blue and green.  Much of this is caused by our family's history of drug dealing.  My family reacts strongly to psychedelics because of this, but on the other hand they also practice yoga, are open to other religions, and appear mostly liberal. 

Most of the conflicts in my family are the parts which are stage blue vs the parts which are stage green.  For example, my grandma on my father's side is still saying the n word and calling Obama a Muslim.  My grandma on my mother's side looks at her like she is stupid because we can have whatever religion we want.  Most of my family is close minded to research into psychedelics, so I only discuss it with three people in my family.  My transgender cousin appreciates me saying "him" as this becomes a point of conflict sometimes.  My family seems to have very mixed feelings about abortion when they argue about it.  I tried to tell my family that I would rather have a quieter discussion of politics as we compare and contrast many different sources to see what can find.  My mom said that would be no fun and she just wants to make my sister upset.  Meanwhile my sister thinks that the research isn't worth her time.  So far the best I have managed to do is change the topic from politics.  My brother is often disappointed in politics because it devolves into people shouting rather than learning.  We share our research with each other and don't really argue.

How would you approach this kind of family?

That was brilliant!

[integral]

You're better off spending the first 10 minutes hyping it up listing 1 million scientists and reputable people that all came together to create this amazing model that just won the Nobel Prize and it's on fire on social media, hype it up like crazy so they get a sense that this is really important.

The main reason they don't take it seriously or apply themselves to understand it is because it's coming from you.

They're hearing it from you instead of A source that they usually get their information from that is biasedly aligned with there reasoning system, values. it needs to be packaged for there taste buds.

Edited April 22, 2022 by integral

[integral]

it's also a good question to ask how do I prevent them from unconsciously co-opting everything I say for their survival agenda which they're also unconscious too?

Edited April 22, 2022 by integral

[Boethius]

4 hours ago, integral said:

The main reason they don't take it seriously or apply themselves to understand it is because it's coming from you.

That's interesting, and in line with my experiences. Thanks!

[Kshantivadin]

5 hours ago, integral said:

You're better off spending the first 10 minutes hyping it up listing 1 million scientists and reputable people that all came together to create this amazing model that just won the Nobel Prize and it's on fire on social media, hype it up like crazy so they get a sense that this is really important.

it did? woooooooooah

[trenton]

6 hours ago, integral said:

The main reason they don't take it seriously or apply themselves to understand it is because it's coming from you.

Oh my God this is relatively true.

There is a logical fallacy about appealing to authority, but in practice this is useless.  I don't see a point in trying to convince people unless I find some celebrity they like.  This becomes very frustrating and I lose interest in sharing cool ideas like colonizing mars in reaction to climate change.  Everybody thought the idea was stupid until Stephen hawking came out and said that we should colonize mars in reaction to climate change.  Now the idea is brilliant because a scientific celebrity said it.  This is a major problem in science as well because if a big name scientist promotes simulation theory then everybody will think it is brilliant without thinking critically.  How do you even calculate the probability that God created the universe?  This is just silly.

There might be a better way, but I have given up on talking to people who refuse to look at any research when I present the sources to them.  I can't change willful ignorance.

[Husseinisdoingfine]

There's NOTHING you can do except give them the original books. Any other way I guarantee you will mislead and confuse them. 

I suppose you can as well show them video lectures from YouTube, but only from Don E. Beck. I think Leo does a disservice to SDi by presenting it in the way he does.

Book 1: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spiral-dynamics-don-edward-beck/1121800741?ean=9781405133562

Book 2: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spiral-dynamics-in-action-don-edward-beck/1127091254?ean=9781119387183

 

[DocWatts]

I wouldn't even bother unless the person you're speaking to already has some sociological understanding under their belt, and the capacity to think in terms of systems and perspectives.

In the same way that knowing arithmetic is a prerequisite for learning algebra, a capacity for systems thinking and for perspective taking are the bare minimum for someone being able to get any value out of Spiral Dynamics.

In absence of this, the model likely won't be salient and will almost certainly be misused even if parts of it are understood.