Implementation Enhanced Through Values & Beliefs Part 3

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By Dr. John Terninko and Mary Ann Kahl

A perspective for identifying multiple aspects of the public point of view (customer organizations and individuals) in order to reduce or eliminate the frequency of the negative response to solution concepts is explored. The application process of directed concept generation and introducing the results of the TRIZ methodology must also evolve to become flexible to the influence of all the value systems of the world in order to develop solution concepts that will be accepted and embraced. This is part three of a three-part series. part one and part two offer exploration of value systems and how they all relate to the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ).

Interacting with Different Levels

As the provider of a service to a customer, an individual needs to only assure satisfaction of the Graves' value (involving existence and being) at and below the customer's level to create an acceptable solution concept. If this assurance of value satisfaction is done in such a way that the customer or customer segment innately perceives their value satisfaction, one can create an environment in which the customer's movement to a higher level is facilitated. In this way, the customer can be made receptive to a higher level of solution concepts to be offered some time later. This presents a new and interesting contradiction between satisfaction and social change.

Table 1 lists different names for the values from part two of this series. The words inward and outward refer to the direction of an individual's concern. Odd numbered values are directed inward and even numbers are directed outward.

Table 1: Graves/Spiral Dynamics Definitions
First Subsistance
Level	Graves 1966	Graves 1982	Cowen 2001	Beck 2007	JobEQ 2008
1 – Beige inward directed	Autistic behavior	Autistic existential	Survival	Survival sense	Survival
2 – Purple outward directed	Animistic existence	Animistic existential	Placate spirit	Kin spirit	Safety
3 – Red inward directed	Awakening & fright	Egocentric existential	Power action	Power Gods	Power
4 – Blue outward directed	Aggression & power	Absolutistic existential	Stability	Truth force	Obedience
5 – Orange inward directed	Sociocentric attitudes	Multiplistic existential	Opportunity success	Strive drive	Success
6 – Green outward directed	Aggressive individualism	Relativistic existential	Harmony love	Human bond	Friends
Second Being
7 – Yellow inward directed	Pacifistic individualism	Systemic existential	Independence self-worth	Flex flow	Integrative
8 – Turquoise outward directed			Global community life force		Holistic
9 – Coral inward directed					Facilitating

What is the motivation to move on? What is the language necessary to make the next level more desirable? Among which values can communication be understood?

This is the beginning of understanding an expansion of the voice-of-the-customer. It is important to remember that the definition of customer is comprehensive, including purchaser, user, support staff, recycling, etc. Who would normally request help from TRIZ practitioners? Who has final approval for concept selection? Both need to be included.

Clare Graves assumed that his value systems were actually levels of existence into which everything could be plopped (despite the fact that his initial research was conducted on American white, middle-class, college students and consisted of their responses to only one simple question). Are individuals not obligated to identify solution concepts that are suitable for the world experienced by the customer? But which perspective of that world does one choose? How does one know? Are individuals capable of changing their own world view? Not easily. What kind of courtship is necessary to find a match between consultant and customer?

"If the intent is to improve education, it is time to break away from the method – be it tight or loose – and recognize a spectrum of styles, matching teacher, student and technique."¹  With a sleight of hand by changing the word "education" to "the desires and needs of the customer," one can easily apply Cowan's advice to TRIZ practitioners.

In Table 2, column six, it identifies the appropriate management system for employees at each value level in column five.² An additional column, seven, is provided for TRIZ. Apply TRIZ thinking to translate the management system to the behavior of TRIZ practitioners. Current TRIZ behavior seems directed at level five. Level seven would require solution concepts to be directed at global applications. What do you think are the appropriate behaviors for the TRIZ practitioner for the other levels? One should have a clue from the preferred management behavior. Write down answers in the blank column. What would TRIZ associate answers be? Additional columns could be added for the development of educational, environmental and exploratory opportunities for migration to spiritual enlightenment.

Table 2: Appropriate Management System for Each Value
Level	Nature of Existence	Motivating System	Behavior	Value	Appropriate Managerial System	TRIZ Approach
1	Autistic	Physiological	Amoral	Survival	Close care, nurturing
2	Animistic	Survival	Totem, taboo	Safety	Simple demonstration: force
3	Awakening and fright	Order	Constrictive	Power/action	Moralistic, prescriptive
4	Aggressive power-seeking	Mastery	Power	Stability	Personal, prescriptive, hard bargaining
5	Sociocentric	Belonging	Group mindedness	Optimal achievement	Participative-substitutive	Current TRIZ behavior
6	Aggressive individualistic	Self-esteem	Personal	Human potential	Goal setting without prescribing means to goals
7	Pacifistic individualistic	Information	Cognitive	Alignment with complex reality	Acceptance and support	Customer whole world

If a company does not understand the evolution of society and does not truly understand its needs, then there is no way it will satisfy society's needs and desires – no matter how innovative the design concepts. Anyone in the TRIZ community working with a group of people who have no knowledge or experience of TRIZ is hindered by cross-cultural communication. How one views the world and processes information is influenced by the language people speak (and in which they think), cultural experiences and level of evolution. Sociologist Morris Massey states that the values one holds by the time he are 10 years old will not change without a significant emotional event. One can not predict the form of this event. It could be reading a book, watching a movie, having a bicycle destroyed, having all needs of the current level of existence satisfied or having a concussion with loss of memory or other possibilities. In reality, these values are not discrete but represent a distribution around each value. As illustrated in Figure 1, some people are between the modes for countries and some societies reflect different modal values for distributions. The circles in Figure 2 identify the modal level of these distributions.

Figure 1: Frequency Distribution of Values

Figure 2: Distribution of Value (2009) for the World

"In looking at the political systems suggested at each level, it is important to consider each situation on an individual basis. The pace of change will largely depend on the mix of values in a particular country or region. Where power, 3, is the dominant value, any semblance of Western style democracy is not appropriate. It is only when obedience, 4, becomes dominant that authoritarian democracy will start to emerge."⁴ Just as diplomacy in politics requires an understanding of the world view of cultures that may be radically divergent from one's own, the ability to create solution concepts that work for a customer may require that they find a solution that is acceptable within the value system of the customer.

Coping systems of individuals or groups should be one of the requirements considered during creation of solution concepts. The gap between modal value and support by solution concepts should be one of the criteria for selecting the best concept. Life conditions are external to individuals or groups and are an aspect of the environment.

Figure 3 shows the theoretical life of a person who started at level one and died after living the seventh level for awhile. Shortly after birth the person's primary level was survival. The energy devoted to this level was reduced as survival became assured. At the same time, issues grew with the energy devoted to safety. This process continued as the person evolved up the value levels until the person stopped evolving (usually many years before death). Notice any relationship between this visual of a behavioral system pattern and the overlapping patterns of evolution for systems? 

Figure 3: Energy Expended to a Particular Value as a Function of Time

Affecting technical patterns of evolution may speed up the evolution of technical systems, possibly causing disruptive designs. One does not have that luxury when dealing with the evolution of the human value system. What are some mechanisms for disrupting and facilitating the evolution of the human value system?

A MEME is a unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another. It is subject to mutation, crossover and adaptation. The MEME is the way we communicate but it is also like a virus. The effectiveness of a unit of cultural information that gets transferred from one human to another is dependent upon the level of the receiver. Each society through which the MEME travels contains its own unique distribution of values. Could MEME be a mechanism for affecting change in human values?

Table 3 reflects the limited information currently in the literature about the way people at one value level perceive people at other levels. (Feel free to fill in the blank cells with personal observations of conflicts in perception.) Given this knowledge, consider these questions.

What process can make change desirable? 

• If a person was a level five and she was required to work with a teammate who could be any of the seven levels in Figure 6, how would they interact with each other?
• The same question can be asked about interacting with seven customers with each living at a different level. Consider a personal value level and the value level of a customer.
• How can one present their concept to the customer so that he can appreciate its value?
• Can understanding paths of evolution facilitate understanding of customers and customer segments at different value levels?
• Given these differing views, what role can the TRIZ community play in creating a fully functioning, sustainable world?

Table 3: How One Level Views Another Level
Level	2 Safety	3 Power	4 Obedience	5 Success	6 Friends	7 Integrative
2 Safety	Same	Aggressive, powerful, to be both feared and respected as a predator	The "system" seeking to take away freedom and spoils through punishment and discipline
3 Power	Virtual non-persons to be treated as a mass and exploited as need be	Same			An easy mark who can be pushed and manipulated to forgive anything
4 Obedience	Disobedient enemy in need of punishment or conversion to the one true way		Same	Colonizing "first world" element with abundance but without respect for custom or the truth	Fallen from the faith, too flexible, not anchored in truth or absolutes; unprincipled
5 Success			Traditionalists who are inflexible, rigid and out of date	Same	Touchy-feely, too easy, too uncertain, overly concerned with feelings at the expense of productivity
6 Friends	Romantic, mystically tuned-in, noble in natural/ primordial ways	Someone in need of rescue and help, worthy of another chance through understanding and forgiveness		Materialistic, self-serving, insensitive, abrupt, too competitive, cold-blooded	Same
7 Integrative						Same

The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving's eight paths of system evolution help one to anticipate and create the next stage of development for a system. Is there a way to present solution concepts that meet the client's current level of value system in order to enhance the acceptability of the concept?

Historically in human development, attempts to facilitate evolution are often rejected, sometimes violently. Can a solution concept be the kind of event that creates a leap in the evolution of values?

Forecasting Value Systems

About the Authors:

Dr. John Terninko has integrated his diverse experience (electrical engineering, operations research, organizational development, teaching, continuing education and management consultation) to develop a unique intervention style for organizations. He has been teaching and using TRIZ for 13 years. Consistent with his professional life the author was on the cutting edge in QFD and Taguchi for 23 and 27 years, respectively, Terninko has integrated TRIZ, QFD and Taguchi in his approach to design problems and facilitating. Organizations become more profitable by having innovative robust processes and products desired by their customers. He has published books and has presented many papers on each subject. His Step-by-Step QFD book was on Amazon.com's top 50 Management book list and his Step-by-Step TRIZ book is used by universities and in the industry for training. With Dr. Edward Chaplin, Terninko also wrote Customer Driven Healthcare: QFD for Process Improvement and Cost Reduction.

Mary Ann Kahl brings to her writing an eclectic background which includes work and study in medical epidemiology and herbal medicine, architecture, psychics and world literature, the psychology of creativity and the various design methodologies of TRIZ, QFD and robust design. An 18-year working relationship as John Terninko’s editor has enriched her renaissance skills, even as it has facilitated her ability to finish his sentences. (Of course, a true understanding of this article may mean that she can finish yours, too.)