Celebrating the Birth of "Growing Humans"

Dear vertical development nerds, we have big news! Those of you who are parents, educators or in any way support raising children - check out the new Substack (and podcast): Growing Humans

Dear friends, today is a really special day when I get to share with you all a soul project I’ve been working on for some time now with my dear friend and adult development researcher

Valerie Livesay, PhD

. Val has been one of the researchers whose work got me into the field of adult development years ago. From the very first article of hers that I read, I have looked up to her for her wisdom and ability to articulate how our worst moments can become our most precious springboards of growth.

While her research has been a huge gift in my life (and an inspiration for my own work), Val the human has been an even bigger gift. When we finally met a couple of years ago, I felt that deep connection you usually expect after years of friendship. In the meantime, we have built what has now become one of the most cherished friendships in my life: a truly developmental relationship, where we learn from each other, hold space for one another, curiously discover new and rich insights and create moments of personal growth at the intersection of our two minds and hearts.

Beyond our work we are both mothers, and the powerful lessons from our parenting journeys have featured heavily in many of our conversations. Nobody has tested our capacity to walk the talk of our own research on human development like our respective children have done. They don’t care about the theories we know and the papers we write. They do care about how we show up every day in relation to them. Are we able to walk the talk of wisdom on the hardest of days? That is the ultimate test! It is a test I have to admit I have failed more than a few times in my 9 years of motherhood. Luckily I do get up after every failure and every time I feel I grow a little more. I’ve come to accept this work will likely never end.

Both Val and I have read a lot about parenting, and both of us have felt it's often so hard to apply great parenting advice in practice. Being a parent is a huge test of your personal maturity, and neither of us has received support to better understand ourselves as we raised our children. That is something we've had to figure out the hard way and perhaps has become, for us both, a catalyst for stepping more deeply into developmental research and striving more passionately to turn that research into practice.

As we shared our trials and lessons as mothers, we started wondering what might a developmental space for all adults who raise kids look like. A space where nobody tells you WHAT TO DO with your kids (which is the focus of much of the field of parenting), but instead where you are nudged to reflect on HOW YOU are showing up in the process of raising the children in your life. This is how "Growing Humans" was born.

Growing Humans is a space where we will write regularly (and invite others to write) and a podcast we will record with guests who inspire us - the first episode of which you can listen to here:

The Birth of "Growing Humans"

Soon, we will also share the course 'Growing Humans: How Raising Children Raises Us' - a program supporting adults to systematically apply the science of adult development to foster their own growth, as they raise and educate children.

My focus here - on “How Grown-ups Grow Up” and in “The Developmental” podcast will remain on leaders, coaches and those who apply the lessons of adult development in their workplaces. If you are not a parent, this space remains the best one to follow for the latest musings on vertical development.

However, if you are a parent, grandparent, educator - or in any role where you support the education of children and experience the challenges to Self that come from doing this most important job - then I hope you also join me and Val on Growing Humans. We have many wonderful plans for that community and we hope you will help us shape its evolution from this moment of inception.

For those of you who wonder what link is there between leadership (where most of my writing to date has focused) and raising kids - I’d say that in my view the connections run deep (and plan to write more about what these are soon). I can't think of a single leader I have ever worked with, who is also a parent (or has kids in their life), who has not reflected on the connection between growing their leadership and becoming a better parent/mentor for their children. Perhaps the birth of “Growing Humans”, alongside “How Grown-ups Grow Up” signals a time to make more of those lessons and cross-pollinations visible. Both Val and I will be very grateful to learn with and from those of you who straddle these worlds and join both communities. Perhaps raising the great leaders of tomorrow does start with fostering the more conscious parents of today...

Dive deeper

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. If you are curious to dive more deeply into learning about Vertical Development and how it might impact your work and life, check out our online library of webinars and certification programs accredited by the International Coaching Federation.

If you are a parent, an educator or play any role in raising children, do also check out - Growing Humans - the Substack space I have co-created and am curating together with my dear friend

Valerie Livesay, PhD

- a place where the science of vertical development meets the practice of parenting.

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Join your nerdy community and let’s keep on staying curious and learning from each other.