Vertical Development

A framework to help you learn about yourself, expand your perspective, your options, and your impact in the world.

 

What is Vertical Development?

 

Over the course of a lifetime, adults may embark on an “adult development” otherwise known as “vertical development” journey. Adults don’t have to grow. They don’t have to go on the journey, but workplaces and personal life can provide considerable opportunities to do so.

In this 3 minute video, I explain:

  • What is vertical development?

  • How is it different to horizontal development?

  • What are the stages (the map) that we can use to help guide our developmental journey?

  • Why would anyone want to grow vertically?

  • What are the conditions we need to help accelerate growth?

Vertical development (from Adult Development Research) is a framework explaining how adults may grow and mature in perspective and capacities. We all know that children develop - for example, a baby cries when their main caregiver leaves the room, but at some stage in normal development, a child realises that although the caregiver is out of sight, they still exist, and they will probably be back. Adults also have a similar opportunity to grow, but it’s an intentional choice to do so.

A framework maps out the stages of adult (vertical) development. Each later stage brings an ability to start to see and understand things that were not in view before. “Eye-opening” is a typical comment from clients. Each progressive stage brings expanded awareness and more options.

It’s a little like the way a tree grows rings. Each later ring encompasses all the earlier rings, and the tree has a bark which is like a growing edge into which it leans to expand and grow, but the edges are always there.

 

What is the difference between vertical and horiztontal development?

There are two main ways we grow and both are important:

  • Horizontal development is like learning. It is informational. It is like filling our glass with new skills and information.

  • Vertical development is transformative. It is like expanding the size of our glass so we have more capacity to cope with the ever-increasing complexity and challenges in today’s world.

 

What are the required conditions for growth?

What do we need to be able to grow?

  • There are several prerequisites to move from one stage of adult development onto the next. One of the key ones is discomfort which we have plenty of right now.

    Many people are facing ongoing and significant disruption, complexity and unpredictability. When we start to realise that their current way of operating is not working anymore, and the pain of their experience is worse than the perceived pain of change, we may look for more sophisticated and mature way of being and making sense.

    But growing is messy. It’s uncomfortable and it often makes us feel foolish (which is why we sometimes unconsciously try to avoid it). But feeling foolish, uncertain, irritable or just plain uncomfortable is an essential part of the process. No discomfort equals no growth.

    Jennifer Garvey Berger is a leading expert in this field.

    “I think the biggest obstacle to our growth is how scary it is to grow,” she says. “I have a sense that people stay the same until the idea of growing is less painful than the place that they’re in. Also, I think people grow because they kind of have to due to their circumstances. For most of us, there is a lot of loss that comes with growth, and as we imagine ourselves being different we have to let go of who we are today. This is very difficult as we get more and more attached to ourselves over time.” (Source)

    Another key ingredient in the adult development journey is ongoing reflection. When leaders and managers use coaches and other processes to help them make sense, then it helps them to see and navigate more complex and expanded worldviews. As John Dewey famously said: “We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience.”

    Exposure to a diverse range of perspectives is also important. Interactions with people who hold different worldviews and opinions, including interactions with people at later stages of vertical development, can help you progress and expand your own capacity.

    People also need support systems that provide ‘good company’ for the developmental journey. This includes developmental coaching and using vertical development tools and learning partnerships. (A metaphor could be creating fertile soil, in which we have a better chance of growing. A fertile soil too, gives us better capacity for weathering adverse conditions - think feedback as an example. If a relationship is strong (fertile soil), then difficult conversations may support healthier growth).

    The final component is personal impact. Does improving your vertical development matter to you? Do you want and need to improve? If it does not, an individual is unlikely (at a conscious or subconscious level) to risk the time, energy or discomfort that embarking on vertical development is likely to involve.

  • References:

“Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life”.

- Susan David, Emotional Agility.

 

You are not alone.

I invite you to get in touch if you’d like to explore how coaching with me could help you.