This two-part series looks at vertical adult development and coaching.
Part two: Developmental Inquiry Coaching Nial O’Reilly reports
In the last issue, my colleagues Mark McMordie and Anastasia Nekrasova wrote about vertical adult development and coaching through a vertical lens. This article will build on that, looking at Developmental Inquiry Coaching and our experiences at Harthill with individuals, teams and organisations.
What is Developmental Inquiry (DI) Coaching?
It’s an approach to coaching that weaves together:
- The client’s current circumstances and development/leadership challenge
- A measure of their meaning-making or ‘Action Logic’ (the actions they decide to take based on their meaning-making), pointing to where developmental work may best be targeted
- An approach to debriefing the client on their Leadership Development Profile (LDP) or another vertical development map founded on inquiry, taking cognisance of the client’s history, current circumstances and what might now be emerging for them
- A set of bespoke or tailored developmental practices to support the ongoing developmental evolution of the client.
Primarily, the approach is informed by an understanding of vertical development and how that shows up in the coach and client. It honours the complexity of the coaching challenge, recognising that individuals aren’t reducible to any one factor of their individuality, in spite of how compelling it may be to do so.
The use of a measurement tool such as the LDP helps the client understand vertical development and shows how the language they use is a window to the current ‘centre of gravity’ (the Action Logic most in use in their LDP) of their meaning-making.
The measure also identifies the trailing and leading edges (the earliest and latest Action Logic visible in their profile) of their development, mapping the territory for the coaching conversation and signposting where work might best be done in support of the client’s development.
To work with this DI approach, it’s essential for the coach to understand constructivist development psychology, for example, the work of Jane Loevinger, Susanne Cook-Greuter, David Rooke and Bill Torbert, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey and, more recently, Jennifer Garvey Berger and Nick Petrie.
Knowledge of complexity theory can also be useful. For example, the work of David Snowden and the Cynefin Framework, and that of Glenda Eoyang and Human Systems Dynamics (The HSD Institute).
Why is it complex?
A meta perspective of the facets of individuality gives us a clue as to why individuals are complex (see Figure 1). Humans aren’t ordered systems, they’re complex, adaptive, emergent, and so are ever-changing. If we take an ordered systems approach to coaching, this leads us to try and understand individuals by drilling down on certain elements to determine cause and effect, and come up with solutions. It leads to a focus on, say, personality as a means by which we can understand and solve issues, or on the resolution of past issues, or emotional intelligence or the myriad facets that have become the focus of various coaching methods and approaches over the years.
A complex systems approach to coaching, on the other hand, with its recognition of the fact that we’re not ordered systems, leads to the realisation that solving isn’t an option. Instead, the coaching becomes about nurturing and supporting the emergence of the next possible adaptation of the client as a complex adaptive system.
DI coaching honours the complexity and developmental potential of the client and sees the coach move alongside the client in an inquiring, supportive, exploratory way that promotes curiosity, awareness, intimacy, and experimentation to support the emergence of the next version of the client. Figure 1 highlights some of the many facets of individuality.
DI coaching within the spectrum of coaching practice
In his book, The Fertile Void, Leary-Joyce (2014) outlines a spectrum of coaching practice (see Table 1) that includes skills coaching, performance coaching, developmental coaching and existential coaching.
Leary-Joyce’s model is comprehensive so the question is, where might DI coaching fit? I’ve added into the table, in red, additions to Leary-Joyce’s Spectrum to reflect where it might sit under what Leary-Joyce outlines as ‘Developmental Coaching’. There’s an argument for the inclusion of aspects of DI coaching in Existential Coaching and perhaps it could be integrated into aspects of Performance Coaching also. It could be argued that any developmental adaptation will have a beneficial impact on performance.
DI coaching, in the first instance, recognises that we’re all on a dynamic trajectory of development. It acknowledges this and uses the coaching process and artifacts to support whatever might be emerging as a result of developmental expansion for the client at this time in their current circumstances. It takes account of the client, their relational systems and the wider systems in which they operate, what we call the domains of ‘I’, ‘We’ and ‘It’ (My relationship with myself, my relationship with others and my relationship with the wider systems in which I operate.)
What does DI coaching involve?
The foundation of the approach is inquiry, a shared exploration between coach and client of the broad landscape in which the client exists.
It explores appropriate facets of individuality with a particular focus on the meaning-making and Action Logic currently in use by the client, and their appropriateness in the client’s current circumstances. The inquiry encapsulates how the client experiences themselves (self-experiencing), perspective adeptness (how readily the client can see and assimilate the perspective of others) and capacity for processing complexity.
The inquiry looks at three particular areas where the coaching might support further development:
- At the trailing end, which may involve the letting go of old habits and behaviours or the resolution of unfinished business from the past
- At the centre of gravity of the client’s development, building on what is already working well, or
- At the leading edge of their development, supporting the development of emergent capabilities, thus building capacity to extend their range of accessible action logics. This can be through practices which help expand their capability so they are better able to act appropriately when complex and challenging circumstances require it.
Capabilities and practices
Harthill’s research points to the leader’s ability to adopt and exercise key transformational capabilities. Harthill has profiled almost 12,000 leaders across the world using the LDP, which measures the degree to which leaders are able to thrive in a complex environment. Just 5% of leaders working in large organisations profile at the stage described as Strategists – the level that is most able to deal with complexity. Harthill consultants observed and interviewed these Strategist leaders, seeking to understand what differentiates them from peers who profile at earlier, less complex stages of development, or Action Logics. This process enabled us to distil a number of key capabilities demonstrated by transformational leaders. We’ve also identified a set of practices to support the development of the capabilities.
Importantly, leaders at the earlier Action Logics of Expert, Achiever and Individualist are able to practise the capabilities associated with Strategists in order to enhance their leadership abilities.
Six capabilities have emerged as key:
- Inquiry-based experimentation
- Courageous use of power
- Positive use of language
- Passionate detachment
- Exercising systems leadership
- Enabling differences
The experience of clients
Learning about vertical development, running leadership experiments, practising to build capacity and working in inquiry groups can be enlightening, as evidenced by this client story (a young female doctor):
“We, as doctors, are formally trained in performance. We perform viva voce examinations, which appear to be as much about how well you perform as they are about how much you know. While acting with confidence, in the absence of it, can be important in instilling confidence in our patients, it can serve to stunt personal development. Rather than recognising and addressing our own inadequacies, it can encourage us to mask them. Additionally, as fanatics of fact, ambiguity and uncertainty are learned adversaries: a source of discomfort. A façade of confidence can help to avert a senior’s criticism; facts serving as a tarp under which we are shielded.
Having finished intern year and my basic specialist training in medicine, I was appointed as a medical registrar, with a wide scope of new responsibilities and a deluge of new trainees. In the medical hierarchy, our progression to positions of leadership is determined not by what innate leadership abilities we have demonstrated but, rather, on the basis of our acquisition of further horizontal learning and years of clinical experience. As a consequence, our leadership training is limited and can often result in endemic imposter syndrome.
In the early stages of my new post, I was, in truth, focusing on how good I was rather than the more relevant parameter of how fast I was learning. My priority was putting my best self forward rather than that of the progress that I was making.
I had learned to treat criticism as an attack on myself, my job and my value. I met even the most constructive of criticism with resentment. What I have learned from vertical development over the past year is the gift of compassionate introspection; to identify areas for self-improvement rather than flaws, opportunities for growth rather than personal pitfalls.”
What coaches using this approach say
“Harthill is taking adult development to another level, with Developmental Inquiry as an approach to exploring how we can be more effective and impactful in our lives.” Doug O’Loughlin, LDF and vertical development practitioner
“Harthill and the LDF continue to offer deep developmental provocation for any leader or coach serious about transformational leadership and their own vertical development.” Mark McMordie, CEO, The Conscious Leader
“Working with Harthill has re-energised my coaching and supervision practice. Their open-hearted and thoughtful approach has prompted me to engage in deeper levels of inquiry for myself, and to encourage my clients (and friends!) to do likewise.” Ian Mitchell, former chair of Association for Coaching (Irish Region)
References
- J Leary-Joyce, The Fertile Void, AOEC Press, p21, 2014
- M McMordie and A Nekrasova, ‘Onwards and Upwards’, in Coaching at Work, Volume 16, Issue 6, 2021
Constructivist development psychology reading recommendations:
- D Fisher, D Rooke, and B Torbert, Personal and Organisational Transformations Through Action Inquiry, Edge/Work Press, 2003
- J Garvey Berger, Changing on the Job, Stanford Business Books, 2012
- R Kegan, The Evolving Self, Harvard University Press, 1982
- R Kegan, In Over our Heads, Harvard University Press, 1994
- R Kegan, L Lahey et al, An Everyone Culture, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2016
- J Reams et al, Maturing Leadership: How Adult Development Impacts Leadership, Emerald Publishing, International, 2020
Complexity theory recommended sources:
- G Eoyang and R Holladay, Adaptive Action, Leveraging Uncertainty in Your Organisation, Stanford Business Books, 2013
- R Nason, It’s Not Complicated: The Art and Science of Complexity in Business, University of Toronto Press, 2017
- D Snowden, Cynefin, Weaving Sense-making into the Fabric of the World, Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd, 2021
For more information on the LDF or on Developmental Inquiry Coaching, see: www.harthill.co.uk
Reader offer
LDF profile – special price
If you’d like to understand your own meaning-making and explore the possibility of changing it, or gain a greater understanding of what kind of leader your clients already are and where they may need to develop, why not try out our LDF profile for yourself?
We’re offering readers of Coaching at Work a limited number of truly unique LDF Profile Reports with Coaching Debriefs for just £260+VAT (less than half our normal price). What’s more, if you decide to undertake our LDP Authorisation training or Self Authoring Coach (ILM7 Coaching & Mentoring Executives and Senior Managers) within 12 months of completing your debrief, we’ll deduct £260+VAT from the cost of the programme of your choice.
For more information contact: info@harthill.co.uk