Updated Editions of Laske’s Research on Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human Systems

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 notice of purchase. All English volumes were edited by Alan Snow, Sydney, Australia, for easier reading. Laske's 'social-emotional' research reported in volume 1 is available in several languages; his 'cognitive' research comprises volumes 6 and 7 below, where the Manual of Dialectical Thinking (no. 7) is now a stand-alone volume independent of volume 2 (no. 6), as seen below: MHD, Measuring Hidden Dimensions: The art and science of fully engaging adults, vol. 1, 3rd edition (English), US$50 MHD vol. 1, 2nd edition (French), US$95 MDH vol. 1, 1st edition (German), US$55 MHD vol. 1, 2nd edition (Spanish), US$75 MHD vol. 1, 2nd edition (Japanese), US$75 MHD vol. 2, Measuring Hidden Dimensions: Foundations of Requisite Organization, 2nd edition (English), US$75 DTFM (stand-alone Manual of Dialectical Thought Forms, formerly included in MHD vol. 2), 2nd edition, US$85. In the author's view, these 7 volumes present the most... Read More...

Early Warnings that Competence Models Would Not Sustain Survival or Innovation

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...

CDF auf Deutsch: Sozialwissenschaftliche Texte zur Lebensbefreiung und Erhoehung der Arbeitsproduktivitaet

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 Art und Weise betrifft, in der sich jeder von uns seine eigene Welt schafft. Die Texte zeigen, wie jeder von uns eine lebenslange Entwicklung durchlaeuft, welche die dramatischen Veraenderungen unserer Erfahrung der realen Welt ("Wirklichkeit") als von uns selbst konstruiert, und also auch als von uns selbst verantwortet, darstellt. Sie enthalten zudem eine Ideologiekritik sowohl positivistischer wie spiritualistischer Ansaetze zur Erklaerung unseres Lebenslaufs und unserer Lebensprobleme. Methodologisch gesehen betreffen diese Schriften meine Arbeit mit dem Constructive Developmental Framework (CDF, 2000), einer sozial-wissenschaftlichen Methodologie, die human resources insofern revolutioniert, als sie erstmalig empirische Daten zum persoenlichen Entwicklungsstand von Mitarbeitern in Unternehmen zur Verfuegung stellt, die eine Grundlage nicht nur von Coaching, sondern auch von Karriereberatung und Team-Aufstellung werden koennen. Zudem leisted CDF auch im Privatleben Hilfestellung einfach deswegen, weil es zu einem Verstaendnis des persoenlichen Entwicklungsverlaufs und Entwicklungsstandes beitraegt, das weder von der Psychologie noch von... Read More...

Introduction to “Dynamic Collaboration: How to Strengthen Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams” (Jan De Visch & Otto Laske 2018)

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 adult-developmental perspective and instead of "skills", "competences", and "agile" mantras and tool kits focus on the structure and quality of team dialog as the source of self-organization both in individuals and teams. We equate self-organization with being mature enough to be aware of the structure of one's emotions and thoughts as an expression of the level of one's adult development. To provide senior managers with new ways of thinking about teams and new kinds of interventions derived therefrom, we show that teams are always developmentally mixed -- composed of different developmental levels -- and dependent upon how team majority relates to team minority, are prone to being either up- or downwardly divided, rather than unified. We put at the disposition of senior managers a large set of tools unknown to them that derive from adult-developmental research at Harvard's Kohlberg School since 1975, showing them how... Read More...

NEW DEAL: A sociological consulting approach to humanistic management and deliberately developmental organization

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 in Vienna and Salzburg, Austria. New Deal represents a sociological approach in the sense that it sees work and value creation as a process by which social capital is constantly created as well as potentially destroyed in human interactions. To substantiate this insight New Deal introduces four "new economies" (not found in classical economy): of personal relationships, emotions, attention, and knowledge, respectively. According to this approach, managing the creation of social capital amounts to managing the four economies at all levels of an organization, whether it is hierarchical or not. The blog highlights what is fresh about New Deal in light of North American preferences for focusing on "getting the job done", or remaining in what CDF calls the "Task House". Reflecting on the New Deal approach from an adult-developmental perspective, the blog elucidates why "moving out of the Task House" is a requirement especially... Read More...

Transforming the ‘Human Resources’ Function into the Core of Humanistic Management: Potentials, Requirements and Obstacles

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 resources for complex thinking (Laske 2008, 2017), levels of collaborative intelligence that can actually be reached are very low indeed.) Limitations of collaborative intelligence pervade every culture, not only of organizations. They define to what degree an organization has the potential to become effectively developmental, thus able of self-transformation. Such limitations, uncovered by empirical research since 1975, naturally arise from differences in emotional and cognitive maturity that distinguish individual collaborators one from the other. Although they are no longer a mystery for researchers, these limitations continue to be disregarded by those who formulate visions of humanistic management, a fact that diminishes the realism of such visions. Transforming the Human Resources Function Read More...