I would like to acknowledge the work of certain writers who have influenced me and the development of the Ethics of Choice Training Program; in particular, John David Garcia, R. Buckminster Fuller and Ken Wilber.

Garcia's books, The Moral Society and Creative Transformation, impressed me deeply with their power and clarity. His identification of the ethics required for creative and evolutionary advance along with his analysis of the relationship of ethics to bureaucracy are brilliant accomplishments to which the Ethics of Choice Training Program owes an enormous amount. As for ethics that invite self-examination, that are not mere statements of values we all profess, that detail the "human logic" to which we must anchor our organizations, indeed, our future, Garcia--in my opinion--has led the way.

Fuller remains one of the unacknowledged intellectual giants of the Twentieth Century. It was Fuller who, after fifty years of careful study, concluded that humanity's future depends not on scientific discovery nor on governmental or religious structure but rather, and above all, on the integrity of each and every individual. When he wrote about ethics, as he did in Critical Path, he did so with great insight and precision.

Lastly, I know of no one who has provided a more integrated, holistic, insightful view of the evolution of consciousness than has Ken Wilber. The depth of his contribution is impossible to measure. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, A Brief History of Everything, The Eye of Spirit, to name but a few, are books by Wilber that have had a profound impact on my thinking. In two of these, to speak to one way in which Wilber's thought has influenced the Ethics of Choice Training Program, Wilber notes that

"Every society has a certain center of gravity, . . . around which the culture's ethics, norms, rules, and basic institutions are organized, and this center of gravity provides the basic cultural cohesion and social integration for that society. (my italics)

This cultural center of gravity acts like a magnet on individual development. If you are below the average level, it tends to pull you up. If you try to go above it, it tends to pull you down. The cultural center of gravity acts as a pacer of development--a magnet--pulling you up to the average expectable level of consciousness development. Beyond that, you're on your own, and lots of luck, because now the magnet will try to drag you down-- . . . " (Wilber - A Brief History . . . , p. 139)

The Ethics of Choice Training Program is an attempt to provide a technology for raising the center of gravity in organizations.

Concerning the structure of the Ethics of Choice Training Program, the way in which it is organized, I would like to acknowledge my experience in the Human Development Department at the University of Kansas and in particular, my professor and dear friend, L. Keith Miller. It was a great privilege to be in the Human Development Department in the mid '70's, a place--at that time--considered by many, then and now, the Harvard of applied behavioral programs. What I know about program development, program evaluation, the raising of an organization's "center of gravity" (though this last phrase was not used at that time), I learned from the individuals in that Department: L. Keith Miller, Montrose Wolf, Jim Sherman, Don Baer, Dean Fixsen, Ray Foster and the milieu that surrounded them; but mostly from Keith, who stuck with me, who involved me in a Socratic dialogue of a thousand hours (and more since) and thus, who taught me how to think, how to analyze a problem, how to use my rational-analytic mind, such as it is. It was--this dialogue, this process--a great pleasure for me, the University as I had imagined it, and a debt that cannot be repaid.

Finally, the Ethics of Choice Training Program utilizes training methods developed by Augusto Boal, the Brazilian theatrical scholar, and Virginia Satir, the great American family therapist. Both pioneered the "image theater" or "emotional sculpting" concept and Boal developed a number of games or theater-like exercises useful in training. I am grateful to two friends for familiarizing me with the work of these individuals. Douglas Paterson, Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has been instrumental in introducing Boal's work to American audiences and has created, himself, a modification to Boal's model that serves as the role-playing procedure utilized in the Ethics of Choice Training Program. Don Green, president of the Center for Leadership Development - Denver, Colorado, introduced me to the "family sculpting" procedure developed by Satir and illustrated its usefulness as a process capable of revealing much about the health of organizations.

David Thomas, Ph.D.

April, 1999