As someone who has devoted much of his life to training leaders, I found the initial Democratic presidential debates disappointing. Given the profound inadequacy of Donald Trump, the 2020 elections should be the easiest in history to win. But the … Read More
In my recent book Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions, I describe how Creative Systems Theory helps us address all manner of “ultimate questions”—big picture concerns that in times past have tended to leave us baffled. The … Read More
(This is a lengthy piece. But it is particularly important for the perspective it provides.) I formally introduced the concept of Cultural Maturity and the basic ideas of Creative Systems Theory over forty years ago. In the years since, … Read More
In my book Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions, I describe how Creative Systems Theory helps us address all manner of “ultimate questions”—big picture concerns that in times past have tended to leave us baffled. In other … Read More
It is not that often these days that I encounter future-related books that I read all the way through. More often the book’s point is obvious after a couple of pages and rarely is it a point that adds much … Read More
[I’ve touched on the gifts and curses nature of AI In several previous articles. Here I more specifically detail the dangers and more directly tie needed actions to culturally mature understanding.] Machine learning should provide great benefits in times … Read More
Creative Systems Theory brings very big-picture, long-term perspective to the human condition. It addresses understanding as a whole, not just particular concerns, and it helps us make sense of the very different ways we have understood ourselves and our worlds … Read More
There are few more important human questions than that of identity—just what it means to be a person. We can easily assume that its answer is obvious—I look in the mirror and there I am. But in fact the answer … Read More
In these times of extreme social/political polarization it can be unsettling—indeed frightening—just how differently people with conflicting views can see things. We can legitimately wonder if the discord we encounter today will in time put the whole democratic experiment in … Read More
[In response to today’s extreme social/political polarization, I’ll be doing a series of articles that take front-page-news issues and address them from a big-picture, systemic perspective—from above the partisan fray. My intent with this series is not to get people … Read More
My contribution as a futurist focuses on the future’s human dimension. The technological is part of this. What makes us unique as a species is the audacity of our tool-making prowess. But most I am concerned with how we humans … Read More
[In response to today’s extreme social/political polarization, I’ll be writing a series of articles over the next year that take front-page-news issues and address them from a big-picture, systemic perspective—from above the partisan fray. My intent with this series is … Read More
[In response to today’s extreme social/political polarization, I’ll be writing a series of articles over the next year that take front-page-news issues and address them from a big-picture, systemic perspective—from above the partisan fray. My intent with this series is … Read More
Physicist Stephen Hawking introduces his recent series on public television, Genius, with the claim that he will show how ordinary people, just by looking closely, can make sense of ultimate questions. I applaud the effort. Much in the series provides … Read More
Colleagues have asked if I would write something in response to Donald Trump’s Presidential election win. I’ve waited until some of the initial dust settled. But reflection at this point feels important. I’ll offer three sorts of big-picture observations that … Read More
The long-form article that follows this one more formally introduces the concept of Cultural Maturity. It makes a solid place to start for understanding this critical notion that can initially be a stretch to get one’s mind around. I wrote … Read More
In an earlier post that looked at the concept of Cultural Maturity’s big-picture significance, I briefly described a recent recognition that provides insight important to effective culturally mature advocacy. As I’ve finished up my new three book series and begun … Read More
I approach the future differently than most people whose work addresses what may lie ahead. Most futurists focus on new technologies, or possibly on obstacles that might present themselves in our efforts at technological advancement. I see the questions on … Read More
Culturally mature perspective challenges us to ask big questions and also makes it more possible to do so. This greater sophistication comes from how such perspective helps us frame questions in larger, more systemic ways. (My book Quick and Dirty … Read More
[I’ve left this post on the site inspire of the fact that it might seem outdated at this point. But it remains pertinent to the tasks of leadership and and is prescient with regards to events that have taken place … Read More
[The following reflections are adapted from two of my most recent books: Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future and Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions.] The concept of Cultural Maturity proposes that the reason many ultimate … Read More
If we are to confidently draw on the concept of Cultural Maturity, it is essential that we have solid evidence for its conclusions. If accurate, the concept could not be more important. It claims to provide a new guiding narrative, … Read More
Early in my writing, I took an important distinction for granted—that between gender and archetypall-masculine or archetypally-feminine qualities. I assumed that the difference between these two kinds of concepts would be obvious. I now recognize that for many people this … Read More
Addressing future moral challenges will require new human capacities, capacities that before now we could not have fully understood, much less applied. In part this is because we will be confronted by new kinds of moral questions—for example, those that … Read More
I have put off commenting about presidential election politics in the U.S. both because the topic already consumes too much air time and because the larger portion of supposed debate has been trivial, and often simply ludicrous. But if what … Read More
In my recent book, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future, I divide the most commonly encountered views of the future into five “scenarios” (to use the language of futurists): We’ve Arrived Scenarios, We’ve Gone Astray Scenarios, Postindustrial/Information Age Scenarios, Postmodern/Constructivist Scenarios, and Transformational/New … Read More
In my recent book, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future, I divide the most commonly encountered views of the future into five “scenarios” (to use the language of futurists): We’ve Arrived Scenarios, We’ve Gone Astray Scenarios, Postindustrial/Information Age Scenarios, Postmodern/Constructivist Scenarios, and Transformational/New … Read More
In my recent book, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future, I divide the most commonly encountered views of the future into five “scenarios” (to use the language of futurists): We’ve Arrived Scenarios, We’ve Gone Astray Scenarios, Postindustrial/Information Age Scenarios, Postmodern/Constructivist Scenarios, and Transformational/New … Read More
I approach addressing the future differently than most futurists. The larger portion of people whose work addresses what may lie ahead focus on technological advancement, or perhaps on obstacles that might present themselves in our efforts to advance. The kind … Read More
Creative Systems Theory presents a comprehensive framework for understanding purpose, change, and interrelationship in human systems. It is radically significant both for the practical usefulness of its ideas and for the fact that it represents the kind of conceptual perspective … Read More
Cultural Maturity is much more than a metaphor for what the future asks of us. It reflects critical changes not just in what we think, but how we think, a necessary—and developmentally predicted—cognitive reordering. Creative Systems Theory calls the new … Read More
Six months have now passed since the release of the last volume in my new three-book series. Working on the series has taken the larger portion of my creative energy over the past fifteen years. Finishing up has provided time … Read More
The moral dimension today presents a startling—and easily unsettling— circumstance. Effectively addressing moral challenges is requiring new human capacities, capacities that before now we could not have fully understood, much less applied. In part this is because we confront new … Read More
The best argument for the concept of Cultural Maturity’s importance is the most basic: not only our future well-being, but perhaps our survival, will depend on changes it describes. As far as survival-related consequences, the most immediate concerns whether we … Read More
The title I’ve used for this piece might seem overly dramatic. But I will argue that it is not. I will also argue that changes happening in the world of love can help us understanding equally dramatic changes taking place … Read More
It is important to appreciate how much leadership today is changing. The picture is not all reassuring. Trust in leadership of all sorts today is less than it was at the height of anti-authoritarian rhetoric in the 1960s. Respected … Read More
One of the most significant new capacities that accompanies Cultural Maturity changes is the ability to engage limits in more sophisticated ways. Of particular importance, we become better able to recognize that some limits are inviolable. Nothing more defined the … Read More
Modern realities frequently leave people feeling at best confused, at worst cynical and hopeless. In part, this is a reaction to specific concerns—job loss with globalization, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, and the erosion of familiar moral assumptions to name … Read More
This post is taken from an article written as part of a series for the World Future Society. It is more theoretical than most in the series. Like it or not, to grasp ideas that follow from Creative Systems Theory—such … Read More
How do we best understand the future? We can miss the fact that simply attempting to do so is a radical enterprise—something both new and suddenly essential. We’ve all had classes on history, on the past. But very few of … Read More
As a psychiatrist whose life’s work has focused on addressing major cultural issues, I’ve listened carefully to people’s attempts to make sense of recent terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States. While the best of thinking has addressed important … Read More
For quite a while I questioned an important conclusion suggested by Creative Systems Theory. Even when I recognized its value, I hesitated to write about it out of concern that it would be misinterpreted. That conclusion: A great deal of … Read More
The great majority of movies fail to make any kind of culturally mature contribution. But now and then we find exceptions, and when we do, I find it important to celebrate them. Special kudos go to four I’ve seen over … Read More
The Cultural Maturity blog (www.culturalmaturityblog.net) is a contribution of the Institute for Creative Development, a Seattle-based, non-profit, non-partisan, think tank and center for advanced leadership training. Its purpose is to support the sophistication of understanding and decision-making needed long-term if … Read More
My last two posts emphasized how culturally mature perspective requires that we bring greater complexity to how we think (see The Crisis of Gun Violence and Seeking More Effective Middle East Policy). Each also addressed how culturally mature perspective makes … Read More
A new, more mature relationship to limits represents one of Cultural Maturity’s defining characteristics. In my writings, I’ve given special attention to one particularly ultimate example: our human relationship to death. Never in the history of the species has looking … Read More
When it comes to policy, culturally mature perspective rarely tells us exactly what we should do. But what it does do is ultimately more significant: It provides basic principles that can reliably guide us in making decisions. And it alerts … Read More
The kind of big-picture/long-term vantage provided by culturally mature perspective stretches usual understanding in a couple of key ways. First, it commonly requires that we take into account multiple, interwoven causal factors (it challenges simple “silver bullet” solutions). Second, it … Read More
How do we best understand the future? We can miss the fact that simply attempting to do so is a radical enterprise—something both new and suddenly essential. We’ve all had classes on history, on the past. But very few of … Read More
The Cultural Maturity blog (www.culturalmaturityblog.net) is a contribution of the Institute for Creative Development, a Seattle-based, non-profit, non-partisan, think tank and center for advanced leadership training. Its purpose is to support the sophistication of understanding and decision-making needed in the … Read More