Equip yourself to tackle hard problems

World Leadership Crisis. Exhibit A: Climate Change
with Michael Zimmerman

As leaders on scales both large and small, it's our job to grapple with hard problems. At times, with the mere mention of these problems, we feel a weight settle upon us. One such weight looming large for many world leaders is climate change.

You can probably feel the difficulty of the whole situation. Time is short, uncertainty is high, and the stakes may be even higher. Competing business and political interests collide every day. The tensions run deep, driven by conflicting values and differing needs. This is the nature of the hard problems of our time: they are densely interconnected, emotionally-charged, and complex. They also change rapidly, often without warning. In effect, these are what scientists call "adaptive problems" (or "wicked problems"), where the problems may actually evolve by the day. (In contrast to adaptive problems are "technical problems", which tend to have a static solution where the skills, needs and capacities to solve them are known.) Climate change is immensely difficult because it is an adaptive problem, and requires adaptive leadership to address. Confronting an adaptive problem takes more than a bag of tricks, it takes a whole new way of being with a broader and more complex mindset on the world.... [+more]

Like it or not, you're a capitalist. But are you a conscious one?

Beyond Flatland Economics
with Bert Parlee
and Ken Wilber

Classical economic theory is rarely concerned with what people are thinking or feeling, focusing instead upon more objective metrics like consumer behavior and the exchange of material goods. There's really not much space allotted for interior motivations at all, aside from some core assumptions about "mutual self interest".

But what if we had a keener understanding of what "self interest" really means, uncovering the actual motivating factors behind all of our behaviors?

What if we had the tools to both qualify and quantify the many levels of "self"acknowledging that our identity grows and changes throughout our livesas well as the different levels of "interest" that stem from our personal values and cultural worldview?

And what if we could combine these interior dimensions with a much more sophisticated understanding of "mutual benefit", acknowledging how our activity in the marketplace impacts our stakeholders, our community, and our environment?

Listen as Bert and Ken discuss all this, and much more.... [+more]

Integral Life Time Machine

Missed one of our weekly updates or monthly newsletters?

Have no fear!

Here you can find all recent weekly and monthly Integral Life updates, archived for your convenience.

Enjoy! [+view]

 
Take a Moment

Save the Planet! Let's play a game. Pretend you've been given $100 billion to invest in solutions for various global issues:

  • Reducing Carbon Emissions
  • Biodiversity Loss
  • Deforestation
  • Poverty Elimination
  • Clean Energy R&D
  • Public Education
  • Clean Water
  • Human Trafficking
  • Peacekeeping/Anti-Terrorism
  • Natural Disaster Prevention

How would you spend the money?

Take our poll and let us know!

Featured Perspectives


Good Integral Climate Change Articles
Mike Breland

"You might want to consider getting the Winter 2009 volume of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. I devoured it in about 2 weekends of reading. That I did not completely agree with some of the articles, I think, indicates that the editor of the journal was attempting to be integral in their presentation of several different perspectives. But, in the end, the articles ended up creating a more complete picture of the situation in an integral sort of way rather than being irreconcilable viewpoints that cast more heat than light. For example, the first article by Michael Zimmerman caused me a bit of consternation. It was about: An Integral Approach to Climate Change and as I read it, I noted some of my climate change buttons were being pushed because he was pointing out the nakedness of some of my emperors."

 


A Developmental View of "Men's Liberation"
Raul

"As we mature, we may face events that make us aware of contradictions between how we were raised and how what we now think, believe, and feel, or begin to ask ourselves about what it means to be a man. We may enter the 'resistance' stage when our social group identity, in this case as men, develops to where we are capable of realizing: 'Hey! Just wait a minute here! I know that this is what I learned about being a man, and this is what is expected of me as such by family and friends and employers and community and institutions and society at large. But this is NOT really or totally who I am! No! I RESIST!'"

 

New to Integral? Start Here!

We have the intuition that everyone is at least partially right, that no human being is capable of being 100% wrong. But how do you tell just how right everyone is? Some are more right than others—how do you tell the difference?

Integral theory is an attempt to answer that question. Here we offer some basic overviews of Integral theory and its application in the world, in many different media formats. If you are new to the Integral vision, any of these would be a wonderful place to begin your journey toward a freer and much more enriching life....

Spread the Love!

The Integral movement is growing in size and influence every day, largely due to your continued support and enthusiasm. And yet, our journey has only just begun! Help us fulfill our promise to bring more wholeness and sanity to the world by doing your own part to spread the word. Simply click the forward email link below, and send this weekly update to your friends and family!
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