Dr. Don Beck's 70th Birthday on January 31, 2007, was celebrated by a constellation of individuals and affiliated organizations around the world thanks to the efforts of Petra Pieterse, Alex Rollin, and many others.

The photos show the huge birthday book (decorated and compiled by Petra) which includes the dozens of birthday greetings and memoirs of special events with hundreds of participants all over the world.

Don was noticeably moved when he opened The Big Book for the first time. The Adizes Graduate School of course sent a contribution in photo-essay style, too, chronicling the last six years wherein the Adizes methodology and Spiral Dynamics truly began to mesh. Adizes country managers, key associates and staff around the world shared their memories, photos and sincere best wishes on this auspicious occasion.

The author of the Adizes contribution to Don's birthday is Stephanie Galindo, M.Ed., Director of Administration, Adizes Graduate School.

Happy 70th Birthday, Don!
A memoir via Adizes Graduate School, with love, from the Adizes network

Dr. Ichak Adizes and Dr. Don E. Beck have been friends for decades, and the School has promoted Don's global seminars since its launch in 2000, but perhaps adizes methodology first really began to mesh with Spiral
Dynamics in... the Spring of 2001.

Don taught his first online Spiral Dynamics class for the School (AGS) and discovered that he really preferred the live-classroom to online learning!

Sunil Dovedy, Executive Director of the School, met Don in 1999. He and several other dizes Associates had learned about Spiral Dynamics before it was formally cascaded to the Adizes network. Sunil presented the concepts to participants at the annual international Adizes Convention in Ottawa, Canada, where many learned of it for the first time. Ever since, particpants have repeatedly requested Don's presence year after year! ? Don gave a major address at the Dutch National Initiative for Sustainable Development Conference integrating Adizes concepts. According to the news of the day, Petra Pieterse, a key leader in the SD Group for many years, reported that Don referenced the Adizes methodology with special emphasis on PAEI (Adizes working styles) and CAPI (teams that coalesce organizational power, authority and influence), and that...

"At last count, just over 250 individuals had signed up for the conference. These are influential decision-makers within government, trade and industry, civil service, knowledge institutions and nongovernmental organizations.

The conference title itself was built around Don's appearance: Leaps and Spirals - The Road to Sustainable Development in a National and International Perspective." Petra Pieterse

In February, 2002, there were several "firsts"...
The first Level One seminar was held in Santa Barbara, California, including presentations by
Ichak and Barbara Marx-Hubbard of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.
? The Spring Training in Phase I-III for Adizes Associates (in Santa Barbara) included the
conceptual foundations of Spiral Dynamics for the first time. Bo Jaghult, Professional Director
of Sweden, lead the trainings, while Ichak facilitated client workshops and presented advanced
Adizes technologies. 15 Certified Adizes Associates attended from Israel, Mexico, Brazil,
Yugoslavia, Denmark, Norway, Macedonia, and the USA offices.

? For the first time, Don presented Spiral Dynamics material at the annual Convention, which was held in Portoroz, Slovenia. The next year, Don taught Spiral Dynamics to all the Convention participants in Mexico, including families, clients and children! By then, Adizes Institute had integrated Spiral Dynamics into core areas for client work. According to Zvonko Kuzmanovski, Director of Certification, one area is the diagnosis part of the methodology, where client-submitted potential improvement points (PIPs) are analyzed to look for a chain of causality. This analysis integrates spiral dynamics and adizes concepts in the identification of core organizational problems. Another, the Phase IV analysis of the company mission, includes an exploration of spiral dynamics values. Decisions regarding what to keep, let go, or develop further are based on memetics.

At the same time, the Adizes Graduate School began hosting two annual Level 1-2 workshops for Don, with a focus on organizations and natural design. Don requested that Dr. Marilyn Hamilton, who leads Integral City planning and Maple Leaf Meme initiatives in Canada, teach online. She says, "It was an honor to be nominated to deliver the online synthesis training following Don's live course at AGS. The impact Don has made on students is evident in their deep commitment to applications in their real organizational worlds. Don touches something deep within people that motivates them to connect heart to head and head to heart. It was pure delight to actually teach a module of SD L2 in Santa Barbara last fall. Don challenges people to build arks (and not just forecast the rain). I saw people from four countries really step forward with bio-psychocultural-social energies in hand to do exactly that."
- M. Hamilton

"What is truly wonderful about these events is that such a wide range of people are drawn to learn more. Don has intrigued an exquisite cross-section of society, including representatives of religious organizations, the entertainment industry, law, banking, finance, government, the military, engineers, consultants, professors, psychologists and more, across the spiral spectrum from LC3 through 7. People have flown many miles to Santa Barbara, and have attended
from many, many countries, and from across the USA - even quite a few from way out there in that no-mans-land, otherwise known as Texas... "
- Stephanie Galindo

By 2004 dozens of people attended SDi/Adizes seminars. One memorable session was hosted by Adizes Brazil. Don traveled to Sao Paulo to speak to 100 invited guests of the Board of Directors of the 150-year old Sao Paulo Chamber of Commerce including Directors of one of the largest privately-owned banks in the world, which has used Adizes methodology since 1989. The presentations were so well received that Don was invited on-the-spot to do a two-hour closing presentation to over 1000 participants at the Forum of Young Entrepreneurs immediately afterwards at another hotel! In attendance were the Governor of Sao Paulo (Mr. Geraldo Alkmin), and Sujit Chowdhury - President and CEO of the World Trade University of the United Nations Organization, and others as well.

Carlos Valdesuso, Principle Associate and Professional Director of Adizes Brazil, says:
"The Chamber of Commerce of Sao Paulo, founded in 1886, manages 1700 other Brazilian Chambers as a not-for-profit that provides institutional, social and credit information services. Don's ideas made clear that they had a Turquoise meme and mission, and from there they accepted their role of Integrating hundreds of other Chambers and Non-for-Profit organizations in Brazil around service or social projects. Today, the Chamber is probably the most influential non for profit Brazilian organization, impacting hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of people."
- Carlos Valdesuso

The Adizes offices in Scandinavia, Yugoslavia and China have also invited Don to speak and/or to work with clients directly. Dr. Amir Kfir, a Principal Adizes Associate in Israel, worked with Don in Scandinavia and noted that it was intriguing to see his impact on people and watch the "change of mind process." Bo Jaghult advised that Scandinavian clients have been very interested in Spiral Dynamics, and were fascinated to discover a theory that described their way of thinking.

Kjetil Sandermoen, Principal Associate and President of Adizes Scandinavia, was introduced to Don in 1998. He says, "What impresses me most about Don, is that he is just as enthusiastic about giving a key note speech at an high level international conference, as he is about going with me to a small, local Scandinavian company (SI, AE etc.), or training basic SD to a group. Don's major contribution is that he is influencing the minds of decision makers all over the world. He is doing this with a conceptual clarity that is indisputable, with respect and joy, and with an integrity which is unique.'
- Kjetil Sandermoen

More recently, Don has begun to work in the Middle East in earnest. AGS affiliates in Israel are following his work there with a keen and hopeful eye as his colleague, Elza Maalouf crosses Arab and Palestinian borders to facilitate greater understanding of the complex situation.

Memoir compiled by Stephanie Galindo, M.Ed., Director of Administration, Adizes Graduate School 1/31/2007
Don often mentions his little friend, Winston, as being a key instigator, sniffing out global hotspots. Events in Santa Barbara included a guest appearance by Winston's personal representative, shown at right with Don in 2005.

In November 2006, Santa Barbara presenters included Don's daughter, Belinda Richardson, John Smith - who is funding Don's work in the Middle East, Mark Fabionar of Esalen, Darrell Gooden - an AGS graduate student and change agent with the military who is trained in both Adizes and Spiral Dynamics technologies, Marilyn Hamilton and Sunil Dovedy. Don also interviewed Ichak Adizes in a professionally taped one-hour video titled, "What do we do now?" a message forwarded to President Bush regarding his last two years of office.

At this milestone event for Don we want to honor his noteworthy past, and thank him for the hope he has given us for the future. From the bottom of our hearts, we wish the best Spiral Wizard on earth a choice selection of future engagements from among the "yeasty times" we live in. We think it is time for a second book, too!

Memoir compiled by Stephanie Galindo, M.Ed., Director of
Administration, Adizes Graduate School 1/31/2007