The mental demands of leadership in complex adaptive systems

After a decade of calls for healthcare transformation, there is a convergence of themes in our general orienting models. The core metaphor of health system as machine (with closed boundaries, linear functions, and controlled predictable outputs) has given way to health as ecosystem (with open boundaries, non-linear functions, multiple interdependencies, and no single locus of control over outcomes). Current developmental psychology theory suggests that people construct their reality, and interact with their world, based on the epistemology (or “action-logic” or “mindset”) of their stage of development. Through this lens, the skills for leading large-scale change in our increasingly complex world require significant cognitive and interpersonal development. The concept of vertical development may be an underemphasized aspect of system change. This article will discuss a new set of leadership skills and frameworks that emerge in the nexus of complex adaptive systems and adult development theory.

Learning and Teaching Qualitative Data Analysis in a US University

This chapter presents a case study that examines how the learning experience of graduate students enrolled in a seminar at a US university prepares them to conduct qualitative research, specifically data analysis. Adult development theory and literature related to doctoral student preparation for research and curriculum development informed the course design and data analysis. The research questions focus on course structure, pedagogical strategies, how doctoral students experience these aspects in learning qualitative research methods, and how faculty learned to identify and meet students' emerging needs. Findings include contextualized examples of how the course supported students, how students received feedback in developmentally different ways, and the role of student resistance and emotion in learning. This chapter highlights the need to create a context of supports and challenges for learners and illuminates the benefits of a constructivist curriculum with scaffolding for doctoral student development and learning to become a qualitative researcher.

Accessing the Blind Spot

The complexity of our current social, environmental, and economic realities requires conceptual frameworks that help us chart transformative pathways of collective action. Otto Scharmer’s Theory U is one such framework, offering a profound synthesis of relevant theories and practices related to systems thinking, organizational learning, and leadership. Theory U is also a rich, multi-layered framework that is challenging to apply in action due to its conceptual complexity and because of the demands it makes of both facilitators and participants. As a means of facilitating the skillful use of this theory and its practices, the authors find it helpful to examine and explore Theory U through the lens of a distinct, yet related framework: Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (Torbert, 2003, 2004). CDAI is a methodology based on action science that integrates adult development theory, first, second, and third person inquiry, and transforming action.

Ghosts in a Wilderness: Problems and Priorities of Faculty at Mid-Career and Mid-Life

This article explores the experiences of mid-career, older faculty members in higher education through a qualitative study of 20 associate professors (15 men and 5 women) between the ages of 41 and 59 at a Canadian university. The study was undertaken to explore how university faculty experience the mid-career and mid-life period in their academic and community work, their personal and family relationships, and their sense of self. The findings focus on a variety of issues revealed in this sample group: the undervalue of teaching as a vocation, noncaring university administrators, rejection in career progression, external personal relationships, impediments to research, failing health, adapting to change, and the question of self-knowledge. While acknowledging several limitations of the study, the perspective of adult development theory points to the potential for greater integration of personality on the part of faculty members, and for its recognition on the part of administrators in fostering a more humanizing, responsive, and caring environment for the conduct of teaching and research. The recognition of significant differences between younger and older faculty, and how the genuine problems facing the latter group may be addressed, will contribute to enhancing the quality of university life generally.

Why Psychological Models of Adult Development are Important for the Practice of Adult Education: A Response to Courtenay

In an article which questions the value of adult development theory to adult educators, Courtenay claims that the literature is ambiguous about the goals of development, misguidedly equates normalcy with growth and development with worthiness, and is unacceptably vague in its descriptions of the characteristics of higher stages of development. This article examines and responds to these objections and maintains that constructive developmental models, in particular, provide an important framework for understanding and supporting adults in the process of growth and change that education often engenders. Furthermore, teaching development theory to developing adults offers them a valuable tool for self-discovery which can enhance and encourage their journey of transition and transformation.