Vertical Development in Leadership Learning
with Marti Hughes and Alis
This has been a great conversation with a leader who actively integrates the practices of vertical development into both his own life and his work. Marti Hughes is currently the Principal of Organisational Leadership at Tennis Australia, and has been involved with leadership and capability development for the past 20 years. Adult development has become a passion subject in recent years and he has been introducing it into leaderships programs at Tennis. He has equally used the developmental lens to make sense of his own life's growth and continue to stretch himself into new octaves of development.
We talk about the messiness of growth, the generational conflict in organisations and how adult development done right might transform the cultures we live and work in.
We also touch on the work of a few great thinkers in the space of adult development. Here are a few resources for you to explore:
William Torbert and David Rooke’s classic HBR article on the “Seven Transformations of Leadership” - looking at the ‘octaves’/stages of development leaders go through and the impact their development can have on their teams and organisations.
The “Transformation Cards” - a really cool took for workshops exploring individuals’ or groups’ developmental journeys.
Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s work on Immunity to Change and the reasons change is so hard, even when we really want it.
Nick Petrie’s work on bringing vertical development into L&D
Valerie Livesay’s work on Fallback - the ways we regress into immature behaviours and ways of thinking and the ‘one step forward - two steps backward’ nature of adult development. Valerie has recently published an enlightening book on her research into fallback, where we get to accompany three people as they navigate the challenges of their own growth journey - definitely one of my favourite reads of the last few months!
