Expect a dissonance phase and plan for it during a shift
Name which part of a change you are in, and plan support for the dip that usually comes before a new way of living settles in.
Why it works
Graves’s account describes a sequence after a person begins to move on: a period of dissonance and regression, an insight into the new problem, getting past social barriers, and a consolidation phase in which the new way of living is practiced. The account also says the regressive search can end in arrest or regression as well as growth, so naming the phase helps you watch which way it is going rather than assume it is climbing.
How to do it
- Write down which phase you think you are in: dissonance and regression, insight, facing social barriers, or consolidation.
- For the phase you are in, list one thing that tends to make it harder and one person or habit that helps.
- Set a small, specific practice for the consolidation phase, something you can repeat rather than a big overhaul.
- Re-check the phase in a few weeks and note whether you have moved, or slid back.
Evidence
Graves’s conditions for emergence, as the reprint presents them. The passage is set at 27.0pt, a different indent from the .5in passages that the reprint’s note clearly marks as heavily edited by Ed Cornish, so its editorial status is unconfirmed. The sequence is not a tested timeline. (anecdotal)
The four phase labels are close paraphrases, not Graves’s terms. The account says the search can end in arrest or regression as well as growth. No independent study of the timing was found.
Sources
Common mistake
Reading the dip as proof the change was a mistake, and abandoning the new way before consolidation begins.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Clare Graves’s Emergent, Cyclical Theory of Adult Development
- Notice when your conditions have changed and your usual fix stops working
Check whether the conditions of your life have shifted, and whether the way you have been coping still solves the problems in front of you.
- Name the new problem your last solution has opened up
After you resolve a problem, write down the next one that the freed-up time or energy is now showing you.
- Tell apart having the capacity from having worked through your current problems
Separate knowing you could handle a bigger role from having solved the problems of the one you hold now, and notice whether the old fixes are already breaking down.
- Judge a sudden change by the problem it solves, not how it looks
Before calling a change in yourself or someone else a breakdown, ask what problem the new way of living is handling.
- Fit your response to the level someone is operating from
When someone does not respond to your approach, ask what they need from their current way of living before trying to change what they believe.
- Name the gap between what a role asks and what you can do now
List what your role expects, and mark honestly which expectations you can meet from where you stand today.
Related concepts
- Spiral Dynamics, Made Practical
Understanding how value systems develop and how to navigate across them
- 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
- 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
- Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
Moving from being run by your assumptions to being able to examine them
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