Write the model’s name beside every stage you record

Each time you record a stage, write the model and its level count next to it, because the same label can sit at a different place on each scale.

Por qué funciona

Murray and O’Fallon count 8 levels for Loevinger’s model, 9 for Cook-Greuter’s and Torbert’s models, and 12 for STAGES, so a stage number only means something on the scale it came from. Labels also recur. Starr and Torbert’s seven action logics (in their table, the characteristic ways a leader acts, such as Expert, who “rules by logic and expertise,” and Achiever, who “meets strategic goals”) and STAGES both use Expert, Achiever and Strategist, naming different things on different instruments. Strategist in Starr and Torbert’s table “generates organizational and personal transformation”; in STAGES it is the 4.5 level. A note that carries its model with it stops the label from quietly moving to another scale.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Next time you write down a stage, level or action logic, put the model’s name in front of it, for example “STAGES 3.5 Achiever” or “Torbert action logic: Achiever.”
2. The first time you use a model in a document, add its level count (8, 9 or 12 in the cases above).
3. Look through old notes for any label that could come from two models, and write which model it came from.
4. Where a note has no model name and you cannot tell, mark it “unknown” rather than guessing.

Evidencia

The level counts and the shared labels are documented in Murray and O’Fallon (2020) and in Table 1 of Starr and Torbert (2005). This practice applies that documentation to note-taking. No study has tested whether writing the model’s name beside a stage changes how people read or use the label. (mechanistic)

Naming the model does not make the stage itself more accurate. A correctly labelled note can still carry a score that was wrong.

Fuentes

• Murray, T., & O’Fallon, T. (2020). A Summary of Research on and with the STAGES Developmental Model. Integral Review, 16(1).
• Starr, A., & Torbert, B. (2005). Timely and Transforming Leadership Inquiry and Action: Toward Triple-loop Awareness. Integral Review, 1, 85–97.

Error común

Assuming a number from one model converts to a number on another. Even in the STAGES–Cook-Greuter replication, STAGES and the Cook-Greuter/Loevinger scoring agree exactly only part of the time, so copying a 4.5 into a different scale makes the note sound more precise than it is.