Here is another episode in our series on how colleagues and practitioners use CDT and NLC in their work.Louise is an exceptional thinker and is more than capable of applying developmental thinking to her every-day tasks, choosing the best outcome in the moment. Especially where others might not see it.It doesn't matter if you're not a COACH, you can still use the developmental principles of CDT in your daily life. How are you CONSTRUCTING your thinking right now?Like and subscribe should you wish to.

In this new series of interviews, Dr DARREN STEVENS will interview those people and colleagues who are using Constructed Development Theory and Next Level Coaching in their businesses and determine why they do so.SEAN ELLIS COACHING is using CDT and Next Level Coaching in their approach to developing clients and it's paying dividends, according to the excellent Sean Ellis.There are many systems out there, and other organisations we could belong to, but why the IAD and why CDT? SEAN gives his views on this.This is a great interview so enjoy and keep your eyes peeled for the next ones. Remember to Like and Subscribe.

In the last episode, we took a swing at Emotional Intelligence, because it often fails to measure the thing that matters most:

Awareness of construction.

Today, I want to continue the demolition. And this time, I want to talk about personality types. People love them.

They love them because they feel seen.

They love them because they offer language.

They love them because they turn the chaos of being human into something tidy enough to put on a slide.

But that's not enough. Constructed Development Theory offers more... 

Welcome back to Thinking Deliberately.

We have now finished the first foundation arc.

We have looked at thinking as the problem.

We have looked at the self as a construction.

We have explored Dynamic Intelligence.

We have introduced the Awareness Quotient.

We have challenged the myth of personality.

And in the last episode, we brought together the Four Pillars of conscious construction:

Intention.
Awareness.
Choice.
Response.

Now we move into more dangerous territory.

Because for the next few episodes, I want to start pulling apart some of the ideas that have become strangely sacred in psychology, coaching, leadership, education, and self-development.

And I want to start with one of the big ones.

Emotional Intelligence.

Let's dive in and see (hear) how Constructed Development Theory deals with it.

Today, we bring the first arc together.

Because if the self is constructed, and if response is constructed, then we need a way of understanding how that construction happens.

In Constructed Development Theory, this process can be understood through four pillars:

Intention.
Awareness.
Choice.
Response.

I call these the Four Pillars of conscious construction.

You are not simply reacting to life.

You are constructing responses from intentions you may not have examined, through awareness you may not yet have developed, into choices you may not fully possess.

Today, I want to offend one of the most popular ideas in modern psychology and self-development.

Personality.

Or more precisely, the way we worship personality.

Because somewhere along the way, we started treating personality labels as if they were explanations.

Your personality may not be who you are.

It may simply be the pattern you have not yet become aware enough to choose beyond.

Today, we need to talk about awareness.

Because awareness is one of those words people use as if everyone knows what it means.

They do not.

In fact, I think awareness has been softened, spiritualised, commercialised, and quietly ruined.

They talk about awareness as if it means being mindful, compassionate, present, balanced, enlightened, or good at posting inspirational quotes over pictures of mountains.

It does not.

Awareness is proven by what becomes available to you while the construction is happening.

I begin this episode by saying something that clever people may find irritating.

Being clever is not enough.

In fact, being clever can be a developmental problem. A clever person can build a beautiful argument around an unconscious reaction. They can explain why they were right, why they had no choice, why the other person misunderstood them.

And underneath all that intelligence, the same old construction remains untouched.

Listen to find out more!

In this episode, I introduce Constructed Development Theory, or CDT, and explain how it's not simply another personality model. It is not a new set of labels to stick on yourself. It is not a typology. 

CDT asks a different kind of question.

Not: “What type of person are you?”

But: “How are you constructing yourself, your context, and your response right now?”

In this first episode of The Thinking Deliberately podcast, we begin by explaining why you are the problem. To be clear, I mean the way you think you are thinking is the problem.

This episode sets the scene for the rest of the podcast by introducing the concepts and thinking behind it: Constructed Development Theory.