Level 5 Research Center/Culture crystals

—Annealing and healing

Crystal formation begins with a step-by-step assembly process called nucleation where self-organization forms a new structure. Crystal growth then proceeds to increase the particle size to form a highly organized crystalline region called a grain or crystallite. In a polycrystalline material, such as most metals, grains are randomly oriented and grain boundaries form wherever one grain meets another. The grains and grain boundaries are apparent in the image on the right.

Cultures in human societies—based on heredity, geography, ideology, lifestyle, or shared interests—form, grow, and collide much like growing crystals. A culture begins as a small band of people bound together by a common heritage, geography, ideology, or leader. The band grows and the culture spreads as people are born into it, or perhaps as other bands are attracted, assimilated, or conquered.

As long as a culture remains isolated it remains monolithic. Loyalty to a single leader, leadership structure, or ideology remains strong, and cultural symbols, social norms, and belief systems are largely uniform across the culture. The resulting tribal culture is strong and coherent, loyalties are clear, and cultural membership is easily recognized.

As many tribal cultures form around the world, travel, communication, and commerce expands, and cultures that were once isolated begin to encounter other cultures with foreign customs. Cultural boundaries form and cultural clashes often arise at these boundaries. A map showing the boundaries of various cultures begins to resemble the polycrystalline grain structure shown in the diagram. Quarreling cultures are like crystalline fault lines where fractures can occur at any time.

Today we are struggling through a transition from many tribal cultures to a global culture. Worldviews often clash as we work to manage this transition. From a big history perspective, today’s cultures are operating at complexity Level 4 and can be described as tribal cultures. Can we do any better? Amethyst quartz, shown here on the right, is a large naturally occurring crystal where the crystal lattice grows uniformly, and the entire crystal forms with very few internal boundaries. Monocrystalline silicon ingots are manufactured so that the crystal lattice of the entire solid is continuous, unbroken to its edges, and free of any grain boundaries.

Annealing is a process where a polycrystalline material is heated sufficiently to allow atoms to migrate in the crystal lattice. This decreases the number of grain boundaries and dislocations.

Today’s quarreling coalitions are like crystal fault lines. Today’s tribal cultures are in a chaotic state undergoing a phase transition, seeking a mode shift toward a lower energy configuration where they can attain a new meta-stable state.

Openminded people who practice dialogue can anneal conflicts, meld cultures, remove boundaries, and reform into larger, more coherent structures. Cultures can anneal and reform by agreeing to adopt complementary social norms, beliefs, customs, and governance structures. Whenever two cultures meet, we have an opportunity to choose learning from the other rather than conquest of the other. We can seek insight by exploring our differences. It is wise to work toward level 5 values as cultures meet and boundaries dissolve. Pillage and plunder were the tradition as each level 4 culture conquered another. We now have an opportunity for insight, learning, cooperation, and opportunities to become the benefits of merging cultures. We can transcend conflict that arises at cultural boundaries.

As our human cultures grow and our capability infrastructures become more capable, we have an opportunity to anneal and heal. Global reach combined with continuously improving epistemologies, moral reasoning, governance, and advancing human rights allow worldviews to align. This is the phase transition that transforms several tribal cultures into a global culture.

One model for group development describes stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Today’s tribal cultures are forming and storming. We can transcend these conflicts and begin norming and performing. The resulting culture crystallized at complexity level 5 is global, harmonizing, flourishing, and performing.

A global culture is liberating and invigorating and certainly not boring. Rather than wasting time and squandering our attention clashing over arbitrary and petty differences we can align our efforts to focus on what matters. Our skills are unleashed, and we can work toward a significant shared purpose. We are liberated from nonsense and petty bickering so we can work together to build the next big thing.

We can decide to anneal and heal. We can complete our work of forming and storming and move on to better things. We can make the bold leap from tribal cultures operating a level 4 and manage a transition to a harmonious and flourishing global culture that is norming and performing at level 5.