The integral model

“An integral approach is based on one basic idea: no human mind can be 100% wrong. Or, we might say, nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time.” - Ken Wilber

The problems confronting us at the start of the 21st century are complex and multi-disciplinary. They transcend the boundaries of organizations, disciplines and cultures. In spite of this, we keep trying to solve them by means of extreme specialization. We’re mass-producing fragmented solutions for problems demanding an integral approach. And all this is happening while for the first time in history, we have at our disposal the complete body of human knowledge! What if we’d take that and try to work out the basic ingredients for human development?

That’s the question which American philosopher Ken Wilber (1949) asked himself. His response, the Integral model, is a kind of meta-model of human development. You can see it as an integral operating system, within which various disciplines and perspectives fall in place, clarifying how they’re interrelated. The common factor binding them together is always development, upon which Wilber distinguishes four fundamental perspectives, which he calls the ‘four quadrants’. The first division is between the individual and the collective aspects of development, while the second one concerns the interior and the exterior (see figure).

The application of this ‘integral map’ is as followes: any solution which integrates only one of these four fundamental perspectives is incomplete and one-sided. Particularly where complex problems are concerned, for which the causes are multiple and intertwined, it is of crucial importance that these each of these four perspectives is integrated. In the context of organizational development, this means that each problem breaks down into these four aspects: personal development and leadership (individual/interior), competences and behavior (individual/exterior), culture and communication (collective/interior), and systems and processes (collective/exterior). When a complex change program is reduced to merely one of these dimensions, it is doomed to fail. To effect real change, all of these aspects of human development must be woven into an integral approach.

Contact and more information

Realize! uses the integral model directly and indirectly in all of its services. If you're interested in hearing more, or in a workshop on the integral model, contact us at info@realize.nl.

If you’re wanting to learn more about the Integral model, consider reading A Theory of Everything or A Brief History of Everything, by Ken Wilber.