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Who is Don Beck?

www.spiraldynamics.net
www.globalvaluesnetwork.com

Don Edward Beck, Ph.D., is Co-founder of The National Values Center in Denton, Texas, and President and CEO of The Spiral Dynamics Group, Inc., a global enterprise.

He is a member of The American Psychological Association; The World Future Society; The International Paleopsychology Project; and the "Cadre-of-Experts on Ethnopolitical Violence," named by the American and Canadian Psychological Associations. Dr. Beck is also a Fellow of the George Gallup Institute at Princeton.

Beck co-authored The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future (with Graham Linscott, l991) and Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership & Change (with Christopher Cowan, l996). He also writes a "Sports Values" column for the Dallas Morning News and appears often in the media regarding issues related to values, sports, and racial divides. He is Sports Psychology Editor of the magazine Baseball's Inside Pitch.

Beck was named Outstanding Professor at the University of North Texas in l978; named an Honor Professor in l979; and listed as an "Outstanding Educator in America" in l980. He taught for 20 years at the University of North Texas before resigning his professorship to work behind the scenes in the South African transformation. Beck made 62 trips to Johannesburg between l981 and l998, and had a significant impact on political leaders, the business sector, religious leadership, and the general public. He was honored in l996 by a Joint Resolution of the Texas House and Senate with these words: "The Texas House and Senate takes great pride in commending a truly remarkable Texan, Dr. Don Edward Beck, for his invaluable contributions toward the peaceful creation of a democratic South Africa."

While much of Beck's work is in the area of large-scale systems change, he has also been active in working with corporate leaders, public institutions, educational enterprises, and not-for-profit agencies in designing the workplace for the 21st century. Spiral Dynamics concepts are being used in various contexts literally around the world. He was invited to No. 10 Downing Street in 1999 to meet with members of Tony Blair's Policy Unit in a search for ways to implement "Third Way" initiatives in the UK and abroad. Beck has discussed racial issues with President Bill Clinton and deep reconciliation strategies with President Nelson Mandela.

In his long consulting career, Beck has worked with large banks, five different US airlines, major global energy companies, heavy industry (steel and aluminum), hospitals and health care institutions, law enforcement agencies, city governments, and many other public institutions. These have included the IRS, FAA, US Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, US Forestry Service, US Army Tank Command, and many others. He has been a frequent speaker at the World Future Society, the American Society for Training and Development, the International Association of Business Communicators, the Young Presidents Organization and the Edward Deming CEO Symposium.

Beck has been acclaimed for excelling in the rare ability of moving freely between cutting-edge academic and scientific theories of value formation and change, yet then being able to design practical applications in the real world. He was a team psychologist for the South African Springboks, winners of the l995 Rugby World Cup, and has been associated with the Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, The Texas Rangers (baseball), and the US Olympic Committee (Men's Track and Field).

Beck joined with famed craniofacial surgeon Dr. Kenneth S. Salyer and the World Craniofacial Foundation in Dallas to design an initiative for providing free surgical care for every child born on the planet with a disfigured face. He has also made major presentations at the George Gallup Institute at Princeton and the President Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta on ways to use religion and spirituality to deal with many of the ethnic and racial conflicts over the planet.

Beck has developed a powerful new conceptual system, called MeshWORKS: The Search for Human Cohesion in a World of Fragmentation, which enables the essential process of integrating, aligning, and synergizing resources, especially at the community and local levels, to meet the needs of people at different stages of development. His thinking "meshes" the role of home, church, school, law enforcement, the business sector and helping agencies to get them working together on common problems. MeshWORKS was first designed for the fragile South African society but has since been enhanced and modified to address critical developmental issues in any culture. MeshWORKS has also been expanded to include and integrate the concept of "quadrants" as advocated by author and social theorist Ken Wilber in a number of his books. Wilber's recent publication Integral Psychology describes this unique "all levels/all quadrants" technology for creating healthy communities and dynamic societies.

Don has appeared on Integral Naked:

What is Spiral Dynamics Integral?12/10/2003
What‘s Next on the World Scene?8/11/2003
What is Spiral Dynamics Integral?8/1/2003
The Tragic Tale of Apartheid7/14/2003

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