Imagine for a moment that you had a coaching process that was based on the principles that have been responsible for 14 billion years of successful evolution. Imagine that these principles are simple to understand and furthermore, and you could measure individual and collective human evolutionary progress.

Now imagine that through applying these principles and measuring techniques you could make the evolutionof human consciousness conscious by facilitating the unfolding of individual and collective human potential.

THE THREE UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF EVOLUTION

In order to understand the universal principles of evolution, you must first understand what evolution is. Evolution is the continuing unfolding ability of entities to successfully respond to increasingly complex life conditions.

At each stage of physical evolution, an increase in the level of complexity of external conditions demanded an increase in the level of complexity of the internal decision‐ making capacity. In other words, as our physical world evolved from energy to atoms, to molecules, to cells, to organisms, to creatures, our internal worlds also evolved. Every stage of physical evolution was accompanied by an equivalent stage in the evolution of consciousness.

I define consciousness as awareness with a purpose, and the purpose of every entity in the chain of evolution is always the same—to attain, maintain, or enhance internal stability and external equilibrium. This applies to individual atoms, cells, and human beings and all their group structures (molecules, organisms and organizations or clans, tribes, or nations). If an entity cannot maintain internal stability and external equilibrium it will cease to survive.

In human terms, this means not only being able to meet your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual needs but also keep them in balance. How every entity in the chain of evolution has done this (including Homo sapiens) is explained by the three universal stages of evolution.

Stage 1: Individual entities learn how to become viable and independent in their normal framework conditions of existence.

Stage 2: As an individual entity’s framework conditions become more complex and threatening, the entity learns how to increase its resilience by bonding with other compatible entities to form a group structure.

Stage 3: As a group structure’s framework conditions become more complex and threatening, the group structure learns how to increase its resilience by cooperating with other similar and compatible group structures to form a higher-order entity.

We see this three‐stage pattern of evolution throughout the whole of evolution. After atoms became viable and independent in their framework of existence, they bonded with other atoms to form molecules. As framework conditions became more threatening, molecules adapted by learning how to cooperate with each other to form a higher-order entity called a cell.

Once cells had become viable and independent in their framework of existence, they bonded with each other to form organisms. As framework conditions became more threatening, organisms adapted by learning how to cooperate with each other to create a higher-order entity called Homo sapiens.

Now that the baton of evolution has passed to Homo sapiens, human beings are attempting to become viable and independent in their frameworks of existence. As framework conditions become more complex and threatening, they are learning how to bond with other humans to form clans, tribes, and nations. The largest of these group structures, nations, are now learning how to cooperate with each other to create a higher-order entity called humanity. They are doing this because the threats to human society are global but the infrastructure and systems we have for dealing with these threats are national. We are not able to solve the problems of collective human existence from the same level of consciousness that we created them.

Collectively, we are being called to shift to a new higher-order way of being that demands a new leadership paradigm. The new leadership paradigm is characterized by a shift from “I” to “we,” from pure self‐interest to the common good, and from being the best in the world to the best for the world.

This evolutionary framework not only applies to human individuals and nations but also applies to organizations. The most successful organizations,

a) Encourage individuals to become viable independent (be accountable and responsible for their work)—Personal Mastery.

b) Encourages those individuals to bond together to form teams and business units with common values and a sense of shared mission and vision—Internal Cohesion.

c) Encourages those teams and business units to collaborate together to form a higher-order entity known as the organization—External Cohesion.

THE BARRETT MODEL

Having uncovered the three universal stages of evolution several years after I had developed the Barrett Model, and used it as a tool for measuring the consciousness of individuals, organizations, and nations, I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to see that the two models were completely congruent.