SDi Level Two Confab

Spirals over the Lone Star

SDi Level Two certification and 9th ANNUAL SDi CONFAB

May 22-25, 2008
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

2008 CONFAB THEME
Change, Transitions and Transformations: Designing and Connecting all the Dots

The current presidential campaign in the US is clearly about “change.” Everybody uses the term. One candidate says “Yes, we can!” while another counters with “Yes, we will!”

Yet no one actually defines what “change” means, much less how to actually “change FROM what TO what.”

Others are talking and writing about “shifts.” But the same problem exists.

There is a lack of a lexicon on both concepts, change and shift. Further, many are confused when it comes to applications within a single person, or at the core of the culture of a company, business or community.

Still others claim the ability to work within a “whole systems change” context, with the inference that all of the “whole systems” can be identified and impacted.

Very few are dealing with more open-ended, large-scale systems design and transformation that involve an entire country or society.

This 9th Annual confab will focus specifically on these issues and processes to bring more precision into conversations about Change, Transitions, and Transformations. It will drill down into the essential systemics, strategics, and tactics to facilitate the dynamics within the “large scale.”

Confab Design

The four days are designed to engage participants fully in these two major projects:

Defusing the Islamic threat by dealing with the Stages of Development contained within its global culture; and
Creating the Transpartisanship framework to be used within the US context to move beyond the polarization in our political system, and to be replicated at every scale, from national to local.

Approaches and Perspectives on the Nature of Change: Codes and Scripts

Years ago when we focused on Transactional Analysis we would often speak of our scripts, the specific patterns and expected outcomes (the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, apocalyptic end times, and time-lines) in our personal and cultural beliefs and expectations, etc.

Each meme code has an embedded script. Each code's script contains the how, when, and why it shifts, and what is called upon to produce the shift. Each meme script likewise has a view of the past—why things happen—and what will be the eventual outcome as it plays out its priorities.

Therefore, these cultural scripts are embedded in both our memetic codes AND in the specific content by which those codes express themselves. This is especially clear in the Israel-Palestine problem, which is why all the efforts to "make peace" have failed, and will continue to fail.

These memetic scripts impact our daily decisions which ultimately
determine our destiny. In these terms, here are some specific issues we invite you to come explore with us:

What is the Master Script Maker?
How do new scripts form?
How can even competitive scripts be integrated to run together?
How do we write new scripts for a city, community, a political campaign, etc. to broaden its appeal and acceptanc—and for the overall health of the Spiral?
How are dangerous scripts rewritten, revised, softened, made less lethal, expressed in symbolic forms rather than on the street or battle field?
What happens when scripts collide?
What happens when subscripts or alternative and threatening stories branch off from the main stream?
How does the polarizing influence of Assimilation/Contrast drive people and groups further apart, often to self-fulfill our script-based prophecies?

While this body of knowledge will be informed by the work of Professor Clare W. Graves and the Spiral Dynamics Integral conceptual system, it will also reflect a great deal of new insights from the studies of large-scale systems that are going through major shifts.

This means we will focus on specific applications of this expanding model in a number of case studies and interviews with individuals who are engaged in the difficult process of large-scale change.

Speakers and presenters at this year's Confab will include

Lieutenant-Colonel Fred Krawchuk (Special Forces) will report from Iraq on his use of the MeshWORKS technology in integrating the diplomatic, professional, military, legal, social work entities within that dangerous and fluid environment.
From Denmark, Teddy Larsen, Manager of Corporate Transformation in the Lilly corporation in Europe and president of the Copenhagen Center for Human Emergence, will share many of his insights on cultural change.
Graham Linscott, co-author of The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future and award-winning journalist from South Africa, will report on the current societal issues in both his country and in Africa at large from a Spiral Dynamics Integral perspective.
Darrell Gooden, Manager of Transformation within a large branch of the US Navy, will detail his experience in dealing within a government bureaucracy with a heavy focus on engineering technology.
Elza Maalouf, president of the Center for Human Emergence Middle East, will present her efforts to bridge across Israeli and Palestinian divides, by means of the Build Palestinian Initiative that is reshaping the political space in the West Bank.
Dr. Bruce Gibb of Bruce Gibb & Associates will present on polarization in change, transitions, and transformation.

To register now, click here.