Developmental lens -
Gestalt approach
Vertical development theory, variously described as evolutionary theory, constructive-developmental psychology, adult stage development theory, integral theory, and within the leadership context, leadership maturity theory, provides a set of route maps that reveal exciting possibilities about personal growth and human potential. They show how individuals, teams and organisations can evolve to qualitatively different levels of development. Gestalt, a highly evolved and elegant theory and methodology of personal growth and learning: and a philosophy of life underpinned by a distinctive set of principles, values and assumptions about people and change is our depth-psychology of choice. It’s the invisible guiding hand that cultivates conscious awareness, deeper connectedness, and holistic growth and development.
The case for a developmental perspective - the why
The complexity of the world is overwhelming the complexity of our minds, and addressing this issue is fundamental to our attempts to keep pace with the rapid, disruptive change and uncertainty that everyone is experiencing as the new normal. The challenges are many and various; technological, political, social, economic and environmental, and they are interdependent. In addition, we are constantly flooded with information and input vying for our time and attention. Whilst this is an extraordinary time to be here; it’s also a very difficult time for many.
The promise of vertical development is that it provides a set of conceptual maps and practices that reveal how individuals, teams, organisations, and even societies can transform to qualitatively different levels of development, and in doing so, become better equipped to meet these challenges and navigate complexity.
Vertical development is more than a cognitive, intellectual process designed to expand thinking capacity. Whilst this is necessary, it’s partial and on its own, insufficient. We are bio-social-psychological-spiritual beings, and this means that transformational development must be a holistic process, connecting body, mind, heart and spirit – extending the whole notion of personal growth and development into the psychological, emotional and spiritual realms. For sure we need to increase our thinking capacity in order to rise to the increasingly complex wicked problems and meta-crises of our time. And we need leaders, and people in all walks of life, who can think and work collaboratively, are emotionally connected, self-aware, capable of empathy, ego-mature, and relationally skilled. At first sight, this may seem like a demanding list of attributes but in the current circumstances may still be the least we need to be aiming for. For those in executive leadership roles we certainly need to add wise decision-making and a sound ethical compass. But if this stands as a call to leaders it’s equally an agenda for their professional helpers and partners who act in leadership consultancy and executive coaching capacities. It has become increasingly clear that we need to quicken the pace of leader development and to accomplish that, we need to fast-track the creation of next-generation leadership programmes and coaching approaches specifically designed to achieve that purpose. This is our mission at Courage and Spark®.
As we wake up and grow up (to use Ken Wilbur’s shorthand), we begin to show up differently. In other words, as we reclaim more of our whole selves, our innate humanity, we’re able to act more intentionally and powerfully from our core. And as we clean up our own lives and mature, we tend to take more responsibility, though not from a patterned sense of duty, in our work situations, our intimate relationships with family and friends, and make more positive impact in the wider world. These things go in parallel lines. From this position, we stand with Richards Rohr’s statement that “transformed people transform people”.
Note. If you’re new to Vertical Development, you may wish to read one of Peter’s short books on the subject. They are set out at the bottom of this page.
Vertical development - the how
At this moment in time we have a well-researched, mature body of profound and far-reaching theory - what is less developed is the ‘how’ – the practice. In other words, we can see how the evolution of consciousness can expand human possibilities, but we have not yet been able to codify how it happens. There is agreement around certain Practices, for example ancient traditions such as meditation and other deep contemplative processes, and more modern practices such as psychotherapy.
Vertical development leadership programmes and new models of vertical coaching both at the individual and team levels are beginning to appear – the Courage and Spark® signature programme and vertical coaching models are examples of these – but we can say that practice continues to lag behind theory in this field.
Knowledge, expertise and road-tested experience lies with a small number of individual practitioners, specialist consultancies, developmental institutes, and intentional communities.
At Courage and Spark®, we have been at the forefront of practice development focusing primarily on corporate leadership development, executive coaching and team development. Our recent decision to make our core offering available to the broader population signifies our desire and intention to make this important work more available, to more people.
Position statement on vertical
In common with all profound theories, vertical development can be intoxicating and compelling. It can then become more than a lens; it becomes the lens. At Courage and Spark®, we reference our work as Vertical Lens: Gestalt approach and this could lead to an interpretation that vertical is the lens as far as we are concerned. That is not the case. Our work is certainly informed by the vertical perspective which we believe has much to offer: and, it is but one lens. We hold it lightly and don’t try to fit all human experience into it, nor use it to explain everything under the sun and moon. As experienced practitioners we draw on many perspectives and look at life through many lenses.
Gestalt
Courage and Spark® is also grounded in the Gestalt tradition - a highly evolved depth-psychology and methodology for personal growth and learning, and a philosophy of life underpinned by a distinctive set of principles, values and assumptions about people and change. Although we rarely mention nor teach Gestalt on our programmes – it informs how we work and the way we show up – our philosophy-in-action which we refer to as presence.
Note. If you’re new to Gestalt and wish to understand more its principles and methodology, you may wish to read one of Peter’s books on Gestalt Coaching: ‘Gestalt Coaching - Right Here Right Now’ published by Open University Press, McGraw Hill, or ‘Gestalt Coaching: Distinctive Features’ published by Routledge. These are set out at the bottom of this page.
A glimpse into the Gestalt approach - principles and practices
Relational stance. We take a distinctive relational stance based on the following values - inclusion, authenticity, collaborative partnership, strong contact, and dialogue. We commit to being fully present and offer a quality of relationship grounded in support, empathy and humility; and working as much from felt sense – heart and gut - as from mind and head.
Positive, compassionate and optimistic - we intentionally begin with what people are doing well. Our approach is firmly grounded in the recognition of strengths before moving to less developed lines of development. There are three primary reasons why it’s important to start with what people are doing well. Firstly, many people don’t fully appreciate what they do well and what they do best. It needs to be pointed out to them. Secondly, personal growth and team self-efficacy is a product of banking achievements, successes, good attempts and near–misses. And thirdly, this is a powerful philosophical position to approach work and life.
Self mastery and interpersonal skill
We teach self mastery and the key interpersonal capacities to build high performance teams and lead transformational change. And it all begins with deeper self awareness.
Awareness-raising. Conscious awareness is an important cornerstone of personal growth and development and we seek to cultivate it in all our work. People are unlikely to change what they are currently unaware of. It starts with opening our minds and hearts, becoming more curious, listening better and letting other people and the world impact and influence us. If we do this, our consciousness expands, and change becomes possible. And when we let in deeper profound truths and realities, our worldviews tend to soften and re-emerge in new form. This is why all self-development activities and processes are grounded in awareness-raising.
Self mastery
Our primary focus is around healthy self-regulation, enhanced self awareness, and a deeper level of inner knowing.
The ability to be in touch with what you’re thinking and feeling before acting, and knowing your intent, is at the core of emotionally intelligent, conscious behaviour. We pay particular attention to these developmental capacities.
The capacity to:
Self-reflect
Be conscious of your inner dialogue
Understand the connection between your inner game and the outer game
Tune into your felt sense
Act with heightened self awareness
Emotionally self regulate
Understand your fears and anxieties and be less subject to them
Psychologically and emotionally ‘bank’ positives from life experiences
Take responsibility for your own decisions and actions
Treat yourself with self-respect, forgiveness, and compassion
Let go of unhelpful patterns
Go beyond “I”
Taken together, these help you to better understand your inner landscape, become more grounded, and meet the world with greater freedom, confidence and flexibility. This is what we mean by personal mastery.
Social intelligence and pro-social skills
In addition to self mastery, we teach and coach a number of key interpersonal capacities which improve relationships and foster cohesion and growth within groups and teams. In some people these will already be developed to a good level and simply need some improvement. In others, there may be more work to do.
Paying excellent attention to others
Deeper listening to understand, not to advise or fix
Asking better, more incisive questions
Sharing your own thinking, letting go of the need to be right, committing to understand others perspectives
Connecting emotionally; being in contact
Tuning in with empathy and compassion
Knowing when you’re ‘triggered’ and learning how to recover your best self
Holding honest conversations with skill and care
Managing conflict sensitively
In team contexts, the following skill-sets and mind-sets are especially important:
Emotional Intelligence
Facilitation skills
Giving feedback to enable learning and development
Coaching skills and mindset
The capacity to deepen or change the conversation
Group process awareness - relational interaction, group dynamics etc
Taken together, we can call these prosocial skills and behaviours. They are equally valuable in couple relationships, families, community groups; in fact, all social interaction.
Emergent dialogue
We also teach the art of emergent dialogue. Dialogue is a stance towards others, an advanced form of communication, and a practice that can expand perspective. Creating the conditions for dialogue and teaching people how to engage in dialogue is a core feature of our approach.
Polarity thinking. Polarity theory begins with the proposition that every quality we possess is one end of a continuum with the opposite quality residing at the other end. We have a capacity to love and hate; offer kindness and be cruel; show warmth yet also freeze someone out; experience happiness and sometimes feel utterly desolate. We may wish to deny the presence of the less virtuous qualities which we see as bad, and we may try to disown them and consign them to what is sometimes described as the Shadow, but they don’t magically disappear. On the contrary, under stressful circumstances and when we’re exhausted, they often leak out – sometimes in surprising, disappointing and destructive ways.
Another important lens on polarity thinking is revealed when we perceive that if A is true, it must be true that B can’t be. This is referred to as either-or thinking, and it’s commonplace. Expanding our perspective on a whole range of issues typically involves an incorporation of both possibilities – that there can be truth in seemingly opposite or contradictory things. This is referred to as both-and thinking.
The importance of context. We take a systems perspective which means that we believe everything is inter-connected and in constant change whether we can see it in the moment or not. We view people and behaviour in the context of their work and wider lives, not in isolation from it. We believe that our contexts shape and create us, just as conversely, we shape and co-create them. For example, the extent to which team and organisational cultures are enabling or disabling, supportive or undermining, plays a huge part in people’s levels of engagement and personal motivation, and whether they fulfil their potential - irrespective of personal characteristics such as desire, drive and ambition. It follows therefore that If people are to make sustained change, then so must the conditions and contexts of their lives.
Creating the conditions for deeper, inner growth work. We know that people grow, develop and change when they are open to new awareness, ideas and learning. When they remain closed, even for very good reasons from their perspective, they don’t learn very much. So, if we want to build a strong enough developmental container, we have to create a climate of trust, respect and psychological safety, and we pay great attention to this. We understand and respect that with some individuals, developing trust can take a long time, particularly if they have had negative experiences in the past, or more significantly, their personal background contains experiences that have left an enduring issue. Nonetheless, one of our core assumptions is that growth, learning and development can occur when there is a good enough balance between support and challenge, and that fits an individual’s needs.