Supporting Post-Autonomous Leadership Development
Chapter 8 in Maturing Leadership: How Adult Development Impacts Leadership, ed. Jonathan Reams (Emerald Publishing, 2020), pp. 171–189
Lynam, Fitch and O'Fallon present findings from fifteen years of designing and facilitating Generating Transformative Change, focusing on one developmental transition in particular: the movement from Strategist (4.5) to Construct Aware (5.0), the threshold into post-autonomous or MetAware territory. They situate the work in the adult development research literature — including its acknowledged limitations around sample size and post-conventional range — describe the application of O'Fallon's STAGES model to program design, and set out the practices and processes that support the transition. The chapter closes with principles for working developmentally with leaders, the pitfalls and challenges practitioners encounter, and the ethical perspectives that guide the work.
In this chapter we share research and learning from Pacific Integral (PI)’s 15 years of designing and facilitating the Generating Transformative Change (GTC) program; a developmentally informed and research-based leadership development program. We address our approach to working developmentally with leaders, the application of the STAGES developmental model, and the research that informs and guides the program’s curriculum.
In greater detail we examine the developmental transition between Strategist and Construct Aware (Cook-Greuter, 2013; O’Fallon, 2016) and the implications for leadership practice and development. We explore the unique challenges and opportunities of this developmental transition and the practices and processes that support it. We conclude by sharing principles and practices for working developmentally with leaders, including pitfalls and challenges, and the ethical perspectives that guide the work.
Adult development researchers and practitioners refer to developmental maps as a spectrum of compassion, because understanding development has the potential to support an increased understanding and valuing of multiple ways of being in the world, and increased capacities for working with and across these differences. These capacities are critical in a world that is paradoxically both interconnected and polarized, where there is a heightened need for bridging differences and navigating uncertainty.
— From the chapter’s introduction.
STAGES model; Strategist to Construct Aware transition; Post-autonomous development; Developmental research; Ethics of developmental practice; Spectrum of compassion
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