IDM Assessments Overview

Speaking about “adult development” is mere talk until it is backed up by actual assessment. Methods of developmental assessment were developed at Harvard University during the 1980s, especially by Kegan and Basseches, Laske’s teachers. Today, the Interdevelopmental Institute continues this assessment tradition, but for the sake of practical application, not primarily research. However, the methods of developmental assessment are adapted from the Harvard research tradition by Laske.

Most people think of assessment as a kind of “test”, but this is inaccurate. Developmental assessments are conversations. The difference between ordinary conversations — e.g., in coaching or consulting — and these IDM assessments lies in the fact that the latter are STRUCTURED, or better, semi-structured, conversations. This entails that each assessment interview follows the same paradigm and procedure, but adapted to the type of work as well as the personality of particular clients.

IDM assessments are based CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, and therefore are threefold; they comprise 2 developmental interviews and the answering of Y/N questions in the “Need/Press Questionnaire” (www.needpress.com) deriving from Henry Murray’s work on personality. The latter adds a purely psychological dimension to the IDM Assessment.

There are a number of reasons for the effectiveness of developmental assessments based on CDF:

  • Assessments deal with what clients are “subject to”, rather than in control of, and thus tap hidden dimensions that two know about increases self awareness.
  • Assessments distinguish between making sense, or *thinking*, and making meaning, and this distinction is of crucial importance for gaining insight into a person’s developmental position as well as daily functioning.
  • Assessments teach those assessed to look at their life and work in a more profound, longitudinal as well as snapshot, way, which often leads to new clarity about one’s wherewithal in one’s life.
  • For students of developmental theory, assessments are also the best way to understand how the Constructive Developmental Framework “works” since when being assessed they learn how to interview developmentally and think dialectically, not only in the cognitive interview.
  • There is a definite order in which CDF assessments are administered: the cognitive assessment interview comes first, the social-emotional second, while the Need/Press (psychological) questionnaire can be answered at any time. This happens by going to www.needpress.com, after being given Otto Laske’s consulting ID and signing in as a “client”. After you comlete the assessment, your assessor will receive your data and give feedback to you.

Assessment Procedure

1. In the first, cognitive, interview, you will be asked to speak about your work. In three steps, you will have an opportunity to think about:

  1. Your present function and responsibility at work
  2. Your work environment
  3. Your motivation for doing the work you do.

This tripartition is referred to as the “Three Houses”, or mental domains of your internal workplace, in contrast to your external workplace. The interview lasts 1 hr.

2. In the second, social-emotional, interview, you will be guided by verbal “prompts” selected by you that will focus a conversation about your life or work at the present time. Out of 10 prompts, about 3-4, at most 5, prompts will be used during an hour.

3. In the NP questionnaire, you will answer three sets of Y/N questions about your self conduct, way of approaching tasks, and interpersonal perspective (emotional intelligence). Your answers make it possible to draw up a psychological profile of your behavior and functioning at work.

4. Interviews will be evaluated or “scored” based on developmental theory by a CDF expert, and their findings will be used to write a feedback report for you. Once this report has been sent to you, you will meet with the CDF expert for a feedback session in which your results will be explained to you. You an ask any questions that come to mind.

5. Before you can receive such a report, you will sign an “Interview Agreement” assuring you that the interview and questionnaire data are entirely confidential and will be shared with others only with your consent, and then only in a form that does not do harm to you. To assure confidentiality is the biggest part of the assessor’s responsibility and obligation to you.

6. If you want to be coached based on your assessment data, you can let the CDF assessor know about it, and s(he) will further advise you.

For More Information


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