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“Metaphorically speaking, ego-development theory provides us with one possible account of how individuals navigate the straits of human existence by using navigational lore, common sense, increasingly complex maps, algorithms, and intuition.” 

— Dr. Susanne Cook-Greuter, 2014, Principal Advisor & Leading Adult Development Researcher

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

The Science of Human Growth

"When we experience the world as 'too complex' we are not just experiencing the complexity of the world. We are experiencing a mismatch between the world’s complexity and our own at this moment. There are only two logical ways to mend this mismatch -- reduce the world’s complexity or increase our own."
- Dr Robert Kegan

Adult development research suggests that individuals progress through a series of stages, each characterized by increasingly adaptive and integrated ways of perceiving self and world, and increased ability to navigate challenges of life and leadership.

Human physical growth might cease with adulthood, but our internal landscapes continue to evolve, in trajectories that can be segmented into stages. One way to uncover these stages of growth is the Sentence Completion Test (SCT), a projective psychometric test pioneered by Jane Loevinger. The SCT assesses the stage of development by analyzing responses to incomplete sentences, revealing the underlying structure of one's thinking, cognitive-emotional maturity, and meaning making.

Dr Susanne Cook-Greuter's Integral SCT (SCTi) refines Loevinger's work with a linguists perspective, extending our understanding of the highest developmental levels (which are particularly important for executive effectiveness3). The SCTi was developed at Harvard University, validated in both academic and business contexts, and is one of the most cutting-edge assessment tools in this field. Human inter-rater agreements on SCT[i] range from 72% to 85%.

HOW HUMAN EXPERTS ESTIMATE STAGES OF GROWTH

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

SPECIFIC

  • Madl, T., 2024. Computer Implemented Method for Language Complexity Quantification. Patent Application 1044939 (Pending).

  • Madl, Cook-Greuter, & Ingersoll, submitted. Assessing Stages of Adult Ego Development: A Quantitative Perspective. Journal of Research in Personality

  • Cook‐Greuter, S.R., 2004. Making the case for a developmental perspective. Industrial and commercial training, 36(7), pp.275-281.

  • Singleton, O., Newlon, M., Fossas, A., Sharma, B., Cook-Greuter, S.R. and Lazar, S.W., 2021. Brain structure and functional connectivity correlate with psychosocial development in contemplative practitioners and controls. Brain Sciences, 11(6), p.728.

  • Harung, H.S., Travis, F., Pensgaard, A.M., Boes, R., Cook‐Greuter, S. and Daley, K., 2011. Higher psycho‐physiological refinement in world‐class Norwegian athletes: brain measures of performance capacity. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 21(1), pp.32-41.

  • Cook-Greuter, S., 2010. Second-tier gains and challenges in ego development. Integral theory in action: Applied, theoretical, and constructive perspectives on the AQAL model, pp.303-320.

  • Cook-Greuter, S., 2006. 20th century background for integral psychology. AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 1(2), pp.140-184.

  • Cook-Greuter, S.R., 2000. Mature ego development: A gateway to ego transcendence? Journal of Adult Development, 7(4), pp.227-240.

  • Cook-Greuter, S.R., 1999. Postautonomous ego development: A study of its nature and measurement. Harvard University.

  • Miller, M.E. and Cook-Greuter, S.R. eds., 1994. Transcendence and mature thought in adulthood: The furthe reaches of adult development. Rowman & Littlefield.

GENERAL

  • Eigel, K.M. and Kuhnert, K.W., 2005. Authentic development: Leadership development level and executive effectiveness. Authentic leadership theory and practice: Origins, effects and development, 3, pp.357-385.

  • Gilmore, J. M., & Durkin, K. (2001). A critical review of the validity of ego development theory and its measurement. Journal of personality assessment, 77(3), 541-567..

  • Helsing, D., & Howell, A. (2014). Understanding leadership from the inside out: Assessing leadership potential using constructive-developmental theory. Journal of Management Inquiry, 23(2), 186-204.

  • Jones, H. E., Chesley, J. A., & Egan, T. (2020). Helping leaders grow up: Vertical leadership development in practice. The journal of values-based leadership, 13(1), 8.

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Data-driven Developmental Profiling

We've pioneered the first empirical characterization of adult development maturity indicators, using evolutionary algorithms and custom-trained LLMs to distill the core dimensions of growth.

Cutting-edge
Language Analysis

Our breakthrough in quantifying language complexity significantly outperforms existing computational linguistics methods.

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We help you save time and effort

* Statistical estimate: dependent on context, support and life circumstances

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Our AI, trained on the largest dataset in the field, outperforms frontier models and matches the accuracy of highly trained experts.

Grounded in decades of psychological research, our platform provides the most accurate automatic assessment of stages of vertical development. These results offer a structured guide to how leaders' inner development unfolds, highlighting the highest-leverage areas for targeted growth and facilitating leadership excellence.

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** Harvard's Mass General independently validated our AI, reporting 0.9 correlation with leading experts.

Our assessment helps
identify where you are on your developmental journey

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We bring you actionable insights
for accelerating developmental growth

With LeadershipMaturity.ai, you'll gain a unique view into the constellation of you, and resources that enrich your freedom to decide which area(s) to focus on.

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benefit from 70+ Maturity Indicators(TM) 

derived from the largest dataset in the field (>80,000 responses)

access Growth Levers

for optimal growth trajectories, based on psychosocial digital twin models

AI FOR ESTIMATING & FACILITATING GROWTH

Just like human experts, our models are capable of estimating an individual's stage of development based on free-text sentence completions. They have been trained to accurately rate SCTi stages of development, with accuracies matching highly trained human experts. They are also capable of estimating hundreds of Maturity Indicators™ such as perspective diversity, group conformity, and many other aspects of cognition, emotion and character.


Unlike other services, our models can provide personalized growth recommendations based on these components and thousands of simulated scenarios. The fusion of cutting-edge AI and cognitive modelling makes it possible to simulate an extremely large number of alternative versions or "digital twins" of the test-taker and distill the most effective growth levers tailored to them. This approach allows our customers to find the highest-leverage ways to evolve their meaning-making, analogous to precision medicine, where digital twins can help patients find the best path towards greater health without having to try hundreds of interventions.

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LeadershipMaturity.ai

An altimeter for your developmental journey

LET US KNOW
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BEING A BETA-TESTER

>80K

Training Data Points.

>94%

Correlation with experts (Harvard-validated).

1.5x

Internal Consistency of Scoring (compared to human-expert scoring).

75->3 

Maturity Indicators™ distilled to actionable, tailored growth recommendations.

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"DIGITAL TWIN" TO SIMULATE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR GROWTH TRAJECTORY

Our Psychological Digital Twin model is a simulation tool designed to accelerate leadership growth. Acting as a virtual "twin", it constructs a precise model of each leader's psychosocial maturity profile, capturing critical elements of their current developmental stage. It then simulates thousands of potential growth scenarios to pinpoint your unique "growth levers"— high-impact areas that offer the greatest return on development efforts— with a precision rate that matches expert coaches and vertical development specialists at 96% accuracy.

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Think of it as your personalized leadership GPS: not only mapping where you are, but also calculating the most effective path forward. By focusing on your highest-leverage growth opportunities, our model enables leaders to accelerate their development journey by up to 45%, according to our research (depending on context, support and life circumstances).

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This highly targeted approach empowers leaders to make transformative shifts with reduced effort, resulting in enhanced effectiveness in tackling both personal and professional challenges.

"When we experience the world as 'too complex' we are not just experiencing the complexity of the world. We are experiencing a mismatch between the world’s complexity and our own at this moment. There are only two logical ways to mend this mismatch -- reduce the world’s complexity or increase our own."
- Dr Robert Kegan

LeadershipMaturity.ai is the most accurate AI model developed so far1, based on largest training set (over 80,000 test responses) and some of the most sophisticated psychological modeling and natural language processing approaches in recent research.

Our chief scientific advisor is Dr Susanne Cook-Greuter, one of the leading theorists and practitioners in the field of adult development, and the originator of the integral Sentence Completion Test2 (Cook-Greuter, 1999). Our advisory board includes leading integral and adult development practitioners including Prof. Bruce Alderman, and Dr. Paddy Pampallis. More information...

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