Spiral Dynamics in Action

Figures and Graphs as a Map for the Book

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 ...