Inaugural Meeting of The Better World Network

This week I presented a brief overview of integral consciousness at the inaugural meeting of the Better World Network, a group of professionals and consultants who are committed to marshalling their resources to make a positive difference in the world. Their strategy is to identify and evaluate positive social projects, such as micro-finance or volun-tourism, and then work closely with these groups to help them get better connected and better financed.

Most of the 40 people who were invited to attend this inaugural meeting of the Better World Network were already familiar with integral philosophy, including a large contingent of participants from Pacific Integral in Seattle. However, about 15% of the participants had never heard of the integral worldview, so all were not ready to agree that the fledgling organization should explicitly identify itself as integral. As we were hashing out the organization’s vision and purposes, as a generic alternative to the word “integral,” I suggested that we define ourselves as: “having a developmental perspective on consciousness and culture.” However, the group was not quite ready to adopt this language and it was decided that the “who are we” piece would be further developed over then next 6 months as the organization became more established. In furtherance of this goal, the most committed integralists in the group formed a committee to develop a workshop that would serve to better educate all involved about the power of the integral perspective.

Overall I enjoyed the two-day meeting and met a number of talented people who are deeply committed to improving the human condition. Moreover, it was very interesting to observe this group of integrally-informed organizational development consultants struggle to move beyond the limitations of the “postmodern consensus model” that has governed the process of groups like this for the last several decades. And it will be interesting to see whether this well-meaning group can eventually transcend its postmodern center of gravity and become one of the first organizations of its kind to truly embody the integral perspective.

SM

 

New Boulder Center for Integral Living

Last Sunday morning Tehya and I attended the inaugural event of the Boulder Center for Integral Living. This newly emerging social group is being led by Jeff Salzman, a successful Boulder entrepreneur and former executive board member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute. After parting ways with the Integral Institute in December, Jeff has continued his commitment to the emerging integral stage of culture, and this has led to his creation of this new Boulder Center (together with an able crew of integral colleagues).

Many of us here in Boulder agree that this new group is sorely needed and will well-serve the growing community of those who are beginning to identify themselves as “integral.” And I can report that Sunday’s two-hour event was thoroughly enjoyable. So Tehya and I do look forward to expanding our group of integral friends through our continuing participation in the Boulder Center.

Although many who attended this first gathering are directly involved with the work of the Integral Institute, there were many others there who had been previously put off by some of the Integral Institute’s shortcomings, as well as others who were completely unaware of the movement’s politics. But despite these differences, I trust we will all be able to work through any potential friction as we come together to help build integral culture.

SM