What’s your primary quadrant orientation?

Today, I studied “Types” taking a course in Core Integral one.  The assessment of types of quadrant orientation was interesting for me.  I answered eight questions.  The guidelines said that over three answers may be a primary quadrant orientation.  My result of the assessment was the following.  My primary quadrant orientation is UL and LR.

Upper Left Individual Interior	Upper Right Individual Exterior	Lower Left Collective Interior	Lower Right Collective Exterior
3	1	1	3

I’d like to introduce one example.  Please answer the following question.  What’s your primary quadrant orientation?

Scenario

You and a few of your friends decide to take a vacation together sometime in the next few months.  You all go out to dinner to talk about the trip.  After initial meetings, you start discussing plans.  Which of the following four answers/responses is most like what you would say and /or do?

Answer A: I’m really excited to be able to go on this trip with all of you.  I feel that this is a great opportunity to relax and decompress.  I have been really anxious and stressed lately.  I am confident that this trip will help me get back to feeling great.

Answer B: Before we come up with a plan we need to talk about the different variables, like how much money we want to spend, how long we want to go for, when we can all get time off, the list of possible destinations, etc.  We’ll have to get everything on the table so that we can decide on something that fits everyone’s criteria.

Answer C: Let’s decide where and when we want to go.  When I go on vacation, I like to be able to relax and also to stay active.  Maybe we can go to someplace near the ocean, like Mexico or Hawaii.

Answer D: It is so great that we’ll get to experience this together.  I think it will be important for all of us to share what we each want out of this trip, so that we can make it the best experience for everyone.

Your primary quadrant orientation is below.

Answer A	Answer B	Answer C	Answer D
UL	LR	UR	LL

Reference: Core Integral Course 1

Developmental Psychology: how to assess human developmental levels? What is the data?

I’m thinking about my final term paper in the developmental psychology class walking around my house in the morning.  This paper requires me to choose a significant person in my life and apply developmental understanding to his or her experience.  In addition, I have to write about the signs and markers of the stages he or she has been through along with the outer changes that have accompanied the stage transformations.

Umm, I have two challenges.  First, who should I choose in my paper?  Second, how can I analyze and assess his or her developmental levels?  The last one is a little bit difficult.  I’m not sure about the data in analyzing and assessing.  Is that an interview article or a book if I choose a celebrity (e.g. a famous CEO or president) whom I’ve never met before?

Anyway, I have no other choice to rely on “language” which he or she spoke.  I think “language” is the important data to analyze and assess developmental levels.  That is because we express our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and feelings by means of words.

However, we should be careful to analyze and assess his or her language.  In my view, language is not a perfect tool to reveal all thoughts, emotions, sensations, and feelings correctly.  Moreover, language is dependent on contexts…  Therefore, language is sometimes the reliable data but sometimes the unreliable data.

This paper is an interesting and challenging staff for me.

“a guide to integral psychotherapy” by Mark Forman

Happily, I’m learning “Developmental Psychology” from Mark who is the author of “a guide to integral psychotherapy” this summer quarter in JFKU.  In fact, when I lived in Japan, I read his book and I was overwhelmed by his insight and a lot of useful information included his book.  I really respect him same as I admire Ken Wilber.  OK, I’ll stop praising him here, but I really recommend his book for not only therapists but also consultants, coaches, and…all kinds of professional people.

After reading his book, I have a lot of questions for him about this book, so I’d like to ask him little by little this quarter.

He gave me his autograph very kindly.  I really appreciated him and I realized after class that he was a very intellectual and warm hearted person.

The Wisdom of The Enneagram

This is a required book in the Enneagram Assessment class in JFKU.  I read a Japanese translated version when I lived in Japan, but I found many new things reading this book again.  I think this book is very useful to grasp the overview of the Enneagram.  I really recommend this book as an ideal introduction of the Enneagram.  I hope you will utilize the wisdom of the Enneagram in your daily life. 

Are you a mere CEO or integral mind CEO?

The question in the title was what I asked global executives in the class of Harvard Executive program.  I’m really concerned with global top executives who lack of integral mind.   In other words, they seem to have low levels of consciousness…  They (global CEOs and their companies) are likely to be desperate to compete for finite resources in the world.  In terms of management, there are mainly four resources: human resources, material resources, money, and information.  The first two resources have a limit and the last two have no limit.  In my view, CEOs who have low levels of consciousness tend to defeat their competitors in the capital market (the criteria is amount of money, so this competition is endless) scrambling for finite resources.

I suppose they are like child who play in a sandbox.  This is my metaphor… 

One week trip in San Francisco and Boston (My lecture in Harvard Business School)

My friend who is an accountant and a friend from college came to CA from Japan.  I was happy to see him after so long.  We enjoyed cycling in SF city and went to mainly Twin Peaks, Napa and AT&T Parks to watch the game of SF Giants.  After we said goodbye each other, he went to NY and I left SF for Boston.

Although I really enjoyed SF with my friend, the highlight in my trip was to visit Harvard University.  You can’t believe me, but I got a chance to teach “Integral Leadership” for global executives in the class of Executive Education Program in Harvard Business School.  At first, I was a little bit nervous, but I really enjoyed teaching my class in front of the top executives in the world (Of course, fictional lecture).  I’ll definitely be back to Harvard Business School (Doctoral Program: Organizational Behavior) in five or six years.

This trip was memorable event for me.

Video (San Francisco Version)

http://youtu.be/9KUO2R06t4E

Video (Boston Version)

http://youtu.be/G82Q8BV0KKw

Is it OK just to install OS (Integral Theory)? What is your application?

I asked myself “Is it OK just to install OS (Integral Theory)?”  My answer is “No.”  As I said before, Integral Theory is a meta-theory and it works as OS.  Please imagine that your computer include only OS without application software.  Does it work well?  Maybe no or you may feel bored because you have nothing to do using your computer…

So, I’m really careful not to satisfy with installing a new OS (Integral Theory) in me (this is a metaphor).  That is just a starting point.   What is my application?  My application is about the business world, especially business consulting and coaching, in more detail, leadership development, organizational development.

That is why I’m going to work in a business consulting company¹ again for 2-3 years after graduation, and then I’m going to study leadership development and organizational development in Ph.D. program at Harvard Business School or Insead Business School (in France).

I’d like to attain my goal (egocentric) and contribute to people around me (ethnocentric), to people all over the world (worldcentric), and to universe itself (cosmocentric) using new OS and my applications devotedly.

Notes

1 I won’t work in strategy or accounting firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting, Bain, Deloitte (my previous company), Earnest and Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers anymore (I will call them “Flatland consulting companies” Of course, their values and impact on our society are so great.  I acknowledge the fact.  However…orange, orange, orange mind²).  I’d like to work in a consulting company which apply integral model to its consulting approach.

2 See Spiral Dynamics

Reference

1 Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change

2 The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, 

God, the Universe, and Everything

3 The Integral Operating System :: Ken Wilber