Culture, Power, and Personal Development at Work
Bill Torbert talks stages of personal growth, eight types of power, the real purpose of development, and his newest book, Numbskull in the Theatre of Inquiry: Transforming Self, Friends, Organizations, and Social Science.
People and organizations develop through a series of stages in which different values, competencies, and areas of focus emerge. Bill Torbert's theory, supported by empirical research from thousands of interviews, lays out seven stages of development.
Bill introduces the idea of eight types of power that align with the stages of personal development. At earlier stages of development, people and organizations tend to use power coercively. At later stages, power is used for mutual benefit.
Adjusting course as a team depends on the free flow of feedback among group members. Bill reflects on what leaders need to pay attention to in order to course correct well.
Innovations in human development lag compared to technological gains. Rising interest in leadership development is starting to turn this tide.
Bill discusses the long-term benefits of individual and organizational development.
We tend to see ourselves as subordinate, superior, or equal to other people in our surroundings. Intentionally building a peer culture tends to be both most beneficial and most challenging.
Edgar Schein, Anxiety of Learning
David Rooke and Bill Torbert, Seven Transformations of Leadership
