Category: Consulting

  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 that the monograph has relevance far beyond applications in work contexts and is a must-read for systems thinkers venturing outside of the purely logical domain of intellectual endeavor. Since its first publication the scope of interest in complex thinking -- beyond the mechanics of using thought forms -- has broadened. Outside of being of interest to organizational thinkers, a broader, evolutionary, perspective , spearheaded by John Stewart and Lawrence Wollersheim, has emerged that centers on the planet's global crisis. These authors address two capital aspects of human flourishing: (a) self-evolution, and (b) meta-systemic wisdom the core of which is dialectical thinking (see https://www.evolutionarymanifesto.com/SpandaArticle.pdf, by John E. Stewart). Another target audience of the monograph comprises high-level systemic thinkers with an integral focus, whether they are active in think tanks, government, or intelligence agencies, as well as architects and artists whose work focuses on transformation. The three... Read More...

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 make it easy to transfer them to professional practice, (4) teaching CDF tools in a social-ontology framework that opens participants' eyes to the social and cultural constraints they encounter in launching life and work projects, (5) unremitting modeling of developmental and dialectical practice in all workshop sessions in which participants enable and coach each other at a high level of awareness of their own internal conversations. For more details, see the description below: Description of IDM's CDF Program Read More...

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 in that they stand against an 'open systems', social-ontology view of human agency as a causal power bringing about societal change. Architectural practice is used as an example. Following Prof. Freek Persyn's inaugural lecture at the ETH, Zurich, I demonstrate what it looks like to view architectural work as an expression of human agency in the sense of Bhaskar's and Archer's  social ontology, thereby consciously placing it within the Social Cube. What in this blog is said about architectural practice can easily be extended to any professional practice one is involved or interested in. Architectural Work as Environment Making Read More...

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, -- a mode of being now rampant that constrains the quality of our life and creative work. For this reason, we are in need of re-socializing ourselves through building up in our mind new ways of listening, speaking, writing, 'thinking', reading, communicating, coaching, and facilitating. To further re-socialization in adults, IDM is launching 5-months long practica of dialectical thinking.  The next Practicum starts at the end of November 2020. For details, see and Since nobody can learn news ways of being from books but only through supervised practice, IDM Practica are structured in terms of a sequence of activities carried out by members of small cohorts of 4-6 participants mentored by Otto Laske, originator of the Dialectical Thought Form Framework. Have a look at the structure of the Practicum at the first link below and learn about the correspondence of Practicum Activities and Learning Targets at... Read More...

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 or analytical tools for understanding conversations. Their optimal use lies in real=time listening in a group or team environment. Thought forms are dynamic tools of dialogical thinking, in contrast to monological lists of patterns and text examples for grasping dialectic. The catch is: their use simultaneously teaches becoming aware of, and presupposes having become aware of, one's own dialectical movements-in-thought. In short: You have to like adventures. The set of slides below focus on team meetings (chapter 3 of the book) from the point of view of listening in real time; it teaches first steps in this direction made though text analysis of social-emotional and cognitive interviews. Inspiration Session 2 - August 19 2020 rev. OL   Read More...

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 integral community's work that has shown itself immune not only to dialectical thinking based on Baskar's MELD itself, but also to new developments in adult-developmental theory set forth at on this site. In nuce, in this text I outline the IDM 'Case Study Cohort Method' taught since 2005 and geared to educating professionals for the sake of becoming a 'master developmental coach or consultant'. In this chapter, I suggest that adopting this method or a suited variant of it would facilitate integral training and practical interventions in society and organizational work. See for yourself. Laske Chapter on Application of Bhaskar's Meld 2020   Read More...