Category: Articles by Otto Laske

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, the message is still kept in abeyance, however neurolinguistically dressed up they now present themselves. 2002_Laske_Otto_Human_Resources_Beyond_Domain_Competence 2003_Laske_Otto_Capability: A_New_Data_Type Read More...

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 behavioral needs (and associated pressures on them) that are anchored in the psychological profile -- self concept, approach to tasks, emotional intelligence -- of their individual members. teams' 'meaning making' is more strongly "social" than "emotional", compared to individuals, and thus more strongly intertwined with the fluidity of their cognitive functioning. When you put these seemingly simple pieces together, as Jan De Visch and I have done in our recent book entitled "Dynamic Collaboration" found at --  you reap very sophisticated insights not only into how teams function but also into what you can do to make them work better. Read More...

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 which added to the real world of Meld a layer of ethical and aesthetic depth. The pedagogy of dialectical thinking that is on my mind is strictly one of MELD, thus of the real world seen from a scientific perspective. This pedagogy is based on a very simple connection explored in my work in adult cognitive development and organizational complexity, namely that between Bhaskar's Moments of Dialectic and Basseches' dialectical schemata or, as I say, thought forms (TFs). In my conception, expanding logical thinking by breadth-first search leads to four moments of dialectic, while extending this search into depth leads to an unfolding of moments by dialectic by TFs. This connection of moments of dialectic and associated thought forms is the crux of DTF. Mastering DTF is commensurate which understanding and mastering this connection. The pedagogy I have in mind is therefore based on DTF,... Read More...

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 from working with DTF, Laske's Dialectical Thought Form Framework (2008). DTF sheds light on, as well as delivers cutting-edge tools for, turning around team collaboration in the direction of an upward spiral. The article is a review of the authors' book entitled "Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams". The book is the first to fully incorporate findings about adult development over the life span into the literature on teams, and in this sense pioneering. Review of "Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams" (De Visch & Laske 2018) For an introduction to the book click on Introduction-to-Dynamic-Collaboration. The book can be ordered at https://connecttransform.be/dynamic-collaboration/   For a summary of the most important topics and insights of the book see below:  Perspex Scenes Template (copy) on Biteable. Read More...

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 as Themenheft. The publication was assembled upon the invitation of Prof. emeritus Theo Wehner, Institut fuer Arbeitswissenschaft, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The Themenheft articles introduce a new conception of human resources and, related to that, new ways of supporting organizational work by way of consulting, coaching, team and leadership development. The articles anticipate what later would be called by Kegan & Lahey the "deliberately developmental organization." As in Jaques's conception of "requisite organization", the assumption is made that there is ultimately no conflict between work force development and client and stakeholder satisfaction. Viewed from a broader, methodological, perspective, CDF represents a novel approach to carrying out  qualitative and quantitative research in the social sciences. It promotes empirical research of a kind that overcomes the positivistic tendencies of purely logical thinking, and thereby avoids reifying social and psychological processes rather than making them transparent in their unfolding... Read More...

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 if they listened, they only listened to the content of what team members were saying, -- rather than to the structure of team members' thinking, as well as their own, on which speaking is based. What is more, teams have been addressed only by way of purely logical thinking that turns whatever it encounters into an inert object (rather than acknowledging it as a living entity). As a result, the meaning of team work has been driven out of it, and only what team work descriptively "is" has remained standing, yielding predictably shallow team interventions. To change this counter-productive state of affairs is the purpose of Jan and Otto's book, entitled Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams (ConnectTransform & IDM Press 2018). They succeed at this by demonstrating in detail that behavior is only one dimension out of three that are relevant... Read More...