Tag: Socio-emotional Dimension

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 edge and chances of survival. The slide set on developmental process consultation, below, written almost 15 years ago, gave the first hint that team maturity is a fruitful subject of research. Developmental research, over-focused on the individual, was making it clear that 'maturity' was not a psychological, but foremost a social-emotional and cognitive-developmental issue. From this insight emerged Laske's social-emotional team typology outlined in chapter 11 of volume 1 of Measuring Hidden Dimensions in 2005 (see ). Aside from the lack of social-emotional data on teams, an even greater gap in public knowledge is the lack about teams' cognitive status, regarding their fluidity of thinking and complexity handling capability. This issue is even more arcane to most since contemporary developmental theory continues to reduce cognitive performance either to logical task performances (as in M. Commons' work) or to social-emotional stage positions (as in work by... Read More...

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 coaching may be the optimal and quickest way to learn CDF; (b). since the majority of coaches is stuck in logic-based behavioral coaching, executives can expect a value-add from being coached based on the CDF-app designed in this  blog. Of course, building such an app requires people who simultaneously have experience building apps as well as a strong interest in delivering quality coaching. Two kinds of CDF workshops seem to be needed: 1. App-free: conventional, 2-4 day, workshops introducing students to the basics of CDF and providing opportunities for practicing developmental thinking with a client, also in preparation for building CDF-apps. 2. App-focused: a workshop geared directly to building a CDF-app. The first kind of workshop focuses on learning to embody a "CDF-stance" and "persona"; the second kind, on bringing CDF basics into a programmable form and shaping them in terms of the requirements of... Read More...

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, of Boston University's Business School. The dissertation is a comprehensive social-emotional and cognitive study of 6 executives from the Boston, MA, area, the first of its kind. The dissertation comprises 2 parts: 1. volume 1 (5 chapters): methodology and findings 2. volume 2 (Appendices A to D, focused on the relationship of executive and adult development, and including interview data as well as  coaching recommendations based on interview scoring outcomes). On this blog, a third part comprises the volumes' figures. In nuce, the dissertation undertakes to show the limitations of theories of executive development given their neglect of the 'vertical development' axis, both in its social-emotional and cognitive dimensions. It introduces the distinction between 'ontic' and 'agentic' development barely acted upon in organizations even today, as well as the issue of the linkage between the social-emotional and cognitive dimensions still unacknowledged in today's developmental research.... Read More...

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, a yearly event that concludes the INPACT coaching program. An important issue in the discussion is the difference between U.S. and South American organizational culture.   Read More...

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 by Basseches, Commons, and Bhaskar, as well as myself. This de-totalization shows the stark limits of present research in adult development. It reflects a broken humanism as we experience it every day now. Is there a Bridge Between ED and CD Read More...

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   Read More...