This article first appeared in the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations, 2003, 1(4),129-130. It can only be reprinted and distributed with prior written permission from Professional Coaching
Publications, Inc. (PCPI). Email John Lazar at [email protected] for such permission.
Hints and Help from Mike Jay_________________________________________________________________________________________
When someone mentions International Coaching to me,the first thing that pops up for me is “meme.” Basically,a meme is a cultural gene, something that can betransmitted among people/minds as a way ofexplaining how the world works in the highest formand a prejudice in its lowest form. Some people likeE.O. Wilson, Consilence, 1998, say it is the “prime culturalunit.” You can see a picture I created of this “unit”adapted from his work here: www.emergenics.com/meme).
Memes are all around us, especially when we begin tointroduce the many flavors available in InternationalInteractions. Being fortunate to work among many ofthe world’s cultures, I am continuously amazed hownarrow most of are in terms of our own memescape—thecomposite structure of our cultural units.
My sense is that this is the area of greatest challenge forInternational Coaches. Coaches in general mostlyproject their own memes on their clients, unfortunately.In other words, our ways of doing things and seeingthe world, color all of our interactions.
Actually, this is why I’m musing. Over the past 50 years,research has been conducted among cultures as itapplies to the ways of being, having, doing and becomingthat exist in the world. What has come from that workhas been a very interesting conception framed originallyaround the interpretation of mature adult humanpersonality by www.ClareWGraves.com—truly afascinating block of research leading to Don Beck andChris Cowan’s book to summarize the principles inSpiral Dynamics, 1996.
In the short space I have, I can’t do justice to the theoryeither from Graves or the modern rendition by Beck andCowan, but I can share with you a few short pieces ofthe theory as they relate to International Coaching. Thecrux of Grave’s biopsychosocial theory states that it is adouble helix: life conditions vs. coping ability in ahierarchical unfolding of complexity in terms of eachlevels’ ability to respond to demands, each level
identified as a constellation of coalescing memes calleda valueMEME or vMEME.
Originally using a numbered system for each level, Beckand Cowan translated the numbering system into colorsand voila, we see a relatively simple—yet incrediblyrich—taxonomy. From Survival Beige to TribalisticPurple on to Egocentric Red through Absolute Blue,Materialistic Orange, Humanist Green, Integral Yellowand Holistic Turquoise vMEMEs. No one is just onevMEME, nor is any culture, or organization, BUT thereis a tendency for people and business to use one morethan another at particular points in time.
Americans are basically moving from exiting blue (thereare three stages of each vMEME: entering, nodal, exiting)in kind of a multilogue or dance to orange and greensimultaneously, the thinkers taking the materialisticroute, the feelers moving through the humanist vein.Now of course, my spiral colleagues would laugh at myoversimplification, but allow me to make the point beforemy words run out.
In a look at Stratified Democracy [ www.emergenics.com/stratified], we find that much of the world is“different” than the US in terms of its waves of vMEMEs.This diversity is both an opportunity and a challengeto the International Coach in my view. Regardless ofwhat country you call home, it is more than likely thecountry you coach in will be responding to differinglife conditions and demands with different abilities tocope with those demands—than you!.
While there is a tendency to Americanize the world—one which you will agree with if you are in the BLUE/orange vMEME and disagree with at many other vMEMEconstellations—in favor of one particular worldview;not all of us U.S. citizens agree. This creates an enormousamount of tension as a backdrop in the coachinginteraction. In my view, it goes much farther than merelyrespecting your client’s differences, but beginning tounderstand why those differences exist, what it mightmean and how leverage can be created as memes areshared during the coaching.
Learning to get your self out of the way—memes andall—is a developmental challenge I’ll issue to theunaware. International work will amplify your abilityto do so and improve the effectiveness of your coaching.So, I salute the world as you teach us about you and welearn how the world works for you.
Mike JayOctober 1, 2003
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From the Co-Executive Editor’s Desk
Books that John Lazar recommends anorganizational coach read . . .
Arbinger Institute. Leadership and Self-deception. SanFrancisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2000.
Bethanis, S. Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage.Chicago: Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2004.
Bossidy, L, and Charan, R. Execution: The Discipline ofGetting Things Done. New York: Crown Books, 2002.
Brothers, C. Language and the Pursuit of Happiness.Naples, FL: New Possibilities Press, 2005.
Cherniss, C. and Goleman, D. (Eds.), The EmotionallyIntelligent Workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.
Coffman, C. and Gonzalez-Molina, G. Follow this Path.New York: Warner Books, 2002.
Collins, J. Good to Great. New York: HarperCollins,2001.
Connor, D.R. Leading at the Edge of Chaos. New York:John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Gallwey, W.T. The Inner Game of Work. New York:Random House, 2000.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. PrimalLeadership. Boston, MA: Harvard Business SchoolPublishing, 2002.
Goss, T. The Last Word on Power. New York: CurrencyDoubleday, 1996.
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