This document provides an overview of Karl Johnson's background and expertise in executive education and leadership development. It then discusses various developmental psychology theories and models that inform Karl's approach to executive education, including Piaget's stages of development, Loevinger's sentence completion test, and Cook-Greuter's stages of ego development. The document uses three case studies to illustrate how Karl might apply these developmental frameworks to design interventions for high-potential leaders, a senior leadership team, and an organization-wide transformation.

1. 01/25/15 1
Mindset 2.0:
A Case Study Correlating Organizational
Change with Leadership Mindsets
Karl Johnson
Director, Executive Education
Carlson School of Business
University of Minnesota
karlj@umn.edu

2. 01/25/15
Your Presenter
Karl Johnson
Karl advises CEOs, boards, and senior leadership teams across numerous industries,
countries, and cultures. His work with executives focuses on leadership effectiveness,
strategy alignment, and execution.
In 2008, UNICON, a consortium of over 80 business schools worldwide, chose one of
Karl's client engagements to review and publish as a case example of innovative work in
executive education.
In 2007, Karl and his work with the U.S. Navy were honored with the presentation of the
Silver Award for Workforce Development by the nation’s Defense Acquisition University.
A partial list of Karl's clients includes: Allianz, Andersen Windows and Doors, Biomet,
Bon Secours Health System, British Telecommunications, Ceridian, Children’s Hospitals
and Clinics of MN, Chiron, CHS, Ericsson, GE Capital, Genentech, General Mills,
Hewlett-Packard, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic,
Motorola, National Semiconductor, Philips, Pacific Gas and Electric, Polaris, TRW, United
States Navy, and US Bank
2

3. 01/25/15
Intersection of Executive Development and
Developmental Psychology
3

4. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Typical Competency/Ability Definitions
4
Leading through Others
Develop “the ability to provide enough strategic guidance
and direction without overpowering and restricting
people by prescribing too many of the solutions.” They
must strengthen their “ability to trust subordinates” while
making sure their desire to “prevent mistakes being
made doesn't override the opportunity to develop more
junior leaders.” In short, a greater balance needs to be
made between current directive leadership styles and
more use of influence and motivation to drive results.

5. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Typical Competency/Ability Definitions
5
Leading Sustainable Growth
“Strategically it’s the balancing of innovation with
execution.” Strong management that has led to
predictability of earnings and growth creates a
leadership paradox when combined with a focus on
innovation to drive growth. It’s clear that to be
successful in the new business environment leaders will
need to both manage a core business that must “run like
clockwork” while simultaneously identifying and
developing new opportunities for growth.

6. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Typical Leadership Capabilities Valued through a Career
6
CEO
Executive
General Manager
Director
Vice President
Manager
Supervisor
Individual Contributor
Foster Strategic Viewpoint
Communicate Vision
Foster Innovation
Collaborate for Success
Build Engagement
Increase Efficiencies
Achieve Goals
Personal Awareness
Direct Others
Technical Proficiency

7. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Piaget Stages
Post-Formal
Piaget’s Stages Formal Operations: (adolescence)
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child
starts to talk to about age 7)
Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
7

8. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Piaget Stages
Adult Development Stages 7
6
5
4
3
2
Post-Formal 1
Piaget’s Stages Formal Operations: (adolescence)
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child
starts to talk to about age 7)
Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
8

9. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Jane Loevinger
9
Washington University
Sentence Completion Test
(SCT)
Developed by Loevinger and
assorted psychology PhDs
and clinical psychologists
from Washington University,
UC Berkeley, and others
from 1953-1970.

10. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Jane Loevinger
Washington University Sentence Completion Test (SCT)
Change is…
My mother and I…
What gets me into trouble is…
Rules are…
10

11. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Piaget Stages
Adult Development Stages
Post-Formal
Piaget’s Stages Formal Operations: (adolescence)
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child
starts to talk to about age 7)
Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
11

12. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Horizontal and Vertical Development
Adult Development Stages 7
6
5
4
3
2
Post-Formal 1
Piaget’s Stages Formal Operations: (adolescence)
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child
starts to talk to about age 7)
Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
12

13. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Maturity Assessment Profile: Susanne Cook-Greuter, et al
13
Stage Characteristics/Strengths %
sample*
Alchemist Integrates material, societal, spiritual 1%
Strategist High systemic awareness, thinks strategically both
short and long-term, influences through
engagement, reframes
4%
Individualist High interpersonal awareness, identifies and
interweaves competing stage mindsets, leverages
relativism, innovative
10%
Achiever High goal orientation, achieves goals through
teams, juggles managerial duties and market
demands
30%
Expert Seeks rational efficiency through logic and
expertise
38%
Diplomat Avoids overt conflict, wants to belong 12%
Opportunist Wins any way possible, self-oriented 5%
*Torbert and Rooke, 7 Transformations of Leadership, Harvard Business Review, April
2005

14. 01/25/15
Developmental Approach:
Stage Approach
Adult Development Stages 7 Ironist
6 Strategist
5 Individualist Mindset 2.0
4 Achiever Mindset 1.0
3 Expert
2 Diplomat
Post-Formal 1 Opportunist
Piaget’s Stages Formal Operations: (adolescence)
Concrete: (about first grade to early adolescence)
Preoperational: (begins about the time the child
starts to talk to about age 7)
Sensorimotor: (birth to about age 2)
14

15. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Typical Leadership Capabilities Valued through a Career
15
CEO
Executive
General Manager
Director
Vice President
Manager
Supervisor
Individual Contributor
Foster Strategic Viewpoint
Communicate Vision
Foster Innovation
Collaborate for Success
Build Engagement
Increase Efficiencies
Achieve Goals
Personal Awareness
Direct Others
Technical Proficiency

16. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Three Most Common Executive Profiles Correlate to
Capabilities Valued by Organizations
16
Foster Strategic Viewpoint
Communicate Vision
Foster Innovation
Collaborate for Success
Build Engagement
Increase Efficiencies
Achieve Goals
Personal Awareness
Direct Others
Technical Proficiency
Stage Characteristics/Strength
s
Strategist High systemic awareness,
thinks strategically both short
and long-term, influences
through engagement,
reframes
Individualist High interpersonal
awareness, identifies and
interweaves competing stage
mindsets, leverages
relativism, innovative
Achiever High goal orientation,
achieves goals through
teams, juggles managerial
duties and market demands

17. 01/25/15
Developmental Profile:
Shows Dispersion and, thus, Potential
17

18. 01/25/15
Three Case Studies:
Hi-Pos, Senior Leadership Team, Large-scale Change
1. A CEO and his SVPHR wish to develop 7 high-potential
leaders who are at the cusp of moving from functional to
general management roles within the organization.
2. A CEO wishes to develop his senior leadership team in
the face of internationalization of the business and his
impending retirement.
3. A COO wishes to transform his organization leaving
behind systems and process for leadership development
and a culture of organizational learning.
18

19. 01/25/15
Developing 7 Hi-Pos:
Achiever
Western culture and most corporate environments are quite effective at cultivating
the Achiever mindset:
•Time is money and the medium to accomplish things.
•Achievers are preoccupied with getting things done with responsibility,
conscientiousness and expediency. They may have a driven quality to accomplish
something in this world or to improve the world versus the need of later stages to
develop oneself. The mood of the stage is earnest conviction, seriousness, idealism
and enthusiasm usually oriented towards action.
•Achievers change others’ minds by convincing them with rational arguments and
evidence rather than by putting them down. Their self-esteem depends on achieving
their own set goals and lesser on external affirmation and approval.
•The drive to succeed and achieve, can readily lead to over-extension and
exhaustion. Limits are difficult to acknowledge for the Achiever. Engaged in their
projects, they hardly slow down to look at the present moment, to reflect upon life as
a whole.
•Achievers are convinced that society can be controlled and improved. They have
the frame of mind where formal operations are at their peak and rationality,
progressivism, positivism and reductionism have their strongholds.
19from A Detailed Description of the Development of Nine Action Logics : Adapted from Ego
Development Theory, Susanne Cooke-Greuter, 2002

20. 01/25/15
Developing 7 Hi-Pos:
Achiever
20
Context of Organizational Change:
•Company purchased by private equity with a drive to
expand long-term care competencies into an integrated,
nationwide, full service solution
•Recent acquisitions, two smaller organizations last year
and newer acquisition of an organization of equal size

21. 01/25/15
What would you do?
• Any guesses at what the integration of acquisitions had
looked like to date?
− What criteria were deemed most important?
− Where resultant energy was focused?
− How this Achiever group was responding and the
impact on them?
• Any thoughts on how one might stretch these Achievers
to develop?
21

22. 01/25/15
Senior Leadership Team:
Individualist
A keen interest in personal development and the development of others
awakens at the Individualist stage. Relativism becomes valued:
•People now realize that things are not necessarily what they seemed at earlier
stages because the interpretation of reality always depends on the position of
the observer. One can never be as totally detached and “objective” as the
rational/scientific outlook of Achievers would have it.
•Linear, intellectual logic gives way to a more holistic understanding.
•They need to understand and watch how things unfold. Their focus turns from
outcomes and deliverables to an interest in the processes, relationships and
non-linear influences among variables.
•Individualists watch how they themselves and other people change and
behave differently in different contexts.
22from A Detailed Description of the Development of Nine Action Logics : Adapted from Ego
Development Theory, Susanne Cooke-Greuter, 2002

23. 01/25/15
Senior Leadership Team:
Individualist
23
Context :
•Early in his tenure as CEO, CEO found it difficult to ensure
quality of output by his workforce and observed workforce
not engaged in the company’s success
•CEO considering his own retirement and need for a
successor
•Company was considering international expansion

24. 01/25/15
What would you do?
• Any guesses at how the CEO, early in his tenure,
approached the challenge of a disengaged workforce?
− What criteria were deemed most important?
− Where resultant energy was focused?
• The CEO was considering his own retirement and the
need for a successor, any ideas on how he had
approached this?
• Company was considering international expansion, any
ideas on how the CEO began to prepare his leaders for
this possibility?
24

25. 01/25/15
Large Scale Change:
Strategist
Systemic thinking, agility, and many of the upsides of both Achiever and
Individualist stages are integrated at the Strategist stage:
•Strategists can perceive systemic patterns or long-term trends and are often
valued for that “strategic” capacity.
•Cognitively they have a general systems view of reality, that is they can
comprehend multiple interconnected systems of relationships and processes.
This extends to their ability to understand the extrinsic (behavior, language,
metrics, goals) and intrinsic characteristics (culture, values, individual
engagement) of organizations as systems.
•They posses capacity to see and accept paradox and tolerate ambiguity.
•Strategists have access to a logical system which can integrate psycho-
logically paradoxical elements, therefore less energy needs to be spent on
“defending.” This in turn, allows them to be more tolerant and spontaneous than
adults at conventional stages.
25from A Detailed Description of the Development of Nine Action Logics : Adapted from Ego
Development Theory, Susanne Cooke-Greuter, 2002

26. 01/25/15
Large Scale Change:
Strategist
26
Context :
•A COO wishes to transform his organization leaving
behind systems and process for leadership development
and a culture of organizational learning.

27. 01/25/15
Large Scale Change:
Strategist
• Any thoughts as to how the COOs approach might
compare to the Individualist CEO in the prior case?
− Similarities?
− Differences?
27

28. 01/25/15
Executive Education:
Three Most Common Executive Profiles Correlate to
Capabilities Valued by Organizations
28
Foster Strategic Viewpoint
Communicate Vision
Foster Innovation
Collaborate for Success
Build Engagement
Increase Efficiencies
Achieve Goals
Personal Awareness
Direct Others
Technical Proficiency
Stage Characteristics/Strength
s
Strategist High systemic awareness,
thinks strategically both short
and long-term, influences
through engagement,
reframes
Individualist High interpersonal
awareness, identifies and
interweaves competing stage
mindsets, leverages
relativism, innovative
Achiever High goal orientation,
achieves goals through
teams, juggles managerial
duties and market demands
Thank You!