Global Development
I am available as a personal advisor to those working in the field of global development, helping you to think about your work in new ways. Global development, for me, includes a wide range of human endeavor: international development, social change, humanitarian causes, emerging technologies, socially responsible businesses, the influence of entertainment and media.
I have collaborated with, advised, and suggested fresh ideas and insights, to leaders in the fields of agriculture, communications, finance, health care, law, data analysis, nanotechnology, natural disaster response, geo-sciences, organizational development, gender studies, human trafficking, biotechnology, international development, economics, computing, disruptive technologies, nutrition, martial arts, accounting, micro-lending, maternal and child health, energy, sustainable farming, violence prevention, climate change, and the environment.
I am a generalist, a wide-ranging thinker, and a dot-connector. Miraculously, I am often in the right place at the right time. I can help you look at the big picture from many different angles, as well as zoom in on the fine details. I am a Spiral Wizard, in the parlance of Spiral Dynamics (see below). I operate well at Turquoise and Coral (See far right column of chart below for Turquoise. Coral is not yet well documented.). This means that all the other levels are active within me, and if there's someone on your team that you just don't "get" chances are I will be able to understand and "translate" for you.
I have collaborated with, advised, and suggested fresh ideas and insights, to leaders in the fields of agriculture, communications, finance, health care, law, data analysis, nanotechnology, natural disaster response, geo-sciences, organizational development, gender studies, human trafficking, biotechnology, international development, economics, computing, disruptive technologies, nutrition, martial arts, accounting, micro-lending, maternal and child health, energy, sustainable farming, violence prevention, climate change, and the environment.
I am a generalist, a wide-ranging thinker, and a dot-connector. Miraculously, I am often in the right place at the right time. I can help you look at the big picture from many different angles, as well as zoom in on the fine details. I am a Spiral Wizard, in the parlance of Spiral Dynamics (see below). I operate well at Turquoise and Coral (See far right column of chart below for Turquoise. Coral is not yet well documented.). This means that all the other levels are active within me, and if there's someone on your team that you just don't "get" chances are I will be able to understand and "translate" for you.
Spiral Wizard Here
Spiral wizards (Yellow and Turquoise) display an understanding of the entire spectrum of value systems: they can appreciate a wide range of views and react to a number of systems simultaneously. Diversity and a certain degree of chaos energise rather than inhibit these leaders (Beck & Cowan, 1996).
Spiral wizard also tend to spot connections and patterns not noticed by others; think in terms of open systems rather than final states; identify trends and may have an intuitive understanding of timing. They sense the needs of other valuing systems (and also “speak the language” of these other value systems); respect the integrity of other value systems; can mediate amongst conflicting value systems in that they focus on both the detail and the bigger picture. Their solutions go beyond quick fixes and linear reasoning to arrive at an integrative, holistic understanding of situations.
--Maretha Prinsloo, Consciousness Models in Action
Spiral Dynamics
I'm a fan of the work of Clare Graves and Don Beck called Spiral Dynamics. There's a brief summary chart, below, of the color coded value systems referenced above. I find Spiral Dynamics a very useful framework for thinking about different - and similar - ways of thinking across cultures and within individuals. If you are struggling to understand where someone is coming from, or find yourself at odds with a different group or sub-team within your international collaboration, it may be that they are operating from a different level within the Spiral. There is a marvelous interview with Don Beck, explaining more each of these value systems, in an article called The Never-Ending Upward Quest that I highly suggest reading if you work with folks from different cultures.
The concept of Spiral Dynamics is that human nature is not fixed; we’re not set at birth. Rather, we have the capacities, in the nature of the mind/brain itself, to construct new conceptual worlds. So what we’re trying to describe is simply how humans are able, when things get bad enough, to adapt to their situation by creating greater complexities of thinking to handle new problems.
--Don Beck