Industrial and Commercial Training Making the case for a developmental perspective

This paper introduces the concept of action logics as increasingly complex and flexible systems of meaning making to the management field. It adds the developmental perspective (vertical transformation) to the training and development concept of growth as lateral expansion. It outlines the major shift from viewing people mostly as different types to also considering differences in the level of their meaning making capacity. First, there is a brief overview of the developmental approach, and the assumptions shared in the field of adult development research. Next I describe the spiral Leadership Development Framework, and its measuring instrument, and walk the reader through two examples of what it means to interpret the world from different actions logics. Finally I outline the benefits of a developmental perspectives. It predicts that postconventional leaders can more flexibly and successfully tailor their interactions to the differing needs of those they work with to create greater capacity throughout the system. ©2004, Cook-Greuter 2 Making the Case for a Developmental Perspective © 2004, SUSANNE R. COOK-GREUTER The Never Ending Quest: "At each stage of human existence the adult man (sic) is off on his quest of his holy grail, the way of life he seeks by which to live. At his first level he is on a quest for automatic physiological satisfaction. At the second level he seeks a safe mode of living, and this is followed in turn, by a search for heroic status, for power and glory, by a search for ultimate peace; a search for material pleasure, a search for affectionate relations, a search for respect of self, and a search for peace in an incomprehensible world. And, when he finds he will not find that peace, he will be off on his ninth level quest. As he sets off on each quest, he believes he will find the answer to his existence. Yet, much to his surprise and much to his dismay, he finds at every stage that the solution to existence is not the solution he has come to find. Every stage he reaches leaves him disconcerted and perplexed. It is simply that as he solves one set of human problems he finds a new set in their place. The quest he finds is never ending. Dr. Clare W. Graves http://www.clarewgraves.com/theory_content/quotes.html Different, but equal: Different psychological assessments and insights about what makes for effective leadership, personal satisfaction and better teamwork have been around for a long time with new arrivals on the scene every year. Mostly these assessments look at how people differ from each other in terms of personality traits: We assess, for instance, people’s type (MBTI, Enneagram), career preferences, teamwork-, leadership-, interpersonal-, or learning style. By helping people understand these preferences for themselves and others, we hope to expand their behavioral repertoire and to help them work with and/ or manage others more effectively. In all of these measures we are assured that it really doesn’t matter which style we prefer and which type we are. All are equally valid ways of being a human being. What does matter is how well an individual’s styles fits the context and the task, and how well he or she can read and interact with people who have different preferences. The greater the capacity to read others’ different styles and respond with skill, the better the outcome for everyone involved. We also notice that some people find it easier than others to both learn these distinctions and to modify their behavior to accommodate to others’ processing preferences. This is so because they are more aware of their own behavior as well as more artful in dealing with their own and others’ interior landscapes. Goleman’s work (1995) regarding emotional intelligence speaks to these differences in level of competence and self/other awareness. Different and better: We suggest here that another way people differ from each other, the developmental stage, is as important and sometimes more so than how they differ in personality type and preferences. Argyris (1977), an early advocate of organizational learning, brought the concept of mental models to management. He proposed a two level approach of adult reasoning, in which model II was not just different in style from model I, but better, more adequate for dealing with complexity and constant change. Model II reasoning is better than model I because it is more flexible, inclusive, long-term, and ©2004, Cook-Greuter 1 dynamic as well as less self-defensive, static and preprogrammed or automatic. Argyris argued that people’s different mental models profoundly affect how they see others and how they interpret what they see, and therefore, what strategies and defenses they use to navigate work life. Senge (1990) introduced another two-level model. He distinguishes between conventional linear thought and systems thinking which resembles in many ways Argyris’s distinctions. Both Model II and systems thinking emerge after Model I and linear thought have been mastered. Both Argyris and Senge advocate that we should develop to the more complex forms of thinking outlined in their theories. They imply that the form emerging later is better than its predecessor in terms of behavioral flexibility and reasoning capacity. The developmental perspective: Even before that, Piaget (1954) had studied how children develop into young adults through many transformations while Maslow (1968) had investigated The Farther Reaches Of Human Nature. Beginning in the sixties, other psychologists (Loevinger, 1966; Kohlberg, 1969; and Graves, 1970) began to focus on how adults develop from the baby’s narrow, self-centered view of the world to the mature wisdom and powerful action of exemplary adults. These researchers showed that we can identify not just two different ways of adult meaning making, but several. Each meaning making system, world view, or stage is more comprehensive, more differentiated and more effective in dealing with the complexities of life than its predecessors. Hand in hand with creating new theories about adult development, these pioneers also designed measuring tools to assess differences in meaning making capacity. Drawing on many sources and on her extensive research in the nineteen sixties and seventies, Loevinger (1970) created an effective and efficient measurement instrument to assess adults’ stage. Her instrument, The Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT) is one of the most widely used and best validated in the field of personality assessment. It has been used in thousands of research projects worldwide. Full-range developmental thinking has been slow to be integrated into the work place. Torbert (1987) was an early proponent of developmentalism applied to leadership and organizational change work. We will use his model and stage names below to outline the development of professionals because the Leadership Development Framework (LDF) is associated with the most finely-tuned, cost-effective and validated assessment tool (The Leadership Development Profile) in the field. With the dawn of the 21 century developmental thinking is finally reaching a critical mass. It is now researched and applied at the leading edge of most professional disciplines. This is in response to a need for profound and rapid change. Much of the impetus to spread developmental thinking throughout society and to solve problems from a more developmentally-informed perspective, comes out of the Integral Institute, a think tank in Boulder, Colorado, led by Ken Wilber. What do we mean by development? When we talk about development in the context of human development, we distinguish between lateral and vertical development. Both are important, but they occur at different rates. Lateral growth and expansion happens through many channels, such as schooling, training, self-directed and life-long learning as well as simply through exposure to life. Vertical development in adults is much rarer. It refers to how we learn to see the world through new eyes, how we change our interpretations of experience and how we transform our views of reality. It describes increases in what we are aware ©2004, Cook-Greuter 2 of, or what we can pay attention to, and therefore what we can influence and integrate. In general, transformations of human consciousness or changes in our view of reality are more powerful than any amount of horizontal growth and learning. Most learning, training and development is geared towards expanding, deepening, and enriching a person’s current way of meaning making. It’s like filling a container to its maximal capacity. We develop people by teaching them new skills, behaviors and knowledge and to apply their new competencies to widening circles of influence. Vertical development, on the other hand, refers to supporting people to transform their current way of making sense towards a broader perspectives. Developmental theories provide a way of understanding how people tend to interpret events and, thus, how they are likely to act in many common and uncommon situations. Although people may use several perspectives throughout the day, they tend to prefer to respond spontaneously with the most complex meaning making system, perspective, or mental model they have mastered. This preferred perspective is called a person’s center of gravity or their “central tendency” in meaning making. Figure 1. Lateral or Horizontal Growth And Vertical Transformation Horizontal = expansion at same stage (developing new skills, adding information & knowledge, transfer from one area to another) Up = Transformation, vertical development, new more integrated perspective, higher center of gravity Down = temporary or permanent regression due to life circumstances, environment, stress and illness. The metaphor of climbing a mountain can serve as an illustration of what it means to gain an increasingly higher vantage point. At each turn of the path up the mountain I can see more of the territory I have already traversed. I can see the multiple turns and reversals in the path. I can see further into and across the valley. The closer I get to the summit, the easier it becomes to see behind to the shadow side and uncover formerly hidden aspects of the territory. Finally at the top, I can see beyond my particular mountain to other ranges and further horizons. The more I can see, the wiser, more timely, more systematic and informed my actions and decisions are likely to be because more of the relevant information, connections and dynamic relationships become visible. Development in its deepest meaning refers to transformations of consciousness. Because acquisition of knowledge is part of horizontal growth, learning about developmental theories is not sufficient to help people to transform. Only specific long©2004, Cook-Greuter 3 term practices, self-reflection, action inquiry, and dialogue as well as living in the company of others further along on the developmental path has been shown to be effective. In general, full-range human development theories share the following assumptions: