Mutual Development

As I work with clients I try to remain open to the opportunities for learning and development that arise within our work together. Often all that’s needed for a developmental opportunity to open up is for someone to draw attention to an aspect of a situation or challenge that has not been evident before. Central to learning “on the go”, from within our experience of a situation, is this ability to notice and attend to those things that are different from what we have come to anticipate.

My thinking and practice about development in particular has been influenced by the idea of ‘vertical’, in addition to ‘horizontal’, development.

Vertical development refers to a range of ideas that have emerged about the ongoing development of adults and suggests that there are transitions that some people make that are characterised variously, but perhaps most succinctly, as a change in their orientation or “action-logic”. Horizontal development, on the other hand, refers more to the consolidation of particular skills and capabilities within a particular perspective or orientation.

I usually build development into the particular work I’m doing is through some form of participative action inquiry. That is, by making taking action and conducting in-the-moment inquiries into the impact of those actions, an intentional and disciplined part of what we are doing. But always with the specific intention of increasing the timeliness, practicality and wisdom of those actions in order to achieve better results.

For more information please contact me.