A wish for 2020!

Lessons from Kegan’s The Evolving Self

Over the break I have been re-reading The Evolving Self by Robert Kegan, published in 1982. I was struck by how the issue of being paid attention to was identified (38 years ago!) as being “the most powerful determinant of future thriving.” Here is how Kegan describes it:

“The capacity to recruit another’s invested regard, so uniform at birth, becomes a various affair as people grow older: some people have a much greater ability to recruit people’s attention to them than other people do. This obvious fact, so under investigated by psychologists and so commonly denied by teachers, is never forgotten by teenagers, who could have told researchers—before huge sums of money were spent to discover it—that the greatest inequalities in education are not between schools (of different economic strata, for example) but within them; that greater than the inequalities of social class or achievement test scores is the unequal capacity of students to interest others in them—a phenomenon not reducible to social class or intelligence, and which seems to be the more powerful determinant of future thriving. Who comes into a person’s life may be the single greatest factor of influence to what that life becomes. Who comes into a person’s life is in part a matter of luck, in part a matter of one’s power to recruit others, but in large part a matter of other people’s ability to be recruited.”

This has been known for so long yet the capacity “to be recruited” i.e. to be willingly, unconditionally accepting of any student – no matter how disagreeable or different or challenging they may be – and pay full attention to them (so that they feel genuinely cared for) is still a hit-or-miss affair, there is still no systematic attempt to build this capacity within the teaching profession. Or even recognise it as such a key element.

Perversely, those who need it most, often get it least, not only in school but elsewhere as well. This is why it is so important that in the school environment every student can rely on having people actively and willingly being “recruited” to their cause.

As I have discussed many times, using sustained attention – that treats people as people – rather than focused attention that treats people as a task, is the key behavioural change. This rebalancing of our behaviour – as a society - is itself well over due.

Let’s get this on the agenda in 2020!

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter. Earlier blogs can be found here.

To purchase a copy of Red Brain Blue Brain or Student Feedback go here

UncategorizedJanuary 21, 2020