The Harthill Leadership Development Framework
It is informed by developmental constructivist psychology, a field pioneered by Jane Loevinger in the '70s, and further nourished by researchers like Susanne Cook-Greuter, Robert Kegan, Bill Torbert. They discovered how meaning-making evolves with life experience and that, contrary to what was previously thought (that we stopped developing once we reached adulthood), we continue to grow and develop in cognitive, emotional and interpersonal ways as adults.
By introducing the construct of ‘ego’ as our internal storyteller, the mastermind in charge of our feelings, thoughts, and actions, they put our meaning-making faculty in focus and structures our experience.
Created by Harthill, the LDF is well established as a primary conceptual map for understanding adult development - and its vital role in leadership. The key discovery that meaning-making continues to develop in complexity through adulthood and that we can deliberately accelerate that development in order to expand our minds and transform our experience, is core to the LDF framework and my work as a coach.
The LDF is formed by nine distinct forms of meaning-making on a continuous developmental spectrum. Each form is called an ‘Action Logic’ and has specific opportunities and limitations. Action Logics form a framework for understanding and working with the shifts in this meaning-making, as we develop more complex ways of understanding the world.
Transforming Leadership
By expanding the complexity and flexibility of our meaning-making through working with our Action Logics, we can open up transformation in our work, our relationships and life. Leading in today's complex work environment makes meaning-making even more difficult, yet also more important. Using the LDF as a core tool for your development inquiry can serve lasting transformational impact, working with your current Action Logics and developing later Action Logics, can enable different and more useful ways of leading and managing complex systems.
For more on the LDF model, read the classic 2005 HBR article The Seven Transformations of Leadership.
The Leadership Development Framework (LDF) maps adult development in a different way from most psychometric tools.
The Harthill LDP is the original meaning-making psychometric process for leaders and organisations. Unlike most psychometrics, which try to define fixed personality characteristics or behaviours, the LDP is primarily a developmental process. It harnesses the power of your meaning-making faculty to develop as a leader, both personally and professionally. If you are working with me as your coach, you will most likely be invited to take the LDP which will form the foundation of your development inquiry and our coaching work together.
What does taking the LDP involve?
You will be asked to complete 32 sentence ‘stems’ in your unique style, which is then assessed by a Harthill Assessor, and an individual LDP Report is generated, which you will receive to read and digest prior to a deep dive debrief session with me as your coach and Authorised LDP Practitioner. We will delve into your current Primary Action Logic and meaning-making, along with possible reasons why they are active. Both internal and contextual influences co-create a unique development path for you that we will discuss and includes mapping out recommended activities to develop specific aspects of your individual meaning-making and intentionally develop your meaning-making in ways that support your work and life.
