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.
Why it works
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.
How to do it
- 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.”
- The first time you use a model in a document, add its level count (8, 9 or 12 in the cases above).
- Look through old notes for any label that could come from two models, and write which model it came from.
- Where a note has no model name and you cannot tell, mark it “unknown” rather than guessing.
Evidence
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.
Sources
- 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.
Common mistake
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.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for How the Adult Development Stage Models Compare
- Pick the map whose resolution matches your question
Choose the model that draws the distinction your question depends on, instead of defaulting to whichever chart you saw first.
- Read a published crosswalk one level at a time
Take one level from one model, find its row in the published table, and read the spread of matches instead of a single agreed rung.
- Ask whether anyone has tested a claimed match
Before you accept that one model’s stage equals another’s, look for a published study that measured the two together.
- Keep one shared stage word from carrying two meanings
When two people use the same stage name, ask which model each one means before you agree or disagree.
- Describe one situation in two maps and mark the gap
Write one real situation, read it through two developmental maps, and note exactly where the two readings disagree.
- Trace a stage chart to the paper behind it
Before you quote a level chart, find the model’s own paper and check where each level name and count comes from.
Related concepts
- Terri O’Fallon’s STAGES Model, Made Practical
Twelve stages built from three repeating questions, and how to work with the one you are in
- Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
Seven ways leaders make sense of pressure, how common each is, and how to work with your own
- Ego Development Theory: What It Is and How It Is Measured
The frame you make meaning through, how researchers measure it, and how to work with it without ranking anyone
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
- The Self-Transforming Mind: Kegan’s Fifth Order, Made Practical
When your own way of seeing becomes something you can look at, question, and let be changed
- Kegan’s Socialized Mind: What It Gives You and How to Grow Beyond It
When what others think is part of who you are — honoring the stage, and loosening its grip
- The Construct-Aware and Unitive Stages of Adult Development
Seeing the self and its stories as constructions — what it looks like, how rare it is, and what it does not promise
- First, Second, Third and Fourth Person Perspectives
How the number of viewpoints you can hold grows, what the research does and does not show, and how to practice it in a real disagreement
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