Capacity Evolution Page Updates

I have updated the pages for:

• X-Shaped People
• G-shaped People
• I-shaped People
• T-shaped People
• H-shaped People
• A-shaped People
• U-shaped People

Tags: capacity evolution, H-shaped people, I-shaped people, leadership capacity, t-shaped people

The Seven Transformations of Leadership

In a landmark 2005 article David Rooke and Bill Torbert outlined leadership stages as defined by the Leadership Development Framework. The framework is a list of the seven action logics and their characteristics. The action logics correspond to the Interkannections system in the following manner:

(X) Opportunist: Wins any way possible. Self-oriented; manipulative; “might makes right.”

(G) Diplomat: Avoids conflict. Wants to belong; obeys group norms; doesn’t rock the boat.

(I)  Expert: Rules by logic and expertise. Uses hard data and force of opinion to gain consensus and buy-in.

(T) Achiever: Meets strategic goals. Promotes teamwork; juggles managerial duties and responds creatively to market demands to achieve goals.

(H) Individualist: Operates in unconventional ways. Ignores rules he/she regards as irrelevant. Recognizes value and is inclusive of multiple perspectives.

(A) Strategist: Generates organizational and personal change. Highly collaborative; weaves visions with pragmatic, timely initiatives; challenges existing assumptions.

(U) Alchemist: Generates social transformations (e.g., Nelson Mandela). Reinvent themselves, organizations and communities in historically significant ways.

These are stages of development world leaders and the guy and gal down the street pass through. For a great description of these stages in action in a business context I strongly suggest you download The Seven Transformations of Leadership from the Harvard Business Review website.

Check back for more on leadership stages soon!

Tags: capacity evolution, I-shaped people, leadership, leadership stages, leadership transformation, t-shaped people

The LimiTaTions of T

Let’s be honest, this whole “I-shaped“, “T-shaped” thing, though, useful is, by itself, a pretty big over simplification of the complex and diverse wholeness of a human being. I have found a number of posts and comments on other blogs that speak to this quite clearly. 

At peterme.com there is a good discussion about this:

Let me step back a bit. I have long had issue with the fetishization of “T-shaped” people for the simple reason that I’m not T-shaped. I’ve never been able to articulate my “vertical leg”. Throughout my career I’ve moved from activity to activity, from web development to interface design to information architecture to user research to product strategy. And I think my success is due to my ability to understand the synthesis across these skills and disciplines, to appreciate how to orchestrate them, to know how these integrate to achieve optimal affect.

And at Ryskamp.org Bob Ryskamp has this to say:

Consider this my plea for the design community to stop using the term “T-shaped people”. It’s demeaning, over-simplistic, misleading, and dangerously-influential, which combined with the prior three traits makes for trouble—that starts with “T”…

There are two problems with this phrase: T-shaped people don’t exist, and having T-shaped traits does not indicate design success…

To refer to them as “T-shaped” ignores all these other essential parts of each designer. That is why I say that calling someone “T-shaped” is demeaning and over-simplistic. People shaped like “T”s just don’t exist.

They’re right. We are much more than than any type or shape. These are just shorthand and simplified attempts at understanding something much more complex-a living, breathing complex, open human system. We are much more and will always be much more than any system of classification can make us. 

What is important is to use these systems as a means for understanding ourselves, understanding others and how we relate to and engage the world around us. At the heart of this is our capacity to do so, of which being “T-shaped” “I”, “H” or “A-shaped” is only one crucial yet incomplete part of a much larger and complex whole.

Tags: A-shaped people, capacity, I-shaped people, t-shaped people

We Do as We Are (Part 1: T-Shaped People)

A foundational element of our capacity to understand and engage the world is the way in which we relate to the world. In other words, we understand that of which we are aware–what we perceive. We engage with what we believe the world to be. How we engage with the world is who we are. A simple example is this: If I perceive the world as fundamentally other or separate from me then I will tend to be in opposition toward it. I will tend to try to control it, manipulate and use it as end to my means. That is who I am. Sound familiar?

In the this series of posts we’ll look at the different stages of perception we pass through as adults and the types of people these stages of perception tend to produce.

There has been a lot written about T-shaped people. For a good list of links visit Keith Instone’s blog. Tim Brown’s article in Fast Company talks about their strategy at IDEO:

We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they’re willing to try to do what you do. We call them “T-shaped people.” They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T — they’re mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That’s what you’re after at this point — patterns that yield ideas.

T-shaped people can dive deep like their predecessors, the I-shaped people, but they have left the safety and comfort of their expertise behind. They engage and appreciate others and the contribution those people might bring to the project. However, people at the T-stage in their development may still tend to see their wide ranging connections as a means to a specific end. In other words, if you are in the T-shaped person’s network, you may be being used.

To really get egalitarian, we’re actually not looking at “T”, we’re talking about “H”. The difference is this: at the “T” level of capacity we are just beginning to engage others and the world in their complex glory. Others are still others. The world is still “out there.” When we make the move from “T” to “H” we take on a more inclusive perspective. The boundaries between “me”, “you” and “the world” begin to blur. The flower of inter-relation blossoms and the potential for organizations, communities and nations to really begin to transform emerges.

 

Tags: capacity, H-shaped people, I-shaped people, t-shaped people