About Otto Laske

Otto Laske has a broad, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary background. He was raised in Europe, and studied philosophy and social research at the “Frankfurt School,” Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Dr. phil., 1966); computer music at the Instituut voor Sonologie, Utrecht, The Netherlands; and music composition as well as information processing psychology at New England Conservatory and Carnegie Mellon University, USA, respectively. Between 1992-95, Laske attended Harvard Graduate School of Education (“Kohlberg School”), and in 1999 submitted a second doctoral thesis, to Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, Boston, MA (Psy. D.).

As is true for his early mentor, Th. W. Adorno, Laske’s central interests have always been music and theory of knowledge. These two disciplines have schooled him in a deep kind of listening, whether to speech or instrumental-vocal and electronic sound. After professorships in music, Laske became a software and knowledge engineer. When engaged in organizational consultation on expert systems during the 1980s, Laske realized his lack of psychological knowledge of how people work. He therefore decided in the early 1990s to become a clinical-organizational psychologist. His clinical training in major Boston hospitals made evident the need for merging developmental and clinical know-how in work with individuals and organizations.

Based on his two-volume study of the adult-developmental effects of coaching on executives, in 2000 Laske established the Interdevelopmental Institute, where he has been educating an international study body ever since. Recently, Laske has consulted with Apple Computers, C5, and the European Commission, Brussels, using extensive prior consulting experience in Europe (1985-1992). In the U.S. as well as in Europe, he is considered a major author in developmental OD and coaching psychology, as well as a major teacher of developmental process consultation.