Distinguish horizontal development from vertical development and identify which one a specific leadership gap requires.
Leadership & Management
Vertical Development of Leaders Using Adult Development Theory
Introduces adult development theory and Kegan's immunity to change method so leaders can distinguish skill growth from stage growth and design development that shifts how people make sense of complexity.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Leadership programmes often add skills, models and frameworks without changing how a leader actually makes sense of complexity, conflicting stakeholders or ambiguous authority. This course applies adult development theory, particularly Robert Kegan's constructive-developmental model, to distinguish horizontal development, which adds knowledge and technique, from vertical development, which changes the underlying stage of mind a leader brings to a problem. Participants work with Kegan's orders of mind, from the socialised mind through the self-authoring mind to the self-transforming mind, and with action logics describing recognisable leadership patterns from Achiever through to Strategist and Alchemist. The core practical method is the immunity to change process: naming a genuine improvement goal, surfacing the competing commitments and big assumptions that protect the status quo, and designing safe tests that disconfirm those assumptions over time. The course also covers building a holding environment that offers enough challenge to provoke growth without overwhelming a leader into disengagement. Teaching combines theory input with guided practice building a real immunity to change map. Participants leave able to read developmental signals in language, identify a leader's growth edge and design development that supports genuine stage growth, not just added skills.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Describe Kegan's socialised, self-authoring and self-transforming orders of mind and their effect on leadership judgement.
Apply action logics to recognise recognisable patterns of leadership behaviour ranging from Achiever to Strategist.
Identify a leader's current growth edge using language signals rather than a formal psychometric assessment.
Build an immunity to change map that surfaces the competing commitments blocking a stated improvement goal.
Design safe tests that allow a leader to disconfirm a big assumption without triggering unnecessary risk.
Create a holding environment that balances challenge and support to sustain a leader's developmental progress.
Who Should Attend
Executive coaches and internal coaches supporting senior leaders through complex role transitions.
Heads of leadership development designing programmes beyond competency-based training.
Senior leaders preparing for roles that demand holding greater complexity and ambiguity.
Talent and succession specialists assessing readiness for enterprise-wide leadership roles.
Organisational psychologists applying constructive-developmental theory in leadership work.
HR business partners supporting leaders stuck in recurring, self-defeating patterns of behaviour.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Vertical Versus Horizontal Development
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Distinguishing Stage Growth from Skill Growth
- Differentiate horizontal development, which adds skills and knowledge, from vertical development, which changes how a leader makes sense of complexity.
- Explain why competency frameworks and training programmes address horizontal development but rarely shift a leader's underlying stage of mind.
- Identify situations, such as conflicting stakeholder demands, where added skill fails to help because the limitation is developmental rather than technical.
- Assess the risk of promoting technically skilled leaders into roles that require a stage of mind they have not yet grown into.
Session 2Kegan's Orders of Mind and Leadership Action Logics
- Describe Robert Kegan's socialised, self-authoring and self-transforming orders of mind and how each changes what a leader can reflect on.
- Apply action logics, ranging from Achiever through Individualist to Strategist and Alchemist, to describe recognisable patterns in senior leadership behaviour.
- Explain the subject-object shift: what was previously an unquestioned assumption becomes an object a leader can examine and revise.
- Discuss why vertical development is gradual and cannot be accelerated by a single workshop or a change in job title.
02Diagnosing Developmental Stage and Growth Edge
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reading Language for Developmental Signals
- Listen for language patterns, such as either/or framing versus both/and framing, that indicate a leader's current order of mind.
- Identify self-authoring language, where a leader articulates their own values and standards independent of group approval.
- Recognise self-transforming signals, where a leader questions the limits of their own system or ideology rather than defending it.
- Avoid mislabelling situational stress responses as a lower developmental stage than a leader's typical functioning.
Session 2Mapping a Leader's Current Growth Edge
- Identify a leader's growth edge: the point where current thinking is stretched but not overwhelmed by a new demand.
- Distinguish a genuine growth edge from a skill gap that better training or delegation would resolve without developmental work.
- Select a live business challenge that sits at the leader's growth edge to use as the basis for development work.
- Set realistic expectations for the pace of stage change over a development programme lasting months rather than weeks.
03The Immunity to Change Process
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building an Immunity to Change Map
- Define an improvement goal the leader genuinely wants, stated in language specific enough to notice progress.
- List the behaviours the leader does and does not do that work against the stated improvement goal.
- Surface competing commitments that explain why the counter-productive behaviours persist despite good intentions.
- Articulate the big assumption underneath each competing commitment using Kegan and Lahey's immunity to change format.
Session 2Testing Big Assumptions Safely
- Design a small, low-risk test that a leader can run to check whether a big assumption holds in a real situation.
- Review the outcome of a safe test against the original big assumption and record what it reveals rather than what was expected.
- Sequence a series of tests that gradually increase in risk as a big assumption is repeatedly disconfirmed.
- Coach a leader through the discomfort of testing an assumption that has protected them from a feared outcome for years.
04Designing Development That Supports Vertical Growth
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Creating a Holding Environment for Growth
- Design a holding environment that offers enough challenge to provoke growth and enough support that a leader does not disengage.
- Pair leaders working at adjacent growth edges so peer conversation surfaces perspectives neither would reach alone.
- Set ground rules for developmental conversations that separate performance evaluation from developmental exploration.
- Train sponsors and line managers to support a leader's development work without diagnosing or labelling their developmental stage.
Session 2Embedding Vertical Development in Leadership Programmes
- Integrate immunity to change work into existing leadership programmes rather than running it as a standalone intervention.
- Sequence vertical development activities across a programme so early sessions build trust before later sessions raise challenge.
- Track qualitative indicators of stage growth, such as how a leader frames a recurring dilemma, rather than relying on a single test score.
- Sustain development beyond a programme through ongoing coaching conversations that keep a leader's growth edge in view.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
Complete your registration
We will contact you within one business day to confirm.
Ready to start?
Reserve your seat and start building the skill.