Hold the developmental map — and your place on it — lightly

Notice when knowing about later stages has become another way to feel ahead of other people.

Why it works

Cook-Greuter observes that the ego readily appropriates even the loftiest notions to feel important, and names the identification as an expert in developmental theory as one of the places this happens. A map of later stages is unusually easy to turn into a ranking with yourself near the top. Because the fifth order is described as holding one’s own system as partial, using the map of it as a badge works against the very thing it describes.

How to do it

1. Notice the last time you placed someone on a developmental map, out loud or privately. What did placing them do for you?
2. Write down where you privately place yourself, and what you would feel if a trained scorer placed you lower.
3. If you want to know, take a scored assessment (a Subject-Object Interview, or a sentence completion test in Cook-Greuter’s lineage) and treat the result as one reading on one day.
4. Make a rule for yourself: use the map to understand, never to sort the people in front of you.

Evidence

Cook-Greuter (2018) writes that, in her research, the ego will appropriate any content to see itself as a hero, and describes later-stage individuals as statistically rare. In her 2004 paper, 2.0% of a general adult sample of 4,510 scored at the Alchemist action logic, the latest she reported. Bauger and Bongaardt (2018), citing Kegan (1994), describe people at the self-transforming order as "few and far between" and report that in Kegan’s composite sample about half of adults did not yet construct experience as complexly as the self-authoring mind. (mechanistic)

Cook-Greuter’s percentages describe her measure, not Kegan’s orders, and the two do not map one-to-one. The humility practice itself is untested.

Sources

• Cook-Greuter, S. (2018). The Construct-Aware Stage of Ego Development and its Relationship to the Fool Archetype. Integral Review, 14(1), 300–310.
• Cook-Greuter, S. R. (2004). Making the case for a developmental perspective. Industrial and Commercial Training, 36(7), 275–281.
• Bauger, L., & Bongaardt, R. (2018). Structural developmental psychology and health promotion in the third age. Health Promotion International, 33(4), 686–694.
• Kegan, R. (1994). In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Harvard University Press.

Common mistake

Swinging into a performance of humility that is still about rank ("I’m too developed to care about stages"). The aim is to stop needing the map to locate yourself above anyone.

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