How can we grow deeper in wisdom and understanding, into “post logical” thinking? Experience with an Agile consultant team might suggest some ways.

Photo by Constantin Stanciu on Scopio

Mixed Adult Population

Most people grow rapidly through development stages into adolescence and then plateau in early adulthood (so that the correlation between age and stage is about 0.40 among adolescents and around 0.04 among adults, across studies involving more than 12,000 people).¹ As a result, a 1999 mixed sample of 4510 adults in the United States–including accountants and artists, priests and prisoners, in ages ranging from 18 to 82 (with ages 35 to 65 most represented)–shows a mode (peak) at Expert, with fewer adults at an earlier or later stage.²

Consultants

However, other samples show a different bell-like distribution of stages; for example, a sample of 535 managers and consultants in the UK had a mode at Achiever.²

This comparison could prompt multiple questions for further research:

• Is the difference between samples significant?
• The inclination to find out about one’s own personality make-up via testing rarely occurs before the Achiever stage, with Conformer and Expert stages not requesting feedback.² Is the variation in samples due to self-selection?
• Development can occur when the interpersonal environment disconfirms expectations characteristic of a specific stage.¹ Does this environment vary across national cultures?
• Prior to the Achiever stage, perspective- and role-taking experiences can facilitate development,¹ and the Co-Creator stage enjoys a variety of roles.³ Does the variety of engagements in consulting work provide these perspective- and role-taking experiences?
• Post-conventional personalities–at the Catalyst, Co-Creator, and Synergist stages–don’t often remain long in large corporations.⁴ Does this reduce the prevalence of these stages among managers and supervisors?

Agile Consultants

Agile software development started with a manifesto from those who are “are uncovering better ways of developing software by… helping others do it.”⁵ One of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto is this:

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Agile practices involve the application of the scientific method to social management, through iterative cycles of identifying a problem, planning, acting, and evaluating empirical phenomena—the “Deming Wheel” of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA).⁶ Consequently feedback is fundamental to Agile practice.

I selected a team of Agile consultants from a what an owner described as a “boutique Agile consultancy” (later acquired by a multinational consultancy). After approximately 50 minutes of an hour-long interview, I provided feedback (in Perfection Game form) on the answers I had heard to my questions in the previous 50 minutes. I then observed how the feedback was integrated into the conversation.

This approach comes from a developmental perspective.⁷ It is inquiring whether the espoused theory of the value of feedback in Agile is part of the theory-in-use of the Agile consultant.⁸ They “talk the talk” but do they “walk the walk”?

Development and Feedback

Level	The Concept of Feedback
Operator	React to feedback as an attack or threat.
Conformer	Receive feedback as disapproval, or as a reminder of norms.
Expert	Take it personally, defend own position; dismiss feedback from those who are not seen as experts in the same field.
Achiever	Accept feedback especially if it helps them to achieve their goals and to improve.
Catalyst	Welcome feedback as necessary for self-knowledge and to uncover hidden aspects of their own behavior.
Co-Creator	Invite feedback for self-actualization; conflict seen as inevitable aspect of viable and multiple relationships.
Synergist	View feedback (loops) as a natural part of living systems; essential for learning and change; and take it with a grain of salt.

In 2017 I took the Global Leadership Profile (GLP), a sentence completion profile. In 2018 the 13 full-time members of the consultant team–a dozen Agile coaches and one Agile coordinator–took the GLP as well. I debriefed the GLP for each member of the consultant team after estimating the rating using descriptions from The Seven Levels of Leadership Development and Their Impact. My estimate matched the profile rating within one-third stage the vast majority of the time.⁹

The Seven Levels of Leadership

Level	Description
Operator	Short time horizon, flouts power and sexuality, rejects feedback, hostile humor, deceptive, manipulative, externalizes blame, punishes, views luck as central, punishment rules, views rules as loss of freedom, ‘eye for an eye’ ethic.
Conformer	Observes rules, avoids inner and outer conflict, conforms, suppresses own desires, loyalty to group, seeks membership, right versus wrong attitude, appearance/status conscious, tends towards clichés, works to group standard.
Expert	Interested in problem solving via data, critical of others and self, chooses efficiency over effectiveness, perfectionist, values decisions based on merit, wants own performance to stand out, aware of alternative constructions in problem resolution but can be dogmatic, accepts feedback only from ‘objective’ craft masters.
Achiever	Results and effectiveness oriented, long term goals, concerned with issues of ethics and justice, deliberately prioritizes work tasks, future inspires, drawn to learning, seeks mutuality in relations, aware of personal patterns of behavior, feels guilt if does not meet own standards, blind to own shadow, chases time.
Catalyst	Collaborative, tolerant of individual difference, aware of context and contingency, may challenge group norms, aware of owning a perspective, inquiring and open to feedback, seeks independent, creative work, attracted by difference and change, may become something of a maverick, focuses on present and historical context.
Co-Creator	Process and goal oriented, strategic time horizon, systems conscious, enjoys a variety of roles, recognizes importance of principle and judgment, engaged in complex interweave of relationships, aware of own personal traits and shadow, high value on individuality, growth, self fulfilment, unique market niches, particular historical moments.
Synergist	Alert to the theatre of action, embraces common humanity, disturbs paradigms of thought and action, dispels notions of heroic action, deeply internalized sense of self-knowledge held with empty mind, sees light and dark, order and mess, treats time and events as symbolic, analogical, metaphorical (not merely linear, digital, literal).

The profile ratings were the following:

• 4 Achiever,
• 8 Catalyst, and
• 2 Co-Creator.

Note that this small sample has a later mode (Catalyst) than previous larger studies.

Conclusion

My intent in interviewing, selecting, profiling, and providing feedback to Agile consultants was a transforming team, not rigorous statistical results. Nevertheless the results suggest that the following may, indeed, encourage growth:

• perspective- and role-taking experiences, such as those provided by consulting engagements;
• a community that values feedback, like the Agile movement; and
• accepting, welcoming, or even inviting direct personal feedback on a team.

Notes