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The research clearly suggests that human consciousness develops through a series of stages and that the sequence of those stages always is in the same order.
Development follows an invariant sequence.
Cross cultural studies further show that these stages exist in all cultures and in the same sequence. These stages are, therefore, universal and invariant. The stage-like development of consciousness is built into nature.
To ignore the significance of this line of research for leadership and organizational development is like trying to do space travel while ignoring the law of gravity. Organizational change places a demand on everyone in the organization to shift to a higher stage of development. If this transformation does not happen, the system may have a temporary surge in functioning, but will then go back to its prior equilibrium, back to “normal.”
Transformation is the movement from one stage to the next. At each progressive developmental stage a new “design” principle is used to relate the self to the world. Reality does not change.
What changes is the way we organize the self-world relationship.
It is as if the self trades in its DOS operating system for a Windows operating system. The interface between the self and the world is at once more complex and simplified.
Now, it can handle much more complexity with far greater ease and grace. Unsolvable dilemmas at previous stages evaporate in the new reality. That which was not possible in the prior stage becomes doable.
The person experiences a new burst of creativity, efficacy, freedom, power, and joy.
The organization experiences a person standing more fully in their leadership capacity. The world gets someone who is capable of greater contribution and service.
The leader transforms into a higher version of him/her self. The system and culture of an organization transform into a higher version of the old system/culture. The evolution of each (the individual and the organization) is interdependent. The organizational system cannot organize at a higher stage of development than the consciousness of the leadership. And until the system (organization or society) organizes at the new level of order, it hinders the development of most of the people in the system. Only as the bulk of the population (of an organization or society) develops to the new stage of development is there a possibility for the system to take its next leap.
Human development (psychologically and spiritually) is in the driver’s seat. There is no organizational transformation without a preceding transformation in the consciousness of the leadership. The process of cultural evolution first happens in the awareness of individuals.
These individuals exert influence on the system and change it. The new system encourages a critical mass of people to develop. As that critical mass develops, the full potential of the new order is realized, the likelihood of regression to an earlier level of development is reduced, and the platform is built for the next evolutionary leap.