Tag: Team Development

The future of work is not a topic for logical thinking as much as it is one for revamping logical into complex, 'dialectical', thinking. The difference between the two is explained and exercised in a workshop in Brussels whose program can be downloaded here. If interested in this workshop, held on January 18, 2019, near Brussels, write to [email protected], my co-author of a book on collaborative intelligence of teams entitled "Dynamic Collaboration" (2018). In the downloadable attachment, the program is commented upon from a dialectical-thinking point of view by Otto Laske. Program Jan 18 2019 Brussels 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...

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...

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...

Starting in 2014, coach education at IDM shifted to team coaching. In this blog, the reader finds materials that form the basis of my collaboration with Jan De Visch on the book "Dynamic Collaboration: Strengthening Self-Organization and Collaborative Intelligence in Teams" of 2018. One of the basic tenets of this book -- that organizations comprise different team levels or 'We-Spaces' -- derives from my social-emotional Team Typology found in volume 1 of "Measuring Hidden Dimensions: The Art and Science of Fully Engaging Adults" (2005, chapter 10). Below, the reader encounters some of the seminal ideas presented in the form of sets of slides and texts, each of them briefly commented upon as to its main topic. *** Introduction to Team Coaching based on CDF (2014) In this short text, I outline the IDM team coaching program. Based on an introductory 'Gateway' course, the program focuses on two main types of coaching: social-emotional and cognitive. Certification is based on undertaking a case study. Team Coaching for Maturity: IDM Gateway (2014) In this set of slides, I introduce coaches to the CDF perspective on organizational teams. The slides emphasize that teams are developmentally mixed (comprise divergent levels of adult development) and, in terms... Read More...

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...