This text by Otto Laske and Alessandro Rossi describes the use of the Constructive Developmental Framework as a culture transformation instrument. Pragmatic implementations of CDF are geared to strengthening dialectical thinking in groups, teams, committees, and coalitions, whether commercial, academic, political, or educational, with an eye on increasing collaborative intelligence. The focus of such work is placed intoplaying “dialectical thought games” in real time, targeting a real-world problem.
The authors think that innovation has to become commensurate with the challenges now arising from the human ability to transform nature (anthropocene). Accordingly, their call to action is focused on dialectical cognition, not psychology or social-emotional development. The main topics are:
- The need for a new concept of human being and of work
- Handling complexity in the anthropocene is not “business as usual”
- Moving from systems thinking to transformational (dialectical) thinking has become a societal necessity
- Human development needs social support in the zone of proximal development
- Innovation requires collaborative intelligence and maturity in teams