Using Spiral Dynamics as the framework, Dr. Don Beck has constructed a comprehensive approach to creating and managing high-performance sports teams. This powerful "hearts and minds" strategy gets players into PEAK and the entire team into PRIME. The heavy focus is on four ^vMEMEs - PURPLE (a mystical brotherhood, sisterhood, or player-hood), RED (warriors, warlords), BLUE (stout hearts), and ORANGE (success seekers).

The program was originally developed for Kitch Christie, the veteran coach of the South African national rugby team in preparation for the World Cup competition in 1995. The field test came as Springbok upset Australia in the opening game, won the next four, and then defeated the renown New Zealand "All Blacks" in the finals.

The concept has now spread to several professional and collegiate sports teams in the U.S. If you want to see other sports applications (generally metaphors for real life), you can read Don Beck's "Sports Values" columns from the Dallas Morning News. (Go to INDEX below)

Jan. 8, 2000 (E-mail message sent by Dr. Don Beck to the SD discussion group and posted here at his request)

Wally Lynn works closely with Mark Cuban who owns Broadcast.com (actually, he sold it recently to Yahoo for megabucks.) Walter also hosts a sports talk show and I've been on it many, many times. Here is my attempt
to explain Spiral Dynamics -- memetics - and meshworks within the context of Mark buying the Dallas Mavericks.
Examples such as this one and a number of others that I'll describe in SFO on Feb 4-6 can certainly add to the base data for the new Institute for Integral Business. And, I find that most CEO types are fascinated by sports and sports examples so it helps to be able to develop real-life case-studies for them.

Don

Walter: This illustrates the practical use of Spiral Dynamics thinking to address a marketing problem. This story was on the front page of the Dallas Morning News.
A "valuesMeme" is a core value system (pronounced "veemeem") that acts like a "gene" in creating an organizational "culture." So the "culture" of the Tom Landry Dallas Cowboys is profoundly different from that of the new Jerry Jones Cowboys in that the image, motivational system, internal control arrangement are in striking contrast to each other. Broadcast.com, as is also true with both CISCO Systems and now WindRiver.com must interact with diverse "cultures" as they merge, acquire, or strike deals with the different entities. So, this is our language for showing how to detect the underlying thought structures, belief systems, and operating principles of a company, a community, or an entire country. I believe Mark C. will understand this dynamic quickly. Right now he must sort out the new core vMEMES of the Mavericks to get everything set right internally before he can focus on the external markets. Entities tend to swing between the "explore the outside" and "fix the inside" poles. Yet, in this day of morphing speed in real time, these two functions tend to blend into a single holistic event.
Here are the core vMEMES -- survivalistic, animistic/magical, egocentric/exploitative, purposeful/saintly, strategic/materialistic, sensitive/humanistic, integral/authentic, and holistic. Mark runs Broadcast.com out of the Integral/authentic/holistic vMEMES, and is now "meshing" with the old Mavericks that are hung up in
strategic/materialistic. This is the reason the Silicon Valley type cultures are so radically different from the Industrial Age models that still dominate in Dallas, and even in sports. You chaps are in for a fun ride.

Don

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While this is at the other end of the scholarly scale of thinking about paleopsychology, perhaps it can illustrate how one might use an understanding of psychological strata in constructing healthy systems. For those of you who don't know about Spiral Dynamics, a BLUE vMEME generates thought structures that are purposeful, sacrificial for a transcendent cause; traditional, conventional, by the "holy book," and focused on the future guarantee. ORANGE is materialistic, self-center, success-driven, purely pragmatic, with short-term "bottom-line" outcomes.
MeshWORKS is a term I learned from Howard Bloom who picked it up from Manual de Landa.
It simply describes a way of integrating, aligning, and syngerizing elements to blend or mesh them for a specific outcome.
The word itself was first used to describe how the brain "meshes" its chemistry, neurons, structures, and energy flows to create a gestalt.

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MeshWORKS is a method of reading a specific situation to detect the core vMEME codes in an entity, function, process or flow, and then "mesh" around those codes the supporting, nournishing resources to keep them healthy and fend off attacking viruses from competing vMEME aggressors. This can be demonstrated quite clearly in major sports. Each sport has its own, unique vMEMETIC signature. Each sport has a core of belief systems and world views, along with a way time is used, rewards are given, final outcomes are determined, and the entire game is experienced.

Football(US gridiron version) is a military march down the field. I expect John Phillip Sousa to appear at every half-time. The music is strong with flourishing trumpets that call the gladiators to battle. Basketball is based on the music of jazz since the players are in constant motion as they improvize at every moment. The game is played on the edge of chaos and order. Hockey is a fast-paced violent expression of high intensity played on icy slides and collisions. Then there is baseball.

As is indicated below, this historic game has a totally different pace, rhythm, and flow. Much like English cricket, it is a game of engineering, of angles, of subtle nuances, and long LONG hours. The entire process is mathmetical with percentages to be played, exact records to be kept, and long-in-place rules to be enforced.

Tom Hicks owns both the Dallas Stars NHL team and the Texas Rangers MLB franchise. He asked the folks who do PR for his hockey team to also manage the baseball account. The below story is about that decision, and the cautions I raised.

The role of the MeshWEAVER is to attempt to challenge the assumptions in Flatlanders that one size (style) fits all, and that different clients (sports) have quite different operating systems, drawing fans (customers) based on those magnetic type core vMEMES. At one stage the MeshWEAVER puts on a Spiral Wizard's hat to make a "Third Win" determination. In this case it was quite simple. The discipline and calculation skills training in baseball all place it within the Blue Zone/High Digital developmental track, both critical in preparing the mind/brain for more complex processing, and communities for greater stabilization influences. The Spiral Wizard informs the MeshWEAVER: "Do what you can to keep baseball pristine, historically centered, thus preserving the integrity of the sport. Fight off the exploitative ORANGE vMEME that only wants to buy properties, soak them for revenue, then sell them off, leaving only empty shells, and vacant stadia."

Of course, one cannot say this to a staff writer from the Dallas Morning News because it would make no sense. The challenge, then, is to find surface level and familiar themes and little memes that can be attached to to carry the message from the Spiral Wizard to the general public. Thus, the music of Nat King Cole, the reference to "Southern Baptist," and the comparison to "Classic Coke."

Here is what eventually appeared in the Dallas paper.

Don

ARLINGTON - It could seem like a whole new ball game at The Ballpark in Arlington.
New movie clips, new music, new between-inning activities and a born-again series of cartoon favorites will give Texas Rangers games a different feel, a different "presentation," according to Rangers marketing types.
But other sports-marketing experts wonder whether the changes will be a home run for the Rangers, or whether they'll strike out with the ballpark's traditional family crowds.
"We're not rolling out a new show," said Jeff Cogen, who serves as marketing director for the Rangers and the Dallas Stars. "We are making subtle changes continuously, although I think you'll notice some less-than-subtle changes eventually, I think by June 15."
Changes in the Rangers' marketing campaigns were expected after it was announced May 7 that Dallas Stars president Jim Lites would hold the same position with the Texas Rangers. Tom Hicks owns both teams.
A hint of things to come surfaced during the Rangers' last home.stand, when the team took the field to AC/DC's "Hells Bells," rather than the usual "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses; and the traditional version of the "Cotton-Eyed Joe" in the seventh-inning stretch was replaced by Rednex's amped-up take on the country classic.
"Beginning with this home.stand, there will be a few more movie clips than we've played in the past and a little more creativity," said Chuck Morgan, who serves double duty as the Rangers' public address announcer and director of in-park entertainment.
"Between innings, there won't be as much PA, and there will be more music and a lot more information on the Jumbo-Trons. For one thing, we'll start doing something we'd only done in the playoffs before. When a player comes to bat, the pictures will be moving, like holograms."
'Really cool'
A knot of 12-year-olds waiting for helmet sundaes at The Sweet Spot at Friday's game against the Minnesota Twins pronounced the thumping musical selections "really cool."
But Doland Maner of Arlington, a regular at Rangers games since 1972, said the sudden increase in volume pumping through speakers just over his seat "is going to drive us from the ballpark."
"I've been a baseball fan all my life," Mr. Maner said, "and now they're force-feeding us this hockey stuff.
"They've got all sorts of funny sounds that really pierce your ears. But I guess the new bosses think they need to do something."
And at each game, crews will fire T-shirts into the crowd, an idea already widely used in baseball but new to Arlington . On Friday night, one crew member fired a half-dozen T-shirts into the lower deck between home plate and third base. Stars fans should be familiar with the concept.
In fact, at least in the beginning, the contraption used to launch the T-shirts skyward looks suspiciously like a hockey stick.
"We figure that when the ground crew comes running out [to spruce up the infield], that's a perfect chance to shoot some T-shirts up into the crowd," Mr. Morgan said.
"That's the kind of thing we want to do to liven things up at the ballpark."
But some marketing experts said making things too lively between innings could actually work against the Rangers.
Rick Burton, director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, said the Disney Corp. faced the same problems when the company added the Anaheim Angels to its other Southern California sports team, the Mighty Ducks.
"They'd been pretty successful with the indoor entertainment stuff they'd been doing with the Ducks - the loud music, the dry ice, the ice dancers, the duck descending from the ceiling on a wire. It was very Disneyland," Mr. Burton said.
"And when they went to do a variation of that with the Angels, with animals dancing on the dugout and things, the baseball crowd absolutely rejected it."
Different sports, crowds
Some differences in sports revolve around season and setting and the equipment in place to do a show, something much easier in an indoor arena, he said.
But the key differences probably center on the crowds that attend different sporting events and the sort of entertainment they expect to find.
"Each of the major sports has a basic theme to it, in terms of the basic processing systems and values," said Dr. Don Beck of the National Values Center in Denton.
In football, the pace is very regimented, almost military. And basketball and hockey are much faster, much more explosive. But baseball goes the opposite way.
"The whole idea of baseball is sort of that 'Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer' song by Nat King Cole," Dr. Beck said. "For a person to go to the ballpark and sit there for a long time, there has to be room for conversation, speculation and concentration.
"Hockey is a very fast-paced, highly intensive experience that inspires strong emotion with the strong hitting and checking. So you market hockey with an emphasis on power and hitting.
"But if they carry that through to the Texas Rangers, with baseball's icons and images, it will be extremely negative."
That would likely be true at any major-league ballpark, he said. But it's almost a certainty in the Dallas-Fort Worth market with its conservative constituency, Dr. Beck said.
"I think [former Rangers president] Tom Schieffer had the right idea. He marketed the team and the game as clean and healthy and wholesome, because the crowd is basically Southern Baptist. I don't mean that literally, but they have those values," Dr. Beck said.
Rangers officials insist that any changes will be modest and that traditions will be maintained.
"You might not realize it, but people are very passionate about the music you play at the ballpark," Mr. Morgan said, "which is why we're not going to do away with the 'Cotton-Eyed Joe.'
"But on the other hand, Dot Racing wasn't very traditional when we came up with it years ago, and now you find it everywhere in the country.
"If you don't try new things, you stagnate."
Fireworks
And there are other new things being considered.
One is a brief volley of fireworks after a home run, though Mr. Morgan acknowledged he has concerns about that one.
"I've always been of the opinion - being a traditional guy - that nothing at all should happen after a home run, that there should be enough respect for it that it can carry itself," he said.
What about a team mascot, a la Florida's Billy the Marlin?
Unlikely, Mr. Morgan said, if only for the blistering Texas heat.
But there will be changes, of that there is no doubt, he said. And the possibilities are just about endless.
"You're only limited by your imagination," he said. And, of course, by what the paying crowd at the ballpark thinks.
As far as Dr. Beck is concerned, the fewer changes, the better.
"If [Rangers owner] Tom Hicks is interested in the long-term preservation of this entity and the value in it, he'd better pay close attention to the core beliefs of baseball," he said.
"It's just like Coca-Cola: You don't tamper with the formula. That's something Coca-Cola learned the hard way."

Dr. Don Beck's Dallas Morning News SPORTS VALUES Columns 

October 15, 1998  "Super" Agent Leigh Steinberg -- Character is Non-Negotiable
September 4, 1998 "If Oates wants Rangers to 'sprint,' now's the time to go"
May 28, 1998 "Children Should Grow at Own Pace"
April 9, 1998 "Professional Wrestling Moves to Shock-ville"
March 12, 1998 "Sprewell TV interview troubling"
February 26, 1998 "Cowboys try to create all-for-one mentality"
January 14, l998 "Value of Rangers Franchise Extends Past Price Tag"
December 18, 1997 "Cowboys More Than Ready for Fresh Start"
October 29, l997 "To Remain Elite, Teams Must Make Right Moves"
October 9, l997 "Miami, Tampa Bay Offer Contrast in Leadership"
September 11, l997 "Consumer Tribalism" Sways Teens"
July 31, l997 "Cowboys' New Game Plan Also Good For Fans, Media"
July 17, l997 "NFL Finally Gets Serious About Problem Players"
July 3, l997 "Youth, Leagues, Need Right Direction"

Dr. Don Beck's Web Sports commentaries:

January 21, 1999"Elan and the Falcons"
January 14, 1999 "Winners and Losers in the Fast Lane"
November 19, 1998 "Friday Night Without HS Football?  Thinkable."
November 30, 1998 "Creative Collaboration or Dogfights? NBA to Decide"
July 30, 1998 "Matters of the Heart"
July 9, 1998 "Slumps: Right Brain Moods and Left Brain Logic"
July 2, 1998 "On the Need for Good Authority"
June 13, 1998 "Aussie Rules Rules in Oz"
May 20, 1998 "Sleep Cycles: An Eye-Opening Topic for Athletes"
April 22, 1998 "Belief Systems Running Deep in Athletes"
January 29, 1998 "To Whom Much is Given..." (After Dallas' Arena Vote)
January 21, 1998 "An Open Letter to Mr. Jerry Jones, Owner, Dallas Cowboys"
January 1, 1998 "RESOLVED: To Put Sportsmanship Back in Sports in '98"
August 14, 1997 "...or are ya' really glad ta' see me?" (On former Cowboys Coach Barry Switzer and His Pistol)

Other Values related papers and articles by Dr. Don Beck:

The Search for Cohesion in the Age of Fragmentaion: From the New World Order to the Next Global Mesh by Dr. Don Beck presented to the State of the World Forum, 1999

Psychology and Sport, Presentation to International Association of Applied Psychology, August, 1998

April 14, l998 "Race & Sports: Running in Place?  A Presidential Town Hall Meeting - Houston, Texas 

Turbulence in the Balkans: A Paleo-Cultural View