Have you ever taken a test, or assessment to discover who you are, what job best suits you, or which relationships fit you best? Do you know your “type”?
Too many modern assessments and models put people in boxes: you’re an A-type, where you hang in the 4 quadrants, models of personality etc… As much as it is useful to discover certain character traits, those tend to limit us rather than assist us to expand our perception of who we are and how we are “supposed” to behave, because they tend to function deductively (from outside to inside) rather than inductively (from inside to outside).
The ‘Thinking Styles’ model of change was developed empirically and refined since the 1950s. Based on the work on Clare W. Graves and of the people at the National Values Centre, it has been described as a “revolutionary model that is finding its way into the offices and the toolkits of an ever-increasing number of global and organisational leaders”.
It focuses not on WHAT people think or believe or their personality type, but HOW they think about what they think about. So, we’re not putting people into categories, but we’re looking at the lenses they use to look at their work, their relationships, themselves in relation to the environment. It’s an inductive model (i.e. the opposite of limiting), because it reflects the increasing level of complexity that a mind is capable of.
Most importantly, it measures whether the mind capacities of a person are suited to their life conditions. When we achieve congruency between the 2, we are in balance. Balance is the ultimate purpose, because when you reach a state of perfect equilibrium… you function perfectly in your world, and… what else do you need?
It also gives a very detailed roadmap of the transitions that we go through during the span of a lifetime. So it’s REALLY helpful during transitional times. When life conditions change, we often need to develop new ways to cope with a changed reality, which means essentially, new mind capacities.
This is the basis of the model of change that this assessment describes.
The videos below will prepare you for the course.