Getting out of ‘flatland’ to make real changes in our world

Reflecting on our chaotic world

Author Dr Anna-Rosa le Roux

The world is in disruptive chaos with certainty an illusion. We often feel that we are trapped, lost for words and having limited solutions to move us forward. Daily we are bombarded with newspaper clips illustrating some of the chaos in our world. We have become quiet observers to war, poverty, unrest and ideological differences with irreconcilable perspectives.

But let’s do a thought experiment. How will this world be if it is possible to think together, not fighting each other, not opposing each other’s ideas and not letting our ego’s ran rampant to prove that we are better as the person next to us. If we are blindly holding on to our perspectives and known experience, we are not in a position to think and do together as we are being holding back by our limited views.

The call to action, then is to respond to disruptive chaos in a way that is inclusive, aware and conscious, showing up as the best parts of ourselves.

Through the years people scientists have experimented with first order change (translative) in a linear and continuous fashion, whilst what we know is required in our environment today is second order change that is multi-dimensional, multi-level and radical. The latter require a shift in meaning and is transformational. One of our only resources to drive this shift in meaning is accessing our human consciousness. We are required to tap deep into the best of our ‘humanness’ to build inclusive levels of awareness.


In this article, we propose that:

• A different kind of thinking and being is necessary to respond to disruption in our lives
• We need to embrace an inclusive level of consciousness to get out of flatland and appreciate alternative perspectives

The complexity around us

Wicked problems arise when we face constant change that traditional processes cannot resolve. It is not necessary the degree of difficulty, but the interrelatedness of many facets that characterise these. Usually there is a degree of technical difficulty as well as a social complexity that makes them tough to manage. The term wicked problems refer to problems that span global challenges that affects individuals, governments, business and societies alike around “optimisation of resources and future sustainability in the face of complex issues, endlessly changing conditions, and apparently impossible odds”, [Resource: Kolko, J. (2012). Wicked problems: Problems worth solving, Austin Center for Design]. Classic examples of wicked problems are environmental degradation, terrorism, and poverty.

In the section below, we provide a key synopsis of some of these problems and observe that the current way that we respond to these are not sufficient and won’t set us up for survival.

#1: What is the world energy consumption and the rate of atmospheric carbon level increase?

Despite the growth in utilisation of renewable energy resources, our global emissions are still rising. We are faced with global energy that rose by 2.3% in 2018, the fasted pace that has ever been measured. There is still a lot of work to be done to develop clean energy solutions that are efficient.

• Human activities have increased the natural concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, amplifying Earth's natural greenhouse effect.
• The global average amount of carbon dioxide hit a new record high in 2018: 407.4 parts per million.
• The annual rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 60 years is about 100 times faster than previous natural increases, such as those that occurred at the end of the last ice age 11,000-17,000 years ago.
• The ocean has absorbed enough carbon dioxide to lower its pH by 0.1 units, a 30% increase in acidity. (Source: Rebecca Lindsay, September 2019, Retrieved form Climate.gov).

#2: What is the rate of our bio diversity loss and why is it important?

Bio-diversity plays a critical role in maintaining and leading to the survival of our eco-systems that is essential for human well-being. Various factors such as agricultural activities, air and water pollution, unsustainable use of natural resources and invasive species all play a role towards accelerating bio diversity loss.

“Biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity’s most important life-supporting ‘safety net’. But our safety net is stretched almost to breaking point,” Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentina), Prof. Josef Settele (Germany) and Prof. Eduardo S. Brondízio (Brazil and USA).

Staring the fact that 1 million species are being threatened with extinction, is a wake-up call for us that our current response to these problems are insufficient and that a transformative change approach is necessary.

#3: What is the rate of temperature increase?

We see an incline in the rise of temperatures over the last century as the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.07°C per decade since 1880; whilst the average rate of increase since 1981 is (0.18°C), more than double. [Source: NOAA 2019 Global Climate Summary Report].

• In 2019, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 0.95°C above the twentieth-century average of 13.9°C, making it the second-warmest year on record.
• The five warmest years in the 1880–2019 record have all occurred since 2015, while nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 2005, (Source: Rebecca Lindsay, September 2019, Retrieved form Climate.gov).

#4: What is the rate of waste increase?

According to a report published by the World back “What a waste 2.0”, only 13.5% of waste that is generated are recycled. 2 Billion metric tons of municipal solid waste is produced annually globally with an increased forecasted to reach 3.4 billion metric tonnes by 2050, a clear indication that we are not addressing this problem sufficiently enough (Source: retrieved from: https://www.wastedive.com/news/world-bank-global-waste-generation-2050/533031/, Cody Ellis).

#5: What is the people- population growth rate?

The population growth rate reached a peak in 1962/ 1963 with an annual growth rate of 2.2%, however this rate has halved since then. The current levels are measured to be 1.05% per year. The United Nations predict that this rate will continue to decline in the coming years. Thus, although the world population has increase from 1 billion in 1880 to 7.7 billion today, we have seen a reversal in this trend.

#6: What is the status of global food security?

In 2018 UNICEF launched a report that reveals that malnutrition levels are unacceptably high at a global level and that it affects every country in the world (Source: Global Nutrition Report, https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/2018-global-nutrition-report-reveals-malnutrition-unacceptably-high-and-affects). Although this is a bleak outlook, the Executive Director of UNICEF cites that a paradigm shift is necessary to create sustainable outcomes for all stakeholders affected: “This paradigm shift – food systems that contribute to prevent malnutrition in all its forms – will be critical for children’s growth and development, the growth of national economies, and the development of nations” (Henrietta, H Fore, 2018).

Shattering and creating transformational change

From the above examples, we have seen that a different kind of humanness will be necessary to create new thinking and belief systems that will move and stretch ourselves beyond our familiar reality. Ken Wilber, the father of Integral Theory explains the difference between transactional/ translative and transformational change: “Translative change is the product of inner work done to enhance one’s sense of worth, self-identity, and psychic integration”. He explains that although this change (at the horizontal level) can bring meaning to life and provide fresh perspectives, it is not transformational. “Transformational change, does not enhance the current self’s sense of meaning - it instead affects radical changes in every constitution of the self”. Wilber uses the word “shattering” to describe the changes right at the center and constitution of the self. It is this radical change that we need to respond to the disruptive changes in our environment.

Wilber warns that there is a danger in getting fixated in first order changes, and that this fixation could be a barrier to vertical transformation if we spend the majority of our focus on passions, fixations and defense mechanisms. This is what he refers to as Flatland, where we are not attuned to subtler dimensions of life. Fixation can be the real problem, but we need to be aware that there is a different type of change waiting in the wings, the latter creating inclusive levels of consciousness.

“The need is not really for more brains,

The need is now for a gentler, a more tolerant people

Than those who won for us

Against the ice, the tiger, and the bear.”

From the Immense Journey by Loren Eisley

Integral levels of development

Transformational change happens when we are moving vertically “up” the levels to become more self-aware, integrated and compassionate towards other points of view. As we move from an impulse controlled state where we merely re-act to protect what we believe is ours towards a world centric state where we are able to expand our boundaries, question our own beliefs and start to see others points of view.

Creating values driven teams and organisations empower us with a journey and process to access a world-centric state, thus giving us a springboard to start engaging in a more sustainable way with the problems of this world.

Ego centric:

We are impulsive and reactive driven by our self-protective needs. Others are seen as objects and we are ready to kill and pillage others if they don’t give us what we need.

Ethno centric:

We conform and love those that we feel part of (religious groups, race, culture, team) and denounce those that are not part of the group.

World centric:

We are self-aware and has the ability to include diversity and to be inclusive towards others point of views.

Universe centric:

We are integrated and live beyond the ego and our ethnic identifications. The latter is a rare species and it is estimated that less than 1% of the population has reached this level.

(Source: (David Daniels 2010, So Why the Enneagram? Blog retrieved from: https://www.enneagramworldwide.com/enneagram/)

Making contact with the world in a more balanced way

For Ken Wilber, the driver(s) of the chaotic, unsustainable world that we find ourselves in today, is an overemphasis on the domain of the empirical science that reduced the world to a flatland of "Its" with no consciousness, no interiors, no values, no meaning, no divinity. (Wilber, 1998; 1999). The solution for us, lies in the re-integration of the three cultural value spheres, thus ‘marrying science to morals/spirituality and aesthetics; (but in such a way that the) integration is without the need to dominate the other (Wilber, 1998, 1999).

For Wilber, the focus of human evolution is to embrace all three of the Value Spheres, i.e. to express beauty, to find the truth and to ensure justice. Embracing all three perspectives helps us to realise that we are all part of a larger story and that each one of us has a unique role to play.


The Integral Value Spheres:

• Ethics – The Good
• “We-domain”
• Interior, inter-subjective, cultural

• Art – The Beautiful
• “I-domain”
• Domain of thinking and knowing

• Science – The Truth
• “It-domain”
• Exterior-objective domain

These integral value spheres offer very specific information about the world and provide us with a heuristic to navigate our interactions with each other, our decision-making processes and our behaviour responses. The work is to balance our interventions and focus of today that equally give attention to each of the three integral value spheres.

Personal integrity is an essential starting point to imagine and re-engineer a new world

In Creating a Values Driven Teams and Organisations, we explore, reflect, design and imagine how one can be part of a transformational change journey. Reflecting and embarking on your own values, opens up new possibilities for embracing perspectives of the other. We work on the level of the I-domain, creating personal integrity towards an end state that is whole and undivided.


It is important to tell our own stories, as this in itself is detaching from our own perspective. During this process, we open up ourselves for other perspectives to emerge.

When we utilise our existing strengths, we connect to the best version(s) of ourselves and use this as common ground to build the future in ways that:

• Sharpen our vision
• Ignite learning and innovation
• Energises collective action for sustainable change

The ‘So What’?

In a disruptive world, where we are faced with complexities that seem not to have an answer, one of the only vehicles that we have is to embrace our humanness. Only through accessing our full human consciousness, are we able to develop a meta-perspective that is making contact with the world in a more balanced way. Getting out of flatland is a key proposition in this journey. Starting a journey towards personal integrity, opens up new energy to embrace alternative broader perspectives, helping us to be playing along in a truly world-centric state.