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The Deliberately Developmental Organization, Explained

A workplace built so that people grow through their daily work, and what Kegan and Lahey saw in three companies

What is a deliberately developmental organization?

A deliberately developmental organization (DDO) is a workplace designed so that people grow through their everyday work, not only through outside training. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey describe the model in their 2016 book An Everyone Culture, based on the companies they studied in depth. Their evidence is case observation of three organizations, not controlled studies of outcomes.

Most workplaces ask people to perform, not to grow. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, who also wrote Immunity to Change, argue that in an ordinary organization most people are doing a second job nobody pays them for: covering their weaknesses, managing how others see them and hiding what they cannot do. Their 2016 book An Everyone Culture, written with Matthew Miller, Andy Fleming and Deborah Helsing, names the alternative a deliberately developmental organization, or DDO: a company whose culture is designed so that everyone keeps developing as part of the job. This is a workplace culture design. It is not an individual process in the way immunity to change is, and it has its own page. The book examines three companies the authors describe as leading examples: Decurion, a real estate company that owns the ArcLight Hollywood movie theater; Next Jump, an e-commerce technology company; and Bridgewater, a hedge-fund investor. The authors say there is no single recipe for a DDO. The practices below are the ones the sources describe. The sources read report case observation of these companies and no measured outcomes of the approach.

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Come si collegano queste pratiche

A deliberately developmental organization treats people’s growth as part of the work itself. The authors call the time and energy spent covering up weaknesses and managing other people’s impressions “the single biggest loss of resources that organizations suffer every day”; the “this” they refer to is that activity, which they call a second job. Each practice on this page makes a weakness, a piece of feedback or a failure visible, to others or to oneself, in a setting the authors describe as safe enough and demanding enough to bear it.

Why do people in ordinary companies hide their weaknesses from each other?

Kegan and Lahey argue that most people in ordinary organizations do a second job nobody pays them for: covering their weaknesses, managing how others see them and hiding what they cannot do. They say the cost is large, because a weakness that stays hidden is harder to overcome, so energy goes into appearance rather than growth. The sources read describe this from the authors’ observation of organizations and of three companies that had built cultures in which people no longer hide. They do not report a measurement of how much energy is lost.

How do I know whether my workplace is safe enough to admit a weakness?

The sources treat safety as a precondition. The authors describe the companies they studied as having a culture that is safe enough and demanding enough for people to come out of hiding. A secondary summary lists an atmosphere of trust as one of three requirements, alongside a culture that values errors and weaknesses and routines that normalize it. The sources read give no test of trust, so one practical approach is to share a smaller admission first and watch how it is received before sharing more.

How can I grow at work without going on a training course?

Kegan and Lahey argue that the usual developmental answers, such as executive coaching, high-potential programs and off-sites, arrive as “punctuated inputs, delivered from time to time rather than continuously”, sit “beyond and outside the normal flow of work”, and are provided “only for a few, generally for the 5 to 10 percent of employees”. In a DDO, growth is structured into the work itself, so that developing people and developing the business are one pursuit. A practical start is to link one task you already have to one capability you want to build. The sources make this argument from observation; they do not compare the two approaches on results.

How do I ask my manager for honest feedback without sounding like I am fishing for praise?

The sources do not give a script. A secondary summary of the book says that in the companies it describes, honest and open feedback is treated as a duty, including upward feedback (feedback given to someone above you) to senior colleagues, and that critical feedback is seen as an opportunity to grow. A practical move is to ask for one specific piece of feedback about one specific piece of work, and to receive the answer without arguing with it in the moment. An answer that offers only reassurance is a reason to ask again more precisely.

What should happen at the start of a team meeting?

In the Decurion meetings described in a secondary summary of An Everyone Culture, the meeting opens with a check-in in which people sit in a circle and share what is on their mind, how they feel, or what they are working on. The Harvard GSE summary of the authors’ 2014 article says that in the organizations studied, people surfaced their weaknesses in meetings, in one-on-one sessions and in daily work. The sources do not say what the check-in does to the rest of the meeting.

What is the point of keeping a written record of my own mistakes?

At Bridgewater, according to a secondary summary, employees are rewarded for recording failures and problems, and the company uses those records to find root causes. That is the purpose the source gives, at company level. A personal version is an adaptation, and it works only if the entries describe what happened and what caused it rather than blaming oneself or others. The sources read do not measure whether personal logs help anyone.

Come scegliere tra queste?

The practices fit different moments. If you are not sure whether a place can hear you, start with trust, then disclose. If you are carrying a particular weakness that others could help with, name it to one person first. If growth feels like something separate that you do outside work, start with the task in front of you. If you want honest input, ask for specific feedback about a specific piece of work. If a team has stopped talking about how its people are, open the next meeting with a check-in. If you are alone with a run of mistakes, keep the log before deciding what it means.

Cosa questi approcci non risolvono

The evidence is thin. The Mind Tools summary, a secondary source, describes the three companies as “hugely successful” and as having “already taken this route.” The sources read do not state how the companies were chosen. The sources read contain no comparison with less successful or ordinary organizations and no measured outcomes. The same summary claims the approach “can open the door to increased profitability, more honest communication, and better problem solving”. That is stated as a possibility, not a measured result, and the summary gives no profit figure for any company. It gives one revenue figure, $81 million in 2013, which it attributes to the ArcLight Hollywood cinema, owned by Decurion, without a source. For several specific practices, the check-in, the issues log and the feedback duty, a secondary summary is the only source read. The same summary notes that leaders must stay vigilant so that self-development does not become intrusion or self-criticism. Disclosing weaknesses in a workplace not designed for it may carry costs that the sources do not weigh.

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Domande frequenti

What is a deliberately developmental organization?

A deliberately developmental organization (DDO) is a workplace designed so that people grow through their everyday work, not only through outside training. Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey describe the model in their 2016 book An Everyone Culture, based on the companies they studied in depth. Their evidence is case observation of three organizations, not controlled studies of outcomes.

Come funziona «Let colleagues see the weakness you are covering»?

Kegan and Lahey argue that much of the energy people spend at work goes into covering weaknesses and managing impressions, and that hiding a weakness also means less chance to overcome it. In the companies they describe, people surface their weaknesses in meetings, in one-on-one sessions and in everyday work, and get help overcoming them. The Harvard GSE summary of the authors’ 2014 article says the purpose is for both the person and the organization to get better.

Come funziona «Check whether the room is safe before you disclose»?

Kegan and Lahey describe a deliberately developmental organization as a trustworthy environment that tolerates, and even prefers, weaknesses being made public. A secondary summary of the book lists an atmosphere of trust as one of three requirements for the culture, alongside a culture that values errors and weaknesses and routines that normalize it. The SSIR excerpt presents that trustworthy setting as the one in which weaknesses can be made public.

Come funziona «Make growth part of the work, not an extra program»?

Kegan and Lahey describe the usual answers to developing people, such as executive coaching, high-potential programs, off-sites and leadership development programs, as “punctuated inputs, delivered from time to time rather than continuously”, meaning occasional rather than ongoing. They describe these as sitting “beyond and outside the normal flow of work”, and as provided “only for a few, generally for the 5 to 10 percent of employees” designated high potentials. They also say such activity raises the problems of transfer and cost. The DDO alternative structures people’s growth directly in their work, so that developing people and developing the business are treated as one pursuit.

Come funziona «Give and ask for honest feedback as part of the work»?

The SSIR excerpt names, among the deep assumptions that run through all the DDOs it studied, ways of helping people get the most out of giving and receiving feedback and coaching. A secondary summary of the book reports that in these companies honest and open feedback is treated as a duty, including upward feedback to senior colleagues, and that critical feedback is seen as an opportunity to grow.

Come funziona «Open the meeting with a round of check-ins»?

A secondary summary of the book describes Decurion meetings as beginning with a check-in, in which people sit in a circle and share what is on their mind, how they feel, or what they are working on. The source does not state a mechanism for why the round helps. The nearest account is the authors’ broader argument that people’s growth and their work are one pursuit, which makes personal state a legitimate thing to put on the table first.

Come funziona «Keep a written log of your mistakes, alone»?

According to the Mind Tools summary, Bridgewater rewards employees for recording failures and problems, and the company uses those records to find root causes. The source gives that purpose and does not explain why a written record helps an individual. The nearest account is the authors’ argument that weaknesses kept out of view are harder to overcome, which applies to a private log as much as to a shared one.

Why do people in ordinary companies hide their weaknesses from each other?

Kegan and Lahey argue that most people in ordinary organizations do a second job nobody pays them for: covering their weaknesses, managing how others see them and hiding what they cannot do. They say the cost is large, because a weakness that stays hidden is harder to overcome, so energy goes into appearance rather than growth. The sources read describe this from the authors’ observation of organizations and of three companies that had built cultures in which people no longer hide. They do not report a measurement of how much energy is lost.

How do I know whether my workplace is safe enough to admit a weakness?

The sources treat safety as a precondition. The authors describe the companies they studied as having a culture that is safe enough and demanding enough for people to come out of hiding. A secondary summary lists an atmosphere of trust as one of three requirements, alongside a culture that values errors and weaknesses and routines that normalize it. The sources read give no test of trust, so one practical approach is to share a smaller admission first and watch how it is received before sharing more.

How can I grow at work without going on a training course?

Kegan and Lahey argue that the usual developmental answers, such as executive coaching, high-potential programs and off-sites, arrive as “punctuated inputs, delivered from time to time rather than continuously”, sit “beyond and outside the normal flow of work”, and are provided “only for a few, generally for the 5 to 10 percent of employees”. In a DDO, growth is structured into the work itself, so that developing people and developing the business are one pursuit. A practical start is to link one task you already have to one capability you want to build. The sources make this argument from observation; they do not compare the two approaches on results.

How do I ask my manager for honest feedback without sounding like I am fishing for praise?

The sources do not give a script. A secondary summary of the book says that in the companies it describes, honest and open feedback is treated as a duty, including upward feedback (feedback given to someone above you) to senior colleagues, and that critical feedback is seen as an opportunity to grow. A practical move is to ask for one specific piece of feedback about one specific piece of work, and to receive the answer without arguing with it in the moment. An answer that offers only reassurance is a reason to ask again more precisely.

What should happen at the start of a team meeting?

In the Decurion meetings described in a secondary summary of An Everyone Culture, the meeting opens with a check-in in which people sit in a circle and share what is on their mind, how they feel, or what they are working on. The Harvard GSE summary of the authors’ 2014 article says that in the organizations studied, people surfaced their weaknesses in meetings, in one-on-one sessions and in daily work. The sources do not say what the check-in does to the rest of the meeting.

What is the point of keeping a written record of my own mistakes?

At Bridgewater, according to a secondary summary, employees are rewarded for recording failures and problems, and the company uses those records to find root causes. That is the purpose the source gives, at company level. A personal version is an adaptation, and it works only if the entries describe what happened and what caused it rather than blaming oneself or others. The sources read do not measure whether personal logs help anyone.

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