Organizations seek out special change management interventions when they undergo changes in technology, restructuring, processes, systems, or cultures etc. Then once the “change” has been successfully navigated and equilibrium is attained, they settle into the “new way” of being and doing. This is operating from the flawed presupposition that change is limited to that time and place. But in reality, we inhabit a world that is constantly changing. It will be more helpful to presuppose that change is a constant and operate from a flexible, tentative frame of mind rather than operating from a fixed or rigid frame of mind. This is a trait of a higher developed and more complex mind.
Beyond Training: Upgrading the Operating System
In a challenging, changing, and complex world we often try to cope with this complexity by cultivating new skills and behaviours. Often turning to the hard sciences, we acquire more knowledge through courses and degrees. This is like adding more software programs to our existing operating system, aka horizontal growth. The focus is on doing more, not becoming more. In doing this we are trying to solve an adaptive problem with a technical solution. We think that adding more resources will solve the problem. We have learned, but have we developed? Development is distinct from training or learning. While training equips individuals with new skills or knowledge, true development upgrades the “operating system” itself, aka vertical growth. This involves increasing mental complexity, which influences our:
- Feelings, motivations, ethics, and values.
- Neurochemistry, neurological activation, and learning capabilities.
- Mental and physical health, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.
- Leadership impact, effectiveness, and business performance.
Complexity is a story about the relationship between the demands of the world and the capacity of the person/organization. If we experience the world as “too complex”, we are not just experiencing the complexity of the world. We are experiencing a mismatch between the world’s complexity and our own. Approaching systemic complexities with “fix-the-problem” logic, will usually result in short-term solutions that make the system more complex and have unseen and unintended consequences in other areas. Things get better for a while, then either revert to the old way or they get worse.
Over time, we acquire patterns of thought, beliefs, and behaviors—some enhancing, others limiting. These patterns, often formed in childhood, can constrain wellbeing, performance, and leadership effectiveness. The idea is to bring the beliefs and assumptions, that are driving these patterns, into conscious awareness enabling leaders to overcome mental plateaus and adopt more expansive, inclusive mindsets.
Development is not only about knowing more, but about becoming more. It is an ongoing, conscious, intentional process. Adults can progress through distinctive levels of development (mental complexity) if they are deliberate about it and willing to put in the work. Mental complexity is not how smart you are or your IQ score. It is how you understand yourself and the world. How you relate to self and others. Your way of perceiving and knowing.
According to developmental psychology there are three levels (mindsets) of adult development (mental complexity) relevant to this conversation. These are not states of knowing but states of being. And I explain them with characters:
1. The Reactive (socialized) mind
Thandi is senior salesperson working in the IT industry. Thandi’s identity is shaped by how others define her and what they expect of her. She establishes her safety and self-worth, in how others regard her and by upholding the social values of her tribe. Without realizing it she is driven by strong need to belong, conform, fit in, be accepted and perceived in a certain way. Her concept of self is derived from the opinions of her tribe. She also unknowingly fears rejection, failure, or vulnerability. Therefore, Thandi unconsciously manages her anxiety by relating, communicating and behaving in ways to mitigate these fears. As such she is living according to her perceived expectations of others. When it comes to communicating crucial matters, she filters information to advance the collective agenda and stay aligned with the tribe. If she remains on this level of development, she will be highly influenced by and loyal to groupthink, the social framework, system, culture or ideology.
1. The Creative (self-authoring) mind
Jason is the MD of a packaging solutions company. He has matured from the groupthink ideology and is able to step back from the social framework and generate his own, internal “seat of judgement”. He sees himself as a source of internal authority and is therefore able to evaluate and make choices about external expectations. Jason can distinguish his opinion of self from the opinion others hold about him. He takes other’s views into account but chooses the degree to which this will influence him. So, he views other’s opinions as a lens/tool to use, rather than being owned by it. When relating and communicating he is oriented towards realizing his own agenda, direction or strategy. Jason has become the author of his own reality by relegating the tribe’s opinions, values, beliefs, and ideas into a more complex system. Restructuring them to create his own new values or beliefs. Jason filters information to advance his own agenda or mission. Although more developed than Thandi, he is held captive to his own theory, system, framework or ideology, because he is fused with the filter.
*Because the lower levels can only see their perspective, that is the social ideology, or the self-ideology, they think their worldview is the correct and best perspective. They react negatively if challenged and get defensive when threatened. They cannot take another perspective and anything that goes against their perspective gets deleted or generalized thereby distorting information according to their neurological, cultural, and individual constraints (filters). Filters are useful and necessary, but detrimental if they delete or distort critical information. During communication they will unconsciously reject potentially valuable elements that they deem irrelevant to their ideology. And prioritize elements they perceive to be beneficial to their cause. Therefore, information critical to the success of the business is not accurately transferred, and valuable time and resources are wasted, stifling collective progress.
The Integral (self-transforming) mind
Alexa is the CEO of a large NPO. Over time she has taken a leap in perspective that enabled her to step back from and reflect on the limits of her own ideology and see that any system or analysis is partial or incomplete in some way. She has grown into a way of knowing that permits her to look “at”, rather than only “through” her framework. So, her own framework is more preliminary than ultimate. Alexa can seek out, and is open to her framework’s current limitations, rather than being defensive, or overly attached to the current draft. She is mindful that any given design almost inevitably leaves something out. Although she uses filters, she is not fused with them and can flexibly choose to look at them and not only through them. Alexa is aware that the world is changing, and what made sense today may not make sense tomorrow. Her communication is not only centered around advancing her own agenda but always making space for the modification or expansion thereof. Alexa is always seeking information to enhance, refine or alter the original design.
*The word integral means to integrate, bring together, join, or embrace.
The mental properties of each level translate into real actions with real consequences for organizational behaviour and workforce competence. Various studies show that higher mental complexity enhances work competence, performance and business results.
What leads to the development of higher levels you are hopefully thinking…
What hinders vertical growth?
- Misdiagnosing – trying to solve adaptive problems with technical solutions.
- Ignorance of the filters (beliefs and assumptions) you perceive through.
- Looking “through” your way of knowing, rather than “at” it.
- Lack of awareness of how your mind state influence your perception, relating, communication, and outcomes.
- Operating from old and outdated maps or frameworks.
- Having a fixed, rigid, or static view of the world rather than a dynamic-process view.
- Narcissism and egocentrism.
What promotes vertical growth?
- Experiencing optimal conflict (frustration, dilemma, problem) in something you care deeply about.
- Seeing how the said challenge is bringing you to the limits of your current level of complexity.
- Accurately diagnosing adaptive challenges and formulating an adaptive solution to the challenge. I.e. You need to adapt in some way.
- Understanding that you hold internal competing commitments that prevent or block new behaviours and growth.
- Understanding how the intentions behind the competing commitments keep obstructive behaviours in place, normally protecting you from unconscious fears that are held in place by deep seated assumptions.
- Upgrading your operating system (restructuring your cognitions (beliefs, values, understandings, paradigms, assumptions etc.)) by developing a more holistic, expansive, sophisticated, and complex way of relating to self and world.
- Sufficient support to navigate and construct a new expansive and more inclusive framework/map.
- Humility.
Upgrading your operating system will have a positive influence on your:
- Health and wellbeing.
- Way of knowing and perceiving the world.
- Way of understanding yourself and others.
- Way of relating and communicating (how you selectively attend to and prioritize giving and receiving information).
- Leadership impact and effectiveness.
Increasing your level of complexity will allow you to identify and address beliefs and assumptions that are limiting your behavioural options, work competence, performance and business results. This is leadership development or vertical growth. Adapting, changing, growing, and transforming your way of knowing. This is upgrading your operating system to a more aware, expansive, and inclusive version. Rather than just adding more programs (knowledge) to your old operating system. The mind can keep developing. However, this doesn’t happen by default or with age. It is open to anyone who is intentional about it and willing to do the work. Growth is always accompanied by growing pains. There is a price to be paid for each increase in level of consciousness. But each level brings the possibility for greater capacity and effectiveness.
We live in a dynamic-process universe where we can count on things changing. We see this on the quantum level where the principal of uncertainty pre-dominates. Change and uncertainty is woven into the fabric of life. Developing a good adjustment to the constancy of change enables us to approach life with a flexibility about the tentativeness of all our ideas, frameworks, understandings and beliefs. This keeps us young and vital. We stagnate and decline whenever we shut down our receptivity to the ever-changing nature of the world.
If you feel that the technical solutions you are applying is not bringing about the required outcomes or changes you are seeking, you may be at the ceiling of your current level of mental complexity and need to adapt in some way. If you would like to explore your own vertical growth and your current way of knowing, let’s have a conversation.
