Humergence®

Welcome!

Welcome to Humergence, our blog about the ongoing process of human development and emergence. We (Christopher Cowan and Natasha Todorovic) have been working with, teaching, and writing about the Gravesian approach to changing human systems since 1978 and 1991 respectively. Ten years of it has been under the Spiral Dynamics brand. Now we move forward with Humergence, which builds on the foundational work of Dr. Clare W. Graves plus the popular Spiral Dynamics approach and other exciting theories of human development. Along with our colleagues and friends, we will share insights on the process of human emergence and change. The newly available Graves text, The Never Ending Quest, and the increasing curiosity about developmental models like the Levels of Existence Theory, opens a door to share our thoughts and observations. 

The Quiet Kingmaker

Download SisuluDialogue.mp3

In the minds of most people, Nelson Mandela is the name synonymous with the end of apartheid and beginning of South Africa's transition over the last decades. Yet societal change of this magnitude cannot be the feat of a single hero riding in like a knight in shining armor to save the day. There were many others whose dedication, sacrifice, and yeoman service pre-Mandela made all of it possible. In the foreword to this book, Mr. Mandela writes that if one life story were to be told about South Africa's liberation, "…that story would have to be Walter Sisulu's."

      Elinor Sisulu has told that story.

Why We Fight

Why We Fight, a documentary film by Eugene Jarecki

Sharing its title, Why We Fight, with Frank Capra's series of seven propaganda films made between 1942 and 1945 to shape American opinion, Eugene Jarecki's new documentary looks at American militancy over the fifty years since, culminating with Bush's occupation of Iraq. While the film doesn't offer any shocking revelations or analysis for those who have been following American foreign policy and especially the Iraq invasion and its rationales from anywhere besides atop the Bush/Blair bandwagon, it does consolidate a lot of information to which the 'mainstream' population is either oblivious or in deep denial. Thanks to Fox News (a.k.a. the Ministry of Propaganda) and other embedded corporate media outlets who have covered truth with spin so very effectively, the ideas brought to screen by this film will be shocking and awful to far more Americans than ought be, though the majority will likely not notice anything amiss. That's what's genuinely frightening about Why We Fight - there is too much room to question how many citizens will be open and aware enough to grasp it, or even to care.

Book Review: The Wisdom of Crowds

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. This book discusses the theory that  a larger group of diverse people can make better decisions, and display more intelligence than any smaller collection of experts. Surowiecki's central concept is that the insights of a diverse group of individuals working independently can be aggregated together. He contrasts this with the group dynamics/social psychology studies done by Stanley Milgram in previous decades, which looked at how large groups of people can be influenced by the actions of a few, causing information cascades, and "Tipping Point" effects. Suroweicki's concept avoids the "tipping point", and information cascade effects by employing a diverse group of individuals who work largely independently of one another.

Graves and Maslow: Levels of Existence and Hierarchy of Needs Compared

(originally published in this newsletter)

We are often asked about the relationship between Clare W. Graves's Levels of Existence theory and Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs framework . Well, there are some similarities, but there are more differences.

Maslow's theorizing is often reduced to the familiar pyramid with physiological needs at the base, then safety, belonging and love, esteem from others then self, and self-actualization, sometimes with 'to know' and 'to understand' or transcendence at the tip, sometimes stopping with self-actualization. Yet calling that Maslow's theory is like saying a spiral with eight colors is Graves. Both SD and the pyramid are simplified models derived from theory. Just as the eight levels described by Graves as his nodal states (color coded in SD) represent only artifacts, the needs hierarchy is only a small chunk of Maslow's overall philosophy.

There are definite similarities because Graves began his research trying to rationalize Maslow's findings. They were contemporaries in psychology. At the surface, the needs in Maslow appear to relate with Gravesian levels; but they appear in different forms and in an order Graves eventually could not accept, based on his own data.