New and Improved Worldview Lenses

11.25.2011 By
InaccuView thumb 150

  Worldviews can be thought of as lenses through which we perceive and interpret our subjective experience. This "worldview contact lens" advertisement spoof highlights how worldviews color our interpretation of reality. For readers less familiar with the concept of worldviews... a handy worldview primer is offered below that correlates them with the style of leadership each prefers. This is a central aspect of Integral Leadership. These crucial lenses are a primary way human beings filter subjective experience (of objective reality) and interpret those experiences in terms of: how things appear to be; how things should be; what's right and wrong with how things are, and what, if anything, should be done about it. Clearly then, this is of paramount importance if we are interested in understanding how people make sense of the world we share, and especially as leaders, how we can better understand what people care about, their priorities, their motivations, and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, Culture and Society, Featured, Leadership, Psychology, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Two Minute Introduction to Integral Leadership

09.23.2011 By
Three-leadership-questions1

The Integral Leadership Model can be expressed in several different ways representing increasing levels of complexity encompassing all of the elements of AQAL: quadrants, lines, levels, states and types. My colleagues and I have written and taught extensively on the details of this practice, but for purposes here, I am going to present the most basic expression of the model: Awareness, Approach, Action.* Experience has shown that if you survey a group of people with these three questions about the SAME situation, you will get wildly different answers. These answers will reflect what these individuals are aware of and not aware of, what they emphasize and focus on (biases) and what perspectives they valorize or deliberately ignore (privilege or under-privilege). The most obvious factor that influences how a leader (or person) answers these questions is his or her worldview. Integral leaders use a simple model of four worldviews: Modern, Postmodern, Traditional and Imperial. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Integral Theory and Methodology, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

The End of the World May 21, 2011

05.11.2011 By
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Judgment Day is May 21, 2011.  This is the day that Jesus will claim his true believers and everyone else will be cast into hell. Don't believe me? Well the Bible guarantees it. Quite a few news stories have shown up in several news outlets over the past week about, as the Associated Press says, "a movement of Christians loosely organized by radio broadcasts and websites, independent of churches and convinced by their reading of the Bible that the end of the world will begin May 21, 2011." End of Days in May (MSNBC) Apocalypse Soon: Christian Movement Says 5/21/11 (CBS News) Hundreds of Google News articles on End of World in May 2011 (Google News) I love the NPR.com article by Barbara Hagerty "Is The End Nigh? We'll Know Soon Enough." She interviews several true believers and reports on the mega-million-dollar Family Radio network, one of the many "news" outlets we have to thank for providing us such valuable interpretations of the 2,000-year-old text. "People need to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Society, Current Events, Religion, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Go Wash Clothes, This is Against Islam!

03.08.2011 By
Egyptian woman protestor

A group of Egyptian men yelled, "Go wash clothes! This is against Islam!" while attacking a group of women this week who were part of a demonstration urging Egypt to give women a voice in building its future. Thus a traditional worldview delivers a stinging slap to the women of Egypt who are aspiring for a more modern way of being treated. The violent opposition these women faced suggests that Egyptian women may have to fight their own revolution to achieve equal rights. “We fought side by side with men during the revolution, and now we’re not represented,” said Passat Rabie, a young woman who came with friends, after men aggressively dispersed the protest. “I thought Egypt was improving, that it was becoming a better country. If it’s changing in a way that’s going to exclude women, then what’s the point? Where’s the democracy?” The demonstrators, who gathered in Tahrir Square—the epicenter of the revolution—had much to complain about: The military council … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Events, Religion, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Does Democracy and Freedom in Egypt Leave Out Women?

03.08.2011 By
women-egypt-530

Here we have a very clear situation where an integral understanding brings clarity into an otherwise utterly puzzling situation. The question we are solving for is this: Why Does Democracy and Freedom in Egypt Leave Out Women? As the world witnessed, throughout the protests in February, women were at the forefront. Their courage and sacrifice of the Egyptian women was equal to the Egyptian men. Yet, during the protests they not emphasize gender rights in a country where women have faced rampant discrimination and received little legal protection against widespread violence and sexual abuse. Egyptian women were careful not to display any intention of wanting to advance one groups rights over those of another. Why? "We did not speak of our gender rights during these protests because it was not the right time. We spoke for the political and social rights of all Egyptians. If we were to campaign for our rights as women in parallel with the revolutions national goal, that would … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Events, Featured, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Moving 10-Minute Video Collage of Egyptian Revolution

03.08.2011 By
Egyptian Revolution-2011

What do you think about this video? Share your perspective (below). Or click here to read more Integral Thinkers articles about leadership, current events, or to read Google News articles about Protests in the Middle East. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Events, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Worldviews in Conflict: Egypt

02.08.2011 By
Egypt-protestors-530

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square in February calling for Hosni Mubarak's government to step down. How might we view these important events through an integral lens? Worldview – a core concept in integral theory – would be a good place to start.  In leadership theory and practice, we look closely at individual and group worldview because it is indicative of people's values and beliefs about how the world is and should be, what they care about, and what motivates them. Can an entire society change (or attempt to change) worldviews? Of course. History is full of examples and we need to look no further than the current (Feb 2011) protests and government crisis in Egypt. For generations, Egyptians were more or less accepting of government rule by leaders that used "autocratic" and "authoritarian" leadership styles. These approaches to leadership tend to work well (be resonant) with people and cultures that have predominately "Imperial" and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Society, Current Events, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Evolution of Civilization

11.01.2010 By
futuristic city metropolis

The American archeologist Howard Winters defined civilization as “the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term ‘we’ or ‘us’ and at the same time decreases those labeled ‘you’ or ‘them’ until that category has no one left in it.” Civilization today includes a rainbow of perspectives along this spectrum.  Each step along civilization’s spiraling evolution involves deeper and wider perspectives – from egocentric (“I matter”) to ethnocentric (“My group matters”) to worldcentric (“All humans matter”). To glimpse the civilization of tomorrow, one need not look further than the most comprehensive and inclusive perspectives of today.  The integral frameworks created by worldcentric pioneers foreshadow a new civilization that works for everyone, where all perspectives—though far from equal—have a right to exist. Integral mapmakers aim to find a place for the horizontal and vertical diversity that … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Society, Development, Integral Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,