Reframing environmental scanning: an integral approach

The basis for an environmental scanning framework is described which may also function as a means for understanding how human minds filter their perceptions of the world. The framework is based on the integral model of Ken Wilber and the Spiral Dynamics model of Don Beck and Chris Cowan. An analytical tool (cross-level analysis) is presented for examining views of the world in terms of both the perceptual filters of the viewer as well as the aspect of the world being viewed, a technique which is also useful for analysing how other scanners do their scanning. A notation for cross-level analysis is presented and described, with examples of its use. The framework described here is aimed at futurists, environmental scanners and intelligence analysts, all of whom need to gather information, process it, and assess the implications of the signals they find. It assumes no prior knowledge of Wilber’s framework or of Spiral Dynamics. Rather, it seeks to present elements of these two models as useful bases for broadening and deepening our understanding of what we see going on in the world. It is hoped that the reader will find them sufficiently useful to investigate the models in more depth.