July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Think Again: Adult Developmental Frontiers in Higher Education Michael Shiner Harvard Graduate School of Education
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – What does a more developed leader look like? Alan Garber, Provost; Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences; Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School; Member of the Board of Syndics, Harvard University Press Compare a strong, but less developed leader - Mitt Romney in London for a “charm offensive”, as reported by Stephen Colbert: report-videos/417012/july /mitt- romney-s-london-olympics-blunder
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – How might (or have) truth, beauty, and goodness be revaluated, reframed, and reimagined at your university? – Education: Curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, etc.? – Administration: Strategy, leadership, operations, etc.? Key Questions
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – De-centering from one’s current epistemology Development is an adaptive rather than a technical challenge (Heifetz, 1994).
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Stage view: Three plateaus in adult mental development (Kegan and Lahey, 2009)
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Dynamic View Dynamic: Variation in skill is your level. But, plateaus are quite similar
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Key differences from Kegan: Development is domain specific rather than domain general, represented by a developmental web rather than generalized plateaus. Level of development within each domain varies depending on situation and level of support, as in dynamic skill. Dynamic View continued
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Further Reading: Dynamic view of adult development - Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic development of action, thought, and emotion. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology (6th ed., Vol. 1, pp ). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons (available at ) Implications of adult development for twenty-first century - Gardner, H. (2011). Truth, beauty, and goodness reframed : educating for the virtues in the twenty-first century. New York: Basic Books. Applying adult development in the workplace - Garvey Berger, J. (Forthcoming). Changing on the job: Growing leaders our organizations need: Yale University Press. Adaptive leadership - Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Dialogue - Isaacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the art of thinking together : a pioneering approach to communicating in business and in life. New York: Currency. Adult development and the hidden curriculum of modern life - Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads : The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
July 30, 2012 Think Again: Adult developmental frontiers in Higher Education, © 2012 Michael Shiner – Applying adult development - Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change : how to overcome it and unlock the potential in yourself and your organization Robert Kegan, Lisa Laskow Lahey. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Leading conversations - Stone, D., Patton, B., Heen, S., & Fisher, R. (2000). Difficult conversations : how to discuss what matters most. New York, N.Y.: Penguin. Further Reading continued Please do not hesitate to contact me to continue the conversation: Michael Shiner – Questions, comments?