Growth & Maturation in Practice

Challenges and Misdirection

The diagram shows a generic Spiral and the strange nature of development. Although the aim is to get to the extreme lower right, it takes a long time.

Blank spiral of development developed from a THEE 2x2 Typology Essences Table.

The first move takes you away from the objective, the next move involves minimal change in the objective, and only at the third move does anything seem to develop positively. However, this misses vital maturation development. Often the move from Stage-1 to Stage-2 represents a truly revolutionary alteration and a massive improvement.

Because leaders, consultants and advisers generally operate in the Upper Right (the Growth/Rationalist quadrant) or sometimes the Upper Left (the Ideas/Idealist quadrant), they will have a tendency to encourage or attempt to move directly from Mode 1 to Mode 4. This will never work. It can't work because it ignores personal-experiential needs and is blind to social realities.

Reaching Mode 4 via the Spiral is typically a watershed in growth and it leads to a quick move to the intermediate Stage of Mode 1—i.e. to an improved or rational Practicality. The next 3 Stages engage with the extreme-peripheral Modes. These define a more radical change and a strengthening of the beneficial values instilled at Mode 4. When Mode 7 has been installed, there is a rapid progression to a maximally sophisticated form of Practicality.

Drivers of Growth

Although Spiral development is a natural process, the will and the capability to develop must exist and persist despite obstacles. Completion of the Spiral is not the norm. It is possible to stop at any particular Stage. When we look for examples, we observe many outcomes confirming our general observation that reality is messy.

  • Time scales of development can vary enormously.
  • Endeavours may die rather than grow.
  • Situations often stagnate somewhere between Stage-1 & Stage-2
  • Social groups change in fits and starts: there are slow progressions and often rapid, severe regressions.

The time for the evolution of a Spiral seems to be measured in:

months–years in building a commercial ethos: PH'4-QH2C,
years–decades in developing emotional maturity: PH'4-C, or
decades–centuries in evolving political institutions: PH'6-C.

The Spiral's evolution is intrinsically natural. However, like many natural things, it may need some encouragement or even pressure. Each Spiral has its own specific drivers that typically include things like:

  • Growing awareness of the limitations of the current Mode
  • Personal or social turmoil
  • Emergence of negativity or a degeneration in values of the current Mode
  • Aspirations of a person or group
  • Environmental pressures

ClosedExample

ClosedHandling Values

Introducing any new set of values is difficult, but it can be done if the drivers are present. Despite ignorance of the requisite order, drivers often generate the correct sequence intuitively.

Values cannot be implemented, they must be «installed» over time. For any deliberate installation, values must be part of a coherent set—not simply a list decided by a committee or based on what the leader thinks is important. As an example, see this report of confused values in leading firms.

Originally posted: August 2009; Last updated: 2-Feb-2014.