Don Edward Beck


Don Edward Beck is a teacher, geopolitical advisor, and theorist focusing on applications of large scale psychology, including social psychology, evolutionary psychology, organizational psychology and their effect on human sociocultural systems. He is the co-author of the "Spiral Dynamics" theory, an evolutionary human development model. He spent many years adapting the work of his mentor and colleague, developmental psychologist Clare W. Graves, Professor Emeritus in Psychology at Union College in New York.

Education and academia

Beck received a B.A from Abilene Christian University in 1958 and his M.A in Theology and Communication from the same institution a year later in 1959. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Communication and Social Psychology with a focus on large scale systems dynamics and change in 1966 by the University of Oklahoma. His dissertation was on the psychological forces that produced the American Civil War.
Beck has held academic positions at various institutions including the University of North Texas from 1961-1981, Adjunct Professor at Conoco Corporate University from 1998-1999, and Adizes Graduate School from 2000 to the present day.

Research Instruments

Don E. Beck has authored research instruments, including:

Development of the theory

Don Beck worked with Christopher Cowan to preserve the work of Clare W. Graves. In 1974, while working as a professor at Northern Texas University, Beck encountered an article by Graves in The Futurist and flew to New York to meet Graves. After two days of dialogues, Beck decided to record Graves' knowledge, as the latter's health was deteriorating. Beck first met Graves in 1975 and worked with him closely until his death in 1986.
Graves had published his theory of human development in 1974, a "bio-psycho-social systems" framework of value systems as applied to human sociocultural evolution which posits that the psychology of the mature human being transitions from a current level of cultural existence based on current life conditions to a more complex level in response to changes in existential reality. Graves's model demonstrates the dual nature of human social emergence with state changes between communal/collective value systems and individualistic value systems.
According to the 1974 The Futurist biography of Graves, he began decades of experimentation and research in 1952. In The Futurist article, Graves classified a total of eight levels of increasingly complex human value systems consisting of a hierarchically ordered, always-open-to-change set of identifiable world views, preferences, and purposes. Through these value systems, groups and cultures structure their societies and individuals integrate within them. Each distinct set of values is developed as a response to solving the problems of the previous system. Changes between states may occur incrementally or in a sudden breakthrough.
The original 1974 publication, "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap" defined the overall theory and the value systems within it. Each system may express a healthy or unhealthy manifestation of its values, as defined by Graves:
The First Tier systems were grouped by nature of their narrow perspective as "subsistence levels", each aligns with a specific world view that rejects the prior systems and seeks to preserve its own status quo. The differences between communal/collective and individualistic value systems, and the inability of First Tier systems to recognize the strengths or pathologies of other world views, helps to explain social conflict in the world today.
According to Graves, the move to Second Tier thinking requires a "leap" in perspective. At Second Tier - the first 'being level', society recognizes a responsibility for facilitating the health of each value system on First Tier. The goal is not expediting emergence but the result is, when healthy, each First Tier system will naturally progress toward Second Tier.
From Graves' work, Beck and his colleague, Cristopher Cowan, developed the theory further and presented a structured evolutionary model of adaptive intelligence called Spiral Dynamics. Beck and Cowan first published their construct in Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change . Spiral Dynamics theory spawned much discussion and integration of concepts by other theorists, such as Ken Wilber.

Influences

Graves' original theory compared a number of psychological and behavioral constructs such as Max Weber, Abraham Maslow, and Jane Loevinger. Beck and Cowan's Spiral Dynamics theory was influenced by three additional innovations:

Geopolitical

South Africa

Beck made more than 36 trips to South Africa between 1981 and 1988. On May 3, 1995, both houses of the Texas State Legislature adopted a resolution presented by the President of the Texas Senate which commends Beck "for his invaluable contributions toward the peaceful creation of a democratic South Africa."
In November 2012, Beck was invited as a key presenter for the University of Stellenbosch Business School Executive Development Event "Africa Leads". According to the University program announcement, Beck's spiral dynamics "informed the creation of the Peace Committees and subsequent CODESA process in the run up to the first post- apartheid elections in 1994."

Israel and Palestine

In 2005, Beck, Elza Maalouf, and Said E. Dawlabani created The Center for Human Emergence Middle East, a non-profit think tank through which his engagement in the region was sponsored. It quickly became the most active global centers of its kind. Beck and Maalouf held meetings and trainings hosted in Israel, speaking to the Arab Governor of Bethlehem, Salah Al Taamari; three members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and presenting to 40 city council members, government employees, and professors from Bethlehem University. In 2008 more than 700 Palestinians came to train in Spiral Dynamics theory with Beck and his colleague, Elza S. Maalouf.
The new Palestinian vision for the future included self-sufficiency and commerce, and there was no mention of a need for conflict with Israel, according to Maalouf.

Organizational consulting

Beck has consulted to government agencies and companies like Southwest Airlines and Whole Foods.
Beck made a number of trips to the Netherlands, starting with work for the Dutch telecom company KPN in the 1990s, including consulting to the Dutch Police force and leading to the establishment by of the second in 2005. The first center for Human Emergence was established in Copenhagen, Denmark, in May, 2004, in close collaboration with Teddy Hebo Larsen http://www.humanemergence.org/copenhagen.html.
He continued to support the Dutch Center for Human Emergence, including in the setting up of the Hague Center.
Beck presented to the United Nations, June 21, 2007, at the Values Caucus where he challenged the Security Council to adopt a new approach to global governance. At the same event, Elza S. Maalouf presented a model called Palestine 21.

Sports

Beck worked with the Dallas Cowboys, the New Orleans Saints, the Texas Rangers, the Springboks, and the U.S. Olympic Committee for Men's Track and Field. He also wrote a "Sports Values" column in The Dallas Morning News for many years and served as the Sports Psychology Editor for the Inside Pitch baseball magazine.

City agencies and governments

Beck has worked with the Denton Police Department, the Texas Department of Human Services, and the cities of Plano, Grapevine, and Colleyville.

Initiatives

Beck has co-founded and founded a number of active initiatives:
;Books
;Audio, video