Tag: Deep Thinking

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 simple observation that a lot of groups systematically under-perform. They do not make good decisions and they do not solve complex problems in a collaborative way. Traditional Team Building Traditional team building interventions, which are mainly behaviorally focused, do not seem to work when team members are highly developed (especially when they are knowledge workers). The top interventions advised from a behavioral point of view are: foster constructive debate in meetings push back when consensus forms to quickly use devil's advocate thinking look for competing explanations to challenge your observations get some distance, step away, and then try again in order to recognize and interpret complex data use visual graphs or flowcharts to juxtapose the larger picture with the individual puzzle pieces reframe situations and always examine several more options use impromptu meetings when time is limited to generate more options, including unconventional choices... Read More...

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 “contrasts”, or better of “alternative” thought forms. By this I mean that when scoring we use contrasts to narrow the choice of the thought form to be scored, by thinking of what alternative scorings could be. These could fall into the same class, in which case the overall scoring result would not change (since we are scoring moments of dialectic, not individual thought forms), but they could also fall into a different moment/class, and this could shift the resulting profile. Investigating  the Thought Form table further, we realize how “Western” the presentation of thought forms is: we speak of “classes” of thought forms which is something Asians would not find easy since they are used to grouping things based on similarity relationships rather than categories or classes, and thus following logical rules about attribution to a class. Being critical of the table of thought forms... Read More...

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 what is concretely happening in using dialectical thought forms (DTFs). Otto Laske Background to Terms Cognitive Fluidity is the generative mechanism unlocking human potential and driving the evolution of human functioning; so says evolutionary anthropologist Steve Mithven. Cognitive and Social Intelligence are subsequent products of our Cognitive Fluidity. Mithven’s Cognitive Fluidity has correlates with JL Moreno’s idea of Spontaneity and Creativity being the main forces forming the cosmos and fluidising our cognition. What then are the origins of, and the concepts we imply, when we use the term Fluidity? Fluidity & CDF Dialectic Fluidity is a key metric in Otto Laske’s Cognitive Developmental Framework (CDF) and a key factor when designing Inter-developmental (IDM) consultation and coaching strategy. If Dialectic Fluidity is so important in understanding cognitive potential, what do we imply when we use the term Fluidity? What is the source of the term and... Read More...

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 how dialectical thinking has been shown to develop and what are the tools it uses. We also discuss why learning it is beneficial for any professional, and what opportunities to acquire such thinking exist at the Interdevelopmental Institute. To the extent that members of the Integrales Forum, Germany, sign on, the seminar is also an opportunity to air questions about the relationship between dialectical and integral thinking. Date: March 15, 2013, 1 pm ET / 19h CET Download: presentation Read More...

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 green economy. Our article compares two institutional policy documents, one authored by the European Commission, and one by the United Nations Environmental Programme (produced in preparation to the UN Sustainable development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, July 2012. The methodology of dialectical text analysis Conclusions from the first part of this paper are that the CDF framework can be applied to written documents whatever topic they may deal with. The four classes of dialectical thought forms provide the analytical framework for measuring thinking processes documented in texts, while the four quadrants of integral theory provide a framework for seeing the world in terms of different perspectives. When we assume that each of the integral perspectives can be articulated in terms of the four quadrants of dialectic, we can determine the degree of dialectical sophistication with which each of the four integral perspectives is articulated in... Read More...

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 Read More...