Which level are you negotiating at?

Analyzing organizational health via negotiation capability

Inspired by Murray Bowen’s Scale of Self Differentiation, Robert Kegan’s Subject-Object Development, and William Ury’s Balcony

Blue

Instrumental Mind

What’s in it for me? Sees others as means to an end; understands rules but mainly as a way to get what they want; Struggles to take others' viewpoints as meaningful unless it benefits self.

Inspired by Murray Bowen’s “Scale of Self Differentiation”, Robert Kegan’s Subject-Object Development, Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations, and William Ury’s “Going to the Balcony.”

What level is our organization at?

White

Impulsive Mind

Instinct Driven; Experience is dominated by instincts and sensations; short time horizon; behavior is impulsive and egocentric; no real sense of others' perspectives yet.

Purple

Socialized Mind

Desires belonging and approval: Sees others as means to an end; understands rules but mainly as a way to get what they want; Difficulty stepping outside expectations to define one’s own beliefs or goals.

Brown

Self-Authoring Mind

Sense of personal purpose; Can still be rigid or over identified with a fixed identity or worldview.

Black

Self-Transforming Mind

Interdependence, Transformation; Can hold contradictions, see complexity, embrace change; identities are fluid, not fixed.