Deliberately Developmental Organizations® will become the gold standard in the 21st century. They will be the places people clamor to join, the cultures others seek to emulate, and the head-turning drivers of spectacular results.
Dr. Robert Kegan is arguably the single most cited thought-leader in the field of adult development today. His ground-breaking works on human and organizational behavior include The Evolving Self, In Over Our Heads, Immunity to Change, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, and An Everyone Culture. Long a sought-after speaker to professional groups in every sector and geography, Kegan’s writings have been translated into twelve languages.
Regularly quoted in such publications as The New York Times and Forbes, the Harvard University’s Meehan Professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development is as comfortable in the boardroom as the classroom. CEOs worldwide ask him to assist them personally, their teams, and their organizations, to define and implement high-value improvement processes. His insight into individual and collective “immunities to change” has resulted in significant and sustainable improvements due to generative shifts in underlying mindsets.
For The Developmental Edge: Kegan is TDE’s co-founder and Chief Knowledge Officer. For TDE, Kegan provides high-level consulting to leaders and organizations, drawing on his deep understanding of individual and organization development. He also conducts widely-admired workshops and delivers powerful keynotes on such topics as becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization®, the 21st Century Growth Culture®, and “Business as UNusual: the New Social Contract at Work.”
Industry Highlights: As one of the foremost researchers on organizational and human psychology, Kegan has intensely studied companies of all sizes, shapes and industries, from global to boutique. The demand for his consulting work means his advisory work is just as far-ranging, with particular emphasis on Healthcare, Professional Service Organizations and Education/Nonprofits.
Dr. Robert Kegan is a world-renowned author on, and pioneer in, the field of adult development. His models for helping adults to understand the world around them, and to change how they operate within it, have been widely cited, copied, coached on and commented upon.
His seminal contribution – the result of thirty years of investigation at Harvard – lays out the stages in the development of increasingly encompassing ways of making meaning throughout the lifespan. This breakthrough in better understanding The Development of Consciousness undergirds TDE’s practical new models now supporting individual and collective growth in organizations all over the world.
Dr. Robert Kegan is the leading thinker on human development of our generation. Kegan is a prolific researcher and author on how adults learn and grow in both personal and professional settings. His groundbreaking works include:
Dr. Robert Kegan regularly publishes updates on his research work and applied, real-world findings. His body of articles & papers is extensive and includes:
Frequently quoted by Forbes and featured in Harvard Business Review, Dr. Robert Kegan is often the cornerstone source for writers on adult development. Articles featuring Kegan include:
A Harvard researcher and professor for more than 40 years, Dr. Kegan is a licensed psychologist and practicing therapist who researches, writes and consults on professional development and adult learning. From early on his work promoted, not only the possibility, but the necessity of continuing psychological transformation in adulthood – effectively, that you can and must teach an old dog new tricks.
Kegan continues as the William and Miriam Meehan Research Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also served for more than twenty years as the Educational Chair for the Harvard Institute for Management and Leadership in Education; as Co-Director for the Change Leadership Group, a program for the training of change leadership coaches for school and district leaders; and as Co-Director of a joint program with the Harvard Medical School to bring principles of adult learning to the reform of medical education. Considered by many as the father of adult development, his proteges can be found across Fortune 500 and human development organizations worldwide.
Kegan received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Dartmouth, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University (1977).
Among other accolades, Kegan was recognized in 2019 with the Disruptor Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Disruptor Foundation and Tribeca Film Festival. Specifically, Kegan was honored for explorations that “have led to groundbreaking insights into the emergence of orders of human consciousness and the ongoing internal Copernican shifts that led to self-transformation.”
Dr. Robert Kegan has contributed to numerous organizations, including:
Dr. Kegan is a husband, father and grandfather; a retired airplane pilot, an avid poker player, and the unheralded inventor of the Base Average, “a more comprehensive way of gauging a baseball player’s offensive contributions.” To recharge, he enjoys spending time on, in, or near the water with his family on Martha’s Vineyard.
