Most people are stuck in lower developmental levels, which is bad enough. But the real problem is that lots of politicians and business leaders are stuck at these levels too! So of course their actions and agendas are limited by the thought patterns available to these lower developmental levels. And that fact alone is the biggest reason for the meta crisis that we find ourselves in.

What that means to me is that the best thing we can do for the human species at the moment is articulate very clearly each of these developmental stages, the thought patterns available at each stage, and the possibilities available at higher developmental levels.

Most importantly, we can show as clearly as possible how one can move from lower levels to higher levels. Then we insist on leaders and policymakers who are capable of operating at those higher levels. This will be quite simple, since the arguments coming from lower developmental levels will no longer persuade us, we will easily see through them, and (most importantly) we will be able to suggest and insist upon approaches, policies, and strategies originating from the higher developmental levels.  

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People don’t usually shift upward through direct instruction or argument. They evolve when they encounter a dilemma their current worldview can’t resolve, forcing them to reframe their assumptions.

This is sometimes called a disorienting dilemma, or in Spiral Dynamics terms, a level-cracking contradiction. It triggers the need for a more complex, nuanced frame of reference. 

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Below you will find summaries of each of the levels, and then examples of dilemmas that can move someone from one level to the next.