{"id":265,"date":"2010-12-06T22:04:47","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T17:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/?p=265"},"modified":"2011-01-29T12:33:31","modified_gmt":"2011-01-29T07:33:31","slug":"personal-and-organizational-development-some-maps-for-the-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/2010\/12\/personal-and-organizational-development-some-maps-for-the-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal and Organizational Development – Some Maps for the Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Douglas O’Loughlin – International Consultant on OD and Leadership Development<\/em><\/div>\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Most organisations and leaders are now facing higher levels of complexity, change, diversity, and uncertainty than ever before. \u00a0 \u00a0In these times, how can we help develop organisations and leaders so that they are less likely to get \u201cin over their heads\u201d, as Robert Kegan aptly named his 1994 book. \u00a0Kegan suggests that the demands of modern life are often mismatched with our order of consciousness or mental capacity.\u00a0How can we develop and expand our individual and collective \u201cagility\u201d, where new challenges and opportunities can be met with elegance and effectiveness?…<\/div>\n
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Two OD \u201cgurus\u201d are challenging us to re-look at development. \u00a0Bob Marshak, in \u201cIs there a new OD?\u201d, ponders what is different about OD in a postmodern world. \u00a0What impact does a socially constructed world have on life in organisations? \u00a0In the realm of leadership, Warren Bennis advocates for new models of leadership to be created, ones that better reflect the world we live in. \u00a0New models would provide new methodologies and roadmaps for expanded capacity for future success.<\/div>\n
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Developmental Psychology and Sensemaking Maps<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The field of developmental psychology offers some models of OD and leadership, with ideas on how to build their capacity in today’s environment. \u00a0 Kegan (1994) defines developmental psychology as a theory of the psychological evolution of meaning-making systems. \u00a0 Having a more evolved way of making sense of the world would increase a leader’s capacity to deal with higher levels of complexity, diversity, and uncertainty. \u00a0This could add a valuable dimension to leadership and organisation development.<\/div>\n
A more evolved sense-making system is a \u201cvertical\u201d journey, rising up to more expansive ways of seeing the world, like climbing a mountain to get a better view. \u00a0Most of the development in the world now is done on horizontal playing fields, with the intention that people will elevate to new heights. \u00a0 \u00a0But what if we had a map of the ascent, in order to raise the possibility of more expansive perspectives for the world we live in?<\/div>\n
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The field of developmental psychology offers a map of the territory, by identifying stages that people pass through on their development. \u00a0The further along a person is on the path, the more able they are to manage complexity and uncertainty, and the map provides direction for possible future growth. \u00a0 Once people are made aware of the map, they can choose to consolidate within their current stage and\/or to plan on how to begin their transition to a higher, or later, stage.<\/div>\n
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Origins of Developmental Theory<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The early days of developmental theory focused on children, and how they developed thinking abilities. \u00a0Jean Piaget pioneered child development stages. While he did not include stages for adulthood, it was the good start to the understanding of how humans develop.<\/div>\n
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Abraham Maslow introduced the idea of stages of adult development, with his hierarchy of needs. \u00a0While his theory is well-known throughout the world, there is little empirical evidence to support that his hierarchy reflected how adults actually develop. \u00a0Later, psychologists like Erik Erikson, Jane Loevinger, Lawrence Kohlberg, Clare Graves, and others, focused on researching and offering different frameworks to better explain the stages of adult development. \u00a0 They began to try to understand how some adults were able to develop to different levels of orienting themselves to their world and to their life. \u00a0Each of the researchers identified meaning-making systems, or stages, that are more effective in dealing with the complexities of life than the previous stages. \u00a0 These researchers all found that the stages unfold in a specific sequence, and that each stage transcends and includes the previous stages.<\/div>\n
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Bill Torbert brought developmental theory into leadership and organisation development with his 1987 book \u201cThe Corporate Dream\u201d. \u00a0He calls the process Action Inquiry. He writes that Action Inquiry is \u201ca way of simultaneously conducting action and inquiry, as a disciplined leadership practice that increases effectiveness\u201d (2004, p1). \u00a0 \u00a0Regardless of positional power, anyone can practice action inquiry. \u00a0 A diligent practice of Action Inquiry can expand a person’s Action Logic, which is described as a person’s strategies and schemas for reflecting on and making sense of their life experiences. \u00a0So the later and more developed a person’s Action Logic, the more effective they are in managing complexity.<\/div>\n
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Since 1987, a number of authors have written about stages of making sense of the world, and how it relates to leadership and organisations. \u00a0 To name a few, Kegan’s In Over Our Heads \u00a0(1994) includes a chapter on management; Beck and Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change(1996); Barrett’s \u00a0Liberating the Corporate Soul: Building a Visionary Organization (1998); and a number of books by Ken Wilber, including A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality (2001).<\/div>\n
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In the domain of Leadership Development, Bill Joiner and Steven Josephs built on the work of Torbert with what they call Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change (2007). \u00a0They say that being mindful about following a development plan can increase leadership agility, make a difference in the world, and help leaders enjoy the person they become in the process.<\/div>\n
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Action Inquiry and Action Logics – Stages of Development in Personal and Organisation Development.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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The book \u201cPersonal and Organization Transformations\u201d (Fisher, Rooke, and Torbert, 2003) speaks to our profession’s passion for supporting development and transformation. \u00a0Their work is being elaborated on here because of their focus on both personal and organizational shifts, within the context of organisations.<\/div>\n
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Torbert and David Rooke (2005) believe that leadership philosophy or styles are not as important as a leader’s stage of development, their \u201cAction Logic\u201d, in determining effectiveness in times of uncertainty. \u00a0The terms they use for the Action Logics, from the earlier to the later stage, are Impulsive, Opportunist, Diplomat, Expert, Achiever, Individualist, Strategist, Alchemist, and Ironist. \u00a0 \u00a0They also have done research that points to organizations needing someone with at least a \u201cstrategist\u201d action-logic on the team in order to transform itself.<\/div>\n
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They have also identified a parallel track for organisational development, and the stages are named Conception, Investments, Incorporation, Experiments, Systematic Productivity, Social Network, Collaborative Inquiry, Foundation Community of Inquiry, and Liberating Disciplines.<\/div>\n
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These Personal and Organisational stages (\u201caction logics\u201d) provide us another way of looking at how we orient ourselves to our work and our business. \u00a0With this developmental perspective, we can gain an extra view of our motivations, communications, and how we make decisions. \u00a0Individuals and Organisations do not operate at just one stage, but along a spectrum, so the framework allows for meaningful reflection for how much of our thinking and action is in the various action logics. \u00a0Aspirational questions like \u201cWhat would a Strategist or Alchemist do?\u201d or \u201cHow would a Foundational Community of Inquiry look at this?\u201d can help expand our thinking and actions to new levels.<\/div>\n
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Assessing Stages of Development<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Measuring someone’s complexity of thinking is in itself a complex process. \u00a0Creating valid and reliable ways of measuring a person’s current stage of development can be a challenge. \u00a0 \u00a0However, it is possible, and what follows are two reliable and valid methods.<\/div>\n
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Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey developed Subject-Object Interviews, which involve intensive interviews by a psychologist, to determine a person’s \u201corder of consciousness\u201d, on the developmental scale that Kegan developed. \u00a0The content of the messages in the interview are analysed in order to determine the stage of a person’s development.<\/div>\n
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Jane Loevinger developed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), a sentence completion form. Sentence completion forms are commonly used by psychologists, to measure various aspects of personality. \u00a0 Loevinger developed the WUSCT to measure stage of what she called \u201cego development\u201d. \u00a0The WUSCT has since been updated by Harthill Consulting and Suzanne Cook-Greuter, and renamed the Leadership Development Profile.<\/div>\n
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Both of these methods are labour-intensive, and require highly trained professionals to conduct.<\/div>\n
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Criticisms of Developmental Theory<\/strong><\/div>\n

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There are two main criticisms of developmental theory.<\/div>\n
One is that it can be considered as elitist, because later stages are considered \u201cbetter\u201d, and this can create people being judgemental. \u00a0 However, while operating at a later developmental stage is helpful in some contexts, there are many more competencies that go into being an effective organisation and leader. \u00a0 \u00a0Being at a later stage does not mean a person is a better human being, just that they have a more sophisticated sense-making system. \u00a0And effective leaders are only required to operate at a stage that matches the complexity of the environment they are working in, so later stages may not always be necessary.<\/div>\n
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A second criticism is the difficulty and\/or expense of assessing someone’s stage of development. \u00a0 \u00a0 However, maps can be useful, even if they are imperfect and even if a person is not 100% sure of where they are. \u00a0Or to adapt an old saying \u201cTell someone to keep moving ahead, and they may get lost. \u00a0 Give a person a map of the territory, and they at least know where they are going.\u201d \u00a0 I have facilitated many workshops where there is no assessment of the participant’s stages, and the impact has still been transformational. \u00a0 \u00a0There is a \u00a0\u201cpull factor\u201d that seems to get activated when people understand this fairly new view of the terrain of development.<\/div>\n
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Conclusion<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Albert Einstein said \u201cThe significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them\u201d. \u00a0If this is true, then purposefully transforming ourselves to later action logics (or using any other model of developmental psychology) will be useful for being effective in the future.<\/div>\n
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By presenting a developmental roadmap as part of leadership and organization development, we can decrease the chances of the leaders getting caught \u201cin over their head\u201d and increase the possibilities they can manage a world on increasing complexity, diversity, and uncertainty.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Douglas O’Loughlin – International Consultant on OD and Leadership Development Introduction Most organisations and leaders are now facing higher levels of complexity, change, diversity, and uncertainty than ever before. \u00a0 \u00a0In these times, how can we help develop organisations and leaders so that they are less likely to get \u201cin over their heads\u201d, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,2,4,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change-management","category-hr-management","category-management-and-leadership","category-organizational-development","post-preview"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdi.com.pk\/management\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}