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Featured Article: Why a book on Cognitive Development? by Otto Laske New IDM Website IDM in Europe, Summer 2007 Lucerne Lecture on Work Capability Konstanz Seminar on Developmental Coaching Berlin Seminar on Understanding Developmental Levels Academic Prospects IDM Fall/Winter Courses European Courses US Courses

FEATURED ARTICLE: “Why a Book on Cognitive Development?”

By Dr. Otto Laske
Director of Education, IDM

Cognitive development, the way in which people’s thinking develops over the life span, is mostly thought of as an arcane issue reserved for academia. It is indeed true that what we know about cognitive development is derived from academic research, but that doesn’t mean that it is inherently an ‘academic’ topic. The present state of affairs regarding cognitive development research is largely an artifact of developmental psychology itself, where one finds a happy mixing and merging of social-emotional and cognitive findings.

My goal in volume 2 is to show that by not separating both strands of adult development, one is actually delaying the appearance of good research about their exact relationship. Such research could also broaden the purview of coaching to a heretofore neglected dimension of client development.

As I am writing volume 2 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions, it becomes increasingly clear to me why cognitive development is never talked about in consultation and coaching, not even in ‘cognitive’ (really ‘cognitive-behavioral ‘coaching’). Mainly that is so because nobody has taken the trouble to pull together all the different findings about cognitive development that have accrued since about 1950, and ask him- or herself what they really mean for educating and supporting practitioners of consultation and coaching.

This, in fact, is one of the main reasons why I am writing volume 2. My goal is this volume is threefold:

• To present a comprehensive perspective on adult cognitive development derived from different traditions of cognitive research since 1950.
• To write a manual of the Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF) as a guide to how to refine adults’ thinking in cognitively-focused consultations.
• To teach cognitive interviewing in the real-world context of organizations in order to arrive at empirical data suited for feedback about how clients presently "think".

In the book, I bring together findings from the following researchers:

• Piaget’s studies in the development of formal logic
• Adorno’s philosophical studies in dialectics
• Bhaskar’s philosophical studies in dialectics
• Basseches’s empirical studies in dialectical thinking
• Bopp’s 1981 manual of Basseches’s ‘Dialectical Schema Framework’
• King and Kitchener’s research on stages of reflective judgment
• Jaques’s studies on the topics of ‘work’, ‘capability,’ and ‘requisite organization’
• Laske’s 1999 research on the cognitive profiles of six executives
• Laske’s course materials for module B of Program One.

From the “highest” point of view of cognitive development, I show why a lot of INNER WORK – work in the sense of Jaques – has to be done for a person to become a human being. This inner work often overshadows the “outer work” that shows up in performances and products, and life is “hard” because of this inner work that Hegel called “Anstrengung des Begriffs” (effort of the concept).

I see the human being work through four eras of cognitive development – Common Sense, Understanding, Reason, and Practical Wisdom – and of acquiring three different inquiring systems which, in the end, are synthesized in meta-systemic thinking.

My main hypothesis is that there are three different cognitive dimensions whose development follows different pathways:

• epistemic
• logical
• dialectical.

These dimensions become increasingly integrated in adult cognitive development. The first dimension has to do with reflective judgment about the limits and certainty of knowledge and truth, and is most closely linked to social-emotional development.

In fact, it mediates between both strands of adult development. Logical and dialectical dimensions are also closely linked since dialectical thinking grows out of formal logical thought, and logical thinking gives rise to dialectical thinking. They are constitutive of each other.

Thus, there is ample reason for separating social-emotional and cognitive development as two different strands of mental growth, and little justification for mixing and merging them as is done, for instance, in Loevinger’s, Kegan’s and Wilber’s work.

This holds true as well in a practical coaching and consulting perspective. In my own experience, 75% of client issues are conceptual issues and issues of limited perspective. Limited perspective may be linked to social-emotional disposition (it takes self-authoring to dare to ask certain questions …), but not necessarily. Client perspectives may also be limited because clients’ THINKING has not sufficiently advanced from purely logical to systemic, dialectical thought. There may be cognitive arrest or delay. This mostly shows in client’s limited ability to illuminate issuesfrom multiple perspectives, and synthesize them within a larger mental space. As a consequence, clients’ options as to what to do remain limited.

Once you have learned to distinguish speech content from structure, an entire new field of consulting opens up to you. You will listen to clients differently, and ‘hear’ new things. Listening from a broad overview of cognitive development over the lifespan, you can place clients into a landscape of increasing mental spaces.

Cognitively focused interviewing also enables you evaluate how far a client is aware of the limits of his/her pronouncements of truth, due to his/her epistemic position. In your feedback, you can therefore help clients see what their silent assumptions in formulating and approaching problems are, and the limits of those assumptions. More generally, with a comprehensive view of how people’s thinking matures over the life span, you are much better equipped for intervening with them right here and now. That’s because you have acquired an objective, research-based view of where they are going.

In sections II and III of volume 2, you are taught to distinguish speech content from logical structure in two different ways and find thought forms (patterns of thinking systemically) that your clients attempt to use in a weak form. There is a Manual for how to use the Dialectical Thought Form (DTF) Framework in consultation and coaching to open clients’ minds. Thought forms can be strengthened and made habitual in conversation if you know how to catch them and probe for them. Acquiring the ability of dialectical thinking (which is based on thought forms) strengthens all of your pursuits in life, whether they are cognitive or not.

New IDM Website

IDM’s www.interdevelopmentals.org website is finally receiving a complete overhaul and will be launched in its new form at the end of August 2007. A German translation of the website is planned for 2008. The website will be a storehouse of downloadable articles and international presentations on CDF, the Constructive-Developmental Framework.

The website contains informnation about:

• IDM's Services, including our 'just in time' Process Consultation and our Leadership Development Coaching services delivered by our certified IDM Associates
• IDM Methodology and supporting research
• Certificate Programs in Developmental Coaching and Assessment
• Course Schedule
• Publications and Resources including books, e-books

The driving force behind the overhaul is Greg Welstead, IDM’s Technical and Administrative Director. Thank you so much, Greg!

IDM in Europe, Summer 2007

Work at IDM is becoming increasingly known and well received in Europe, especially in the German-speaking countries. In June and July this year, Otto Laske was a guest speaker at the Hochschule für Wirtschaft Luzern, Switzerland. He also presented two seminars in German, one in Konstanz/Bodensee, close to the Swiss border, and the other in Berlin, Germany.

Otto’s lecture in Lucerne was geared to a new approach to work and work capability, with a focus on innovation in companies in central Switzerland. The lecture attracted nearly 100 people from all branches of business. The Economic University in Lucerne has begun thinking about integrating education in developmental thinking into the management curriculum, thanks to Prof. Simone Schweikert.

Konstanz

In the Konstanz Seminar, the constructive-developmental approach to ‘Entwicklungs-coaching’ was merged with a more phasic approach by Werner Vogelauer, known in the US through Daniel J. Levinson and Frederic Hudson. In this approach, physical age and social cohorts are in the center of attention, rather than the internal meaning making of adults. The Konstanz seminar was largely attended by consultants involved with coaching. It was taught as an integral part of Werner Vogelauer’s well-known Coaching Master Curriculum (www.trigon.at).

Berlin

The emphasis of the Berlin Seminar was on learning how to decode stages of social-emotional development from adult speech. The seminar was attended by psychologists and pedagogues (Dimplompsychologen und Diplompädagogen) working in business environments, including some psychotherapists. Due to Thomas Binder’s well-planned preparations, the Seminar took place directly on the famous Kurfürstendamm in the Center of Berlin, under the aegis of Systemics (www.systemics.net).

Academic Prospects

On concluding his tour, Otto entered into a first conversation with the German company Educationtrend AG. The company ‘s mandate is to innovate in management education and education management. As an investor and shareholder, Educationtrend is engaged in promoting the startup of new educational institutions in German-speaking countries. Future developments in regard to IDM’s collaboration with Educationtrend AG are expected later this year.

Fall 2007/Winter 2008 Courses

European Fall/Winter Courses 2007 (Gateway, Module A)

Instructor: Rainer v. Leoprechting

Rainer v. Leoprechting continues to hold physical, “vor Ort,” Gateway and Module A classes in Brussels, Belgium. In addition to the English speaking group, there are French speaking groups whose work will feed into the French translation of Measuring Hidden Dimensions volume 1 by Marie Garance Leroy, Basle, Switzerland.

The classes are held at 40 Washington St., 1050 Ixelles, Belgium, under the sponsorship of “ Europe’s Children – Our Concern” (ECOC asbl), an association of teachers and consultants focused on educational issues.

For further information, contact Rainer at rainer@gmail.com

European Fall/Winter Courses 2007 (Gateway)

Instructor: Sunil Ahuja

Beginning this Fall, IDMA Associate Sunil Ahuja, of Integral Transformation Systems, is teaching the IDM Gateway course, as noted below.

Duration: 12 hours: 6 sessions of 2 hours
Starting Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Time: 1pm – 3pm PDT
Tuition $540 (Including Measuring Hidden Dimensions Volume 1)

For further information, contact Sunil at sunil@integral-transformation.com or phone: (480) 314-1983.

IDM 2007 Fall/Winter Courses

Instructor: Dr. Otto Laske

All classes are recorded for subsequent listening.

Course Time Table

Course Descriptions

For course descriptions, see
www.interdevelopmentals.org/course-descriptions.html
www.interdevelopmentals.org/certificationcourses.html

or:
write to info@interdevelopmentals.org
call 781.391.2361, Otto Laske.

For keeping up to date on courses, subscribe to the IDM newsletter on the home page or go to www.interdevelopmentals.org/e-zine.html

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