The hullabaloo about the “lipstick on a pig” comment recently made me wonder if the Obama and McCain camps inhabit two entirely different universes. One side sees an innocent comment taken out of context, the other a highly charged and premeditated insult. Then I reminded myself – this is what I see all the time in my consulting work with organizations. There is a theory in psychology called constructivism which states that people create their own universe of reality and this universe provides a framework for their thinking and decision making. The reality that some people create for themselves, however, may (and often does) make others scratch their heads in wonder and disbelief. Dr. Clare Graves gave us a wonderful model called Spiral Dynamics that tries to explain how these different reality universes work in practice. In the model he used different color codes to identify seven or eight values systems (red values, blue, values, green values, etc). According to Graves, the color combination of your values system provides a framework for your thinking and may make it difficult (if not impossible) for you to see another person’s reality. I have used this model in my consulting to try and help people understand how differing values systems can cause conflict, dissention, and outright organizational warfare. Bearing in mind Graves’ color coding values system, the Obama / McCain controversy may boil down to this: was the pig wearing red or blue lipstick?