The Journey towards Self Authored

The Journey to Self Authored - letting go of the need for approval

Joseph Campbell “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are”

“Being who you are” – not far into my leadership journey this brought me up short.  Mmmm….To what extent did I even know who I was and what I stood for?  To what extent was I clear about what I wanted to achieve? To what extent was the life I was living actually reflective of my true self?  What demons held me back from fully embracing all that I was?    … All valid questions that were starting to knock at my door and required an answer. Put another way, as I have now come to understand it, these emerging questions were part of my own transition into what Kegan refers to as the ‘Self Authored’ stage of adult development. A stage of development that represents the ‘target’ for healthy adult development in the western culture - a stage where authority is found and the adult determines the rules and regulations rather than looking to society / parents / friends to determine these for her/himself.   

People who are self-authored don’t just know who they are, what they want and how to get it – being self-authored describes a stage of development where an adult not only resists the emotional pull of others’ expectations and needs but does so whilst remaining connected and considerate of others’ feelings.  At this stage of adulthood, we are no longer emotionally hijacked by others’ needs, nor do we simply disconnect from others’ feelings in order to get something done.  

Gervase Bushe in his book ‘Clear Leadership’ describes this as an important continuum of interpersonal behaviour. At one extreme there is too much closeness (fusion) where a human being can lose themselves in others - their thoughts and feelings are simply reactions to what others say and do.  At the other extreme is too much separation (disconnection), where a human being displays no awareness of others, no sense of what others think, feel or want and no curiosity about them. At this extreme their actions take only their own thoughts and needs into account. Neither end of this continuum is healthy - such responses result from being either too invested in others feelings – or not invested enough.  Part of the journey towards being self-authored is about navigating this continuum.

Bushe says that for the most part our natural responses are unconscious and we typically act at one or other end of the continuum. When we are ‘fused’ we make the other responsible for our experience and additionally we feel myself responsible for another’s experience.  When we are ‘disconnected’ we may think we are being professional (and this has traditionally been valued in western culture) but it is a deadly way of being for collaborative working. 

So, when a person is self authored they;

1.       know what their experience is – they are aware of the choices they are making; they own them and stand by them;

2.       know they are responsible for their own feelings and actions and the impact others have on them;  

3.       openly seek to understand the experience others are having; noticing when they are making up stories to fill gaps in their knowledge and they ask questions to get more information. They want to know the impact they are having on others and communicate their need to know the truth of their experience. They listen dispassionately without judgment.

4.       are clear about their scope of authority, what they are responsible for. They are clear about the decisions they make and clear about issues that are up or not for debate.

5.       are clear about the basis of their actions and describe that to others. They are not overwhelmed or controlled by emotion or unconscious motivations.

If a tendency to fuse is our natural response then to fully inhabit the self-authored space more consistently we need to notice when we do ‘fuse’ with others and start to allow others’ their experiences without taking responsibility for them; we need to resist the opinions and desires of others – resisting the urge to be drawn to them and instead weighing them up objectively against our own desires. We then create our own system of rules and regulations – our internal compass on which to make our decisions.

If our tendency is to disconnect then we need to work hard to tune in emotionally to others and build an empathy muscle by practising authentic connection. We need to let go of some unhelpful behaviours;  letting go of our need to be right, letting go of the need in having the last word – letting go of the need to defend our actions. And we need to establish new ones; active listening,  catching people doing things right and saying thank you, sharing information and being more open, practising humility.

Becoming ‘Self Authored’ is a part of our lifelong journey and not all adults choose to undertake the hard work required to fully inhabit this stage of development.  Almost everyone is able to be self-authored in some interactions – the less invested we are in a relationship, the easier it is but all of us have some relationships where this is very difficult – typically our most intimate and particularly those in our families.  With conscious effort and a strong intention we develop our ability to be self-authored across all our relationships. The rewards are high; it offers peace, freedom, creativity and offers new depth to our ability to truly engage others. Leaders operating at this stage of adult development can sustain real collaboration and partnership – critical capabilities which adults need to master in order to thrive in our fast-paced inter connected world.

Brigid Garvey

January 2019

Perspective Shifts

LEADERSHIP, VERTICAL LEARNING AND PERSPECTIVE SHIFT……IN THE MORE THAN HUMAN WORLD

Part 1 – The case for nature based learning practices

            . “……Virtually all spiritual traditions, indigenous or native cultures have regarded nature as the ultimate teacher. At few points in history has the need to re-discover this teacher been greater.” (Senge, Scharmer et al)

The above quote has particular relevance for us at True North given that vertical learning underpins our approach and we draw on natural systems as inspiration for our work.  The aim of this piece therefore is to explore a little further the True North take on the age old enquiry as to what nature can teach us and how this connects with the vertical learning, leadership and personal development natural systems based practices we use. 

In doing so there are two broad themes we’d like to develop;

Personal perspective evolution - A fundamental element in vertical learning is a continuing evolution in our personal perspective, in how we see ourselves, others and the organisations/institutions in our world. Our perspective influences the choices we make on how we engage with those around us and our interpretation of our experience of how others impact on us.

Well-being and resilience - Linked to the above, our perspective influences the decisions we make for ourselves about ourselves which of course directly impacts on our own well-being and sense of resilience, or otherwise. Seeing the world through an “I must try harder” or “I must be stronger” lens will certainly have a consequence.

With regard to perspective shift, the opening quote to this piece I am sure will also meet the full approval of David Abram, the American philosopher who first used the term “the more than human world”. He was keen to give full recognition to the simple fact that humanity is an incredibly complex species, and yet we are merely a part of a significantly more complex natural world of interconnected systems, habitats, processes and life-forms that have evolved and continue to evolve over hundreds of millions of years. “It is only because of the more than human world of earth, the solar system, and the entire cosmos that we are here. Unfortunately many of us have acquired a habit of thinking the natural world is somehow less than the human world”. (D. Abram in R. Sheldrake).

Set against this, humanity and its institutions are historically very recent and likely to be somewhat transient in the universal system.

So natural systems are a part of and inform chaos theory (the butterfly effect) and how as leaders we will almost certainly fall foul of the law of unintended consequences, and probably repeat the same mistakes…..unless we step back, shift our perspective and see the bigger picture. This gives us a number of natural systems based practice in shifting perspective. (We explore natural systems based practices in the second part of this article).

Natural systems are a part of and inform complexity theory guiding insight into how we create and influence wider systems and how interconnected such wider systems are. We need to intervene in organisations and communities with due care, mindfulness and skill. Each element of a system creates its own micro-climate. The summation of micro-climates coming together in balance within a wider system creates a healthy habitat. For example, the roots of individual trees connect to be self-supporting communities which, along with the symbiotic relationship with certain fungi maintains a healthy, balanced habitat for all to thrive within the community. Chopping down one tree will affect the sustainability of the whole community to some degree. It will create some damage the repair of which will take effort and use energy.

It doesn’t stretch the imagination too far to see the direct relevance of this to leadership decisions in organisations in transition.

Natural systems are in systems theory. If we intentionally or recklessly change one part of a system, over time it will come back round to remind us, for good or ill of the decisions we made. In the UK, denuding the hillsides and upland regions of the fells of the Lake District in favour of serried ranks of trees grown for commercial timber combined with over-grazed pastureland was the cause of the December 2015 flooding, so devastating to many communities, after heavy rain water rushed off the hills into towns and villages of Cumbria rather than being held in the natural soak areas of bog, wood and lake.

Natural systems are in field theory which helps us identify what is figural in any complex system with force-field analysis giving us wisdom into the checks and balances in any personal or organisational change or transition. How come nature self-adjusts over time so capably …….until humanity intervenes that is!?

In summary we contend that evolving our perspective as a part of vertical learning programme is a corner stone to building personal and collective capacity to lead, influence and develop a stakeholder/community mindset. Building in an enquiry into and developing practices based on an appreciation of natural systems as a part of vertical learning is therefore important.

Our second theme is that of decisions we make for ourselves (consciously or otherwise) in our own well-being and resilience and how natural systems based practices bring rich learning along with mental and physical health benefits. We can start simply by being mindful of the well-being agenda, now featuring in most HR functions key result areas, employee attitude surveys and 360 feedback instruments. This being the case, how do natural systems based practices help?

Firstly we contend that we are a part of nature, not apart from it. Marx is believed to have first used the term “alienation” not in response to our relationship with the means of production but with reference to alienation of mankind from our relationship with nature as we moved into the cities and factories through early industrialisation.

It’s interesting to consider that the early industrial philanthropists such as Titus Salt, Cadbury, Fry, Stanton, all built the factories and communities for workers around a shared green space. They knew this would foster healthier, loyal employees.

Nature Deficit Disorder (Louv) is now a recognised condition, particularly prevalent among millennials’. There is mounting, credible evidence as to the effectiveness of natural systems based practices in reducing stress, restoring attention and improving general health. (Jordan, Frumkin). Bratman at Stanford University administered a battery of psychological and physiological tests to a group about to embark on a fifty minute walk in countryside. They were similarly assessed on their return. They showed demonstrable reductions in “negative ruminations”, cortisol in the blood stream (stress related hormone) and improved memory performance along with enhanced immune system activity when compared with a control group that had not completed the walk.

At the very least it would seem natural systems based practices applied in a disciplined way re-connect us with ourselves. Beyond that, Doctors are now advising patients to go for a walk in a wood or on a hill as an efficacious remedy to a number of maladies of mind or feelings of self-worthlessness. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest the curative effects of such remedies far out-strip the effects of anti-depressants and other more costly, chemically based prescriptions.

The simple practice of looking out of a window to a more natural scene has restorative effects. We connect with ourselves and bring full attention back to work at hand. The well-respected 10 year studies of Roger Ulrich showed a clear statistical difference with regard to hospital post-operative recovery times and reduced re-admission rates when comparing patients who had beds with a window view looking out to trees and those who were facing inside and looking at internal walls.  (See also Kaplan and Kaplan “attention restoration theory and cognitive functioning).

Nature is in our own nature and therefore a pre-requisite for our wellbeing. It is ingrained in our deep sense of connection with others and with self. Individualistic social media screen-time is proving to be significantly more damaging to our youngsters than collaborative play outside. Just compare self-harming rates among juveniles today with pre-social media days.

So, back to Senge, Scharmer et al, when it comes to learning and shifting our leadership perspective in times of rapid change while at the same time paying attention to our own well-being and resilience, perhaps they are right in that we might have much to learn from nature.

We still have fresh insights to draw about our actions as leaders and as contributors to our home communities, from the inter-connectedness of the natural world and its rich counter-balances that creates resilience and sustainability.

Putting all of this to one side, there is still the simple, human thrill of a wonderful view of trees mirrored in a still lake or the joyous enchantment of our children’s wonderment and excitement at the duck eating out of their hand in the local park. Our own relationship with nature is deep within us…..like it or not. Deny it and take the unintended consequences, or let our local GP and NHS pick up the tab.

In part 2 we consider a selection of nature based practices at the service of vertical learning, leadership and community development.

Brian Woodall

True North Partnership

February 2019

Gratitude and Entitlement

Self-help books and spiritual traditions are awash with the encouragement to practise gratitude or to ‘count our blessings’ – every night before sleep or at least once a week for those who attend their place of worship.  Such habits have traditionally been about the stuff of finding happiness or peacefulness but I am now sensing that this practice has an important part to play in the cultures we are creating at work.  

In reading Sheldrake’s latest book ‘Science and Spiritual Practices’  -  I am struck by what he has to say about the rise of technology, and the consequent de-personalisation of many of our day to day activities. We know this has a direct impact on the work cultures we are creating but I hadn’t before fully appreciated exactly why this is the case. Sheldrake explains that when we lose the opportunity to express gratitude to another human being the resulting impact is a somewhat insidious descent into the culture of entitlement with all its unattractive characteristics.  

Sheldrake gives the example of the food scanner replacing the person behind the till in our supermarkets. Even when we get used to understanding how these replacements work (which is a feat in its own right), they leave us without the opportunity for a human exchange.  This isn’t rocket science of course but what I value about Sheldrake’s insight is the explanation of what happens instead.  He explains that we become harder-wired to a sense of entitlement:  for example, “I have paid good money for this so I have a legally enforceable right to expect good quality products and services… and will complain if they are not what I expect.” Increasingly, there is a sense of feeling more and more remote from all those in the supply chain who have created the product.  

I recall my early years as a young management consultant in BT as it grappled with the challenge of surviving in a newly competitive and increasingly automated industry.  We were paying many consultants a lot of money to help us shift our ever deepening ‘entitlement’ culture. It ate away at motivation and productivity like nothing else.  I am not proposing that there are simple answers to the complexity of eradicating entitlement – it is of course rooted in a myriad of factors but Sheldrake is clear that “de-personalisation chokes off gratitude” and a sense of entitlement fills the gap.

For leaders, it is important to check their desire of efficiency for ‘progress’ with a need to safeguard the productive cultures where people have a chance to express their humanity.  This ‘check’ point is no different to the insight brought to us from Trist and Bamforth in their pioneering work in the 60s on Socio-Technical systems. When we change the technical system, we need to pay attention to what also needs changing in the social system.  

Incidentally the full chapter around the science of gratitude is fascinating and reveals that the greater the gratitude, the greater the sense of flow and the greater our desire to give.   All areas of significant interest to the leaders of our organisations…all it takes is an attitude of counting our blessings – daily.   Not rocket science.

Developing 'Soft' Skills - the advanced curriculum

Developing ‘soft’ skills – The advanced curriculum for leaders.

Key Message:  Personal Leadership Development is hard and it’s important to ‘be prepared’ and commit to the journey. 

Who you are is how you lead. How you lead directly relates to how your team performs. The more you are liked, respected, and admired, the higher the level of performance there is likely to be in your team. (There is much more to this, incidentally, than being ‘nice’, although some likeability is an important ticket to the game.)

It is of course extremely important to have some seriously good strategic skills under your belt and sound commercial skills, such as finance, negotiation, and project leadership, to name a few. Some leaders also need a high level of proficiency in their chosen profession (such as accountancy, medicine, law, engineering). However the more senior you become in a role the ever increasing importance of your personal skills – that is, your emotional intelligence or ‘soft’ skills.  It is for example increasingly important to cultivate a warm personality, one that demonstrates a deep sense of care and ethical commitment to others, and be someone that knows deeply how to look after yourself – physically, and emotionally.  

Leadership development is all about learning to manage your impact, consciously and skilfully. It starts by understanding to a full extent who you are and how you show up to others. Only then can you make some choices about what is required and learn to flex your own impact to optimal effect.    

For many people this kind of development is hard – it’s deeply personal and it’s emotionally charged. However, the ‘stuff’ of ‘Leadership Talent Assessments’ and consequent ‘Development Plans’ do ask leaders to expand their ‘range’ of effectiveness and deepen their impact if they are to succeed.   The way we have learned to be in the world has kept us emotionally safe – from shame, humiliation, embarrassment, rejection. We need to unlearn some of these ways of being - undo the very things that have protected us – yet this is development – and it is essential if we are to continue to thrive, let alone breakthrough to new levels of influence, impact and performance.  

These views of course are not new. Leadership competency frameworks today mostly reference interpersonal skills – such as the ability to ‘take people with you’ – the need to ‘find your voice’ – the requirement to ‘step onto the balcony and take a broad perspective’. Executives now spend serious time creating company ‘values’ and invest significantly in developing, communicating and aiming to ‘live’ by them.  However developing these skills with authenticity is definitely not easy to say the least.   

We need quality time with people to assess how to help them develop. When the task is clear, well defined and easy to evaluate, (as is often the case with technical skills) a person’s competence is clear and with it the need for training or support.  But when the task is less clear and unbounded (for example with emotional /relationship skills) it is much harder to assess competence and even when we do, it’s not always easy to know what to do next to help someone develop.  

We know that different people make decisions, deal with conflict, and understand their relationships with colleagues quite differently. They have different strengths and weaknesses, different skills, different backgrounds and personalities.  All of these factors are important when thinking about how to support and develop them.  The relatively new theory around adult development explores another difference which is often overlooked – the difference in people’s capacities to make sense of the situation they find themselves in.  We have long since recognised that as a child grows, their ability to make sense of the world grows too; the perspective of a young toddler - ‘I am the world’ - is very different from a teenager - ‘The world has it in for me’.   However, adult development theory suggests that we continue to develop our ability to make sense of the world throughout our adult lives and continually learn to see the world through ever new eyes, we can change our interpretations of experience and we transform our views of reality.  

To illustrate this more fully adult development theories identify ‘stages’ of development that are possible for full adult growth and using the example above the developmental thinking might look like this:

Stage 1: I am the world  (Toddler / Child)

Stage 2: The world has it in for me (Teenager)               

Stage 3: I make things happen in the world’ (Adult)    

Stage 4: If we work together we can start to influence the world (Mature adult)  

Stage 5: Be the change you want to see in the world.    (The Sage / Ghandi / Nelson Mandela)

The theory also states that although ‘we all grow old we don’t all grow wise’, and in fact development most commonly stops at stage 3 above (less in the case of some Presidents).    Uncovering the ‘essence’ of how to develop towards Stage 4 and 5 thinking would provide a step change for leadership effectiveness.

Early theories of adult development are most connected with age or life stage and describe the different perspectives, hopes and goals a person may have at these different ages or phases (for example the ‘try out 20s’ for testing out careers and the ‘settling down’ of the early 30s into more stability with early family life).  In contrast, Robert Kegan’s adult development theory (constructive developmentalism) focuses on issues of authority, responsibility, and the ability to tolerate complexity and ambiguity, and these have less reference to our age or life stage and more to do with what in simple terms we sometimes to refer to as ‘ego maturity’.  According to Kegan, as people develop, they become more able to take into account the perspectives of others whilst at the same time becoming more aware of their own responsibility for their emotions and life events.  The match therefore between this ‘self complexity’ and their environment is a key factor in a person’s ability to be successful.  

A key principle I hold which I reference from the Gestalt literature is that ‘People are always doing the best they can from how they see and experience the world’.   We sometimes do not often consider the growth of people’s minds in the same way as we think of the growth of their skills – both however have a vital part to play in a person’s success and effectiveness.  So is it relevant or even possible to incorporate the mindset shift required when we are helping people develop / adopt these somewhat more complex ‘soft’ skills?

Kegan was deeply interested in unlocking the mindset required to secure the adoption of new skills and created a remarkably simple framework - Immunity to Change - to help.  As the title suggests Kegan’s research pointed to the phenomena that we are in fact ‘immune’ to change because we have developed a way of being in the world to keep us safe – emotionally.   The framework is based on the idea that all our current thinking and behaviour is ‘hard -wired’ to keep us free from anxiety.

Let us take a simple physical  example to illustrate:   When we touch a hot pan, our hand draws away from it quickly – to protect us from harm.  It is a helpful reflex and it keeps us from burning ourselves.  It’s a gift from our unconscious and stops us feeling pain. If we were to try to hold onto the pan or stop to consider if it was really necessary to drop it / put it down we simply can’t do it – we react far faster than our conscious minds can control.  Other ‘reflexes’ are less helpful. If every time a colleague questions you and you become defensive – that reflex is likely to harm you as much as the hot pan – although changing your reaction is as difficult as holding onto the hot pan!  

When we come to the delicate area of helping an individual develop relationship skills / soft skills we are likely to be stepping onto unknown territory for the individual. It is more complex than it at first appears and often, emotionally charged.  Corporates glibly mark down on performance and development reviews that their team member needs to ‘speak out more’ or ‘needs to have more confidence’ or ‘needs to take people with them’.   Beneath these simply given statements / assessments is a myriad of hard wiring that keeps us locked into a different way of being. It is uncovering the hard wiring and bringing that into our understanding or awareness that is essential in helping an individual make a shift.

Kegan’s work has contributed significantly to the field of ‘vertical development’ and is focussed on helping people grow their minds. It involves a set of processes and practices which are intended to expand your capacities for creativity and engagement in relation to work and relating to people in a way that completely transforms your performance.  This kind of development radically restructures the way you think about and do things.

It is also noteworthy to mention the ethical challenge around such development.  Once on the vertical development journey, people can find it enthralling, meaningful, and liberating but along with the personal change it also starts to affect everything else in their lives – at work and beyond – in ways they cannot yet see.  Growing is difficult work- full of losses and gains – and although one may wish to give others a little push along the development highway we take care in what we are proposing.  If the context of an individual’s life does not call for more sophisticated thinking there is likely no advantage to having a more sophisticated mindset. In fact having a broader perspective may slow you down, may overcomplicate your life, may even disturb precious relationships.  

However, if your circumstances or ambition requires a new mindset then such growth and development can help with the demands of your life.  We know more and more about how to support people in their personal leadership journey and most would say it’s a rewarding and compelling path. At True North we use Harthill’s Leadership Development Framework, Kegan’s Immunity to Change, and a number of reflective and dialogic practices as key tools. These blended with a holistic perspective, taking in lessons from nature and the arts provide an immeasurably insightful and exciting approach.

For more information on our introductory events and retreats check us out on www.truenorthpartnership.co.uk

Journalling - a key vertical development practice

Where a diary tracks circumstances, a journal is a place to unfold events that lift and drop us through our days – a place to ask the questions that have no answer – a place to gather meaning for all we go through.  The surface world requires certain answers: What time is it? What is the speed limit? Which foods are good for me? However, the things that give us meaning are unanswerable. They reveal themselves in relationship with them not when we try to answer them.  A journal is a private, sacred place where we work out these relationships.

Journalling is a way of exercising our attention – an intimate place where you bear witness to life – where you can be honest about how life is whipping you. Our practice of questioning and reflection can enliven us, keeping us open, acute, perceptive.  Frequently we react to life before inquiring into it…a journal can animate our curiosities and concerns.

Get started by buying a writing book you love the look and feel of and use a pen you love writing with. Keep in mind that this will be private and create no fear of it being read.  Then set aside as little as 5-10 minutes each day. Don’t try too hard to select what you write about – open your heart and mind to what wants to come. Meditate for 2 minutes to see what is on your heart. Trust whatever comes. For example,

(i)                  simply respond to the impact of your experiences from the day;  and/or

(ii)                respond to things you read; and/or

(iii)               you may wish to inquire into a specific ‘journal’ question. (Keep a lookout for questions that stir - the kind that have no answers.   

Finally, establish a regular, daily practice.  Don’t censor your writing – just be honest.  Don’t simply summarise what you already know – try to identify what your thoughts indicate.

Journal Questions

What would you rather be – a mirror or a window. Why?

Do our choices matter or is everything pre-determined? Of is life a mix of both?

Describe a friend who you initially misjudged and now turns out to be steadfast and true.

What do we owe our ancestors? Can you speak to one in your lineage?

How responsible are we for others?

Can we harm without being aware of the harm we cause? If so what is the relationship between cruelty and awareness?

What is the difference as you experience it between your love of others and your love of work?

What’s the difference (for you) between commitment and obligation? Provide personal examples.

Is there more love in touching or being touched?

Do you want power? What kind and why? What do you think power will do for you?

What’s the most courageous decision you have made in your life? What choices were available to you and what makes what you did courageous?

Describe a time you acted without sympathy or compassion. What made you behave this way?

Where do you spend most of your time – in the past, present or future? What leads you there?

Would you rather understand flight or fly? Why?

Name one aspect of your life you’d like to experience more deeply.

Describe your personality as an aspect of nature.

What is your most serious goal in life right now and what is your most playful one? How do they interact?

Do you try to control life around you or immerse yourself in life around you? What are the advantages and liabilities of both?

In what situation do you take more than give and vice versa? What are the relative merits and costs?

Are you naturally introverted or extroverted? Are you comfortable with how you meet the world?

Describe your earliest memory in as much detail as possible.

What parts of you come from your mother and father?

Describe one inner quality you value that you were born with and no one gave you.

When is it courageous to walk away and when is it cowardice.

Are you a joiner or a loner? If a joiner where do you find your solitude…if a loner – your belonging?

Describe someone you admire and the quality of their presence.

Describe a time when you were too muddled in yourself.

What do you aspire to? Is this an internal or external goal?

Who experiences and understands more of the world? The rich or poor? Why?

Which do you value more – the courage of your convictions or the courage of your tolerance? Which are you stronger at?

What does integrity mean to you? How do you practice it? Describe the most integral person you know.

How do you compare yourself to others…how do you understand your uniqueness?

How is friendship built? What’s the most important aspect of friendship?

Do you want to know when or how you will die? Why?

Do you have an unseen side of your personality? Describe it and its last appearance in your life.  How do you interact with this aspect of who you are.

Is best self protection being who you are or hiding who you are? Explain.

Describe the self you want to be. Describe the self you are. Explore the difference and say how you are moving from one to the other.

What waits unlived in your heart and what do you feel called to bring alive in the world.

Tell the story of one important teacher who has shaped your life and how.

Examine what you do / want for a career? What relation does it have to what you seek as a person? How does this career aid or hinder the awakening of your soul?

Vertical Learning And Corporate Maturity

The contention of this item is that vertical learning and corporate maturity are broad terms that encompass principles, processes and practices that fit together, hand in glove and that both need to be at the core of leadership and organisational development.

What follows is a brief exploration of some of these ideas that lie at the heart of the True North Partnership raison-d’etre, the aim being to shed light both on the pragmatic, practical nature of vertical learning and its vital contribution to corporate maturity.

It’s a bit longer than the usual Grist to the Mill rules allow, but what the heck!

A very brief history

As I have outlined in previous “Grist to the Mill” offerings, my journey into vertical learning began during my time as a serving police officer, in the mid 1980’s, working on the Scarman Report with a small team based at the Met’s Hendon college. The term “vertical learning” however was not in the received business or common lexicon.

Neuro-science and research into adult learning and development (constructive developmentalism) has moved on a long way since then, giving substance to ideas and concepts that would, in those days be seen as rooted in “mere metaphysics” (Wilbur) or associated with the human potential movement.

And of the term corporate maturity? From what I can tell, definitions of corporate maturity have focused on the extent to which strategy, process and people align. Curtiss, Helly and Miller developed a model for a people capability maturity process. All good, worthy stuff.

As with vertical learning, principles and practices of corporate maturity are moving on at pace and have an increasingly important contribution to make to leadership styles and decision making, corporate governance, organisational culture and personal ethics and integrity. In these times of complexity and trending personal and social dis-integration, all matters that are figural and under the immediate scrutiny of news channels and social media.

If vertical learning has at its core the growth of individual capacity within a maturing, integrated, moral and ethical sense of self............

.......so corporate maturity can be described as growth in an organisations capacity to integrate its social capital and technological capabilities (1) for the purpose of effectively engaging with and satisfying the many and varied needs of multiple stakeholders in a rapidly shifting context.

When running the corporate business at Brathay about 2003, I was fortunate enough to meet David Jackman. David had just moved to Cumbria with his family having held a senior role with what was then known as the Financial Services Authority. He had served the FSA on the Ethics committee with a passion for ethical and moral leadership. I guess we’d now label this as authentic leadership, a worthy mission in line with the approach and values of Brathay.

When I left Brathay, I lost touch with David only to see him appear on television news programmes, on a regular basis, being asked to comment on the evolving story of the financial crash during 2007/8.

Fortunately, we are now back in touch. Our conversation has moved onto corporate maturity and his recent book, “Corporate Maturity and the ‘Authentic’ Company” (2) has added more fuel to the fire of my excitement about vertical learning.

Corporate maturity through vertical learning

David outlines a number of dimensions of maturity from quality of decision making and integrity to empowering leadership and organisational transcendence. Against these dimensions he proposes a 4-level process model for stages of corporate maturity:

• Minimum standards
• Compliance culture
• Business improvement
• Values led

Along with other adult development frameworks, David’s is a process model in the way of Piaget, Kholberg, Keegan, Cook-Greuter, Garvey-Berger or Rook and Torbert. These all identify a developmental direction of travel and evolution.

---

JACKMAN (2) – Corporate Maturity

Minimum standards
Could be a start-up or under- developed, established organisation.
The driver is short-term survival and myopic self- interest.

Compliance culture
An evolving organisation driven by compliance with everything they are told by external bodies.
High audit levels, low trust.

Business improvement
Developing maturity and wider perspective of contribution the business makes e.g. CSR initiatives. Sophisticated processes.
More empowering leadership.

Values Led
Doing the right thing against self- determined ethical framework.
Active commitment and belief in the organisation rather than passive compliance.
High trust/low audit.

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Given the above corporate maturity map, we can now overlay this with current frameworks of vertical learning. The True North Partnership proposition is that organisational development requires a melding of both perspectives.

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GARVEY-BERGER (3) – Levels of Personal Perspective Taking

Self-Sovereign mind
Myopic self/ego orientation.
Other perspectives and points of view a mystery.
“How can anyone see the world in any other way?”
“With me or against me?”
Compliance with external authority.

Socialised mind
Embedded perspective in his/her own “tribe”.
High need for acceptance.
Other cultures/perspectives threatening.

Self-authored
Ability to see multiple perspectives and embracing change within a defined existing paradigm.
Starting to feel internal values conflict but working to maintain personal equilibrium

Self-transforming
Seeks out, embraces and uses multiple perspectives to develop networks for working in complexity and change.
Authority comes from own values and sense of spirituality.

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ROOK & TORBERT (4) – Personal meaning making and transitions

Opportunist (Pre-conventional)
Driven by self-interest and personal ego in seeing the world therefore a win/lose or right/wrong orientation to life. Power through status.

Diplomat (Pre-conventional)
Needs met by compliance with accepted norms and standards. Ritualised and clichéd meaning making and conversations with self and others.

Expert (Conventional)
Needs met by becoming highly expert in a subject or profession. Knowledge is power. Judges others against own expertise as higher or lower status

Achiever (Conventional)
Needs met through achieving goals and targets, usually set by others. Desires to work with other competent people to achieve goals and targets. Continuous improvement mind set.

Individualist (Post conventional)
Seeing the bigger picture and personal growth beyond task achievement. Questioning and polemical.

Strategist (Post-conventional)
Going beyond polemical to bring different “truths” together in a spirit of cooperative enquiry. Subject/object development

Alchemist (Post conventional)
Self and community transforming through heightened awareness and active acceptance of what is emergent in self, others and systems. Spiritual development.

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All the above ideas work on the basis of an optimistic perspective, i.e. that it is in the nature of human kind to self-develop, unless we are blocked at some early stage, usually in our formative years, in which case we become “snagged”. (Part of the process of vertical learning is to explore where and how we become snagged and the leadership consequences of this).

Corporate immaturity

David contends with great authority, from research and his own experience, the “cost of immaturity” to organisations, communities and societies. As we all found out across the developed world, the financial crisis of 2007/8 highlighted all too starkly the consequences of low levels of maturity and high levels of inauthenticity.

My own experience of the Scarman report and the police “canteen culture” of the time, was a case in point of the cost of immaturity. MP’s expenses scandal is another example which also triggered a typically less mature response, an increase in the level of regulation and audit to a point where people regress to being no more than socialised or even self-sovereign!

More recently, the arrest of the CEO of VAG over “dieselgate” and an investigation into the ethics and practices of the big 4 accountancy firms are in the current business headlines.

 

In conclusion

There is good news. In developing a comprehensive model of vertical learning and corporate maturity we can uncover a number of points of enquiry for leadership and organisational development practice.

The idea of an organisation with a “values led” level of maturity would seem to correlate with an organisation that recruits and/or develops a sufficiently sized cadre of people with the right influence at the right level who would profile at least “self-authored” and certainly “post- conventional”. This idea feeds into the practicalities of recruitment, induction and ongoing development. Creating the policies and methods for doing this is the relatively easy bit.

Developing more post-conventional capacities within leaders therefore is the primary route to establishing greater levels of corporate maturity and all of its attendant benefits.

When looked at in this way and when considered in the light of the cost of corporate immaturity, not only is a vertical learning approach helpfully pragmatic, it is also a cultural and economic necessity.

Vertical learning approaches will drive levels of corporate maturity. The biggest single stakeholder group that will benefit from this will be the tax payer as audit and compliance costs are slashed. Perhaps more CEO’s will sleep more easily at night confident in the knowledge that a knock on the door early in the morning will be of a comforting domestic nature, not the local constabulary taking action based on last evening’s headlines of fraudulent practice and mal- governance.

And, for what it’s worth, a parting thought from a sage......

“Govern a country with upright integrity. When there are many restrictions in the world, the people become more impoverished.”

Lao Tzu

References

1. Trist and Bamforth – Tavistock Institute
2. David Jackman – Corporate Maturity and the Authentic Company” (BEP)
3. Jenifer Garvey-Berger – Changing on the Job (Stanford)
4. D. Rook & W. Torbert - Seven Transformations of Leadership (HBR)

What is Vertical Development?

There are a growing number of HR professionals (or specifically, Learning and Development and Talent specialists) becoming deeply interested in the relatively new science of vertical development.  At first reading vertical development seems to be the new (and useful) way of describing what we have traditionally referred to as transformational development. On further study it also seems to provide a sound narrative to describe much of the latest thinking about leadership – encompassing the need for ‘agility’, ‘systems thinking’, ‘helicopter thinking’, ‘managing ambiguity and complexity’. I have personally found it a really useful context to support leaders’ development plans. So what is it and to what extent does it contribute to our thinking and practice?

In explaining vertical development, its useful to reference also horizontal development and therefore distinguish the two.  Horizontal growth and development refers to the acquisition of skills and knowledge to do all sorts of things. From tying shoelaces to managing a budget we learn new skills throughout life and through many channels, both consciously and unconsciously. For example through parenting, schooling, training, self-directed and lifelong learning as well as simply through exposure to life. Many adults become lifelong learners growing their knowledge and skills and continuing to learn through their hobbies and interests as well as at work.  Vertical development refers to how we make sense of things we experience and what perspectives we bring to it.   For example, the perspective of a young toddler (I am the world) is very different from a teenager (The world has it in for me) and for a healthy young adult (I can make things happen in the world).  These 'shifts of perspective' represent the vertical development of the young learner. However, from adulthood onwards vertical development is much less common and not so readily accessible. This kind of development refers to how we learn to see the world through new eyes, how we change our interpretations of experience and how we transform our views of reality. It describes increases in what we are aware of, or what we can pay attention to, and therefore what we can influence and integrate. Through this development we shift our perceptions of 'reality', grow wisdom and broaden our perspective

To steal a phrase from David Rooke “We all grow old, we don’t all grow wise”. I am personally fascinated by this – why don’t we – what blocks us or limits us?   and I wonder if we can actually define the activities or practices that helps us grow more wisdom in our leaders. Practices that create more of the capacities of a Nelson Mandela – and correspondingly ensure that we have fewer of the less vertically 'developed' leaders at the top. (No prizes for identifying the examples of those…but of course there are many.)

In general, it is now regarded that such development of our ‘views of reality’ are more powerful than any amount of horizontal growth and learning. Rooke and Torbert in their article ‘The seven transformations of leadership’ describe the relevance and importance of later stages in leadership development. Much of the current research is trying to uncover what activities help and hinder vertical development and under what conditions we can optimise its emergence. What is agreed amongst the researchers is how important the capacities of these later developmental stages are and how critical they are for leadership in the 21st century. 

There are now a number of approaches for assessing developmental stages, each with their own nuances and numbers of stages or categories. However all the approaches fit into three areas; pre-conventional, conventional and post conventional and the focus is typically to develop more post conventional thinking – although this is an over simplified interpretation of the developmental invitation.

David Rooke’s ‘Leadership Development Framework’ (LDF) describes nine stages or transformations – where there are fundamentally different ways of making meaning of ourselves, others and the world.  It describes several ways of adult meaning-making, and shows how adults mature throughout the lifespan, making meaning in evermore meaningful and flexible ways.
 
The stage of development significantly affects how individuals understand their role and function in the workplace, how they interact with others, and how they deal with adversity and complex issues. Indeed it significantly affects the impact of their leadership.  The research has shown that the stage of meaning making is often more powerful in explaining individual differences in behavior than personality traits and intelligence combined. The stages are also idealizations – no one masters all aspects of the stage before moving on to the next stage. Each meaning making system, world view, or stage is more comprehensive, more differentiated and more effective in dealing with the complexities of life than its predecessors.

Most learning, training and development is geared towards expanding, deepening, and enriching a person’s current way of meaning making. It’s like filling a container to its maximal capacity. Facilitating vertical development, on the other hand, refers to supporting people to transform their current way of making sense towards broader perspectives.

Our developmental coaching supports people to first explore where they are and to discover where they are headed, while helping them find and apply the best tools and practices to get there.  

Leadership and Character in Vertical Learning

This Grist to the Mill contribution is intended to be somewhat controversial and I’m sure will challenge individual views and values of the 21st Century mind-set. For this, I make no apologies and seek merely to be an agent provocateur in the growing maelstrom of the vertical learning debate.

My contention is that the language and frameworks for describing vertical learning and its place in leadership development is rooted in learning theory and philosophy dating back thousands of years in many different cultures and spiritual traditions. The language of “character development” featured in such texts and in the early part of my career working on personal development programmes with police officers, the term character development was used with freedom. What else would you call personal development in the context of organisational development?

Current cultural and political mores do of course shape our attitudes towards such matters. This begs the question to what extent do our current views on learning and leadership development reflect “mere politics, fashion or political correctness” rather than a true exploration of the innate capacity of humanity to learn, grow and develop in the service of organisation, community and self?

The received wisdom is that there are many and varied leadership styles and philosophies, from situational leadership to transformational leadership to authentic leadership…..and beyond. Goleman introduces us to the six leadership styles demonstrated by the emotionally intelligent leader in “The New Leaders”.

Revered institutions have come into existence in order to train or develop leaders. Many such institutions such as Sandhurst are now ingrained in the cultural fabric of the UK, the former commonwealth countries and beyond.

I had the fortune to hold a senior role at Brathay for several years, founded on the vision of a wealthy benefactor to “build the character of the young apprentices of the cotton mill towns of Lancashire through personal and social development”. (A mission still pursued by this most fabulous organisation with a current focus on the disaffected young people of post-industrial, social media savvy Britain) Brathay ignited much post-war leadership and personal development thinking and methodology, being influential in the spawning of John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership and Meredith Belbin’s team roles.

So whether it’s Sandhurst, Brathay, the traditional public schools, or the ancient spiritual traditions, character development seems germane to leadership development, despite that such a label seems entirely unfashionable today carrying heavy connotations of the playing fields of Eton.

What has this got to do with vertical learning?

Each vertical learning guru is working to put their spin on the idea to create for themselves their own USP in a crowded market. So rather than add another take on it, I refer to what is already out there as “received wisdom”

Vertical learning is:

• A means by which the individual moves away from ego to appreciate other, bigger, less constrained ways of thinking and perspectives through self-awareness.
• A process by which we become more aware of and responsive to the practical and emotional needs of others.
• How we come to be more able to put others needs first in the spirit of “Leaders Eat Last” (Sinek)
• Learning that enables us to pay attention to our own sustainability and resilience under pressure while still having an eye out for the needs and care of others.
• Learning to build emotional intelligence to enable us to connect with ourselves and others in more meaningful, productive ways.
• Becoming more skilful and purposeful in co-creation and collaboration, more ably equipping us to work with and resolve the complex problems of today and into the future.
• Having the personal space and capacity to be a part of, rather than apart from the macro and micro environment that sustains us as an individual and a species.

In thinking about vertical learning, leadership development and character development, the ancient sages again offer the perspective of the long view:

“Those who understand others are intelligent.
Those who understand themselves are enlightened.
Those who overcome others have strength.
Those who overcome themselves are powerful.
Those who know contentment are wealthy.
Those who proceed vigorously have will power.
Those who do not lose their base endure.”

—Lao Tzu (Trans. Derek Lin)

So I return to my contention; that vertical learning is what, in an earlier epoch of personal and leadership development, would without embarrassment or being subject to pointing fingers of derision, be shamelessly referred to as character development.

Beyond politics, fashion and political correctness, what’s wrong with that?

Brian Woodall

True North Partnership