"Junk" Science LO21697

T.J. Elliott (tjell@idt.net)
Fri, 21 May 1999 18:24:14 -0400

Replying to LO21678 --

Just to clear one thing up before poor Robert Kegan whom I innocently
dragged into this gets maligned. Kegan's idea of development is of
thinking skills. There is no imputation that people are lazy and ignorant
if they have what he calls 3rd order as opposed to 4th order. Nor was the
distribution higher for 'workers' as opposed to 'bosses'. Kegan's point
in a very complex book is that the world asks us to do certain mental
gymnastics of being able to relate to people and objects in a web of
abstract and concrete ways. The results showed that these demands are not
always met. I regret any suggestion that people are not measuring up. The
larger takeaway for me is that we underestimate the mental demands of
modern life. The other directions are interesting here but not what Kegan
was talking about.

-- 
T.J. Elliott
Cavanaugh Leahy & Company
tjell@mail.idt.net
Mind On The Job newsletter http://idt.net/~tjell
914 366-7499

[Host's Note: TJ mentioned this book in a previous msg and I neglected to provide an Amazon link, so here it is...

In over Our Heads : The Mental Demands of Modern Life by Robert Kegan http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674445880/learningorg

...Rick]

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>