in this issue

Call for IDMA Interns Unique accelerated training and business opportunity Featured Article #1: Human Resources Issues in European Public Administrations Featured Article #2: Action Learning and Cognitive Development New Review of Measuring Hidden Dimensions, by Prof. David Clutterbuck Volume 2 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions Now in Progress In-house Strategic Thinking Workshop IDM Summer/Fall Offerings Position Yourself As a Developmental Coach in Seven Easy Steps (July 20 & September 13, 2006) Step Through the Gateway (September 14, 2006)

CALL FOR IDMA INTERNS

In light of plans for the automation of IDM developmental assessments, Interdevelopmental Associates Inc. (IDMA), the association of graduates of the Interdevelopmental Institute, is seeking Interns with the following qualifications:

• Experience in behavioral assessments and their interpretation
• Strong interest in developmental assessment of adults’ social-emotional and cognitive profile
• Familiarity with assessments and evaluation projects in large organizations, e.g., using MBTI, Enneagram, Personality assessments, 360 Feedback assessments, Score-carding
• OD and HR strategy background preferred
• Psychometric background preferred
• M.Sc. or MBA or Ph.D. preferred

Interns will engage in rigorous accelerated training in modules A and B of IDM’s Program One, and will deliver an IDM case study at the end of the training. Within 4 rather than 8 months, Interns will accumulate 64 credit hours through teleclasses and between-session homework with ‘buddies'. This training will enable Interns to partake of a large research and consulting project carried out by IDMA starting in 2007, that will develop an Internet-based Capability Management System. The project will be carried by a Consortium composed of three parties:

1. Laske and Associates LLC and IDMA Inc.
2. A large software developer with strong experience in e-testing, e-learning, and e-management, especially of human resources
3. A multicultural group of user-developers (first adopters) who fund the project and also provide needed assessment subjects.

Interns who commit to the full module A/B training will receive a discount and intense coaching and mentoring in developmental assessment. International students are most welcome. The internship comprises training and assessment. Otherwise costing $3,350 USD, it is offered to Interns for the price of $2,750 USD, a $600 USD discount. Beyond the training itself, this is a high-benefit offer since it opens new career and business development options for Interns within and outside of IDMA Inc.

If interested in applying for an IDMA internship, please write to Otto Laske, Managing Partner, IDMA, at otto@interdevelopmentals.org.

Recommendations of potential candidates are highly welcome.

Issues in European Public Administration: An International Conference

By Otto Laske

In the middle of June, an international gathering of public administrators and business school scholars was held in Aix-en-Provence (where I delivered a keynote). For the first time, a large of group of people from the USA attended, both practitioners and teachers/scholars. The spread of experts was very broad. (I listened, e.g., to an MD from Loma Lina, CA, and the chief of fire service in San Bernadino, CA.) The topic was “post-bureaucratic management", another term for “agile” management in public organizations.

Rather than to revolutionize public administrations, the central theme of the conference was how to adapt public institutions to the rapidly changing societal environment all over the globe. Attendees came from Ireland, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Trinidad, the US, Canada, Japan, France, Belgium The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland.

The following issues were at the center of attention:

• Capacity of public administrations for change
• Developing future skills
• Commitment to innovation
• Quality of the working life
• Strategic planning
• Citizens as 'clients' of public administrations
• Monitoring and controlling service quality
• Developing competencies in the international arena
• Mixture of government styles and resulting internal conflicts
• Community empowerment
• Application of private sector methodologies to government.

What stood out for me was a high awareness of the relationships between human needs, technology, and organizational structures put in place for public governance. In the HR arena, this translated to strong concerns about the quality of the working life, and for a better understanding of how to improve public services for all people regardless of race.

In focus in many of the contributions was “the workplace of the future” as well as the strength of the network between public institutions and citizens. This was highlighted by contributions to the topic of so-called “high-reliability organizations" — the question of what can happen when communal and federal institutions fail in catastrophic circumstances ("natural" disasters like Hurricane Katrina, wildfires, etc.)

Overall, there seemed to be an absence of good ways of assessing leadership and talent. It is in this regard that the contribution of IDM stood out, according to participants.

Ways of Improving Graduate Programs in Public Administration

By Otto Laske

Volume 2 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions will again focus on process consultation, with particular attention paid to action learning (including team coaching). The thoughts below anticipate some of the issues to be discussed in the volume, subtitled "The Art and Science of Dialectical Action Learning". (‘Dialectical’ is in contrast to ‘formal logical’ thinking.)

There are many tools and practices of the kind of ‘learning by doing’ that is often called Action Learning. To believe books and websites, action learning is about optimizing productivity, by aligning people’s motivations in a participatory environment. The emphasis is on how teams solve problems, less often on how teams conceptualize problems in the first place.

To follow the outline of Prof. Steven Eson’s innovative course on Research in Public Administration at Roger Williams University, the essential elements of action learning are:

• A problem
• The group
• The questioning and reflecting process
• The commitment to taking action
• The commitment to learning
• The coach.

In the center of attention are a common understanding of the problem to be solved, and a shared vision of short-range and long-range solutions to what is considered to be ‘the problem'. To bring about such understanding and vision, a coach is considered essential.

In my view, an action learning coach must have a good understanding of the differences in developmental maturity of team members, and their social-emotional and cognitive complementarities. As shown in volume 2, the coach must also be able to assess team members’ failure to think beyond the formal logical level, that is, to grasp complexity. Such a coach must be able to help trigger synergies that stem from the gaps of understanding that are part and parcel of a team whenever different developmental cultures — stages 3 & 4 & 5 — coalesce. In this circumstance, the developmental team typology developed by IDM on the basis of social-emotional stage theory is highly useful. The typology distinguishes “upwardly” and “downwardly” divided stage-2, -3, -4 four teams, depending on the maturity of the majority of members. Where such a typology can be assessed and openly discussed, team synergy is enhanced.

Clearly, a crucial component of action learning is “the questioning and reflecting process” by which team members and coach establish, approach, solve, and reflect upon a problem, whether in public administration or the private sector. We can picture this reflection process as a feedback loop as shown by the diagram below (adapted from S. Stewart, HRDC, private communication 2005):

In this diagram, the central notion is that people take action based on their Frame of Reference. FOR which is much more complex than this or that 'expertise' or 'skill'. It encompasses both horizontal (behavioral) and vertical (developmental) components. The knowledge that underlies a person’s FOR is a synthesis of how, and on what cognitive level, team members perceive and learn, and how and on what level they make meaning and sense of their experiences with the 'problem' at hand.

For instance, a "downwardly divided stage-3 team", which is composed of a majority of 'other-dependent' (stage-3) members and a minority of members at or near self-authoring (stage 4) will find it difficult to act based on principles, preferring to follow consensus. Such a team will have divided loyalties toward the members functioning at higher developmental levels, and will tend to get involved in the interpersonal, rather than the actual, task process (to speak with E. Schein). Because of this, the work envisioned may not get done, or only haltingly.

As this implies, there is a lot to be gained when Action Learning links up with developmental assessment and listening. For the coach that entails: improve your developmental listening! This is a new topic for public administration programs, but no more so than for private sector management education.

Book Review: Measuring Hidden Dimensions Vol. 1, by Prof. D. Clutterbuck, Clutterbuck Associates.

International Review of Coaching and Mentoring, UK
Reprinted with permission of the Editor, Prof. Bob Garvey

Author: Otto E. Laske

It’s not often that I read a book on coaching twice in rapid succession. Indeed, there are a lot of books on coaching that I give up on before I’ve even read them once, because they are trite, uninformative or unhelpful. Otto Laske’s Measuring Hidden Dimensions is without doubt the densest, most difficult book on coaching I have ever worked through. It is almost impossible to read in other than short, repeated chunks. Its compelling, well-structured arguments and practical examples place the book well into my top ten for relevance, depth and usefulness.

Laske’s basic argument is that both coaches and their clients are adults, who have achieved a level of maturity in both their cognitive and socio-emotional development. The higher the level of maturity the coach has reached, the wider the range of their potential to help – as long as they are able to recognise and work with the client’s own level of maturity. An unrecognised mismatch of maturity level is likely to place severe restraints on the coach’s ability to help and the opportunities for the client to use the learning relationship to make significant progress in their thinking and behaviour.

The core of the book (the first in a planned series aimed at helping coaches build their competence in assessing and working with their own and their clients’ developmental levels) is a detailed analysis of how to assess how a client constructs his or her view of the world. Building on the work of Robert Kegan (1982) and Ed Schein (1999), Laske deconstructs the five known levels of human development, with particular emphasis on the three highest levels, which relate to adulthood. These levels differ in how people view others, how much self-insight they have, the nature of the values they hold, the predominant needs they feel, their need to control their environment, and how they perceive their roles in organizations.

The role of the coach, in this analysis, involves helping the client move from one level to another, so that they can tackle their issues with greater maturity and perspicacity. Moving between levels involves subsets of thinking patterns, in which they may be partly resident in one level and partly in the next highest. The spread of the client’s maturity provides clues as to the sub-level in which they are currently grounded.

Laske examines these transitions through discussion of the theory, followed by detailed conversations, in which the reader is invited to work out for himself or herself what levels are represented by the client’s statements. In effect, he provides a template for effective listening, with the purpose of identifying significant language and assessing what each significant statement indicates about the maturity of the client’s thinking. He presents a pragmatic system of ordering these assessments, which helps the coach establish the client’s “centre of gravity” (the level of maturity they are currently grounded in), the risk (where they may slip back into less mature thinking) and the potential (what sub-level they could move up to as their next centre of gravity).

As an introduction to the subject, Measuring Hidden Dimensions does not give all the answers in the sense of teaching coaches how to structure their conversations with clients, who are at a particular developmental level. Nor does it provide much guidance to the coach, who wants to raise his or her own developmental level. It also skirts around the ethical issues. For example, is it possible and appropriate to be an effective supervisor of coaches, without being at least one level above them, except when both are at the highest level of development? Should the accreditation of coaches depend in part on an impartial assessment of their developmental level, to ensure that they operate within the bounds of that level?

Typographical errors and a rather limited index are minor irritants, but they do not detract from the intensity and value of the book as a whole.

In short, Laske’s stimulating book opens up a can of worms for the coaching profession as a whole. There will be many practising coaches, who will wish this topic had never been raised and – I hope – many others, who will embrace the concepts enthusiastically.

David Clutterbuck
Clutterbuck Associates
Burnham, Bucks, UK

References

Kegan, R (1982) The evolving self, Cambridge, MA, Harvard
Schein, E (1999) Process consultation revisited, Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley

Post scriptum of IDM: The readers of Measuring Hidden Dimensions should note that the book is best used by following it up with taking courses at IDM. Without such follow up, no more than a superficial acquaintance with the book’s concepts can be achieved, in our experience.

More Measuring Hidden Dimensions book reviews.

A Peek at Volume 2 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions

As the impact of volume 1 of MHD is gradually being felt in the coaching world (see D. Clutterbuck’s review in this issue), the sequel of the book, on cognitive development, is already in the making. The idea of volume 2 is simple: to detail the impact of cognitive development of adults on the helping professions as being on a par with that of social-emotional development.

Curiously, although both strands of adult development have a strong impact on the work of the helping profession, the connection between social-emotional and cognitive maturation has never been made a topic of instruction in the helping professions. Not only the differences in temporal progression between these two strands, but also their difference in nature has not been taken seriously.

One reason for this is that in recent times the two lines along which adults develop are always being lumped together, under various headings such as “competence,” “personality,” even “motivation” and “spirituality.” While it is true that any doing or decision is informed by both lines, one cannot truly gauge their impact if one does not conceptually separate them, assess them separately, and follow their respective trajectory across time.

Since the subject matter is complex, volume 2, on cognitive development, has different layers. The outer layer is a framework for understanding the progression of human thinking. This progression is charted in five steps that lead from Common Sense (largely perception based) to Practical Wisdom (based on intuition). The progression looks like this:

where the crucial transition is that from Understanding to Reason. Understanding relies on formal logical thinking, while Reason relies on “dialectical” thought forms (TFs). These TFs are taught in volume 2 (and module B of IDM Program One) as the basis of cognitive coaching and mentoring, or working with clients to improve the way they MAKE SENSE of the world. This centrally involves helping clients adopt ‘divergent’ thinking, written about in many books.

The second layer of the book is focused on spelling out what TFs are, and how they are used in transitioning from Understanding to Reason. The book teaches “dialectical listening” to enable process consultants (incl. coaches) to zero in on how clients conceive of what is REAL for them, and give them feedback on how they are doing in coping with the complex realities in life and/or organizations from a “thinking” point of view.

The third layer of the book deals with the transition from Reason to Practical Wisdom, where coaching, action learning, and organizational development centrally take place. The main idea is that your practice will be only as good as is your thinking, and no better. Chris Argyris has broadly addressed this topic behaviorally under the rubric of “Model II learning" and volume 2 can be read as a further explication of his ideas, as well as those of Senge and Jaques. The difference is that vol. 2 is about assessment, and thus precise.

New Courses, Summer/Fall 2006

Position Yourself as a Developmental Coach in Seven Easy Steps

This course combines an elementary introduction to both Modules A and B of IDM Program One. That is to say, participants are familiarized with developmental listening for social-emotional stages (Module A) as well as introduced to how clients’ way of thinking directly influences the problems they see and bring forward in consultation and coaching (Module B).

As a result, participants gain:

• An understanding of the framework of 15 adult-developmental stages that determine how clients make meaning of their world.
• An understanding of what happens if the consultant/coach functions at a lower developmental level than the client.
• Deeper insight into coaching ethics.
• An understanding of how ‘dialectical’ Thought Forms can be used by the consultant/coach to prompt clients into adopting more divergent thinking.
• A better grasp of how gaps between social-emotional and cognitive development can lead to professional problems.

IDM experience shows that being assessed developmentally oneself during or after the course considerably increases learners’ effectiveness as coaches. Such assessments are available, and described in detail under www.interdevelopmentals.org/assessments.html.

Step Through the Gateway

If you want to be introduced to developmental stages, or else gain access to higher-level courses in Program One, this well-known class is right for you. Be prepared for a transformational experience as you learn to look in on yourself from the outside, so to speak, and gain a first glimpse of what it means to listen developmentally. You’ll discover that the social world is developmentally stratified, in ways not corresponding to age and education. This will make you savvier and more professional than a lot of other people.

IN-HOUSE STRATEGIC THINKING WORKSHOPS

Starting June 1, 2006, IDM presents in-house Strategic Thinking Workshops for Managers, at a time and place convenient for the particular client. The workshops are delivered by Otto Laske together with Leslie Hilton, PhD MCC.

The Strategical Thinking Workshop introduces Managers to new ways of thinking about their work, its preconditions and consequences. The Workshop is preceded by a cognitive assessment focusing on the manager’s present tasks and roles, as well as view of the organization. Feedback is given to workshop participants during and after the workshop, with subsequent coaching. Two different workshops are available:

Executive Managers are introduced to a practice-oriented version of IDM Module B, for the purpose of making them aware of their present thinking “patterns” and “predilections.” They are taught to listen to themselves and others “dialectically,” by making explicit the processes, contexts, and relationships that are involved and/or implied in their strategic deliberations, prior to and after making decisions. In this way, breakthroughs in thinking may occur that lead to divergent thinking in approaching organizational problems.

Following the workshop, IDM experts will give feedback on participants’ assessment outcomes, workshop performance, and cognitive potential, and will coach participants in implementing what was learned.

Line Managers will be given the opportunity to solve more “immediate” problems in their daily work, including issues of working with, and coaching, employees. They will be given specific problems whose nature will not be disclosed to them prior to workshop sessions. Rather, they will have to improvise on a particular case, and will report to the instructors to explain and justify their procedures. Feedback will then be given in the immediate context of managers’ reports to the group of participants.

For details, contact the Director of Education, Dr. Otto Laske, otto@interdevelopmentals.org.

Register for the In-House Strategic Thinking Workshop

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