Jonathan Reams
Vol. 6 No. 2 Jun 2010
Coaching Ethics and Immunity to Change: A Response to Kjellström
David Zeitler
Abstract: The Immunity to Change coaching process has risen in popularity since creators Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey published their second book using this method, Immunity to Change: How to Overcome it and Unlock the Potential for Yourself and Your Organization (2009). Sofia Kjellström (2009) recently published an article taking a critical perspective on the ethics of using ITC in educational and vocational contexts. I argue herein that when used properly, the ITC process avoids most of the criticisms that Kjellström brings to bear on this issue. Furthermore, it is argued that private life and public life (Freud’s “love and work”) are already inextricably intertwined, and methods like ITC give employers and employees the tools needed to navigate what are often highly charged issues, that we might increase our quality of life and increase our efficiency. Finally, the article summarizes the relationship between Subject/Object Theory and ITC, while also addressing the issue of developmental transformations in the coaching process.
Tags: Higher Education, Business consulting, coaching ethics, coaching methods, developmental level, executive coaching, Immunity to Change, David Zeitler
Responsibility and Ethics in the Use and Advocacy of Developmental Exercises: Response to Zeitler and Reams
Sofia Kjellström
Abstract: In this response I circumscribe the nature and scale of the rejoinder to refocus on the ethical and theoretical implications of utilizing developmental exercises, of which Immunity to Change (ITC) is seen as an example. I welcome Zeitler’s and Reams’ continuation of the ethical discussion, and I want to reclaim and develop some of the delicate points and consequences that were described in my original article. The line of reasoning is based upon the presupposition that developmental methods and techniques are used in the real world with people and consultants with limitations and strengths, in conditions that are neither optimal nor perfect. Among all theoretical and ethical questions, I found the most profound issue to be: does it work?
Tags: Sofia Kjellström
Creating Dynamic Development and Harmony in the Classroom
Nick Drummond and Joan Berland
Abstract: The article describes a childhood education program for developing the individual and collective “consciousness” of a class of children. The word consciousness is used to refer to the level of an inner awareness, and responsibility being held by an individual and or group of people. The authors view consciousness as being a fundamental part of our experience, and although not easily seen, it is something that can be pointed to, described and developed. Practically, this means learning how to give attention to the “interior” as well as exterior dimension of a classroom environment and discovering how these are intrinsically connected. A set of tools are presented that can enable teachers and students to learn about this inner dimension of our experience – how to bring value and focus to it – and the effect it has on our choices and behavior. When consciousness is recognized and given importance it becomes something that can be experienced by everyone at any moment. When it is intentionally focused on and developed, an atmosphere of dramatic possibility, true discovery and infinite potential can be created in any classroom. Whenever this happens, children and adults alike are able to experience, envision and become attracted to new and more mature possibilities in the way they learn, teach, communicate and relate to each other.
Tags: consciousness, awareness, Nick Drummond, Joan Berland, childhood education, rubrics, values, vertical development
Weltanschauung und Politik in den heutigen USA. Barack Obama und der „neue Kulturkampf“ um die Führung der anglo-amerikanischen Weltmacht
Roland Benedikter
The relationship between Worldviews and Politics in the USA today. Barack Obama and the “new cultural battle” for political supremacy in the US
English Summary: This article provides an analysis of the current relationship between Politics, Culture and Worldviews in the USA under Barack Obama. The present “great Obama divide” of US domestic politics consists in the division between institutional and contextual (cultural and worldview) politics. Obama has induced their current opposition when he ran for the US Presidency by profiling himself as a “cultural” candidate “against the system”. One result is that by becoming part of the system after being elected, Obama has lost some of his initial “revolutionary” appeal; a second effect is that the opposition is now trying to turn the tables by mobilizing the contextual political sphere against Obama’s control of the institutional power. In fact, the Republicans, rather than concentrating on traditional ways of regaining power focus on launching a new “worldview” battle against Obama in the hope to use the pre-political sphere to eventually regain the institutional political majority. The overall result is a general climate of “worldview mobilization” in the USA, and an increased influence of cultural and worldview philosophies onto the institutionalized mechanisms of politics. Pre-political movements like the conservative “inverting the myth – inverting the paradigm” movement or the “tea party” movement are the expression of attempts towards a new “cultural battle” for “the soul of the USA,” which has to be understood in its basic mechanisms, if the “Obama constellation” shall be understood. This article sketches some core elements of Obama’s worldview that are in play in this game, and it argues that many actions of Obama on the field of foreign politics are (and will be) to a noticeable extent co-oriented toward influencing the domestic “worldview battle.”
Tags: Roland Benedikter
Locking Down the South Bronx
Susan Belford
Abstract: In this brief analysis is the intended beginning of a systemic integral analysis of the social systems and structures in use in the South Bronx, New York City. Informed by the writing of Jonathan Kozol as well as current articles in the New York Times, this analysis uses the systems theories of Talcott Parsons and Donella Meadows and the human identity work of Vern Redekop to understand the exterior and interior dimensions of systemic oppression as experienced by residents of the South Bronx.
Tags: Susan Belford