When the world stops making sense, we instinctively look for the simple solutions. Someone to blame, an easy way out or a strong leader who will "fix it". But what is the price for the quick fix?
Alis, I have been following and appreciating your work for a while. I am native Chinese living in the US. I too grew up in communist regime and was impacted in a big way by Tiananmen event in 1989 in China. I am a teacher of the Tao and a guide for people's self-discovery.
I have also been dipping into adult development theory. While I appreciate many aspects of this intricate and brilliant map, I also see its limitation and blind spots specific to left-leaning-progressive-hyper-intellectual perspective. Nothing wrong with it. We have our own diverse perspectives. Differences makes life rich. However, when we don't own our limitation and cast this specific lens to the world as "universal", we will run into a gap between the reality and our mental maps.
I'd like to propose that your analysis of Trump and the energy behind it is incomplete, imprinted by the current understanding of adult development. Although I completely agree with you the potential catastrophic danger Trump's election poses, I am also seeing an invisible energy that is potentially life-affirming behind all this, if we say yes to it. However, it's not something easily spelled out in words, especially not in modern English. So much of our perception of the world is determined by language. As long as we are restricting ourselves to the grammar, semantic sense-making, and logic of modern language, especially modern English, it's very hard to "see" the positive energy behind the chaos that's unfolding right now.
I am leaving this comments in hope to connect, to co-explore and to inquire together, if there is interest, space and if our life tracks align.
I am both intrigued and humbled by your comment, Spring, and thank you for the challenge delivered in such a gentle way! I am aware that the particular lens I used in my article is limited (and also more generally aware of the shadows of the left-leaning perspective - shadows that have become so visible in this particular historical moment). I do find myself holding adult development ever more lightly in my own work and also am noticing the limits of intellectualisation and the many gifts that lie beyond that. Hence the piano metaphor that I felt the need to create to help remind myself and others of the fluidity and complexity of this process - as I was feeling my reactivity to the implicit hierarchical nature of the stages as they are presented in mainstream research.
Also, living in Australia and being more and more exposed to Indigenous wisdom (Tyson Yunkaporta's work in particular has been a big eye opener for me) has made me think more deeply about the earth-centered worldview you were mentioning. I've come to think that First Nations around the world have long held an incredibly profound and complex, post-conventional worldview, that cannot be adequately captured in language and I am also aware, as you well point out, that much of the language-based focus we've had on adult development has been rooted in one language - English (let alone that any language has, by its very nature, limits and cannot be used as an adequate way to make sense of consciousness development past a certain point). This has been prompting me to start translating some of this work - so far into Romanian, my native language, but hoping to see more of it translated into other languages too, but also to consider more deeply how other channels - like non-cognitive ways of knowing - play a role in development.
I love the point you are making around the spark of positive energy behind the chaos and the music that may be unleashed now that this particular note, previously silent, has finally been released and allowed to express its frequency in the world. I am intrigued by how we might see beyond the pain and tap into the wisdom of this moment. It's surely a humbling lesson for many of us - myself included.
I would love to continue this conversation - perhaps in a zoom chat - sometime. Thank you for the thought provoking perspectives!
Dear Alis, my heart is warmed by the humbleness and integrity in your reply. I look forward to a time to chat on zoom maybe.
I once suggested a leading figure in the coaches industry that a more fitting name for "adult development theory" should be a map of the development of intellect. This person rejected it. The subtext was that too much was at stake for that change.
The maps created by the adult development theory was immensely useful for myself, not only for my intellectual development, but also for the integration of my indigenous worldview and the modern worldview. However, I engaged it in a way that is fundamentally different than the industry standards. I incorporated it into a divination process to engage in a mystical "dialogue" with the Inter-Being.
I feel very strongly that typing people with the stage through sentence-completion tests is utterly cultural insensitive, carrying the implicit assumption of English-dominance. I did that myself. Frankly, the Chinese-speaking self was horrified how insensitive it is to non-English, non-western-language-speakers, and the ancient-language users. Yet it was marketed as "universal human development model".
I long for a deeper understanding and collaborative way to engage in this fascinating topics. I do feel in my gut that this "note" on the collective piano that has arisen through the election is calling for a drastic shift in the lens we use to see the world.
Spring, I'm actually part Metis. I recently read an amazing book called Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education and within it, I found a lot of what it was communicating aligned quite closely with my understanding of the latter stages of development.
But I think you have some valid points though, especially when you said the following in your one post.
---
A healer and tribal leader from an Amazonian village may not pass the test to type anywhere beyond “Conformer” stage in a language-based adult development test, yet he carries somatic intelligence to engage with a complex system no less sophisticated than an “Alchemist” of a late stage.
---
I completely agree. In other words, the reason there is probably such a small percentage of people rated as "late stage" is because they're probably not living within the fractured, unnatural "civilized" world (or even working in a corporation, if they were) but within the natural, indigenous, whole world.
Even more so, how can you give such a test to an indigenous leader when you don't even understand the culture you're testing (i.e. sentence completion may not make any sense because you don't understand the meaning of it)? You'd have to experience their culture first to fully understand them.
This relates to one quote (see below) from the book I mentioned above and it gets to the very heart of what late stage development is about, at least to me, from my perspective, understanding, and meaning. It's understanding that what a human being is isn't read in books (or "expert" knowledge accumulated) but more lived and experienced. And you really have to experience life as a whole, the full breadth and depth of it, to really understand what it means to be a human being as a whole.
For myself, I know there is still a whole undiscovered country and ocean within me yet to explore.
---
But herein lies a danger. It’s the same danger we faced every day as we tried to translate the highly experiential, non-verbal work of our intensive into a book of words. Charts and books and words appeal to the Western mind. When we get them, we may think we’ve gotten it.
But it’s likely we haven’t, at least not on a very deep level. We have not learned the most important lessons until we’ve experienced them for ourselves. And Native cultures are all about experience over concept. The danger in trying to describe this work is that participants and readers may content themselves with learning about indigenous pedagogies without ever feeling their wisdom, laughing at their jokes, or experiencing traditional learning from the inside. All too often, Western learners content themselves with information rather than experience, confusing the map (the lines on the page) with the experience of the place itself.
— Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education
PS, I'd like to add that I very much like your metaphor of seeing different stage of development as piano keys. When composing a piece of music, each key is necessary and essential (even when it is not played). The collective energy behind Trump's election struck a silent note that has been muted on the collective piano. From the rust and erosions, it sounds awful. But a key is a key. It carries a specific frequency. How can we (left-leaning, progressive, intellectual) re-write our music by incorporating this new note? This note is not all destructive ...
Beautifully written Alis, your passion, insight and understanding shine through. In speaking with some US friends yesterday, their level of grief and sadness was palpable and very real. Not since the shooting of JFK, said one of them, had he felt such shock, horror and grief. He's of the view that many people in the US lack perspective and don't know how good they have it relative to others in the world. It might be a case of not missing the water until the well runs dry, Americans have voted to allow the water out of the well in the vain hope that an authoritarian figure will deliver on the promises he made only to get their votes and not with any intention to make things better for people. One of the mistakes of our developmental journey is to underestimate the power, guile and cunning of Opportunist Action Logic in order to meet it we must recognise and manage it in ourselves. Sad and disturbing times indeed. We don't learn and we don't learn that we don't learn.
Oh my goodness… i am feeling so deeply moved and grateful, by the insight and compassion you have distilled from your life experience… thank you so much, dear Alis, for this rich gift… i am wanting to share it with everyone I know!!!
It was a hard one to write, Rosa, but it felt like a good way to metabolise some of the grief of this day. Thank you for reading and I'm glad it brought some value.
Thank you for sharing this powerful story Alis! And thank to those who shared their wisdom in the comments. It’s warms our broken hearts.
Reading more and more analysis and looking at the data, this question becomes clearer for me, how can we create more communities and dynamics that empower people to be more curious? To be open to perspective taking? To desire to learn how to play the piano, using more octaves? To play more complex songs that soothe human soul?
Wow, thanks for sharing your story Alis. You've had quite the incredible journey!
A lot of the key points you raised (i.e. world stops making sense, no quick fix, etc) relate to what I commented on the other day about the increasingly complex (VUCA) world we are living within today, whereas most of our systems and mindsets are only optimized for complicated problems at best. Yet we can't just ignore these problems, as they won't go away, since they're often systemic in nature and caused by our very actions due to our limited mindsets.
Interestingly enough though, I think I agree with Spring Cheng in terms of potentially seeing this moment in a different light, similar to the positive words Harris gave at the end of her speech, although I'm not sure we'll see it as "positive" in this moment. Why? Because a lesson life is giving us never feels that way when we're going through it. Only when we reflect back upon it (i.e. post-traumatic growth).
What I'm referring to is that this dark moment could actually be the catalyst of change that is actually needed...for both sides. In the sense that the right might finally see that these complex problems can't be so easily solved by one politician or party and the left realizes they have to take more action on their own (using their own power), rather than relying upon someone else in a political position of power to do it for them (thus sparking and instilling leadership in people who maybe didn't think they were leaders before).
This is essential because these complex problems require a collective action by everyone to overcome, not seen since probably World War II. But in this case, the enemy isn't out there, it's within us. Our limited mindsets and egos.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cheryl Dorsey or not but her words pretty much capture the feeling of the times for me. I'll leave her quote below.
---
Toiling in the field of social innovation two plus decades now. The animating feature of social Innovation is this clear-eyed recognition that current systems are not working or not working for enough of us. But there’s this real animating feature to try to fix, repair, rebuild, reimagine those systems to make them more inclusive and provide more opportunity for all.
But the diagnosis that these systems aren’t working is the same diagnosis that we see from those who are animated by populist anger. Right. So we come at the problem from the same vantage point. The way we have constructed societal forces are simply not working. I often talk about the weight of systems, systems residue, that is weighing folks down. People of colour. Marginalized folks. Women. We can go through all the forms of oppression. And these systems are exacerbating those.
So we all see it. However our prescription for what to do about it is radically different. Social innovators recognize that indeed there’s a problem but they raise their hands as engaged, committed citizens to say "Well it’s our job to fix it. We roll up our sleeves, we get to work, and we figure out what we can do."
So much of the populist anger is a nihilistic one… It’s blow it all up, consequences be damned. And these conflicting forces that are butting heads, there has to be a way to engage more folks from the other side who are as frustrated as many of us are who are engaged in the work of social innovation but do it within the realm of democratic practice that provides a seat for all of us at the table. I think that’s the needle to thread. And I think we have to figure it out and we have to figure it out sooner than later.
— Cheryl Dorsey, Social Innovation & Social Justice in an Age of Pandemics
Thank you for your wise perspective, Nollind - I too hold the hope that this darkness is the lesson we all need, on all sides of the aisle. And love Cheryl Dorsey's words -I was not familiar with her work, thank you for introducing me to her!
Beautifully written Alis- Gosh, I’m one of those who has taken voting for granted. I will certainly vote from now on 🥰 thank you for pointing that out. Xx
Alis, I have been following and appreciating your work for a while. I am native Chinese living in the US. I too grew up in communist regime and was impacted in a big way by Tiananmen event in 1989 in China. I am a teacher of the Tao and a guide for people's self-discovery.
I have also been dipping into adult development theory. While I appreciate many aspects of this intricate and brilliant map, I also see its limitation and blind spots specific to left-leaning-progressive-hyper-intellectual perspective. Nothing wrong with it. We have our own diverse perspectives. Differences makes life rich. However, when we don't own our limitation and cast this specific lens to the world as "universal", we will run into a gap between the reality and our mental maps.
I have written a few articles about the limitation of adult development theory, especially its lack of understanding of indigenous, earth-centered worldview. You can find them here: https://resonancepath.com/?s=adult+development I have also been invited to speak about this, especially about the importance of the "descending pathway" at a few coaching and leadership related forums such as this one: https://www.coachesrising.com/podcast/transformation-in-a-meta-modern-world-the-stage-theory-debate-with-spring-cheng-jeremy-johnson-and-steve-march/
I'd like to propose that your analysis of Trump and the energy behind it is incomplete, imprinted by the current understanding of adult development. Although I completely agree with you the potential catastrophic danger Trump's election poses, I am also seeing an invisible energy that is potentially life-affirming behind all this, if we say yes to it. However, it's not something easily spelled out in words, especially not in modern English. So much of our perception of the world is determined by language. As long as we are restricting ourselves to the grammar, semantic sense-making, and logic of modern language, especially modern English, it's very hard to "see" the positive energy behind the chaos that's unfolding right now.
I am leaving this comments in hope to connect, to co-explore and to inquire together, if there is interest, space and if our life tracks align.
Warm regards, -Spring
I am both intrigued and humbled by your comment, Spring, and thank you for the challenge delivered in such a gentle way! I am aware that the particular lens I used in my article is limited (and also more generally aware of the shadows of the left-leaning perspective - shadows that have become so visible in this particular historical moment). I do find myself holding adult development ever more lightly in my own work and also am noticing the limits of intellectualisation and the many gifts that lie beyond that. Hence the piano metaphor that I felt the need to create to help remind myself and others of the fluidity and complexity of this process - as I was feeling my reactivity to the implicit hierarchical nature of the stages as they are presented in mainstream research.
Also, living in Australia and being more and more exposed to Indigenous wisdom (Tyson Yunkaporta's work in particular has been a big eye opener for me) has made me think more deeply about the earth-centered worldview you were mentioning. I've come to think that First Nations around the world have long held an incredibly profound and complex, post-conventional worldview, that cannot be adequately captured in language and I am also aware, as you well point out, that much of the language-based focus we've had on adult development has been rooted in one language - English (let alone that any language has, by its very nature, limits and cannot be used as an adequate way to make sense of consciousness development past a certain point). This has been prompting me to start translating some of this work - so far into Romanian, my native language, but hoping to see more of it translated into other languages too, but also to consider more deeply how other channels - like non-cognitive ways of knowing - play a role in development.
I love the point you are making around the spark of positive energy behind the chaos and the music that may be unleashed now that this particular note, previously silent, has finally been released and allowed to express its frequency in the world. I am intrigued by how we might see beyond the pain and tap into the wisdom of this moment. It's surely a humbling lesson for many of us - myself included.
I would love to continue this conversation - perhaps in a zoom chat - sometime. Thank you for the thought provoking perspectives!
Dear Alis, my heart is warmed by the humbleness and integrity in your reply. I look forward to a time to chat on zoom maybe.
I once suggested a leading figure in the coaches industry that a more fitting name for "adult development theory" should be a map of the development of intellect. This person rejected it. The subtext was that too much was at stake for that change.
The maps created by the adult development theory was immensely useful for myself, not only for my intellectual development, but also for the integration of my indigenous worldview and the modern worldview. However, I engaged it in a way that is fundamentally different than the industry standards. I incorporated it into a divination process to engage in a mystical "dialogue" with the Inter-Being.
I feel very strongly that typing people with the stage through sentence-completion tests is utterly cultural insensitive, carrying the implicit assumption of English-dominance. I did that myself. Frankly, the Chinese-speaking self was horrified how insensitive it is to non-English, non-western-language-speakers, and the ancient-language users. Yet it was marketed as "universal human development model".
I long for a deeper understanding and collaborative way to engage in this fascinating topics. I do feel in my gut that this "note" on the collective piano that has arisen through the election is calling for a drastic shift in the lens we use to see the world.
Thank you for your response!
Spring, I'm actually part Metis. I recently read an amazing book called Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education and within it, I found a lot of what it was communicating aligned quite closely with my understanding of the latter stages of development.
But I think you have some valid points though, especially when you said the following in your one post.
---
A healer and tribal leader from an Amazonian village may not pass the test to type anywhere beyond “Conformer” stage in a language-based adult development test, yet he carries somatic intelligence to engage with a complex system no less sophisticated than an “Alchemist” of a late stage.
---
I completely agree. In other words, the reason there is probably such a small percentage of people rated as "late stage" is because they're probably not living within the fractured, unnatural "civilized" world (or even working in a corporation, if they were) but within the natural, indigenous, whole world.
Even more so, how can you give such a test to an indigenous leader when you don't even understand the culture you're testing (i.e. sentence completion may not make any sense because you don't understand the meaning of it)? You'd have to experience their culture first to fully understand them.
This relates to one quote (see below) from the book I mentioned above and it gets to the very heart of what late stage development is about, at least to me, from my perspective, understanding, and meaning. It's understanding that what a human being is isn't read in books (or "expert" knowledge accumulated) but more lived and experienced. And you really have to experience life as a whole, the full breadth and depth of it, to really understand what it means to be a human being as a whole.
For myself, I know there is still a whole undiscovered country and ocean within me yet to explore.
---
But herein lies a danger. It’s the same danger we faced every day as we tried to translate the highly experiential, non-verbal work of our intensive into a book of words. Charts and books and words appeal to the Western mind. When we get them, we may think we’ve gotten it.
But it’s likely we haven’t, at least not on a very deep level. We have not learned the most important lessons until we’ve experienced them for ourselves. And Native cultures are all about experience over concept. The danger in trying to describe this work is that participants and readers may content themselves with learning about indigenous pedagogies without ever feeling their wisdom, laughing at their jokes, or experiencing traditional learning from the inside. All too often, Western learners content themselves with information rather than experience, confusing the map (the lines on the page) with the experience of the place itself.
— Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education
PS, I'd like to add that I very much like your metaphor of seeing different stage of development as piano keys. When composing a piece of music, each key is necessary and essential (even when it is not played). The collective energy behind Trump's election struck a silent note that has been muted on the collective piano. From the rust and erosions, it sounds awful. But a key is a key. It carries a specific frequency. How can we (left-leaning, progressive, intellectual) re-write our music by incorporating this new note? This note is not all destructive ...
@Spring, I can't wait to listen to the Coaches Rising podcast and learn more about your work!
Beautifully written Alis, your passion, insight and understanding shine through. In speaking with some US friends yesterday, their level of grief and sadness was palpable and very real. Not since the shooting of JFK, said one of them, had he felt such shock, horror and grief. He's of the view that many people in the US lack perspective and don't know how good they have it relative to others in the world. It might be a case of not missing the water until the well runs dry, Americans have voted to allow the water out of the well in the vain hope that an authoritarian figure will deliver on the promises he made only to get their votes and not with any intention to make things better for people. One of the mistakes of our developmental journey is to underestimate the power, guile and cunning of Opportunist Action Logic in order to meet it we must recognise and manage it in ourselves. Sad and disturbing times indeed. We don't learn and we don't learn that we don't learn.
My sentiments exactly, Nial. Perhaps this is the lesson we might collectively need to learn. And the next few years will teach it…
Oh my goodness… i am feeling so deeply moved and grateful, by the insight and compassion you have distilled from your life experience… thank you so much, dear Alis, for this rich gift… i am wanting to share it with everyone I know!!!
It was a hard one to write, Rosa, but it felt like a good way to metabolise some of the grief of this day. Thank you for reading and I'm glad it brought some value.
Thank you for sharing this powerful story Alis! And thank to those who shared their wisdom in the comments. It’s warms our broken hearts.
Reading more and more analysis and looking at the data, this question becomes clearer for me, how can we create more communities and dynamics that empower people to be more curious? To be open to perspective taking? To desire to learn how to play the piano, using more octaves? To play more complex songs that soothe human soul?
Wow, thanks for sharing your story Alis. You've had quite the incredible journey!
A lot of the key points you raised (i.e. world stops making sense, no quick fix, etc) relate to what I commented on the other day about the increasingly complex (VUCA) world we are living within today, whereas most of our systems and mindsets are only optimized for complicated problems at best. Yet we can't just ignore these problems, as they won't go away, since they're often systemic in nature and caused by our very actions due to our limited mindsets.
Interestingly enough though, I think I agree with Spring Cheng in terms of potentially seeing this moment in a different light, similar to the positive words Harris gave at the end of her speech, although I'm not sure we'll see it as "positive" in this moment. Why? Because a lesson life is giving us never feels that way when we're going through it. Only when we reflect back upon it (i.e. post-traumatic growth).
What I'm referring to is that this dark moment could actually be the catalyst of change that is actually needed...for both sides. In the sense that the right might finally see that these complex problems can't be so easily solved by one politician or party and the left realizes they have to take more action on their own (using their own power), rather than relying upon someone else in a political position of power to do it for them (thus sparking and instilling leadership in people who maybe didn't think they were leaders before).
This is essential because these complex problems require a collective action by everyone to overcome, not seen since probably World War II. But in this case, the enemy isn't out there, it's within us. Our limited mindsets and egos.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with Cheryl Dorsey or not but her words pretty much capture the feeling of the times for me. I'll leave her quote below.
---
Toiling in the field of social innovation two plus decades now. The animating feature of social Innovation is this clear-eyed recognition that current systems are not working or not working for enough of us. But there’s this real animating feature to try to fix, repair, rebuild, reimagine those systems to make them more inclusive and provide more opportunity for all.
But the diagnosis that these systems aren’t working is the same diagnosis that we see from those who are animated by populist anger. Right. So we come at the problem from the same vantage point. The way we have constructed societal forces are simply not working. I often talk about the weight of systems, systems residue, that is weighing folks down. People of colour. Marginalized folks. Women. We can go through all the forms of oppression. And these systems are exacerbating those.
So we all see it. However our prescription for what to do about it is radically different. Social innovators recognize that indeed there’s a problem but they raise their hands as engaged, committed citizens to say "Well it’s our job to fix it. We roll up our sleeves, we get to work, and we figure out what we can do."
So much of the populist anger is a nihilistic one… It’s blow it all up, consequences be damned. And these conflicting forces that are butting heads, there has to be a way to engage more folks from the other side who are as frustrated as many of us are who are engaged in the work of social innovation but do it within the realm of democratic practice that provides a seat for all of us at the table. I think that’s the needle to thread. And I think we have to figure it out and we have to figure it out sooner than later.
— Cheryl Dorsey, Social Innovation & Social Justice in an Age of Pandemics
Thank you for your wise perspective, Nollind - I too hold the hope that this darkness is the lesson we all need, on all sides of the aisle. And love Cheryl Dorsey's words -I was not familiar with her work, thank you for introducing me to her!
Beautifully written Alis- Gosh, I’m one of those who has taken voting for granted. I will certainly vote from now on 🥰 thank you for pointing that out. Xx