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Be rational (orange), kind (green) and ? (teal)

Posted November 7th, 2008 by Helen Davis in Evolution

Recently Robb asked for ideas for the principles of integral living. It made me think of what I say to my students at the end of a module on management - specifically managing people. I ask them to remember, whatever else they forget about what I've tried to teach them, to be rational (the best from orange), and kind (the best from green) and where the two conflict, to err on the side of kindness. I would love to add an adjective from teal, but simply can't think of one. Any ideas?

Helen

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Inclusive ?

Posted November 7th, 2008 by Jerry Sherwood

Just a suggestion. I hope others contribute as well. I think this is a great exercise to see how teal is embodied and expressed.

Jerry

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It is in the clarity of Conscious Awareness that Truth is revealed.

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Inclusive? Like it

Posted November 7th, 2008 by Helen Davis

Yes, I like that. I tried applying it, not just to my students in their workplaces, but the USA President Elect. Yes, we'd like him to be rational, kind and inclusive. (And, going off on a different topic, his background would seem to suggest he's in a good position to be this.) Wow! What a world this would be with a rational, kind and inclusive encumbent of the White House!

That led me to thinking about alternatives (though I like 'inclusive'). Other possible attributes of teal are now coming to mind, and my iron test of suitability will be - "Is this something you'd prefer the President of the United Staes to put 'rationality' and 'kindness' to one side for if it clashed with them?!"

One last thing occurs to me (at the moment). Red and orange seem to revolve around the individual. Amber and green seem to revolve more around relationship and community. Does this swinging from one to the other stop at second tier? Or is teal more concerned with the individual again?

Helen

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Knowledge and competency

Posted November 7th, 2008 by sham609

Okay, just to clarify a point. Inclusion is actually a Green meme attribute. Teal (or Yellow in Spiral Dynamics) is most concerned with knowledge and competency as the frame of reference. It is a stage that does place renewed emphasis on the individual (for only the individual can acquire knowledge and competence). Teal reinvigorates hierarchical thinking over inclusive thinking. This is the first stage that can recognize, however, the preceding stages of development and their value to human existence and development. It is also the first stage that can fairly recognize the limitations of each first tier stages of consciousness. It is only with the emergence of Turquoise that the interaction of a fully developed human (Teal) with Spirit (or a Schopenhauerian "Will") leads to a higher order of consciousness that truly leaves the concept of "self" behind.

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Yes, but ......

Posted November 8th, 2008 by Jerry Sherwood

Yes, Green (postmodernism) does value inclusion, especially with respect to previously marginalized groups. Inclusion on the Green level entails a flattening out of values, everything is equal. (except of course any value that contradicts the idea that all values are equal)

However, Teal has its own version of inclusion. To paraphrase Steve McIntosh, in Integral Consciousness; Teal recognizes that there are lasting values of each stage that have and continue to contribute to the spiral. As such they are included by Teal in its larger picture of what constitutes that which is good and worthwhile.

Any quality valued by Teal can be said to have a 1st tier correlation. Knowledge and competence in one sense can be said to be an Orange value, insofar as knowledge and competence aid  individual achievement. Whereas, Teal values knowledge and competence for how these qualities contibute to the spiral itself. As such they are not exclusively individual traits.

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.

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It is in the clarity of Conscious Awareness that Truth is revealed.

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As the man said, it ain't easy being teal.

Posted November 8th, 2008 by Helen Davis

So, it seems to me now that it is in fact irrelevant and/or inappropriate to pull one word out of teal to sum up the best to come out of that stage, as I have with green and orange. Once you jump to second tier, it's a whole different kettle of fish / ball game. I could of course name the best things to come out of purple, red and amber for my students, but I don't think they need that, and it seems simpler to concentrate on the best attributes in the top stages of first tier. If most of the people in the world could only act rationally and kindly most of the time, life would be much sweeter, wouldn't it.

Anyway, I think I've located myself on the spiral now. I seem far away enough to be able to objectively critique and appreciate the likes of orange and green, but can't do it for teal....

Except, except... I overheard another member of staff telling her students that there was no such thing as objective truth. If several people witnessed an incident they would all have their own 'truths' about what had happened. Later I commented to her that, while everybody would have had their own valid point of view (literally) and opinions about what happened, there would have been only one thing that actually happened. There would in fact be an objective truth as to what actually happened. My colleague knows nothing about Ken Wilber, but she does know about spiral dynamics, as she's attended a course on it, and we had been discussing it the previous day. When I mentioned my view that there could in fact be an objective truth she dismissed me as being at blue. Hmm I thought, how typical of a person at green..!

So I wonder if being at teal has something to do with 'facing and searching for THE truth'? Whatever it turns out to be. Jenny Wade says that the overarching problem that teal is dealing with (or the 'authentic' stage, as she calls it,) is realising that it's not a meaningless universe we exist in, but one that has meaning beyond what we can possibly grasp. It has truths that most of us can only see in moments of satori, and the rest of the time, we just have to bungle on as well as we can with the evidence we've got so far. " And you shall seek the truth, and the truth will set you free...but first it will make ytou bloody miserable"!

Helen

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So...

Posted November 17th, 2008 by Helen Davis

So. Teal is like the point at which you stop, look around and suddenly begin to understand how far you've come, and the way you've come, and what that means?  It's the place on the side of the mountain, which you've been toiling up, where you come out of the woods, and where you can get a perspective on the route below you. But how far above  you can you see, I wonder? Is it still lost in the clouds?

I do like what Brent says as well about the balance shifting to the positive. That resonates quite deeply.

And there is very little that I can say to my students about being at Teal. Because whatever I say will only, almost by definition, make sense to people at Teal, and they would have 'got it' already, simply by being at Teal.

Love (yes, I know how Green that is)

Helen