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• by Stephan Landsiedel

Graves Levels and Spiral Dynamics

“Our society is now trying to navigate the most difficult yet at the same time most exciting transition humanity has ever faced.

It is not just a transition to a new plane of existence, but also the start of a new sentence in the symphony of human destiny.”

Dr. Clare Graves, 1980

“Like everything around us, we are in constant motion. The code of the spiral shapes us. In short, we can change our own psychology. The brain can rewire itself. Society is not static. Today’s problems were yesterday’s solutions. Evolution and revolution are part of our nature. We are continuously on a mental journey. Many believe we are going through a truly significant transition, a major turning point, a tide that will change history. A new way of thinking, completely different, is gradually emerging worldwide and affecting many aspects of human life.

This forward thrust toward the second-tier level brings a shift into an entirely new dimension of thought, a new conceptual order.

The prime mission is to restore the world so that life can continue, not just human life, but life as such. For the first time, humans are capable of perceiving existence in all its dimensions, supported by a value system genuinely grounded in knowledge and cosmic reality rather than illusions created by animalistic and social needs. Suddenly the mind is open to a cognitive wandering across the vast tapestry of humanity, higher up the evolutionary spiral.”

Don Beck & Graham Linscott,
The Crucible: Forging South Africa’s Future

Table of Contents

• 1. Starting Point: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• 2. The Graves Model
  • 2.1 About Clare W. Graves
  • 2.2 The Graves Value Model
    • 2.2.0 Introduction
    • 2.2.1 Summary
    • 2.2.2 Facets of the Model
    • 2.2.3 Properties of the Levels
    • 2.2.4 The Problems of the Levels
    • 2.2.5 Overview
  • 2.3 Presentation of the Individual Levels
    • 2.3.1 Beige Level
    • 2.3.2 Purple Level
    • 2.3.3 Red Level
    • 2.3.4 Blue Level
    • 2.3.5 Orange Level
    • 2.3.6 Green Level
    • 2.3.7 Yellow Level
    • 2.3.8 Turquoise Level
    • 2.3.9 Self-Expression and Self-Sacrifice
• 3. Spiral Dynamics
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Don Beck and His Theory
  • 3.3 Living Conditions
• 4. The Development of NLP According to Graves’ Stages
• 5. Applying the Graves Model
  • 5.1 Clarifying Conflicts
  • 5.2 Its Use in Employee Leadership
    • 5.2.1 Problems in Companies
    • 5.2.2 Exercise
• Further Reading

1. Starting Point: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from the 1930s was one of the most famous models for the ontogenetic development of a person. Over the years, Maslow’s theory has repeatedly been invoked as a motivational theory, positing a hierarchy of human needs. At the base level are physiological necessities such as hunger, thirst, and physical activity. Then come safety needs, belonging needs like sociability, and the need for recognition and appreciation. At the top is the need for self-actualization. Once the needs on each preceding level are met, people aim to satisfy the needs of the next level.

However, Maslow’s theory was not very robust, leading contemporaries including Clare Graves to criticize it. Initially, in the 1960s, Graves tried—through various empirical studies—to confirm Maslow’s pyramid model, but it failed on the higher levels where too many differences appeared. In Graves’ view, Maslow’s self-actualizing person concept was too inflexible. He rejected Maslow’s idea of an “end point” in development, believing instead that specific value systems (known as “memes”) evolve in response to certain conditions of human existence. These memes are psychological attempts to adapt appropriately to historical living conditions and act as counter-movements to the ruling value system (antithesis).

Hence, Clare Graves built a more expansive and complex model far surpassing known developmental psychology frameworks. Graves called it the “Emergent, Cyclical, Bio-Psycho-Social, Double-Helix Model.”

2. The Graves Model

2.1 About Clare W. Graves

Clare W. Graves (1914–1986) was an American psychology professor at Union College in New York and, with his model, a pioneer of Spiral Dynamics, further developed by his students Don Beck and Christopher Cowan.

Clare W. Graves was born on December 21, 1914, in New Richmond, Indiana. He studied at the University of Michigan and Union College in Schenectady, New York.

In 1945, he received his doctorate in psychology from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After several teaching positions and work as a clinical psychologist in a rehabilitation center, he returned in 1956 to Union College—his alma mater—as a psychology professor, where he taught and researched for 22 years until his retirement in 1978.

During his academic career, Graves served many institutions in clinical and business fields, such as large corporations, juvenile courts, social agencies, prisons, hospitals, and health departments. These varied real-world experiences formed the robust foundation for his comprehensive model of human development.

Graves was also a member of numerous reputable psychological and scientific organizations. His work became known only after his 1966 publication in the Harvard Business Review. Overall, Graves was relatively under-recognized during his lifetime.

According to legend, Graves owed his connection to the Harvard Business Review to his plumber, a dedicated HBR reader who wrote a letter complaining that they had overlooked such a brilliant man and his work.

He was married to Marian Graves and had a daughter Susan and a son Robert. Until his death on January 3, 1986, in Rexford, he continued to work on a book that would summarize his theory and research findings.

Today, his work enjoys unprecedented popularity, as it has been incorporated into many NLP trainings and advanced further by Spiral Dynamics.

2.2 Graves’ Value Model: The Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of Mature, Adult Bio-Psycho-Social Behavior

2.2.0 Introduction

Graves was motivated by key questions from his students: Why are people different? Why do some change while others don’t? Why do people have such diverse concepts of the highest human development goal, self-actualization?

Graves’ response was:

“What I’m proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiral process characterized by the progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems, as man’s existential problems change.”

He means that human development is continuous and never complete. It changes with changes in human existence conditions, thus generating new systems into which older ones are integrated. Whenever a new system or level arises, we adapt our psychology and lifestyle to these new demands. There are widely varying life-forms possible in this potentially open value system. There is no final stage that everyone must reach. An individual, a company, or even an entire society can only respond positively to management principles, motivational incentives, educational fundamentals, and ethical conceptions consistent with that specific stage of human existence!

2.2.1 Summary

The Graves Model is a psychological framework about the evolution of interlocking value systems. Each class of challenges or problems is addressed by creating a value system. Up to now, humanity has produced eight distinct value systems. These systems are mechanisms the psyche develops to handle certain environmental circumstances in an appropriate way.

As the problems and challenges confronting a person or society change, so does its value system. Each value system emerges from the interaction between certain life conditions and the relevant coping mechanisms. Adapting solutions can handle new requirements, and conversely, new requirements demand new solutions. Hence it’s presumably only a matter of time before a ninth value system emerges in response to our present issues.

“Emergent” = arising Value systems reappear continually due to environmental changes.

“Cyclical Double-Helix” Each value system is produced by two opposing forces: the problems and the problem-solving approach.

This model holds tremendous explanatory and predictive power, applied to all aspects of biological, psychological, and sociological behavior. It explains both individual actions and international political interactions: differences in religion, meaning of human existence, economics, politics, family, education, health, and leisure, as well as varied patterns in the deep structure of goals, ethics, motivation, lifestyle, and organization. Progression to—or departure from—a given system is triggered by forces from the environment hosting that system. The model’s deep structures reflect forms of thought, not human types. These patterns represent bio-psycho-social systems—neither a typology of people nor rigid developmental stages. They capture systems within the human behavioral repertoire, where each person has certain mental patterns that can be activated by different contexts and situations.

Axioms of the Graves Value Model (GVM)

1. The GVM describes how people/systems think, not who they are.
2. All GVM levels are equally valid; none is better or worse.
3. Each new GVM level emerges as a reaction to the preceding level.
4. Each stage is defined by the interplay of environment/problems and system/brain.

The Facets of the Model

Clare Graves’ framework is evolutionary because it shows how crises spur people to develop new strategies for arising problems. Thus, individuals (and the systems in which they live) evolve persistently. As one passes through each level, one acquires new thinking patterns and coping mechanisms, which are not lost at higher levels but can be reactivated if needed.

The model is biological because it addresses living organisms—people, organizations, communities—and their feelings and needs.

The model is psychological and sociological because it describes not just individuals’ thinking and behavior but also how larger structures form and mutate over time.

It’s a double-helix model because two elements (the environment/problem and the solutions/coping) face one another and spiral upward.

2.2.3 Properties of the Levels

The emergent-cyclical double-helix model of adult bio-psycho-social development posits eight levels:

Beige: Reactive, autistic, archaic-instinctive; survival and struggle for survival are central.

Purple: Animistic, tribalistic, safety-oriented, sacrificing personal desires for tribe, leader, or spirits.

Red: Ego-centric, self-driven, hedonistic, magical. The self lives for here and now without regard for others.

Blue: Absolute, conformist, devout. The self sacrifices for a later reward (in heaven, etc.).

Orange: Achievement-focused, materialistic, objectivist. The self calculates personal interests without conflict.

Green: Personalistic, group-oriented, humanistic. The self is ready to sacrifice for the community.

Yellow: Systemic, existential, functional. The self is interested in immediate self-expression but not at others’ expense.

Turquoise: Experience-based, global-thinking, synergistic. The self is prepared to sacrifice so life may continue.

2.2.4 The Problems of the Levels

Each level of the Graves Model signifies a response to a class of problems or challenges. Each level is thus a link between a set of problems and the mental solutions devised by humans.

Beige: Maintain physiological stability and integrity.

Purple: Achieve relative security.

Red: Live with self-awareness.

Blue: Secure lasting inner peace.

Orange: Conquer the physical universe.

Green: Emphasize interpersonal values.

Yellow: Restore life quality in a “sick” world.

Turquoise: Accept existential dichotomies.

2.2.5 Overview

Level	State of the World	Promising Responses
1st Level: State of Nature (Beige)	Natural state with scarce food, no protection or safety	Behavior is survival-oriented, as in animals
2nd Level: Tribal Life, Magic (Purple)	Natural forces inspire fear, unpredictable/unexplainable, perceived as threatening	People join together for safety and use magical rituals to placate evil spirits, reducing fear
3rd Level: Knight, Hero, Loner (Red)	Aggression and hostility are common. Life is difficult and brutal, so only the strongest survive	Fights for survival at others’ expense using any means, to be stronger/a hero
4th Level: Loyal Bureaucratic System (Blue)	Lawlessness has caused much suffering; privileged groups exploited the poor; the world is believed to be governed by God	Rules, laws, constitutions represent progress. People believe in truth and obey a higher authority
5th Level: Materialist, Capitalist (Orange)	Progress enables opportunities for material prosperity. The world teems with potential for advancement and wealth	Pragmatically tests possibilities for success. Entrepreneurship is worthwhile; profitable deals are made
6th Level: Movement, Relationships (Green)	Material prosperity allows for deeper questioning of life’s meaning. The home of true humanity	People form communities so all can share in growth and find a sense of life’s purpose
7th Level: Dolphin, Boundary Experiences (Yellow)	Wealth enables new ideas, hopes, breakthroughs	Seeks efficient, effective solutions from new perspectives, experiencing flow
8th Level: Transpersonal Perspective (Turquoise)	World = one big organism (Gaia). Earth faces collapse; humans risk destroying it	Individuals seek hidden orders behind chaos. Only higher-order consciousness and a transpersonal quest for global solutions can avert destruction

2.3 Presentation of the Individual Levels

2.3.1 Level 1: Beige, Instinctive/Survival Meme – Core Theme: Do what you must to survive

Small groups or bands primarily concerned with biological survival. On this level, the entire focus is on survival. People live only in the present. In pre-tribal cultures, such an “animal-like” lifestyle existed; nowadays, we see it in children, persons with mental disability, certain seniors with dementia, or some drug addicts. Extreme stress and life-threatening situations can also induce it.

Inception: 100,000 years ago

Maxim: Self-expression for survival

Perspective: The world is ill-defined and uncertain, grounded in biological imperatives. Life is instinctive, submitting passively to nature’s will.

Life Goal: Immediate satisfaction of periodic physiological needs (food, drink, shelter) to ensure species survival.

Strategies: Responds to environmental shifts with a focus on survival. Moves swiftly and automatically based on shifting resources and necessities. Depends on life-sustaining systems, with minimal awareness of self or others. Small social groups collaborate to gather/hunt and ward off threats, procreate, etc. Behavior mostly follows stimulus-response patterns, with instinct as key to survival.

Expressions:

Low: Helpless, oscillating between life and death; minimal perception of reality.

High: Self-sufficient at a minimal level, coping with reality passively, ensuring basic existence.

Organizational Structure: Small groups, herd-like behavior. The stronger protect the weaker; groups form to mate, acquire food, migrate based on weather and resources.

Habits: Individuals adapt to their environment by becoming familiar with certain conditions.

Learning Style: Genetic programming, habit formation, activating instinctual memory, observational learning, no conceptual learning, primary input via touch/taste.

Learning Incentive: Driven by immediate physiological requirements.

Share of Adult Population: ~0.1%

Example: A small child crying for food, or an elderly senile person needing basic care because they can no longer manage it themselves.

2.3.2 Level 2: Purple, Magical, Animistic Meme – Core Theme: “Keep the spirits appeased, and keep the tribe’s nest warm and secure. There is no such thing as coincidence.”

The energy in self-sacrifice focuses on tribal survival. Attention is on the present and past. Individuals rely on the chieftain or clan/tribe. Such thinking dominated most pre-literate cultures, persisting today in a diluted form in clubs, tight families, sports teams, or in some pockets of Africa, South America, Oceania, and the Arctic.

Inception: ~50,000 years ago

Maxim: Sacrifice personal desires for tribe, leader, or spirits

Perspective: The world is mysterious, teeming with benevolent and malevolent spirits who control it. The clan and sacred objects must be protected from perils.

Life Goal: Maintain safety and security, adhere to tribal traditions, be ready to sacrifice for the group.

Strategies: Trust magic, totems, taboos, or omens, placate spirits via magical rituals that ease fear. Individuals find safety only within the family/clan/tribe, assuming assigned roles and feeling proud of their tribe or its symbols.

Expressions:

Low: Extremely dependent on a chieftain or cult; anxiously trying to follow taboos and rituals.

High: Loyal, trustworthy, finding strength and security from a caring chief or family; inspired by heroic archetypes.

Organizational Structure: A tribe led by elders (shaman, chiefs). Roles determined by gender, age, physical strength, etc. Tribal norms are sacred, requiring absolute obedience.

Learning System: Classic conditioning through associating different stimuli.

Learning Style: Reflexive, paternalistic teacher conditions desired responses; needs-based learning by copying others’ behaviors; procedural/step-by-step approach, linear sequences. Rituals and rites structure daily life, reinforcing memory and automated actions. Magic/imagery/symbols used frequently, plus singing and smells as anchors for memory. Most are illiterate.

Communication: Information only disseminated via the clan chief; printed words distrusted.

Learning Incentive: Tangible recognition for achievements; interest in anything that increases security or satisfies basic drives.

Example: You’re in a tribe, subordinating your own will to a leader. You conduct a rain dance to placate spirits.

Share of Adult Population: ~10%

2.3.3 Level 3: Red, Impulsive, Ego-centric Meme – Core Theme: “Be who you are and do whatever you want—without regard for anyone else. I’ll get whatever I can, as long as I don’t get caught.”

Inception: ~10,000 years ago

Maxim: Impulsive self-expression at others’ expense

Perspective: The world is full of aggression, hostility, selfishness, power.

Life Goal: Attain and wield power to fulfill one’s own needs. Power is the sole means of meeting one’s needs and resisting perceived or actual constraints. Personal independence supersedes others’ thoughts or feelings. The individual desires respect and avoids shame or embarrassing situations.

Strategies: Uses any means necessary to exploit others and maintain control. Experiences no guilt, trusts only themself, and avoids losing face.

Manifestation: This perspective dominated hedonistic empires; modern forms appear in dictatorships or in certain reactive stages of child development, in gang wars with extreme power displays, and in some rap lyrics.

Introverted: Cynical, bitter, passively aggressive, hostile.

Extroverted: Showy (clothes, cars), rebellious, risk-taking, center of attention.

Expressions

• Low: Self-destructive, rebellious, unable to function in societal norms, extremely exploitative, often lawless and cruel.
• High: Spontaneous, energetic, disruptive to tradition, innovative, autonomous.

Organizational Structure: Empire, strict hierarchy from top to bottom, power structures relationships, work done only under supervision; everyone pursues personal gains.

Communication: Logical arguments, universal courtesy rules are irrelevant; only personal benefits matter for persuasion.

Learning System: Operant conditioning with rewards for success.

Learning Style: Punishment is counterproductive; respect is vital; trial and error.

Learning Incentive: Success demands immediate validation or loses appeal.

Example I: You’re the Western hero shooting anything in your path, seeking glory with no guilt, chasing your own success, power, and pleasure in a dangerous world.

Example II: You’re a rock star. Your personal success is paramount; you enjoy plenty of money and a life of excess. No one dictates your behavior. You’re the big boss—live and do as you please. You take what you want from life, guilt-free.

Share of Adult Population: ~15%

2.3.4 Level 4: Blue, Absolutist, Authoritarian Meme – Core Theme: “Life has a meaning, a direction, and a purpose with a predetermined outcome. I sacrifice myself for a cause (organization). Give up now, reap later.”

This level is primarily conformist. America’s typical middle class, for example, exhibits this value system. Present needs are sacrificed for future rewards: for the first time, drives are postponed in return for a later payoff. Obedience, punishment, and preserving the system become the highest directives, a critical step toward forming orderly, progressive societies among evolving nations. In pure forms, we see this in dogmatic religious, absolutist philosophical, or political structures, particularly prevalent in military or religious hierarchies.

Inception: ~5,000 years ago

Maxim: Life has a purpose. Do what you want—without regard for others.

Perspective: The world is deterministic and rationally ordered. People and things are classified into rigid categories.

Life Goal/Incentives: Align with an authoritative system—good vs. evil, control, avoiding guilt or punishment.

Strategies: Obey rules, maintain an orderly life, support the system through sacrifice and discipline.

Organizational Structure: Passive hierarchy, rigid regulations for structure and rank.

Learning System/Style: “Away from” avoidance learning, indoctrination by a more knowledgeable authority.

Example I: You believe in God (strictly Catholic) and follow all church rules as the only truth. You accept all commandments. You live in stability and order.

Example II: You’re a potential suicide bomber, training rigidly and obediently for your task. You’ve memorized the Koran and know the leader’s instructions are holy truth, bringing meaning to your life and rewarding you after death.

Share of Adult Population: ~30%

2.3.5 Level 5: Orange, Successful, Materialistic Meme Core Theme: “Act in your own interest and play to win. I want to maximize my gains.”

The self wants to set and achieve its own goals, seeking material rewards but doing so in a way that avoids triggering others’ envy or resentment. This stage is characteristic of capitalists and materialists. It involves calculated self-expression, carefully pocketing immediate rewards without provoking future reprisals. The materialist believes they can succeed by skillfully manipulating the system. This stage is foundational to modern industrial nations’ mindset, evident in highly technological societies, sales, marketing, and advertising.

Inception: around 300 years ago

Maxim: Calculated behavior so as not to arouse others’ anger or envy.

Perspective: The world is full of wealth offering unimaginable possibilities for every individual and for entire cultures.

Life Goal:

• Individual: Achieving goals, popularity, prestige.
• Cultural: Conquering nature, uncovering its secrets, skillfully using resources to improve life for all; moving away from fatalistic dogma and replacing destiny or providence with humans’ control over their own future via science and technology.

Solutions:

• Individual: Success is the result of competitiveness, the investment of time/energy, risk-taking, and a free market.
• Cultural: Progress emerges from pragmatic innovation; realpolitik acts in an ideologically pragmatic way; free enterprise, forward-thinking, and competition are promoted.

Manifestation: Materialistic worldview in Western industrial nations; dependent on ongoing progress in high-tech. Most of the population is highly status-conscious and constantly trying to move up the social ladder.

Expression:

• Low: Deceitful, extremely selfish, unscrupulous; people lacking “backbone.”
• High: High energy level.

The self wants to set and achieve its own goals, seeking material rewards but doing so in a way that avoids triggering others’ envy or resentment. This stage is characteristic of capitalists and materialists. It involves calculated self-expression, carefully pocketing immediate rewards without provoking future reprisals. The materialist believes they can succeed by skillfully manipulating the system. This stage is foundational to modern industrial nations’ mindset, evident in highly technological societies, sales, marketing, and advertising.

Inception: around 300 years ago

Maxim: Calculated behavior so as not to arouse others’ anger or envy.

Perspective: The world is full of wealth offering unimaginable possibilities for every individual and for entire cultures.

Life Goal:

• Individual: Achieving goals, popularity, prestige.
• Cultural: Conquer nature, uncover its secrets, skillfully use resources to improve life for all; move away from fatalistic dogma to science and technology, replacing destiny or providence with human control over fate.

Solutions:

• Individual: Success results from competitiveness, investing time/energy, risk-taking, and a free market.
• Cultural: Progress emerges from pragmatic innovation strategies; realpolitik with a focus on both ideology and success; free enterprise, forward-thinking, and competition are encouraged.

Organizational Structure: Hierarchical, bureaucratic – status-oriented, with functional authority crucial for decision-makers.

Communication: Flows top-down and sideways; people care pragmatically about how they personally benefit (career, money, reputation).

Learning System: Expectancy-based learning, meeting their needs by pursuing goals; they require rewards for motivation and learn best through personal effort in changing learning environments.

Learning Style:

• Trial-and-error experimentation, competitive scenarios, high-tech examples.
• Technology usage is motivating.
• Enjoy analyzing and deconstructing objects, then assembling them into something better.
• Almost compulsively driven to be the best, often causing chronic stress and cardiovascular disease.
• Mastering a game’s rules isn’t an end in itself but a tool to win.
• Risk heightens the adventure; losing makes them feel like failures, believing they’ve reached their limits.

Learning Incentive: Certificates, elevated status.

Manifestation: Materialistic worldview of Western industrial societies; depends on continued high-tech progress; most people are very status-conscious, perpetually trying to rise in the social hierarchy.

Expression:

• Low: Deceitful, extremely self-centered, without scruples; “spineless.”
• High: High energy level.

Example: You are a very successful young entrepreneur. You’re in the market to win, and you do so effectively. You work hard and earn a lot of money. You’re optimistic, a risk-taker. You use Earth’s resources to live a life of abundance. You’ve attended many training courses and know numerous success principles. You seek autonomy and independence. You enjoy competition (think J. R. Ewing from “Dallas”).

Share of Adult Population: about 30%

2.3.6 Level 6: Green, Communal/Egalitarian Meme Core Theme: “Seek inner peace and explore the empathetic dimensions of the community along with others. Together, we can do it.”

One’s own needs are set aside for others’ benefit, so that everyone does well collectively. On this personalistic, humanistic level, energy is directed toward self-sacrifice with the goal of achieving prosperity for all. It arises as a reaction to wealth and to a society perceived as alienating and impersonal. Primary concerns include equality, social welfare, and humanitarian programs.

Inception: around 150 years ago

Maxim: Willingness to sacrifice oneself to improve life for oneself and others.

Perspective: Rediscovering fundamental human values. The world is viewed as depersonalized and materialistic, technology-driven, creating a spiritual emptiness that can only be remedied by focusing on humanistic core values.

Life Goal:

• Making peace with one’s inner self.
• Belief in mutual interdependence.
• Stopping human exploitation by human beings.
• Overcoming consumerism and the constraints placed on humans.
• Ending global hunger.
• Combatting racism, female oppression, and social alienation.

Solutions:

Individual: “I + you” relationships are central. Striving for a society of equality and humanity replaces the focus on material needs; emotional and spiritual values take priority.

Cultural: Society aims to be egalitarian so that each individual can fulfill their human potential. Everyone’s needs deserve equal consideration (moral imperative). Persuasion, legal actions, consensus decisions, group effort, plus the fostering of harmony and peace are vital.

Manifestation: Late 1960s/early ‘70s civil rights movements, the Human Potential movement, especially the anti-Vietnam War protests and hippie movements. This view strongly appears in “helping” professions (e.g., social work, teaching), particularly in Scandinavia, and is increasingly important in Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. The civil rights movement counters the alienation and technological dependency of highly industrialized societies. The goal: a social welfare state, equality before the law, humanitarian progress.

Expression:

• Low: Overly lenient, unrealistic; idealistic. Emotions and feelings are overemphasized, while producing goods or focusing on material outcomes declines in importance.
• High: Congruent emphasis on the interests of others. Individuals exude inner calm and remain grounded in material reality while valuing warm, responsible interpersonal relationships and social responsibility.

Organizational Structure: Social networks in which all members share equal rights and responsibilities for mutual benefit. Status or privilege is not central; instead, human factors are the key to progress.

Communication: Frequent, multi-directional communication. Consensus-building is central as is each participant’s personal benefit.

Learning System: Learning through empathic experience.

Learning Style: Prioritizes exploring and observing emotions. Modeling, feedback, and experiential truths in teaching are crucial. Authority is rejected unless integrated into the system. Cooperation and acceptance drive effective learning; competition and rivalry undermine motivation. The potential danger is excessive tolerance.

Learning Incentive: Mutual encouragement and group support.

Example: You’re searching for inner peace, and your feelings plus communication with others matter more to you than cold rationality. You care about other people, building close relationships. You’re a good listener, bringing harmony into many lives (Carl Rogers).

Share of Adult Population: ~15%

2.3.7 Level 7: Yellow, Integrative, Existential Meme Core Theme: “Live a fulfilling and responsible life as who you are and who you’re learning to become. Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have top priority.”

The self expresses itself freely without exploiting others or the environment. Improvement without ambition is a hallmark of this meme. It responds to competence, reasons, and necessities, rather than to status, seniority, group membership, or subservience.

Focus: Flexibility, personal competence, self-motivation, and understanding contradictions. People develop systematic, fluid, adaptive organizational forms capable of handling complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change.

Inception: ~50 years ago

Maxim: Self-expression without harming others.

Perspective: The world is at risk of collapse—due to nature’s and humankind’s exploitation. This society sees life as a diverse, paradoxical, polychromatic tapestry where the balance between humans and nature must be restored.

Life Goal: Reacquaint humans with nature, address global problems, and act as functionally as possible in a rapidly changing world.

Strategies: People must re-examine the human–world relationship to ensure survival. Theories of autopoietic systems, self-regulation, etc., provide theoretical backdrops for solutions.

Key Characteristics: People at this stage seek to enhance performance without ambition. They compare themselves only to their past/future self (Self-Ideal). They heed competence, reasons, rationale, and necessity, while rejecting authority, age, status, dogmas, or group belonging. Their work results satisfy them without craving praise. They fight for their rights without expecting attacks at every turn. Freed from internal compulsion, they can enjoy life. Their focus is on flexibility, personal skill, self-motivation, and paradox tolerance. They don’t automatically accept tradition and responsibility.

Organizational Structure: Systemic flow—appropriate structures for each task within organizations that manage complexity, uncertainty, and swift changes.

Manifestation: Gradually emerging in Western cultures, mainly as an intellectual stance or thought system (theory of autopoietic systems, second-order cybernetics).

Learning Style: Informational learning—self-directed access to knowledge and materials.

Expression:

• Low: The primary goal is securing personal living conditions; avoids tackling secondary issues.
• High: Emphasizes acceptance of broad experiences and emphasizes functionality plus a “quality of being.”

Learning Style: Informational learning in all representation systems is possible. Learners control access to materials and pace. Often the learning goals are nonspecific, and development is free of fear or coercion. No competition or desire to impress. Learners make use of available resources, operate in unstructured environments, and regulate their own time.

Learning Incentive: Learners set their own goals and provide their own rewards rather than relying on outside sources.

Example: You see the world as threatened by ecological or military collapse, caused by misuse of human and natural resources. You want to reconnect people with nature. You constantly push your own performance higher. Knowledge and competence outweigh rank, power, and status. The splendor of existence matters more than possessions. You are flexible, tolerant of various experiences, driven by internal motivators. You write books aiming to save the world from collapse, highlighting systemic connections (e.g., Ken Wilber, Rupert Sheldrake, Dalai Lama).

Share of Adult Population: ~1%

2.3.8 Level 8: Turquoise, Holistic, Transpersonal Meme Core Theme: “Experience the totality of existence through mind and cosmic consciousness. Everything is interconnected and needs to be viewed together.”

The self: is willing to sacrifice itself and others if it’s necessary for global survival. This level responds to the mounting need for global coordination and the survival of the species. The planet’s survival stands at the forefront; the self and others must comply.

Inception: ~30 years ago

Maxim: Willingness to sacrifice self and others if essential for global survival.

Perspective: A planet heading towards geopolitical breakdown, threatened by short-sighted fixes that endanger the entire ecosphere.

Life Goal: Introduce meta-solutions that transcend geopolitical and economic boundaries. Avoid war, eliminate hunger, disease, and political oppression.

Strategies: Surpass conventional human boundaries and form global networks. New ways of life permit individuals to develop without harming the collective interests. Thus, human needs must align with our planet’s finite resources. People on this level accept sacrificing themselves or others to restore or maintain the whole system’s quality of life.

Manifestation: The intellectual foundations of the post–New Age spirituality feed into this meme.

Expression:

• Low: “The space cadet.”
• High: A prophet.

Organizational Structure: A holistic organism, each part embodying the whole. Meta-management integrates competence and consensus in both self-interest and collective interest, never losing sight of the overarching good. Complex frameworks combine physics and metaphysics in a global information process (theory of the holistic universe, theory of morphic fields). Data from every corner of the globe is synthesized to understand and influence geopolitics and ecology holistically.

Communication: Accessible data is used as long as it doesn’t feel imposed.

Learning Style: Experiential learning. No new “learning toys” introduced; instead, improving aspects like eliminating fear in the learning process fosters faster, more effective learning. Interaction with people at different consciousness states is desirable. Learning primarily involves global networks that expand people’s awareness and perception. Different thinking methods are tested, making learning a new form of being, alongside global peers. Thinking is intuitive and trans-rational, harnessing holistic-synergetic sensory processing, emotional feedback, and meta-processing.

Learning Incentive: Life is learning.

Example: You’re one of the world’s leading thinkers in consciousness development. You grasp the unity of all existence. The world to you is a single dynamic organism with a collective mind; everything is interconnected. Energy and information shape Earth’s reality. You think holistically and intuitively. You’re prepared to sacrifice yourself and others if needed for global survival. You’re a visionary forging meta-solutions beyond conventional geopolitical or economic boundaries to safeguard humanity. You also seek to avert war and overcome poverty, hunger, and political oppression (Dalai Lama, Ken Wilber, Rupert Sheldrake).

Share of Adult Population: ~0.1%

2.3.9 Systems of Self-Expression and Self-Sacrifice

The eight value systems are divided into self-expression systems (Levels 1, 3, 5, and 7) and self-sacrifice systems (Levels 2, 4, 6, and 8). The latter revolve around an external reference metaprogram, whereas the self-expression systems are oriented (to varying degrees) around an internal reference metaprogram. Self-expression systems revolve around “I,” while self-sacrifice systems revolve around “we,” with external reference evolving from tribe to the “true-believer” community up to a global system.

3. Spiral Dynamics by Don Edward Beck & Christopher C. Cowan

3.1 Introduction

Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, two students of Clare Graves, expanded his model into Spiral Dynamics—one of the most precise models of cultural unfolding. Spiral Dynamics does not rely on a single dimension, nor does it view humankind through a cold, analytical lens. Instead, it provides a clear, deep look into the fluid patterns of the human psyche. Our beliefs and values often shape decisions and identities unconsciously.

Personal experiences align with the broader historical context of human evolution, lending a liberating objectivity. This development spans from the most primitive survival instinct (Beige) to spiritual pursuits (Turquoise).

Spiral Dynamics is conceived as a spiral because it expresses the natural, cosmic forces evident in everything: Our DNA, galaxies, and so on. The spiral, expanding as it rises, best describes the evolution of human consciousness by illustrating the emergent ways of thinking and steadily growing complexity.

3.2 Don Beck and His Theory

The “Spiral Wizard” Don Beck employs his model to transform large systems within and among the global community’s varied sectors and cultures. For such large-scale interventions, he founded “Spiral Dynamics Integral” (SDi), enabling human transformation and worldwide reconciliation. This remains a tall order, however. Under Spiral Dynamics, human nature isn’t fixed: humans can forge new worlds—adapting to circumstances by creating more complex thinking approaches to solve problems. This requires adaptive, context-sensitive intelligence that responds to different life conditions. For Beck and others, prime focus is on the core dynamic forces produced by living conditions as well as coping mechanisms and collective intelligences.

Spiral Dynamics refers to these collective intelligences as memes (value systems). Like genes, viruses, and bacteria, memes follow the basic universal principle of regeneration. Each subsequent meme acquires a more complex organizing principle with distinct priorities, mentalities, and lines of thought. Similar to replicating DNA, a meme-code is a bio-psycho-social and spiritual blueprint spreading throughout a culture, reflected in origin myths, artistic forms, lifestyles, and a sense of community—shaping a survival code.

Entire cultures and nations are shaped by emerging value systems defining who they are, mirroring their place on the planet. Crises and conflicts push societies to the next level of human growth, but the spiral never reaches a final stage, forever twisting upward. As Ken Wilber notes, each new social level transcends yet includes earlier ones. Hence, the more advanced thinking systems grant higher freedom.

But it will be a long time before humanity broadly reaches Yellow or Turquoise because memes are not fixed human “types” but adaptive intelligences within people. Some fragments already exist, so it’s important to form a “syndicate of creative minds.”

Overview of the Levels and Their Incidence

3.3 Living Conditions

Today, humans possess enormous power over their natural environment through genetic manipulation and science, although few grasp its scope. We can remake the future, effectively playing small gods, confronted by very dangerous conditions. For example, nuclear weapons developed under the more complex Orange meme become a massive hazard when discipline and responsibility (Blue) give way to short-sighted (Red) power grabs.

Many people simultaneously pass through distinct layers of the spiral. Humanity doesn’t collectively advance along a horizontal line; there are multiple changes at every level. Currently, many are returning to zones from 300 years ago.

Molecular biology research allows humans to uncover life’s secrets. Yet if bacteria or engineered agents are released that destroy all carbon-based life, or if scientific progress slips from our grasp (“butterfly effect”), the result could be catastrophic. Surviving it is exceedingly difficult—excessive stress undermines higher complexity. Without partial stability, no new conceptual systems can be created to prevent societal backsliding. Stress is needed to break out of a memetic paradigm, but it doesn’t guarantee upward progress. Sometimes development regresses under severe stress.

4. The Development of NLP According to Graves’ Stages

Within 30 years, NLP progressed from Graves Stage 4 to Stage 7. The first generation of NLP (1972) was all about simple step-by-step patterns and techniques. The “Order Creation” value system (Stage 4, Blue) best fits that phase. Around 1980 came the Orange meme, with its success orientation, large fire-walk seminars, and heavy media focus. Parallel to the 5th meme came the 6th (Green) with “sensitive communities,” emphasizing group cohesion, group dynamics, and play at workshops. In the early 1990s, the “fourth” generation rose at Yellow (Stage 7): “integral and being-motivated.” This led to professional NLP training emphasizing ethics and transformative themes—visionary leadership, Tools of the Spirit, Core Transformation. The goal at this stage is integrating all previous levels to increase human freedom and flexibility, unlock one’s potential at the level of “being motivation,” and allow space for existential questions and cultivating wisdom.

Hence humanity’s stages reappear in differing developmental phases among NLP providers:

Stage	Description	Maxim	Features	Example
5th Stage	Progress enables opportunities for material prosperity.	“Success is everything!”	Being self-employed in profitable ventures: capitalism, dominance, ownership, manipulation, acquiring knowledge, acting autonomously.	Huge seminars with fire walking, big media splash.
6th Stage	Material societal development allows reflection on life’s meaning.	“Sensitive Community”	Communities for life purpose and personal growth: sensitivity, consensus, harmony, equality, team-building.	Playful group-dynamic seminars. Shift from deficiency motivation to being motivation.
7th Stage	Wealth spurs new ideas, hopes, breakthroughs.	“Integral, Wisdom, Ethics, Being Motivation”	Solving existing problems efficiently from new angles, experiencing flow: dolphin-like, integrative.	Professional NLP training with transformative themes.
8th Stage	Earth is on the brink of collapse. Humanity may destroy it.	A higher-order consciousness and transpersonal quest for global solutions is vital to avert disaster.	Transpersonal, advanced usage.	–

5. Applying the Graves Model

5.1 Clarifying Conflicts (cited from O.p.a.l.)

In large companies typically mixing Blue, Orange, and Green, conflicts are inevitable.

A simplified depiction could be:

Orange disdains Blue for blocking change and likewise disdains Green for constantly trying to integrate every opinion and thus endlessly debating. Green sees Orange as heartless and money-driven and also mistrusts Blue for its hierarchies and rigid structures.

To add more depth: HR departments are often “Green” and promote employee well-being (through training, incentives), while management is often “Orange.” The manager’s top concern is employees’ performance, so some leaders see training as a waste of time. “Green” devalues “Orange,” and “Orange” simply doesn’t understand “Green.”

The problem is that each individual and each company sees their own stage as correct and attacks the others. We tend to look down on previous levels we’ve transcended. We believe we’ve grown past them, feeling superior to those behind us, and we lack comprehension of those above us.

Only at the Yellow (7th) level do we develop an integral perspective and begin to value people across the stages.

5.2 In Employee Leadership

5.2.1 Problems in Companies

An individual, organization, or nation can respond positively only to leadership principles, motivational incentives, educational fundamentals, and ethical values matching its current developmental stage.

Hence each stage needs distinct leadership, communication styles, and approaches. “Blue” employees can be motivated by titles or symbols of status, while “Orange” employees respond to performance-based bonuses. Such tactics would fizzle with “Green” employees, who prefer teamwork on “meaningful” projects.

Our stage, however, isn’t static. It evolves along with the complexity of our environment. Upon arriving at a new level, we alter our worldview, thinking, and lifestyle to adapt. Earlier stages remain within us, potentially reactivated if we or our system face crises. During a recession, for instance, “Green” communal thinking may revert to harsh competition or even “Red” aggression. If we successfully overcome a crisis, we usually revert to our “old” higher stage fairly quickly.

What lesson do we draw from these various stages for everyday work life?

5.2.2 Exercise

Recall a tense, conflict-laden situation with an employee, coworker, or boss—someone you suspect is at a different stage. Keep in mind:

• Everyone values things differently because they think differently, since their brain is wired differently!
• Different organizations occupy different positions on the “psychological map,” and should devise unique management strategies aligning with their employees and areas of work.
• Managers need consistent, systematic approaches so that all components link up. That influences recruiting, selecting, placing, training, leading employees, and marketing as one coherent system.
• Additionally, organizations should build management systems from the bottom up, responding properly to employees who themselves shift on the “psychological map!”

Marketing strategies fail if they merely mirror the designer’s worldview rather than the target audience’s. The core question isn’t “How do I motivate people?” but “How do I align my actions with their natural flow of motivation?” Today’s productivity challenges signal growth and cultural change, not a decline. Hence we need new approaches to dealing with people based on who we’ve become. Learners, trainers, and teaching strategies must fit each other.

6. Further Reading

• Tad James, Wyatt Woodsmall: Time Line, 1991 (USA 1988), pp. 205–210, Junfermann Verlag
• Dudley Lynch: DelphinDenken, 1996 (USA 1993), Rudolf Haufe Verlag, ISBN 3-448-03318-9
• Don Edward Beck and Christopher C. Cowan: Spiral Dynamics – Mastering Values, Leadership and Change, 1996, Blackwell-Verlag, ISBN 155786-940-5
• Graves, Clare W., "Deterioration of Work Standards," Harvard Business Review, 44 (September/October 1966), 117-128.
• Graves, Clare W., "Levels of Existence: An Open System Theory of Values," Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 10 (Fall 1970), No. 2, pp. 131-155.
• Bill Lee’s transcription of a "Seminar on Levels of Human Existence" conducted by Dr. Graves at the Washington School of Psychiatry, October 16, 1971
• Graves, Clare W., "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap," The Futurist, 8 (April 1974), pp. 72–87.
• NLP mit Weisheit pp. 11–16
• Die endlos aufwärts führende Suche. Was ist Erleuchtung? – Spiritualität des 21. Jahrhunderts.
• Christiane Prange (2002). Organisationales Lernen und Wissensmanagement. Dr. Th. Gabler Verlag
• Ken Wilber (2001). Integrale Psychologie. Geist, Bewusstsein, Psychologie, Therapie. Arbor Verlag
• Erich Fromm (1998). Haben oder Sein. dtv
• Norbert Elias (2001). Über den Prozess der Zivilisation I/II. Soziogenetische und psychogenetische Untersuchungen. Suhrkamp
• Ken Wilber (2002). Boomeritis – A Novel That Will Set You Free. Shambhala Publications