This is a short version of the historical effects of humanity’s continuing shift of consciousness and its effects on organisational structures. For the full version, please see my upcoming book. Or alternatively, attend one of our Enterprise Agile Coaching Bootcamp classes. I offer no proof here, just the results.
A NOTE ON THIS MODEL
- No one person belongs to any of the stages of development.
- At any given time, humanity exists in multiple stages.
- There is an overall aggregate operational consciousness for a population of people at any one time.
- I will give the full timeline, historical events, and links between them, both in my new book and on one of the Enterprise Bootcamp classes. In this article, I am giving the overall results.
DEPENDENCY
Dependency is defined as the consciousness where we believe that we are part of an external plan and that our destiny is controlled by others. Typically, control structures set up to discourage behaviour that deviates from the plan. And there are those few who control and communicate the plan to others. People who completely deviate from the plan are usually punished severely.
Examples of dependent conscious societies are:
- Pre 16th century Christian countries where Catholicism ruled absolutely.
- Socialist, Totalitarian, or Communist States with central control. People tend to ‘disappear’ or are discredited if they deviate from the plan.
- Muslim countries where there are theocratic governments who stone people to death for not following Sharia law
Please be aware it is not just the law that forces people to conform to the dependent consciousness. People believe that they are part of the plan. They want to do what is ‘right’, to fit in, and to feel a connection with those who also believe. The law can very rarely control a population that does not believe in it.
Another part of the dependency consciousness is that reality is defined as objective and external. Reality is dictated by the few to keep order and to define people’s places in society.
This consciousness was prevalent across most of the planet until the 1600 CE.
INDEPENDENCY
Independency is defined as the consciousness where we believe that we make our own destiny and have free choice. Control structures are set up through law to provide a safe environment for as many people to thrive as possible. Those who have attributes that are more favourable to current economic conditions will do better than those who do not. There are minimal controls to help those that, for whatever reason, are unable to economically thrive so that they do not starve.
“Capitalism is a form of economic order that arises from independent consciousness.”
– Simon Powers
Another aspect of individualism, is the belief that reality is objective and external. Yet, instead of that reality being dictated, we are free to experiment and learn what it is for ourselves.
This consciousness is prevalent across most of the planet, since the scientific enlightenment in the 1600s.
“Complete free choice is no longer guided by individual benefit, but instead the benefit of the connected whole to the scope of where the individual has expanded their consciousness to.”
– Simon Powers
An example of interdependency thinking is climate change awareness. Some people have shifted their identity to a planet wide focus, being a citizen of the earth. They act locally in accordance with this belief, doing things that are of no immediate self-benefit. As more people shift in this way on this one subject, our organisational systems reflect this. Consequently, we have recycling collections, plastic bag levies at supermarkets etc.
Another aspect of interdependency is the belief that reality is subjective. Much of what we know is the truth, but only part of the truth. We experiment with the external world and draw conclusions that make sense to use subjectively. There is no discoverable objective reality. Only partial subjective views on it.
An application of this way of thinking is systemic coaching, outcome-based goals, and large group facilitation with shared understanding and decision-making as its goal.
This consciousness is not prevalent yet, but is emerging from the 1960s onwards.
A note on all models
You don’t need to read the rest of this article to gain an understanding of the model. These are footnotes.
Any staged model of personal development is flawed. The concept of time itself in relation to awareness is independently mutually exclusive. i.e. personal development is not time-bound. Therefore, stages that are linked to time, are inherently wrong for an individual and are non-deterministic.
An Example
You can experience great jumps of personal development with flashes of insight that give access to completely different states of mind and better decision-making. These instantaneous realisations are non-deterministic and not time-bound. They can happen at any moment.
What we can see, however, is that there are trends over time for populations in how people behave and organise themselves based on recorded and documented beliefs. Discernible patterns exist, which can be used to guesstimate a possible future. And to understand more fully what is happening in the present. Whilst choosing the events to consider is largely subjective, we can use methods of selection that are random and not chosen to prove a pre-existing theory.
This model is the latter. A set of patterns that seem to explain very well what is happening right now and give us some likelihood of what is coming next.
This forms part of my theory of why we are going through such a period of organisational instability and change and why things like agility are so important. Other factors are not mentioned here, but are covered in the book and on the class. These include:
Primary factors in emerging shift of consciousness:
- Philosophical awareness
- Technological advancement
- Economic and trade complexity
- Speed and volume of information exchange
- Organisational structure and design
Secondary factors in emerging shift of consciousness
- Freedom vs slavery
- Happiness of the workforce
- Culture
Finally, you can buy Simon’s book Change. A Practitioner’s Guide to Enterprise Agile Coaching to find out more about this emerging shift in consciousness.