Blog
Advanced Systems-Level Dialectical Problem-Solving: The next level in system analysis for Think Tanks, Intelligence Agencies, Governments, Corporate Prediction, and Long-term Planning
Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Courses, Culture Critique, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps, Digitization of human resources, Distributed leadership, integral thinking, irrealist social theories, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, one-on-one mentoring, Psychological Dimension, Self Study Materials, Social Ontology
Those interested in dialectical thinking will be pleased to know that Otto Laske’s volume 2 of ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’ of 2008 has been thoroughly revised and is in the process of becoming available again in the form of a three-part monograph under the title of this blog. The title does justice to the fact...
Re-Print of the German Translation of Volume 1 of ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’
Book Publication, Deutsch, News
Volume 1 of ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’, on social-emotional development, first appeared in 2005 under the ‘IDM Press’ imprint. Its German translation was recently re-issued by Wolfgang Pabst Science Publisher, Germany, under the title of ‘Humanpotenziale wecken, erkennen, und messen’. The translation into German is by Rainer v. Leoprechting who was one of the first to...
The Osaka Interviews About CDF, The Constructive Developmental Framework
Articles by Otto Laske, Self Study Materials
Interest in Constructive Developmental Framework is growing. Recently, we were invited to give an overview of CDF for members of the ‘Entrepreneur Factory’, Osaka, Japan. The attached set of slides is a new introduction to the historical sources of CDF, its main hypotheses, and the way it is used. How to become a user of...
Insights Into Spirituality Based on CDF
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Spirituality
The topic of ‘spirituality’ has a huge literature. Empirical findings about it are rare. We looked at spirituality from an adult-developmental perspective and, using a semi-structured interview, came to some interesting conclusions. The interview is modeled after the social-emotional interview that is based on prompts. If you, the reader, find our conclusions to be of...
IDM Practica in Dialectical Thinking
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Culture Critique, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Social Ontology, Uncategorized
When it comes to acquiring developmental and dialectical thinking, “philosophies of the mind”, “theories”, and “world views” are insufficient. They are all abstractions that can be moved around like pieces of furniture, and in dazzling ways. What matters are PRACTICES based on them, and such practices require METHODS. The Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), which includes...
A Description of IDM’s Program For Acquiring Fluency in Using CDF Tools
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Culture Critique, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, integral thinking, Social Ontology, Team Development, Workshops
The IDM program that leads to fluency in the use of CDF tools, now 20 years old, has unusual features that set them apart from other professional offerings. Among these features are: (1) professional learning closely linked to personal self-development, (2) comprehensive introduction into developmental and dialectical thinking, (3) exercises set in social contexts that...
Otto Laske Poetry Publication ‘Silesian Language Smithy’ (Schlesische Sprachschmiede) in a Bilingual Edition at Amazon
Lyric Poetry
Those who know Otto Laske as a social scientist, composer, and visual artist will be interested to see at Amazon, that his early German poetry has appeared in a bilingual edition at Frieling Verlag, Berlin, Germany. The translation of the work into English is the author’s own; it carries the title ‘Silesian Language Smithy’. (Those...
Architectural Work as Environment Making: Why Should Architects Acquire Tools Comprised by CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework?
Articles by Otto Laske, Consulting, Culture Critique, Dialectical Thinking, Social Ontology, Team Development
Professional work is typically viewed as based on ‘expert’, that is, logical knowledge and systems thinking. I show in this blog that such a view is mistaken since it encourages doing professional work within the confines of closed systems geared to efficiency and control. In the blog, I see such systems as self-serving and ideological...
CDF: A Social Science Framework for Understanding Human Agency
Articles by Otto Laske, Culture Critique, integral thinking, irrealist social theories, meta-thinking, Social Ontology
In a presentation to the Center of Applied Dialectics of December 2021, made available in this blog, I share my recent thoughts about CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, as an integral component of social ontology, established by R. Bhaskar and M. Archer since 1975. Rather than following conventional notions of “developmental theory” as a stand-alone...
Toward a Critical Realist Management and Consulting Framework Based on CDF
Articles by Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Workshops
In this article, Otto Laske emphasizes the lack of a social ontology in present managerial and consultative thinking. Such a discipline helps social and cultural actors understand the antecedent social and cultural structures their concerns and projects are embedded in, as well as strengthen the likelihood that executing their projects will come as close as...
The Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF) as a Consulting Tool for Solving (Social) Structure/Agency Dilemmas
Articles by Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking, Uncategorized
In the book and consulting project sketched in this blog, Otto Laske shows how to facilitate societal transformations by elaborating Margaret Archer’s work on “Structure, Agency, and Internal Conversations” (2003). He thereby extends both Bhaskar’s “The Possibility of Naturalism” (1979) and Archer’s work into dialectical practice. To deepen Archer’s logical approach, Laske introduces adult-developmental and...
How to Obtain Otto Laske’s Social Science Writings
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication
Otto Laske’s contributions to social-science, process consultation, and the teaching of & mentoring in developmental and dialectical thinking and listening extend from 1999 to the present day. While his two books on ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’ are presently out of print, they are available in their newest edition under Publications () as pdf. In addition, almost...
CDF: The Latest Reworking of the Adult Developmental Literature of the Harvard Kohlberg School
Book Publication, CDF Mentoring, Self Study Materials
As time elapses, research findings get updated, consolidated, and what was originally left out or stayed unseen is clarified. An example of this historical process is CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework created by Otto Laske between 1999 and 2000. 25 years after Kohlberg School research began, CDF brought together what this research separated or left...
Steps Toward Developing a Dialectical Thinking Practice: The Structure of the IDM Dialectics Practicum
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Culture Critique, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, meta-thinking, Uncategorized, Workshops
The way we encounter the world is anchored in our ways of attending to it. They not only change the relationship we have to the world we unceasingly construct; they also fundamentally determine the world we encounter. Thinking in language when untutored in dialectical linking puts us under the control of left-hemisphere, logical, thinking, —...
From “Organizational Development” to Self-Development: An Insiders’ View of the IDM Dialectical Thinking Practicum
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Culture Critique, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, education, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Uncategorized, Workshops
Self-development, in capitalistic society a mere appendix of professional education for the sake of playing an organizational role, is increasingly making a comeback as a personal goal. This come-back seemed out of the question until recently, being an outcome of attempts to consciously reverse the demise of liberal education by which universities reduced themselves to...
An Intense Five-Month Practicum in Dialectical Thinking
CDF Mentoring, Courses, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Workshops
Increasingly, the issues on which the survival of our civilization depends are ‘wicked’ in the sense of being more complex than logical thinking alone can make sense of and deal with. Needed is not only systemic and holistic but dialectical thinking to achieve critical realism. Dialectical thinking has a long tradition both in Western and...
Twenty Years IDM: Tribute to Otto Laske
CDF Mentoring, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, meta-thinking, Uncategorized
On September 17, 2020, 110 professionals from 35 countries met to pay tribute to the power of developmental and dialectical thinking as taught at the Interdevelopmental Institute by Otto Laske. 15 practitioners of international provenance spoke about how the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), established by Otto Laske in 1998-1999, has been instrumental in their professional...
A Guide to Listening in Meetings Based on DTF
Articles by Otto Laske, Audio, Book Publication, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Uncategorized
In this 2nd “inspiration session” regarding the book “Practices of Dynamic Collaboration”, Jan De Visch and Otto Laske focus on what DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework, can teach a person or group about enlarging and deepening their ‘internal workplace’ through thought-form based listening. Thought forms are shown to be more than simply conversation starters...
Applying Bhaskar’s Four Moments of Dialectic to Reshaping Cognitive Development as a Social Practice using Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF)
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Consulting, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Team Development, Uncategorized, Workshops
In this chapter for volume 2 of Meta-Theory dedicated to the memory of Bhaskar, delayed in its publication since 2014 and forthcoming at Routledge at the end of 2020, I outline a dialectical epistemology and CDF teaching method for absorbing Bhaskar’s legacy into integral thinking. I do so since both are presently absent from the...
Increasing the collaborative intelligence of teams by using deep dialogue practices
1-year leadership program, Book Publication, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Uncategorized
Team collaboration has become a pivot of organizational success. If people had an intuitive awareness of the structure of their thinking, team work would be a lot more effective since a greater mutual understanding and decision making would prevail. Such an awareness being absent, what meta-cognitive strategies can we use to heighten such an awareness?...
Manifesto against Taylorism
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske
This manifesto decries the ‘terrible’ simplifications that tayloristic managment theories colonizing HR inflict upon the capabilities of human beings working in organizations. See for yourself how little of being human remains when you reduce human capabilities to mere competences and then ask contributors to add value for others than themselves. This manifesto consists of the...
Practices of Dynamic Collaboration: Book Introduction Session with Jan De Visch
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Uncategorized
In this slide set, the co-authors introduce their just launched book entitled ‘Practices of Dynamic Collaboration’, Springer 2020. Book Discovery Session May 2020 OL
On some crucial issues in adult-developmental theory
Articles by Otto Laske, Uncategorized
In this essay, i make the case that a new theory of adult development is needed that is no longer a one-sidedly ‘left-hemisphere’ enterprise. By this annotation I refer to the bi-hemispheric structure of the human mind. Specifically, in this essay I assert that a theory of adult development fails for 2 main reasons: (1)...
The Day After — From Connection Crisis to Collaborative Intelligence
Articles by Guests, Book Publication, Consulting, Nature of Work
Consultants who have absorbed the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) are used to developing a big picture view of society, addressing in their thinking issues of societal importance. One of these professionals is my colleague Jan De Visch who has worked with CDF for more than a decade. Jan’s focus has recently been what he chose...
Developmental Process Consultation in the Age of Agility: Reflections on the Critical Facilitation of Agile Functioning in Organizations
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Uncategorized
One sunny day, the term ‘agility’ woke up and realized it had become a virus. It no longer knew whether it meant a human capability, an organizational characteristic, or both, and what to make of them … It also wondered how to combat the pandemic its human carriers had unleashed. What kind of helpers would...
Living Through Four Eras of Cognitive Development (2012)
Articles by Otto Laske
I came upon an earlier piece of writing of mine entitled as above and thought it might be worth pointing to. It was published in Integral Leadership Review, and is found at Here I only republish the article’s abstract. My interest in this article of 8 years ago was renewed by reading Iain McGilchrist’s “The...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section VI: German Writings (2004-2019), Texts and Slides
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Courses, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Nature of Work, Presentations, Team Development, Uncategorized, Workshops
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section V: Writings (2015-2019) on DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Uncategorized
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section IV: Writings (2010-2017) on CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Culture Critique, Nature of Work, Wprk Design Methodology
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section III: Teaching Slides (2005-2016) on Developmental and Cognitive Coaching
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Distance Learning Course, education, Presentations, Teleseminars, Uncategorized, Workshops
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section II: Writings (2004-2009) on Developmental Coaching
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Developmental Coaching, Uncategorized
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Laske Social Science Archive, Section I: Writings (2000-2003) on Requisite Organization and HR ‘Meta-Enablers’
Articles by Otto Laske, Nature of Work, Presentations, Teleseminars, Uncategorized, webinar
The Laske Social Science Archive gathers Otto Laske’s writings on organizations written between 1999 and 2019, many of which have retained their value vis a vis new fashions of management thinking. Its sections are numbered chronologically. The Archive makes available both texts and slides, the latter for pedagogical purposes. The articles gathered are bundled according...
Announcement of the ‘Otto Laske Archive of Social Science’, Parts 1 and 2
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Deutsch, Dialectical Thinking, Uncategorized, Workshops
Over the next month, due to increasing demand, Otto Laske will make available a large number of his unpublished social-science papers on this site. The majority of papers is unpublished, but some important papers published more than 10 years ago will also be made available. Only very few papers are incomplete. The Archive is divided...
Three Founding Documents of IDM, The Interdevelopmental Institute
1-year leadership program, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Nature of Work, Uncategorized
This year, the Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM) turns 20. Conceived of as a virtual teaching, consulting, and coaching institute, it has outlasted 2 decades of neglect of the cognitive dimension of life as well as work, today the focus of ‘cognitive coaching’ and/or ‘critical facilitation’. Over 20 years, the institute has educated close to 100 individuals...
Going to the Root of Establishing Collaborative Intelligence: The Quality of Dialogue
Dialectical Thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development
For anybody who has worked with teams or larger groups — including teams thinking of themselves as ‘agile’ — it’s clear that team members don’t often consider that what ultimately makes them ‘agile’ is the quality of their dialogue. The importance of real-time dialogue has to do with the fact that thinking precedes action, and...
Chapter Abstracts, Practices of Dynamic Collaboration, Springer 2020, by De Visch & Laske
Book Publication, CDF Team Typology, Coaching, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development, Uncategorized
In this new publication, the authors extend their thinking about the adult-developmental foundations of organizational work beyond their 2018 book on collaboration, by putting their focus on 5 specific organizational practices that together constitute the mainstay of organizational work. They directly address managers’ thinking at three successively higher levels, providing them with a large number...
Grundlagen potenzial-orientierter Unternehmen: Einleitung in Dialektisches Denken in Organisationen
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Team Development, Uncategorized, Workshops
Attached to this blog, the reader will find a set of slides presented in a workshop held in Vienna, Austria, in February of 2019, for a company called Four Dimensions Consulting. It was the purpose of the workshop to introduce a German-speaking audience to the cognitive-developmental dimension of organizational work, especially team work. The workshop...
Cognitive Coaching as a Tool for Building Enabling Environments in Distributed-Leadership Organizations: An Introduction to the Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF)
Assessment, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development, Uncategorized
In the set of slides attached to this blog, the reader finds my presentation on cognitive coaching of January 2019, presented to a London consulting firm, MDV. The purpose of my workshop was to teach consultants a new form of developmental assessment and, based on it, of developmental thinking that is increasingly in demand in...
A Social-Emotional Team Typology for Self-Organizing Organizations
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Developmental Coaching, Nature of Work, Team Development, Workshops
Teams are increasingly in focus as carriers of corporate culture. Collaboration and self-organization have become key- and buzzwords. New notions of what makes an organization ‘humane’ relative to A.I. and other kinds of ‘business software’ are emerging, but, alas, without an understanding of levels of adult development, thus without the possibility to differentiate in pragmatic...
How Mature is Your Team?: Learn How to Find Out in the Set of Slides Below.
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Developmental Coaching, Team Development
More and more, teams carry the organizational workload. The extent and quality of their collaboration is becoming a focus of practical and theoretical attention. However, a developmental theory of teams, whether social-emotional or cognitive, does not exist. What is clear is that the hidden (= developmental) dimensions of team performance are now defining companies’ competitive...
New Book by Jan De Visch and Otto Laske: Practices of Dynamic Collaboration
Articles by Guests, Book Publication, Dialectical Thinking, Digitization of human resources, Nature of Work, Team Development, Uncategorized
In this new book to be published by Springer in the Spring of 2020, the authors deepen insights shared in ‘Dynamic Collaboration’ (2018) focusing on the adult-developmental foundations of 5 crucial organizational practices. A brief outline of the structure and content of the new book is posted below, together with pertinent contact information. The central...
An Artificially Intelligent CDF Coach: Considerations regarding App-Based Executive Coaching
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking
In this blog, I briefly sketch a coaching app based on CDF. I detail an elementary design of the app and outline its purpose, function, and main benefits. Since learning CDF through workshops takes dedication and a level of concentration rare in present times, the blog suggests that: (a). learning to build apps for CDF-based...
Exploring Movements-in-Thought: The Experiential and Historical Roots of Qualitative Data Acquisition in the Constructive Developmental Framework.
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Uncategorized
The blog reviews the personal, experiential and historical, roots of the Constructive Developmental Framework as a tool for systematically exploring movements-in-thought through empirical data capture in real time. Its main purpose is to highlight the need for establishing a systematic training sequence geared to educating critical facilitators working in organizations and institutions, for the sake...
Laske’s ‘Transformative Effects of Coaching on Executives’ Professional Agendas’ (1999)
Assessment, Book Publication, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension
This blog contains a downloadable copy of Laske’s Psy.D. dissertation of 1999 (2 volumes). The thesis was submitted to William James College, Newton, MA. Readers were Robert Kegan, Ph.D., of Harvard Graduate School of Education; Samual Moncata, Ph.D., of William James College, Newton, MA. (then called ‘MA School of Professional Psychology’); and Tim Hall, Ph.D,...
How to teach managers to think: A testimony
Articles by Guests, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Psychological Dimension
In this article, Jan De Visch reviews experiences he has made as a Critical Facilitator when working with teams in organizations (see his work at www.connecttransform.be). Jan’s gift of deep thinking makes him a very good listener who can intervene in team conversations because he “hears” and “understands” their thought form structure in the sense...
On the Difficulty of Letting Thinking ‘Appear’
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Uncategorized
In this blog, I draw conclusions from two previous blogs, found at and , both focused on teaching and learning dialectical thinking. I show that teaching dialectical thinking needs to address, and draw practical conclusions from, the distinction between ‘thinking’ and ‘cognition’, seen as counter-movements between the four moments of dialectic, CPRT, in the sense...
Balancing Dialogue and Text Analysis in Teaching Dialectical Thinking
1-year leadership program, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course
In this blog, I problematize the question of how to teach dialectical thinking effectively in a world experienced as ‘VUCA’. Specifically, I summarize my experience with teaching DTF at the Interdevelopmental Institute, with a focus on educating Critical Facilitators. Thought Form Theories def
Making a Cognitive Case Study Following the IDM Cohort Method
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps, Nature of Work, Uncategorized
There is, at the present time, an enormous lack of complex thinkers in the world, especially thinkers who are also doers and have the power to address the predicaments we are presently in as a species. So the idea that it is worthwhile to acquire complex holistic thinking abilities is a natural one for anybody...
A Conversation on Mentoring in Organizations Transitioning to a Less Hierarchical Culture
Audio, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Nature of Work, Uncategorized
In this conversation with Paul Anwandter of INPACT, Santiago de Chile, in October 2018, we discuss the new landscape of mentoring that includes applying insights from research in adult development. We discuss the obstacles and failures but also the challenges of such mentoring in reference to a class on developmental coaching I teach at INPACT,...
On the Critical Realism of the ‘Dark Mountain Manifesto’ in Relationship to the Myth of ‘Human Resources’
Articles by Otto Laske, Nature of Work, Uncategorized, Wprk Design Methodology
In these comments on the ‘Dark Mountain Manifesto’ of Kingsnorth and Hine (2014), and its authors’ reflection on it five years later, I point out the origin of the three ‘myths’ of progress, human centrality, and separation from nature (as ‘environment’). I see a straightforward relationship between these myths with the organizational myth of ‘human...
Is there a Bridge Between Social-Emotional and Cognitive Capability?
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps
In this blog, I point to the de-totalization of human consciousness that is presently state of the art in research in adult development. This de-totalization occurs on account of the absence of research on the way in which the social-emotional capability, shed light on by Loevinger and Kegan, intrinsically relates to the cognitive capability researched...
Critical Facilitation: Developing Complex Thinking Through De Visch’s ‘Re-Thinking Game’
Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, dialogically savvy apps, Team Development, Uncategorized
My colleague and friend Jan De Visch has recently made enormous strides toward a ‘dialogically savvy app’, — an app that triggers deep and critical thinking in order to foster dynamic collaboration. The app is accompanied by the Re-Thinking Game, an implementation of DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework. DTF is an ideal framework for...
Frankfurt School Hauptseminar Teachings From the Perspective of Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF)
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking, Team Development
The Frankfurt School is well known, liked or not liked, due to its pervasive influence in the domain of culture critique. As on account of increasing threats to democracy its legacy is once more coming to the fore, there is a strong tendency to focus on the products and results of the school’s activity while...
Barriers to Using CDF
Articles by Otto Laske, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Team Development, Uncategorized
Given that CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, is more than a set of tools and therefore requires for its use a particular mindset, have you wondered what one might say are the main barriers to using it optimally? The short blog below is meant to give some answers to this question. Barriers to Using CDF...
Fuehrungsvorteile aufgrund der Benutzung von CDF, des Constructive Developmental Framework
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Digitization of human resources, Distributed leadership, IDM News, Nature of Work, Team Development
Obwohl das Programm des diesjaehrigen Wiener Leadership Kongresses () keine Einfuehrung in CDF — das Constructive Developmental Framework –umfasst, werden viele Kongressteilnehmer die sich aus der Benutzung von CDF ergebenden Fuehrungsvorteile wahrscheinlich kennenlernen wollen. CDF ist eine von Otto Laske erstellte Synthese von Forschungsbefunden der Harvardschule hinsichtlich Erwachsenenentwicklung seit 1975, die Dimensionen des kritischen Denkens...
Workshop ueber Developmental Interviewing und seine Anwendung in Potenzial-Orientierten Organisationen
Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Digitization of human resources, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Uncategorized, Workshops
Dieser Workshop der Firma Four Dimensions, Wien und Salzburg (), offeriert Personalverantwortlichen, Personalentwicklern, Beratern und Coachs eine Einfuehrung in Methoden fuer die Bestimmung des emotionalen und kognitiven Reifegrades von Individuen und Teams. Diese Methoden leiten sich aus Otto Laske’s Arbeiten am Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM), Gloucester, MA. her. Instruktoren sind Simone Rack, Rainer v. Leoprechting, und...
A Meeting of Minds Workshop on the Future of Work
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Team Typology, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development
The future of work is not a topic for logical thinking as much as it is one for revamping logical into complex, ‘dialectical’, thinking. The difference between the two is explained and exercised in a workshop in Brussels whose program can be downloaded here. If interested in this workshop, held on January 18, 2019, near...
The Vurdelja-Laske Dialectical Thought Form Workbook
Uncategorized
There is presently a dearth of study materials for absorbing a new form of complex thinking called ‘dialectical’ or ‘transformational’ thinking. In order to change this state of affairs, IDM, the Interdevelopmental Institute, has just released a short workbook that introduces readers to DTF, Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework . Following an overview, the workbook...
International Leadership Review Interview with Robin Wood Slightly Edited by Otto Laske
Articles by Otto Laske
In this wide-ranging interview, Robin W. helpfully challenges me to answer questions that arise regarding DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework, and developmental consulting to indiviuals and teams based on a dialogical and constructivist viewpoint generally. In rereading the interview, I have here and there slightly edited my answers to Robin’s question. In addition, I...
Updated Editions of Laske’s Research on Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human Systems
Book Publication, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Distributed leadership, Finding Talent, meta-thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, webinar, Workshops, Wprk Design Methodology
Effective immediately, Laske’s research on developmental and dialectical thinking, found in two titles of ‘Measuring Hidden Dimensions’ called “volume 1” and “volume 2”, is available in updated pdf form at . These titles can be purchased via Paypal, upon which they will be sent out by the Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM) within 48 hrs. of receiving...
A Greatly Delayed Departure: Notions of Competence Are Finally Fading since They Are Seen as Pernicious in a Distributed-Leadership Environment
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Coaching, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Distributed leadership, Uncategorized
It is almost 20 years ago that, following Argyris’ research on theory-in-use vs. espoused theory, I began to show that both of these personal ‘theories’ are rooted in adult development over the life span. I began to take these personal ideologies apart into their social-emotional and cognitive dimensions and showed that they are intrinsically related....
Early Warnings that Competence Models Would Not Sustain Survival or Innovation
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Developmental Coaching, Distributed leadership, Uncategorized
In these two articles of 2002/03, I warned that competence models provide a view of human resources that is too limited to make possible organizational survival, not to speak of innovation, in the digital economy. The two articles below remind us how long it took for this message to sink in. In coaching and mentoring,...
How Teams Works: A Straightforward Developmental Hypothesis
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Developmental Coaching, Distributed leadership, Team Development, Uncategorized
Much is made of teams these days, and rightfully so: they are the backbone of putting in place distributed leadership in organizations. New research offers a very straightforward hypothesis consisting of 3 parts: teams comprise different developmental levels, thus are “developmentally mixed” teams ‘think’: their work is based on analyzable and coachable movements-in-thought teams follow...
Suggestions for a Pedagogy of Dialectical Thinking
Articles by Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Uncategorized
Dialectical thinking has a long history of both practice and neglect. In modern times, its renewal was brought about by Roy Bhaskar (1949-2014). His theory of MELD, four degrees or moments of dialectic, not only allowed him to show the flaws of hegelian and the depth of marxian thinking, it also grounded his ARA metaphysics...
An Interview with Otto Laske by Robin Wood, Integral Leadership Review, May 2018
Articles by Guests, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking
In this interview published in the Integral Leadership Review (May 2018), Otto Laske answers questions posed by Robin Wood regarding his social-science work. Special emphasis lies on Otto’s book recently co-authored with Jan De Visch entitled “Dynamic Collaboration” (2018). The wide-ranging interview touches upon many issues of present day culture fostered by logical control schemes...
A New Paradigm of Team Work: Engaging the Power of Dialog
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Team Typology, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, integral thinking, Team Development, Uncategorized
In this article forthcoming in the Integral Leadership Review in May, 2018, Jan De Visch and Otto Laske give examples of the benefits of focusing on complex dialogical thinking in leading and coaching teams, regardless of the specific topic a team is addressing. Their developmentally informed strategy of team intervention is based on insights deriving...
The Future of CDF Is Bright: What the Early Adopters Saw
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, education, Finding Talent, Nature of Work, Psychological Dimension, Team Development
This blog makes accessible, and comments on, a 2010 publication of the Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM) on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) that is still largely unknown in Europe and the US. The publication is in the form of an issue of Wirtschaftspsychologie, a Swiss-German magazine focused on the psychology of work delivery, and referred to...
Thinking Differently About Teams: A New Book by Jan De Visch & Otto Laske (June 2018)
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Distributed leadership, Team Development, Video
For the longest time, teams have been managed, as well as researched, based exclusively on behaviorist tenets: the notion that by focusing on how team members “behave”, their collaboration can be made more effective, even ‘self authoring’, or whatever the latest fad dictated. For the same long time, managers have spoken rather than listened, and...
How to Obtain Writings by Otto Laske
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Consulting, education, meta-thinking, Uncategorized, Workshops
Otto Laske’s contributions to social-science, process consultation, and the teaching of & mentoring in developmental thinking and listening extend from 1999 to the present day. Many of his articles, keynotes, and teaching materials in English and German, as well as translations into Spanish and Italian, have recently been posted on this website under individual BLOGS...
Approfondire la conoscenza di sé e del cliente
Articles by Guests, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Uncategorized
The first workshop on CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, was held in Rome in 2011, carried out in collaboration with the Italian Society for Coaching Psychology (Ida Sirolli organizer). In the texts below, Italian readers find teaching materials and commentary for learning CDF. Translations are by Marco Di Monte and Dr. Alessandro Rossi, both students...
Aportaciones al Coaching de la Obra de Otto Laske
Uncategorized
The first workshop on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), in Spain took place in 2012 in Girona, Spain. It was co-sponsored by Instituto Ben Pensante, founded by Daniel Alvarez Lama in Santiago de Compostela. Below, the reader finds texts on the use of CDF (Marco Constructivo Evolutivo) in individual coaching written by Daniel Alvarez Lama...
CDF Described in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and German
Articles by Guests, education, Presentations, Translations
in the four entries below, the reader finds four Wikipedia descriptions of CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, in Japanese, Spanish, Italian, and German, respectively.The English version of the Wikipedia article on CDF is found at: The original Wikipedia text, written in German, is owed to Prof. Bruno Frischherz, Hochschule fuer Wirtschaft, Luzern, Switzerland. Nick Shannon,...
On the Practice of Cognitive Interviewing, Cognitive Coaching, and Text Analysis
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, Uncategorized
Cognitive interviewing is an art as well as science nowhere taught or practiced today. It is a kind of evidence-based interviewing that is anchored in dialectical listening. In focus in such listening are the thought forms a person uses as soon as s(he) opens her mouth, which are thus inescapable. Only a listener/thinker schooled in...
Collaborative Intelligence in Teams: The View from CDF
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Collaborative Intelligence, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Team Development, Teleseminars, Uncategorized
Starting in 2014, coach education at IDM shifted to team coaching. In this blog, the reader finds materials that form the basis of my collaboration with Jan De Visch on the book “Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams” of 2018. One of the basic tenets of this book — that organizations comprise...
Better Thinking in a Global World: Paying Homage to Roy Bhaskar
Uncategorized
In this paper of 2011, I explain why the dominance of purely logical thinking is pernicious in its effect on life and work, including political life, since it has over the last 200 years become a discipline of control and thus no longer serves the purposes of enlightenment and understanding. I therefore propose to society...
Foundations of Complex Thinking: What is missing from social media discourse
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, integral thinking, meta-thinking
The papers collected in this blog center around the topic of complex thinking as a hallmark of individual freedom, organizational effectiveness, and societal well-being. They all focus on Lebensbefreiung, the unburdening from needless linear clutter in the mind and the obfuscation of communication. The articles point to, and explicate, a tradition of deep thinking that...
CDF auf Deutsch: Sozialwissenschaftliche Texte zur Lebensbefreiung und Erhoehung der Arbeitsproduktivitaet
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
In diesem Blog stelle ich die wichtigsten der von mir seit 2004 deutsch geschriebenen sozialwissenschaftlichen Texte und Lernmaterialien zusammen. Sie betreffen thematisch, was ich Lebensbefreiung nenne, in dem Sinne, dass sie es dem Leser ermoeglichen, sein oder ihr eigenes Leben entwicklungsmaessig in tieferer Weise als bloss psychologisch zu verstehen, naemlich auf ‘epistemische’ Weise, die die...
Developmental Coaching: A Curtailed Discipline Squashed by Behaviorism
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Developmental Coaching, education
Developmental coaching, announced as a breakthrough in the form of an evidence-based discipline in 2003, has had a sorry history ever since. Since this discipline never acknowledged the — empirically validated — distinction between the social-emotional (Kegan 1982) and cognitive development of individuals (Basseches 1984), its impact was reduced to half by its practitioners’ fixation...
Can Coaches Nurture and Increase Team Maturity?
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, CDF Mentoring, CDF Team Typology, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
Since 2015, webinars and courses at IDM have addressed the developmental structure of teams and central issues of team coaching. Specifically, they have clarified notions such as ‘self organization’ in teams and their ability to develop ‘collaborative intelligence’. The perspective taken has been adult-developmental, to the effect that self organization of teams is anchored in...
What Coaches Should Know About Their Clients
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Coaching, Collaborative Intelligence, Developmental Coaching, Distributed leadership, education, Team Development, Uncategorized
In these comments on my keynote read to the June 2015 EMCC conference in Warsaw, Poland, I summarize writings on developmental coaching from my pen since 1999. I have taught this discipline to an international student body between the years of 2000 and 2015 at IDM, the Interdevelopmental Institute, and continue to practice what I...
Zur Durchdringung organisatorischer Beratung mit Einsichten aus CDF
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, education, irrealist social theories, meta-thinking, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, Uncategorized, Workshops
In diesem Artikel fuehre ich im Einzelnen die Geschichte und die Eigenart des Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) aus. Ich moechte zeigen wie insbesondere ein soziologischer Beratungsansatz wie New Deal (Gucher 2015), aber auch aehnliche Beratungsvorgehen, durch Einsicht in die lebenslange Entwicklung von Menschen vertieft und im Dialog mit Kunden flexibel werden koennen. Der Nachdruck im...
Introduction to “Dynamic Collaboration: How to Strengthen Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams” (Jan De Visch & Otto Laske 2018)
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Collaborative Intelligence, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, meta-thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, Uncategorized
This blog gives readers access to the Introduction to Jan DeVisch’s and my book entitled Dynamic Collaboration: How to strengthen self organization and collaborative intelligence in teams, to be launched in May 2018 at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. In this book of five chapters, we deviate from the extant team literature by adopting an...
NEW DEAL: A sociological consulting approach to humanistic management and deliberately developmental organization
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Distributed leadership, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
This blog introduces a sociological approach to consulting to organizations, with a focus on social capital (Sozialkapital) as the indispensable foundation of value creation and social productivity. The approach, called New Deal, formulated in German (Gucher et al, 2015), is the fruit of new social science research, and is sponsored by Four Dimensions GmbH active...
Transforming the ‘Human Resources’ Function into the Core of Humanistic Management: Potentials, Requirements and Obstacles
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
The topic of this abstract for a lengthy article is presently absent from the literature of ‘humanistic management’ (M. Minghetti 2014), namely, the limitations of human collaborative intelligence that naturally arise from the vicissitudes of adult development over the lifespan. (For example, at level 2 of meaning making (Kegan 1982), especially when accompanied by undeveloped...
Accelerating Collaborative Intelligence: How to Manage the Transition to Self Organization
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, Team Development
Teams and teamwork are the heart and soul of every organizational and institutional project. This is especially true for agile teams. It is not the individual performance or accomplishment that counts, but that of the team. Just like in team sports, the team succeeds and fails together. Up to now, little research on team collaboration...
New Dialog Methods for Broad-Spectrum Systems Constellations: Comments on the Milano Workshop on Intelligenza Collaborativa Nel Team
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, education, meta-thinking, Nature of Work, Presentations, Team Development, Workshops
As shown at and, on this website, at , a workshop on new dialog methods specifically for creating collaborative intelligence in teams will take place in Milano, Italy, on January 30-31,2018. The workshop is offered by Consulenza Evolutiva, Milano and its Altroove School, and staffed by Lorenzo Campese, Alessandro Rossi, and Otto Laske. The workshop...
Thought Form Constellations as Measures of Team Connectivity
1-year leadership program, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, meta-thinking, Team Development, Workshops
In this article, the author proposes structural, rather than behavioral or emotional, measures of team connectivity and introduces the notion of “cognitive” or “structural” systems constellations. These measures are derived from DTF, his Dialectical Thought Framework, a methodology rooted in cognitive developmental research since 1975. In contrast to the contemporary team literature, and in a...
A Developmental Systems-Constellation Workshop for Advancing Shared Leadership in Holacratic Environments
1-year leadership program, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, Nature of Work, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Workshops, Wprk Design Methodology
Shared or distributed leadership in holacratic environments is often more of a hope or an advertisement than a reality. This is so because leadership is an adult-developmental issue that behavioral training methods are not equipped to handle. However, tools originating in adult-developmental research (since 1975) are still unknown or else eschewed in behaviorally thinking companies,...
Improving Management by Design: Novel Tools for Expanding and Deepening the Business Model Design Space
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, meta-thinking, Team Development
I propose to strengthen the cognitive processes involved in design thinking, especially for cross-functional teams, both through artificial intelligence techniques and focused cognitive coaching. I take as an example of design thinking the canvas metaphor used by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2014, 2010), selecting its CS (customer segment) component for further scrutiny. Specifically, I introduce an...
A Problem-Driven Mentoring and Teaching Program for Learning Complexity Thinking
Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, integral thinking, meta-thinking, one-on-one mentoring, webinar
This blog introduces the new IDM Program for learning complexity thinking based on critical problems brought forward by the client. Client-proposed problems serve as a procedural and behavioral guideline for a 5-step acquisition of cutting-edge solution approaches that have been tested in previous IDM teaching and are grounded in Roy Bhaskar’s work on dialectic (1993)....
A Short Review of DTFM, the Dialectical Thought Form Manual (2017)
Articles by Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking, meta-thinking
This Spring, the second editions of Laske’s Measuring Hidden Dimensions: Foundations of Requisite Organization (2008) as well as its associated Manual of Dialectical Thought Forms (2008) appears under Publications on this site. Both publications can be downloaded for a nominal price at While the first text, referred to as MHD2, introduces crucial concepts for managing...
Human work capability and complex thinking: Introducing the second, improved edition of MHD2 (2008)
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Digitization of human resources, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Wprk Design Methodology
In a time of increasing digitization of human resources and their management it is urgent to explain the limits of replacing human intelligence by algorithmic intelligence, or molding the use of human intelligence by algorithms. What is required is not only a deeper understanding of the human capability for work delivery, but the intrinsic limits...
A methodology for creating a developmentally aware society
Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
Until quite recently, the notion that adults develop over their entire lifetime has been a well kept academic secret. It still is. Attempts at establishing “deliberately developmental organizations” (DDO’s; Kegan & Lahey 2016), based on 40 years of research in adult development, are quite recent. This article introduces to the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), a...
Transforming culture by transforming dialog in organizations and institutions
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development
This short text explains what is important about crafting new forms of dialog in organizations and institutions seeking to be innovative. The text points to DTF, the Dialectical Thought Form Framework (2008, second edition 2017), that was introduced in a previous post entitled “A new approach to dialog.” In a time of deliberately developmental organization...
A New Approach to Dialog: Teaching the Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF)
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, Team Development
Can you imagine being part of a dialog in which you not only listen to what your interlocutor is saying but also to the underlying structure of his or her thinking? If you had knowledge of the thought form structure of human sense making, this way of listening, called “dialectical”, would enable you to point...
A New Era Begins at the Interdevelopmental Institute, Gloucester, MA, USA (IDM)
1-year leadership program, Articles by Otto Laske, CDF Mentoring, Changing Board Members' Listening, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development, Workshops
As the Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM) enters a new era, it wants to communicate what it has learned and what, based on its learning over nearly 20 years, it can now deliver to CEOs and Boards. Find out how the Institute’s main methodology, called Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), addresses contemporary issues such as the digital transformation...
John Stewart Reviews Otto Laske’s Work on Dialectical Thinking
Articles by Guests, Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, integral thinking, irrealist social theories
Reviews of my work on dialectical thinking since 1999 are far and few between and have been long in coming. This delay has to do with the fact that my work on this topic responds directly to Bateson’s perceptive view that “the major problems in the world (today) are the result of the difference between...
What Everybody is Losing Out On by Bypassing 40 Years of Research on Adult Development
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension
There is a vast lack of knowledge about how one’s own level and phase of development as an adult uncanningly and forcefully causes the kind of suffering one feels most keenly. This short article is meant as a pointer to what is missing in all of the “helping” literature and the well-meant helping activities in...
Einladung an deutsche Berater und Coach ihre berufliche Praxis höherzuschrauben
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Coaching, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Deutsch, Developmental Coaching, Distance Learning Course, Finding Talent, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Socio-emotional Dimension, Translations, Workshops, Wprk Design Methodology
Warum nicht mit alten Vorurteilen brechen die aus der positivistischen Tradition stammen und alle im Flachland landen? Dazu ist im Zeitalter des distributed leadership mehr Anlass als je. Die alten Kompetenzschablonen sind tot, und nun wie weiter? Vielleicht hülfe es, sich zu erinnern dass Menschen sich ihr ganzes Leben lang entwickeln? Das würde auf die...
Invitation pour les consultants et coach français de renouveller leur profession
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Coaching, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Distance Learning Course, Nature of Work, Socio-emotional Dimension, Translations
Comment les consultants et coach francais peuvent-ils renouveller leur profession utilisant le CDF (Constructive Developmental Framework)? https://www.paypal.com/webapps/hermes?token=5MN6985866069092K&useraction=commit&mfid=1488977403882_1d069d5a8c123#/checkout/login C’est là la question qui se pose se livre sur la découverte du potential humain, allant plus loin que les abstractions des sciences sociales contemporaines. En recherchant de nouvelles clefs pour l’engagement de l’adulte dans le processus de...
UN LIBRO NUEVO!!
Uncategorized
Invitación de reflexionar sobre el desarrollo adulto, por los coaches y consultores: ;useraction=commit&mfid=1488977490044_97143ae8c8930#/checkout/login [Reconocer, despertar y medir el potencial Humano, par Otto Laske, IDM, 2005, traducido par Daniel Alvarez y Maria del Valle Garcia Bersabé, 2010] El desarrollo adulto esta basado en la diferencia entre YO y OTRO, abstracciones vividas de diferente manera dependiendo de...
Human Developmental Processes as Key to Creating Impactful Leadership
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, irrealist social theories, Nature of Work, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, Wprk Design Methodology
Copyright 2016 by Graham Boyd & Otto Laske In this article, the authors put forth a new approach to distributed leadership based on research in adult development and the pedagogical thought of Vygotsky, originator of the notion of zones of proximal development. The article attempts to re-totalize the issues neglected, or fragmented, by theories of...
Living through four eras of cognitive development
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking
This article is based on my research in adult cognitive development, published in Laske 2008 and 2015. It reminds the reader that his/her thinking undergoes life-long changes that have a dramatic impact on work effectiveness and quality of life, especially the latter. The notion that there are no changes in thinking after early adulthood is...
Merging Behavioral and Developmental Practices: An Integral Framework for Deep Listening and Thinking
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
In this paper, the authors (Otto Laske, Alessandro Rossi) lay out a practical approach to integral counseling (part A) and consulting to teams (part B), based on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF). The main topic is how to combine interventions for strengthening developmental level and cognitive fluidity, seen as intrinsically related as well as mingled...
From AQAL to AQAT: Dialogue in an Integral Perspective
Articles by Guests, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, irrealist social theories
From AQAL to AQAT: Dialog in an Integral Perspective In this paper, presented at the 2014 Integral European Conference, Budapest, Prof. Bruno Frischherz compares with great clarity the methodological tools offered by Wilber’s Integral Theory to those offered by Laske’s CDF. The author shows that AQAL in its present form — focusing only on I,...
A Developmental Agenda of Concrete Utopianism: Culture Transformation in the Anthropocene
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, education, integral thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development
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...
Russian research on dialectical thinking in children — Developing self-authored thinking
Articles by Guests, Consulting, education, Finding Talent, integral thinking, Team Development
In the dialectic-starved West we tend to blindly follow formal logical thinking to the bitter end (e.g., global warming). However, there are alternatives, especially when one becomes informed by the work of Vygotsky, Piaget, Adorno, and Bhaskar, and the empirical work of Basseches and Laske. In the article here posted psychologist Veraksa et al. report...
Seeing WORK as a Medium of Adult Development
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Nature of Work, Team Development, Wprk Design Methodology
In this short article I am pointing to some deficiencies of the present notion of DDO, “deliberately developmental organizations”. In contrast, I present a short apercu on the benefits of CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework which I see as a more comprehensive approach to understanding the nature of work and a set of tools for...
DTF as a Tool for Creating Integral Collaborations
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, integral thinking, Team Development
Solving real world problems tests professionals’ present level of cognitive development. A good training ground for working on hard problems in teams is the Case Study Cohort Method (CSCM) developed at the Interdevelopmental Institute. The method consists of a having members of a team assessing an individual’s or team’s level of cognitive maturity debate the...
Dialectic Interpreted in the Logic of Commerce: A Paradigm for Living in the Anthropocene
Articles by Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking
This article proposes a new way of thinking about engaging in commercial enterprises meant to safeguard Planet Earth.DIALECTIC INTERPRETED IN THE LOGIC OF COMMERCE
CDF as a Talent Finder and Work Design Methodology
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
In this article, I highlight the resources of the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) for finding and retaining organizational talent and designing a work environment that supports shared leadership. CDF as a Talent Finder and Work Design Methodology
Contributions to Evidence Based Developmental Coaching
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension
This article describes a constructivist approach to coaching based on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF). Such coaching is evidence based, i.e., based on empirical assessments of coachees prior to actual coaching. Coaching plans are based on empirical findings about coachees’ present frame of reference (the way they see the world), meant to guide them toward...
Nick Shannon on “What Can IDM Offer the Integral Movement?”
Articles by Guests, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, integral thinking
In this article, written in response to the 2nd ITC conference (2010), Nick Shannon outlined four main vantage points from which teachings at the Otto Laske Interdevelopmental Institute (IDM) elucidate and strengthen integral thinking: (1) upper left quadrant, (2) dialectical unfolding of concepts, (3) moving from contextual to transformation language, and (4) cognitive development and...
Growing the Top Management Team: A Developmental View of OD
Articles by Otto Laske, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Team Development
In this paper co-authored with Barbara Maynes,we outline a developmental view of OD. We show that Argyris “theory in use” points to different levels of mental growth, both social-emotional and cognitive. These levels are seen as the program from which theories of action arise in contributors to an organization. An early version of CDF called...
Executive Development as Adult Development
Articles by Otto Laske, Book Publication, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Wprk Design Methodology
This article, chapter 9 of Demick et al’s Handbook of Adult Development (Springer 2002), tries to escape the tunnel vision of organizational theorists and consultants alike who, while glorifying leaders, cannot penetrate to the adult-developmental origins of leadership and get lost in psychological or spiritual speculations, or else lists of competences. Instead, the article adopts...
Foundations of Scholarly Consulting: The Developmental Structure/Process Tool
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Changing Board Members' Listening, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Finding Talent, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, Wprk Design Methodology
This article of 2000 deepens Argyris’ notion of theory-in-use by recourse to empirical findings of the developmental sciences. It defines “consulting” based on this deeper notion. The article teaches a lesson still not learned in consulting: that theory-in-use has to do with levels of mental growth, both cognitively and social-emotionally, cutting through all “competence models”....
An Integrated Model of Developmental Coaching
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Coaching, Consulting, Courses, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Wprk Design Methodology
This article, originally published in 1999 but still very timely today, introduces a way of deepening cognitive-behavioral, psycho-dynamic, and other behavioral approaches to coaching and HR resources management. It proposes an epistemological model that focuses on adults’ frame of reference (world view), the true determinant of human behavior, which has been practiced and taught internationally...
The Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) as a Talent Finder and Work Design Methodology
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Dialectical Thinking
In this short article, I highlight the resources of the Constructive Developmental Framework for finding organizational talent and designing a work environment that supports its further growth. CDF as a Talent Finder and Work Design Methodology
Human Systems in the Anthropocene
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
This article is a reflection on the lack of systemic and holistic “dialectical” thinking in a world in which more than ever human actions have strong and immediate repercussions in the natural, and thus also the social, environment. It is suggested that present notions of teaching, coaching, and consulting are hopelessly anachronistic since they are...
Mentoring a Behavioral Coach to Think Developmentally
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting to Executives, Developmental Coaching, Dialectical Thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension
In this dialog between two coaches, one of them behavioral, the other developmental, I convey the mindset it takes to think about coaching clients in an adult-developmental manner. My goal is to demonstrate the differences in thinking and listening, not just “methodology”, that separate the two approaches to coaching. From my experience, while behavioral coaching...
What is CDF: An Introduction for Beginners
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension
This article introduces to the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), addressing those readers who want to learn to use the methodology. CDF is seen as a comprehensive framework for consulting and coaching, much like NLP, but on a higher level of consciousness. Its main intellectual strength lies in establishing a methodology for the deconstruction, through dialog,...
Effective Team Coaching: Juggling Personalities and Roles
Coaching, Presentations, Video, webinar
Teams are usually viewed as “flat”, disregarding that each of their members is active on a specific level of accountability associated with a specific universe of discourse. What team members are thinking and saying is thus not determined not only by their developmental size of person, but also by the size of their organizational role,...
Coaching Goes Developmental
IDM News
For a long time, there was only coaching focused on client’s behavior, not mnd-set, but this is changing. The International Coaching Community (ICC), in collaboration with the Interdevelopmental Institutee (IDM) is starting an introductory course on evidence based coaching based on research in adult development. This gives experienced coaches the opportunity to build a niche...
DIALECTIC IS GOOD FOR BUSINESS: IT HELPS TO BEFRIEND IT
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, Distance Learning Course, IDM News
It so happens that not only is the world in unceasing transformation, but the human mind (which is part of it) has been given invaluable tools to deal with it. I am referring to the “four moments of dialectic” philosopher Roy Bhaskar taught us, as well as to Basseches’ and my own work on dialectical...
Beyond Systems Thinking: How to Create Collaborative Intelligence
IDM News, Uncategorized
You are invited to join a webinar held on 16 November 2015 18:00 – 19:00 GMT The Speaker is Jan De Visch, a graduate of the Interdevelopmental Institute and the Managing Director of Connect and Transform, also Executive Professor Human Capital Enterpreneurial MBA, Flanders Business School (at the Catholic Univertisty of Leuven) DESCRIPTION OF THE...
Dialectical Thinking as a Culture Transformation Instrument for Organizations.
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Book Publication, Changing Board Members' Listening, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, IDM News, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development, Teleseminars, Workshops
In this new book (to appear in 2016), addressed to CEO’s, board members, and members of executive teams, Otto Laske takes an in-depth look at his Constructive Developmental Framework as a culture transformation instrument. The book focuses on organizational discourse culture as the lever by which fundamental changes come about when engaging with new forms...
Buchbesprechung von Otto Laske’s “Dialectical Thinking for Integral Leaders: A Primer”
Articles by Guests, Book Publication, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Courses, Deutsch, Dialectical Thinking, Team Development
Buchbesprechung Otto Laske, Dialectical Thinking For Integral Leaders: A Primer Integral Publishers, ISBN 978-0-9904419-9-1, 2015 (June) Zusammenfassung In dieser Buchbesprechung hebt Michael Habecker die wesentlichen Gedanken eines jeden Kapitels des obigen Buches heraus und schafft dadurch eine klare Zusammenfassung der Intentionen von Otto Laske. Michael Habecker Das neue Buch von Otto Laske, als eine Zusammenfassung...
What Coaches Should Know About Their Clients
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Consulting
This text highlights the main benefits of integrating research in adult development into executive coaching practice. Reading the text from a coaching point of view will be a first step to the practice of developmental coaching, with a focus on working withhigher level executives. The text refers to CDF, the Constructive Development Framework. Introduction to...
Press Release for Otto Laske’s New Book “Dialectical Thinking for Integral Leaders: A Primer”
Book Publication, Dialectical Thinking, IDM News
To appear in July 2015 at Integral Publishers Integral Publishers (integralpublishers.com) and Otto Laske, Director of the Interdevelopmental Institute (www.interdevelopmentals.org), have joined forces in order to publish a book demonstrating by examples how leaders of large forums, organizations, institutions and board of directors can quickly acquire patterns of thinking that hinder them from getting stuck...
Invitation for the workshop “Rewiring Team Dynamics: Building Collective Intelligence”
IDM News
Dear IDM Friend, May I invite you to attend the International Workshop on Rewiring Team Dynamics: Building Collective Intelligence in Mechelen (Belgium) from June 17th – June 19th . The way we work is changing. So is the nature of teamwork at all levels in the organization changing. The age of ‘command & control’ in...
How to cope with cognitive differences in circles (teams)?
Dialectical Thinking, Presentations, Video
This video addresses crucial issues in how to re-organize work so that individuals can deliver work in flexible role systems based on their talent. The notion put forward is that to create organizations following the model of lean and mean start ups will not do away with but will increase the requirement of deep, dialectical...
Short Characterization of the CDF-Based Coaching Methodology
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Courses
This short article describes what makes CDF-based coaching unique and makes it different from other coaching approaches. The CDF-based coach training method enriches approaches based on theories of adult learning by insights and practices derived from theories of adult development over the lifespan (1975-1995). CDF further enriches theories of adult development by insights derived from...
How to become a Learning Organisation as a large Corporate
Consulting, Video
In this short video, I present a short introduction to CDF, the Constructive Developmental Framework, to show how its use enables large companies under siege coming from very small and nimble companies to fend off competition. I focus on CDF developed at the Interdevelopmental Institute, as a tool for strengthening talent management and promoting better...
How Do You Teach Your Client to Think Developmentally?
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension
The article is based on a dialog between a mentor and a behavioral coach who desires to learn to think developmentally. After an introduction on coaching focused on clients’ Frame of Reference, the four individual dialogs deal with the three aspects of human capability, the nature of developmental scores, the nature of behavioral “need-press” scores,...
CDF Works on Many Levels
Articles by Otto Laske, Assessment, Coaching, Cognitive Dimension, Consulting, Dialectical Thinking, Team Development
In this short post, I want to draw attention to the fact that what we call CDF — short for Constructive Developmental Framework (see Wiki) — is a multilevel methodology, not only a methodology comprising three interrelated modules. What I mean by that is that a CDF user can use this methodology on at least...
Introduction to Cognitive Growth: a possible journey from age 25-100
Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking, Video
In this short video I give listeners some examples of differences in phase of cognitive development individuals are typically in. My goal is to sensitize listeners to asking “where am I myself presently as to the structure of my thinking, and how does this determine the world I am seeing as real?”
Upcoming introductory courses, February 23 and 26, 2015
IDM News
Gradually, CDF is emerging as a potent business development tool, in contrast to a coaching or assessment tool. The new course starting February 26, 2015, will demonstrate the impact of the CDF methodology on your daily organizational work, planning, decision making, and work in teams. You’ll begin to understand better the concept of “requisite organization”...
Deutsche Einführung zu CDF
Deutsch, Video
Dieses kurze Video hat den Sinn, Sie in den Konstruktiven Entwicklungsrahmen, CDF genannt, einzufuehren. Otto Laske zeigt, wie die CDF Dialogmethode und Denkmethode positiv zu Ihrer Arbeit im Coaching, der Psychotherapie, und der organisatorischen Beratung beitragen kann.
What is the Constructive Developmental Framework?
Dialectical Thinking, Socio-emotional Dimension, Video
Otto Laske gives you an overview of the Constructive Developmental Framework CDF and offers a few examples of how it can be used for self-awareness and personal growth. The emphasis in the video is that when we speak and relate to others, we are already embedded in a “frame of reference”, and that this frame...
How to develop collaborative intelligence?
Articles by Guests, Consulting, IDM News, Team Development, Workshops
One of the new IDM initiatives is a ‘Rewiring Team Dynamics’ workshop which will be organized as a three day seminar in April 2015, near Brussels/Belgium. The key question is: How can we create groups that can learn from mistakes faster, more efficiently, and more consistently than competitors do?’ The background of this question is...
The Move into Irrealism and How to Counter-Act It
Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Dialectical Thinking, Workshops
The Move into Irrealism and How to Counter-Act It By Otto Laske The signs of a mutation of human consciousness since 2000 are becoming more and more clear: The real world disappears behind subjective screens propped up by objective social forces seeking profit. What the profit is meant to be used for is less than...
Introduction to Dialectical Thinking
Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Video
5′ Introductory video: Otto Laske on the transformative power of learning dialectical thinking
Workshop in Belgium: Rewiring Team Dynamics
IDM News, Workshops
Over the last few months I regularly stumbled over clients struggling with the same question: ‘how can we create groups that can learn from mistakes faster, more efficiently, and more consistently than competitors do?’. The background of this question is the simple observation that a lot of groups systematically underperform. They do not make good...
Laske – Cartmel 2015 Interview Series I
Teleseminars, Video
First part of the Laske – Cartmel Interview Series
Obituary for Roy Bhaskar
Articles by Otto Laske, IDM News
This article is a reflection on the loss the dialectical tradition has incurred through Bhaskar’s early death. In particular, I spell out how his work contributed to CDF, and mention his utter humility as a person. Roy Bhaskar’s Premature Death: A Profound Loss for the Tradition of Dialectical Thinking
Reflection on the Western rather than Asian character of DTF and the need for research to make it more Asian or acceptable in Asia
Articles by Otto Laske
By Otto Laske – At the end of the present introductory course on dialectic I wrote to my students the following note: I should mention one great omission from the introductory class which will make the use of the Dialectical Thinking Framework (DTF) more complex but also more deep. We never discussed the issue of...
Introduction to the three CDF Dimensions (Self-Study)
Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension
This course introduces students to a widely acclaimed, holistic perspective on both individuals and teams. It is an overview course focused the three perspectives in which CDF-users view clients: the social-emotional, cognitive, and psychological one. Insight into these dimensions stems from decades of validated research since the 1970s but has not been widely taught in...
Introduction to Developmental Work with Teams
Courses, Team Development
This course introduces team leaders and team coaches to fundamentally new ways of understanding the nature and behavior of teams, with the goal of re-shaping team dynamics. In the course, two main processes are distinguished: interpersonal and task process. Their balance is thought to define team maturity. The purpose of the course is twofold: to...
Socio-Emotional Development
Courses, Socio-emotional Dimension
The essence of the socio-emotional dimension has to do with how adults differ in making meaning of their life and work experiences based on their opposing and intertwined needs of being autonomous and being included in a community of others. These two lifelong tendencies achieve a different balance at every developmental “stage”. Social-emotional differences between...
Cognitive Development Toward Dialectic
Cognitive Dimension, Courses
The essence of the cognitive dimension of CDF has to do with how adults differ in making cognitive sense (rather than meaning) of their life and work experiences, thus with what they do and do not understand about the real world. These differences go far beyond “what is in the head” since how people construct...
Dimensions of Clients’ Psychological Profile
Courses, Psychological Dimension
In CDF, a person’s psychological profile is determined by evaluating answers to Morris Aderman’s Need/Press Questionnaire, a construct-validated questionnaire used in talent management, performance management, and promotion since 1970. The questionnaire is available on line in English, German, French, and Spanish (www.needpress.com). Questionnaire outcomes ideally complement social-emotional insight deriving from semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire embodies...
Team Coaching from an Adult-Developmental Perspective
Coaching, Courses, Socio-emotional Dimension, Team Development
In this course, team leaders and team coaches acquire new competences pertaining to working with teams. Specifically, they learn to experience work with team members from a social-emotional perspective and therefore are able to discern different levels of team maturity. Immersing themselves in different ways of meaning making, they also come to understand that the...
Case Study I (a): Practicum in Social-Emotional Thinking and Listening
Assessment, Courses, Socio-emotional Dimension
This course is focused on a single-client case study. It leads participants from merely talking about levels of meaning making to interactively determining them through semi-structured interview with a chosen client, and to documenting the client’s present meaning making based on 15 structurally relevant interview fragments. The program offers students the opportunity to show themselves...
Case Study I (b): Practicum in Dialectical Thinking and Listening
Assessment, Cognitive Dimension, Courses
This course leads participants from merely talking about dialectical thought forms to interactively eliciting them through a semi-structured interview and evaluating their use based on relevant fragments from a client interview. The program offers students the opportunity to show themselves and others that they have not only mastered “developmental theory”, but also know how to...
Case Study I (c): Practicum in Dialectical Team Interventions
Cognitive Dimension, Courses
In this course, students work with members of a team of their choice in order to better manage complexity with the aid of holistic and systemic, “dialectical”, thinking. Focusing on a central team task, they model for team members how to deepen collaboration and partnership in the team by closely listening to others’ task and...
Case Study II: CDF Dimensions in their Interrelationship within a Client’s Unitary Consciousness
Assessment, Cognitive Dimension, Courses, Psychological Dimension, Socio-emotional Dimension
This program serves the sole purpose of deepening practical know-how of CDF by bringing together all of its three dimensions. Consequently, it presupposes both a social-emotional and cognitive case study as well as the ability to evaluate and give feedback on the outcome of the Need/Press Questionnaire. The program offers students the opportunity to show...
From “Developmental Theory” to a Dialogical and Dialectical Epistemology
Articles by Otto Laske, Coaching, Consulting
By Otto Laske – In this text, I focus on the central relevance of interviewing skills for being able to lead a structured developmental dialog in the sense of the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF), whether social-emotional or cognitive. I want to make it clear that the certification as a Master Developmental Consultant/Coach at the Interdevelopmental...
From AQAL to AQAT: Dialog in an Integral Perspective
Articles by Guests
By Bruno Frischherz – The background of this paper is a longitudinal study in adult development that is based on the structured interviewing required for using Laske’s Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF). In what follows, I will compare the CDF methodology with methodological tools offered by Integral Theory. Integral theory provides a helpful starting point for...
Cognitive Fluidity – Its Etymology and Nuance
Articles by Guests
By Brendan Cartmel – The following article takes an important step, in my view, toward clarifying the relationship of Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework to discussions of “integral thinking” in the sense of Wilber and his students. The article points to the gaps in what is called “integral” thinking relative to DTF and further differentiates...
Dialektische Textanalyse und Textentwicklung. Teil I
Articles by Guests, Deutsch
Von Bruno Frischherz – Die Dialektik hat als Kunst der Gesprächsführung und als philosophischer Denkansatz eine lange Tradition. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, wie sich dialektisches Denken auch für die Analyse und Entwicklung von Texten nutzen lässt. Dialektische Textanalyse und Textentwicklung eignet sich insbesondere für Konzept- und Strategiepapiere, die einen hohen Anteil an abstrakter Denkarbeit verlangen....
Dialektische Textanalyse und Textentwicklung. Teil II
Articles by Guests, Deutsch
Von Bruno Frischherz – Die Dialektik hat als Kunst der Gesprächsführung und als philosophischer Denkansatz eine lange Tradition. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, wie sich dialektisches Denken auch für die Analyse und Entwicklung von Texten nutzen lässt. Dialektische Textanalyse und Textentwicklung eignet sich insbesondere für Konzept- und Strategiepapiere, die einen hohen Anteil an abstrakter Denkarbeit verlangen....
Review of De Visch’s “Mind(s) Creating Value”
Articles by Otto Laske, Consulting, IDM News
J. De Visch’s Leadership– Mind(s) Creating Value J. De Visch’s Leadership– Mind(s) Creating Value Jan DeVisch continues to plow the depth of dialectical thinking to restructure and refine corporate conversations. This writer is excellently prepared for the task, since his professional career has long been focused on issues of global concern both for and regarding...
How I use CDF in executive selection and development
Articles by Guests, Assessment, Consulting
This article describes three practical uses of CDF in organisational consulting. The author acts a coach, mentor, and consultant to a variety of private and public sector clients. How I use CDF – Nick Shannon
From Logical Thinking to Practical Wisdom: Developing your Thinking
Audio, Presentations, Teleseminars
By Otto Laske & Bruno Frischherz – The topic of the Seminar is dialectical thinking, its function in the cognitive development of adults, the view of “reality” it implies, the benefits it bestows on your own thinking, and the lack cultural resources to acquire it earlier in life. Together with Bruno Frischherz, Otto Laske discusses...
Human development as individuals – from late adolescence to practical wisdom
Video
Rainer von Leoprechting on Adult Development A 30 minutes introduction into development from late adolescence into practical wisdom. The journey of adults over a lifetime…
Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) – Ungekürzter Wikipedia-Artikel
Articles by Guests, Deutsch
Von Bruno Frischherz – Das Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) ist eine psychologische Entwicklungstheorie und das entsprechende Assessmentinstrument, das auf empirischer Forschung beruht. Der CDF-Methodologie liegt die Annahme zugrunde, dass jedes Individuum sich aktiv eine eigene “Welt” konstruiert, die von anderen Weltmodellen verschieden und lebenslang im Entstehen ist. Die CDF-Methodologie umfasst drei Assessmentinstrumente, je eines für...
Dialectical thinking and comparative text analysis
Articles by Guests
By Karin Ulmer & Bruno Frischherz – Analyzing texts other than interview transcripts based on the DTF Framework taught at IDM is a new application of CDF. Our paper presents an example of dialectical text analysis with a focus on i) the analytical framework and CDF methodology and, as analysis content, ii) key concepts of...
Better Thinking in a Global World: The IDM Approach to Teaching
Articles by Otto Laske
The article describes a methodology for teaching dialectical thinking that is based on Laske’s Dialectical Thought Form Framework (DTF; 2008). It outlines the historical origins of the framework; reasons for its focus on understanding others’ thinking documented in transcribed speech; its capability to assess the phase of dialectical thinking development of individuals; procedures of dialectical...
Work Capability and Adult Development
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske
A collection of articles [mostly in English] on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) by IDM Researchers, published on April 1, 2010, in Wirtschaftspsychologie, by Pabst Science Publisher. Download: Laske_ed_2010_Work_Capability_and_Adult_Development
What can IDM offer the Integral movement?
Articles by Guests, Cognitive Dimension, Dialectical Thinking
This article explores how IDM’s teachings relate to “Integral” and specifically Wilber’s “AQAL” model. It further argues that an understanding of dialectical thinking as taught at IDM enables the learner to develop a critical perspective on Integral’s core doctrines. What Can IDM Offer the Integral Movement
On the Autonomy and Influence of the Cognitive Developmental Line
Articles by Otto Laske
I explore the history, theory, tools and benefits of dialectical thinking, a way of thinking adults grow into to different degrees after mastering formal logic (Basseches, 1984, Laske, 2009). My goal is to show that dialectical thinking is a natural outcome of adult cognitive development and that, pragmatically speaking, it is learnable. In order to...
An evidence based approach to measuring, managing, and supporting work in organizations
Articles by Otto Laske
This text is the English translation of my introduction to articles about CDF in the monograph entitled Contributions to an Adult Developmentally Renewed Social Science, published by Pabst Science Publisher in Zeitschrift fűr Wirtschaftspsychologie in 2010. The introduction briefly characterizes each of the individual contributions to the monograph. Download: Laske_2010_An_Evidence-Based_approach_to_Measuring_Managing_and_Supporting_Work_in_Organizations
Work Capability and Adult Development – Wirtschaftspsychologie Themenheft
Articles by Guests, Articles by Otto Laske, Cognitive Dimension, Deutsch, Dialectical Thinking
A collection of articles [mostly in English] on the Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF) by IDM Researchers, published on April 1, 2010, in Wirtschaftspsychologie, by Pabst Science Publisher. Download: Laske_ed_2010_Work_Capability_and_Adult_Development
How Much Do You Care to Know About Your Client?
Articles by Otto Laske
Dr. Otto Laske’s Keynote Address to the International Coaching Community Congress, Lisbon, Portugal, October 2009. The keynote introduces behavioral coaches to developmental theory and thinking. The 2-hr keynote comprises exercises for the audience and puts the emphasis on the cognitive development of coaches and clients. Download presentation