Dr. Joseph Riggio, PH.D. - Blognostra

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Burning Desire to Change the World - Part I

Good Morning ...

For a few days in sequence now I've been sharing my thoughts on values sets and specifically those coming out of the Graves Model ... and I've even introduced Dr. Clelland's model of "Power - Achievement - Affiliation" - overlaying it with the transitions in the Graves Model evolution through the levels.

One of the things I believe about Dr. Graves' model has consistently been that we in the most developed countries in the world ... e.g.: most of Europe, U.S.A., Canada, Japan ... live extremely privileged lives that propel us into the later levels of the Graves Model ... specifically, what Dr. Graves refers to as Fives and Sixes. Remember these are values sets that represent clusters of beliefs ... and they remain highly mutable, especially with regard to regression to the earlier clusters of beliefs in the evolutionary structure of values described by Dr. Graves.

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of folks around who are centered in the Graves Model as Fours and even Threes in our midst, and more so in less developed countries in the world. But, I'd say that the majority of folks living in the developed, modern societies we share are operating from the Five or Six levels of the Graves Model, or possibly transitioning somewhere between the two.

For instance, thinking about the world and the events in it as a fundamental set of rules connected to a "higher order" or "higher power" would be clearly associated with Fours in the Graves Model. This position can be associated with fundamentalist religions, law enforcement, and most political forms we are used to seeing - and people who tend to think about the world through these filters, e.g.: right and wrong/black and white/liberal and conservative.

By comparison thinking about the world and the events in it as a place to express your "individuality" in the service of "progress" ... what has come be be referred to as the way of the Western World would be a classic Five position in the Graves Model. Grave's Fives tend to align themselves with the developments of science and commerce, areas where the individual can excel and stand out from the crowd.

Sixes in the meantime think about the world and the events in it as more interconnected and affecting the group, the community, the society or even the world at large. They seek ways to "collaborate," "connect" and "network" all to the "greater good" - especially the group(s) to which they and others like themselves belong. A good example of this thinking could be the whole New Age movement.

Dr. Graves makes an obvious and critical distinction within the Graves Model ... this model describes a way people tend to "think about things" based on the "values" they hold - not a system to type people.

This clearly distinguishes the Graves Model from other models which are actually "typologies." As opposed to a "typology" Dr. Graves presented a model of values sets which people could operate from within that would cause them to perceive the world and the events in it in particular ways ... giving rise to particular meanings about the world and the events in it for them.

Essentially, we could say that people who operate from the center of the Five values set will perceive the world and the events in it as opportunities to excel and succeed as individuals first and foremost. Those operating from a Six values set will perceive the world and the events in it as opportunities to collaborate and build community for the greater good based on how they believe things should be.

I've pointed out how this shows up in varying ways ... as well as the consequences of holding specific value sets, both good and bad ... in my various posts here on BlogNostra. I've specifically addressed some of the consequences of operating from the Five, Five/Six and Six value sets positions. Yet there are additional levels that Dr. Graves described in his model. He gave rather complete descriptions of what Sevens and Eights might be like.

However among the things I always keep in mind when I'm thinking about the Graves Model includes the idea that this model describes "an evolution of values" NOT a "typology of personality." This means that we evolve through the levels not skip or jump levels. Taken further it also means we are moving through this model from one stage of evolution to another and this includes transitory movement between levels.

Following this logic we can assume there are points in the process of evolution which would be best described as a Five/Six or Six/Seven position, rather than a Five, Six or Seven position. Most of my clients are actually experiencing a movement between value sets, which give rise to challenges of letting go of their old "cherished beliefs" to make room for new beliefs giving rise to new values.

Only when the old beliefs are loosened, and not seen as absolute, does space become available in the individual to incorporate new beliefs that give rise to new forms of thinking ... ultimately this gives rise to a new way of being ... a new "onotology."

From this premise I consider my work to be operating from within an ontological model. I work with my clients on helping them in letting go of old beliefs that have become for them limiting, establishing and stabilizing a new set of beliefs that allows them to evolve and transform, and working with them to integrate the new beliefs they now hold into the way they function and create outcome on their own and with others ... building a more integral way of being and operating in the world.

When you've found a way to let go of old limiting beliefs what had before been impossible suddenly becomes not only possible it also and more significantly becomes available to you ... and through you to those around you as well.

[NOTE: Tomorrow ... the transition from Graves Six to Graves Seven ...]

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ

PS - Are you interested in coming to know yourself beyond the things you do - and as a result become wildly better at doing those things as well?

Sometimes the most challenging thing we must learn to transcend can be our long-term "success strategies" ... the way we've always gone about being successful and generating our outcomes. Of course these strategies have gotten us this far ... and maybe they are no longer appropriate for where we are ... or more importantly for where we want to be going.

Think about it this way - these strategies have gotten you this far ... and cannot get you any further ... they're just not designed to take you all the way. The challenge for most folks has two aspects:

One thing you want to know: YOU CAN BE EXPECTED TO KNOW WHAT YOUR LIMITING STRATEGIES ARE ... YOU'VE NEVER BEEN SPECIFICALLY TAUGHT HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM ... OR WHAT TO DO IN RELATION TO THEM ONCE YOU HAVE!

But ... you can learn exactly how to identify both the strategies that serve you well and the one's that limit you. Then you can learn how to eliminate those that limit you AND build new strategies that will serve you much, much better!

I urge you to consider the MythoSelf Process Advanced Program I'm running in Princeton, NJ this October. This program has consistently been one of our most well received programs by virtually everyone who's ever attended it:

" ... this program literally changed my life in three days ... the way I'll interact with people will be totally different from now on!" - Rita Koike, NY, NY.

Go ahead and take a look at the program description and get the details at: MythoSelf Process Advanced Program then go ahead and send in an application, if you still have any additional questions after you've read this drop me a line directly and I'll do my best to answer them: jsriggio@josephriggio ... (if you have any other questions for me personally go ahead and use this address to send me those as well).

You can consider this a personal invitation from me ... I look forward to seeing you in NJ ...

PPS - BTW don't worry about the word "Advanced" in the title of this program ... this program will be accessible and appropriate for everyone ... so far I've worked with pre-teens as young as twelve-years old and post-teens in their late 70's ... so come on along!.

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