Agile MethodsAppearance
Self-development and Mindset by Jane Loevinger
- Subject
- Leadership
- Participants
- Stakeholders, managers, everyone who has a leadership role, the agile teams (optional)
- Facilitator
- Agile Coach / Agile Master
Summary
What does mindset actually mean? Mindset is the way in which people think and act. That means people must be able to produce thoughts but also be able to translate them into actions. It is very important that both go together. Mindset is a term that states the logic by which a person thinks and acts. In order to better understand all of this, we are based on the self-development according to Jane Loevinger.
Definition
The model here is reduced to five phases.
The "ego phase" (E3 according to Loevinger): People put their own needs first. They follow their needs even when they are aware that not everything is permitted. People in ego phases can be very successful. Their motto is: "every man/woman for himself/herself".
The next phase is the "we phase". The focus here is on community thinking. This can be any group. In the following phase, people are more concerned with orienting themselves towards "What actually makes me a person?" "Who am I?" "What are my strengths?" "What is my individual part in a group to which I belong?". Such people are interested in expertise, they like to refer to books, like to have fixed methods. It is a very stable phase although people do not develop as much in their thinking during this phase.
In the "effective phase" (E6 according to Loevinger), the focus is on your own canon of values. Here, people are able to have their own conscience, which they also follow. Even when control is gone, they focus on something they believe in, namely their values. People in the "effective phase" are very good at pursuing goals, they can realize themselves, they see the context in the big picture. These people are the first to be able to take responsibility for themselves and are therefore able to work in a self-organized manner.
The "flexible phase" (E7 according to Loevinger) is more characterized by the fact that value systems also dissolve there, that these people relativize more, see different perspectives and not just one or the other. Systemic thinking in the original sense is a characteristic of this phase, one has a constructivist attitude, there is basically no objectivity. Everyone is guided by their own truth. You can tell that in the behavior of managers when they ask a lot of questions, first they want orientation and get a picture of the other, first explore when they are really interested in the other perspective and not convey their messages so quickly.
Motivation
Managers with a higher level of self-development care more about the empoyees and help them develop.
Results
Managers striving to get a higher level of self-awareness.
Benefit
Above all, the model helps managers to position themselves within a typology and awakens awareness of the subsequent development path that the manager wants to take. Critics are bothered by pressing complex human nature into a rigid scheme. However, there is now consensus that Loevinger's theory at least provides a good guide to what happens to our personality in the course of our lives. And that this explains a lot that is otherwise difficult to understand. The more managers there are at later stages of development, the more self-determined, open and democratic the organizations can be.
Procedure
Considering Loevinger's stages of ego development, the agile coach supports the manager/executive on a daily basis in the inner personal change. It is crucial that the required new leadership style is both accepted and lived by the manager.
The following applies to executives:
self-knowledge and an understanding of one's own talents are an integral part of the new leadership mentality and essential if a manager wants to appear and lead authentically.
The coach can decide by himself/herself how he/she would like to accompany and support the manager depending on the situation or on what the manager wants to achieve (or depending in which direction he/she wants to develop).
Tools
Flipchart / whiteboard
Hints
Keep in mind the upmost levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.]