Stages of Development: sequential, invariant, hierarchical

All growth happens through stages of development. There are many lines of development, but there are certain characteristics which all of them have. Stages are sequential, cannot be skipped, and cannot be taken out of order. Each stage transcends but includes all the earlier stages and thus each stage is more complex than the previous ones. Subsequent stages may look like a prior stage until we actually reach that stage.

While some stages of growth can be easily observed, others are invisible.

The summer between first and second grade I began to feel really urgent about learning to ride a bike. I had the peddling part of it down having attained mastery of the tricycle, but I couldn't seem to get that aspect of bicycle riding we call balance.

One afternoon I was up the street at my friend Billy's house. He and I were in the same class and always lined up next to each other when we queued up by alphabet as we shared the same last name. But Billy could ride a bike and I couldn't.

That afternoon I was very determined that I was going to learn how to do this thing. I knew if Billy could do it, so could I. But I was also a bit baffled about how people on bicycles didn't fall over. That was what always happened when I tried it. Again and again I walked the bike to the top of the hill in his back yard, climbed on and aimed myself down the hill. Little by little I started to get the hang of it. Billy coached me to steer towards the direction I was falling. This made no sense to me at first but then I began to see what he meant. Each run I was able to stay upright longer and more easily than the last. Then, suddenly, I had it. I felt what it was like to balance on a bicycle. It was more that my body learned it than my head did. It still didn't make sense to me that this was possible, but here I was riding down the grassy hill on Billy Robinson's bike.

I rode my own bike home. It was a little awkward because the training wheels kept getting in the way and throwing me off balance. When I got home, no one could see the transformation which had occurred in my life. No one could look at me and know that this was a kid who knew how to ride a bike. But I knew. And I asked my dad to help me take the training wheels off.

Moving to a new stage in our development--undergoing transformation--can be very hard to see. I use this example of learning to ride a bike because it is unusual in that sense. Yesterday I couldn't ride a bike and today I can. I can see and experience the transformation.

More common is my experience at the beginning of eighth grade as I went to the first session of my class in vocal music. As the teacher was calling the role and she read my name and I responded, "Here," she remarked, "Oh, we have a bass." I thought to myself, "No, I sing alto." Or at least I was singing alto the previous spring. Over the summer my voice had dropped. I had not noticed...but everyone else had.

So, one of the characteristics of transformation to a new stage of development is that it is often invisible to us. It is often only as we step back and view change from a distance that we discover that true transformation has occurred.

Systems Theory makes a distinction between orders of change. If I change the light bulb or if I change my shirt, that is first order change. Things are different but the structure remains the same. Second order change is an actual transformation of the structure. Third order change is a change in the way the structure is created.

If the light bulb burns out and I replace it with one just like it I have changed the light bulb but overall I have simply restored the system to its previous state. This is first order change.

It the light bulb burns out and I decide to use a long-life energy efficient bulb I now have a different way of plugging into the power grid to get light. This is second order change.

But if I decide that I am tired of buying light bulbs when there is a sun which provides plenty of light and I put a hole in the roof and install a solar tube I am now off the grid (at least for this light) and am not buying light bulbs. This provides light but gets it from a different source. This is third order change.

Each of these is a response to a system with a burnt out bulb, and each is a response which creates light in the room, but the kind of change is very different at each order. When things are different within a given order, we call that change. When we move to another order, we call that transformation.

All growth happens through stages. Sometimes the stages are clearly delineated as in the life cycle of an insect. Insects grow from egg to larva to pupa to adult. Butterfly larvae (caterpillars) are so easily differentiated from adults that one must be an expert to know which caterpillars become which butterflies.

Oak trees also grow through stages going from acorn to seedling to sapling to adult. While it is easy to differentiate an acorn from a mature tree, it is a bit harder to say when it transforms from a sapling to an adult tree by becoming sexually mature.

In the case of oak trees, they also undergo changes through the annual cycle of dormancy, new growth, fully leaved seed production, leaf change and return to dormancy. That is, they cycle through winter, spring, summer and fall. But these changes are not transformation except that each year another ring is added to the trunk.

There are three characteristics of the kind of change we call transformation[1].

Sequential: The stages of development for any process of growth happen in a prescribed sequence. Typically there are many tiny changes which are nearly imperceptible. We group these changes into a cluster which describe a change and which we label as a stage, but the divisions between stages can be seen as somewhat arbitrary. They are simply a map to help us understand the transformation.

Invariant: Each of these stages happen in a set sequence which must be taken in order. One cannot skip a stage. One cannot do them in a different order.

Hierarchical: Each stage is more complex than the one before it and pulls together the qualities of the preceding stages. There is a certain level of competence which is necessary at each stage before we are able to move to the next one. If the prior competency is lost, the developmental sequence will collapse. We need the prior stages to support the later ones.

The notion that transformation is hierarchical is very difficult for some people to understand and accept. So let's look at an example of this in the lives of the Johnson's.

Joe and Jane have two sons, Jack and Jesse. Jack is two years older than Jesse and when he was five he would sometimes use his size and experience to dominate Jesse. This would often arise when there was something to be divided between the boys and Jack would get more than his share.

To address this Joe and Jane established a rule that whenever there was something to be divided between the boys, one of them would make the division and the other would get first pick for which half he wanted. This meant that each had a motivation to make the split as close to equal as possible.

Still Jack wanted to get as much for himself as possible. So when the thing to be divided was a cookie, he would let Jesse be the one to break it. Jack knew that cookies almost never break evenly, so he could take the bigger half.

But when the thing to be divided was the last of the juice, he would be the one to make the division. Not only was Jack bigger, and so better with pouring (stronger, better coordination), he was also more developed in terms of spatial understanding.

He would take two glasses out of the cupboard--one tall thin one, and one short squat one. He would pour into each glass until they both were at just the same height and then he would put the last little bit of juice into the tall thin one to ensure that Jesse would pick that one.

Jack is able to think in three dimensions and Jesse is still thinking in two dimensions. Jesse can see that the tall thin glass has the meniscus above the one in the short squat glass and that means to him that it has more. Jack is able to think in terms of volume, not just length, so he knows he is actually getting more juice. Jack is at a stage of cognitive development which is more advanced than Jesse.

This does not mean that Jack is better than Jesse, but it does mean that Jack has a way of thinking--a level of understanding--which is more effective for solving the problem "how do I get more" than is Jesse's way of solving the problem. When it comes to the hierarchy of these stages of development, Jack has a cognitive map which is superior to Jesse's.

At some point within the next couple of years Jesse is going to figure it out and Jack will be left holding the tall thin glass.

[1] These are identified by James Fowler who has worked with the transformation which occurs for us as we move through stages of faith.