True maturity and wisdom—whether as an executive, a parent, or a teammate—isn't about knowing more. Wisdom is about understanding how you know anything at all, while mastering the high-stakes art of unlearning.

Right now, workers at every level are drowning in an explosion of AI-driven complexity. Our default reflex is to cling to our certainty. We fall in love with our abstract creations—our strategy maps, our restructuring plans, our KPI dashboards—and we start treating them as if they are immutable laws of nature. Psychologists call this cognitive illusion reification.

In this edition of Vertical Intelligence, drawing on the breakthrough adult development models of Dr. Tom Murray and Dr. John Vervaeke, we step under the hood of the corporate mind.

We explore the double-edged sword of abstraction, look at what happens when human loyalty is automated out of the equation, and layout a roadmap for entering the 4th Person Perspective. I've also included a 3-part metacognitive audit to help you pull back the curtain on the invisible habits of your own mind this week.

Find me on LinkedIn and Substack

This episode we are diving deep into the "operating system" of the human mind to understand how we can thrive in a corporate landscape increasingly dominated by AI.

While most of our education has been horizontal—adding new data and facts onto our existing mental framework—vertical intelligence is about upgrading the complexity of the mind itself. To explore this, we break down the Four P’s of Intelligence from cognitive science:

• Propositional Knowledge: The facts and data that large language models excel at, yet remain "truth in a vacuum".

• Procedural Knowledge: The actions and "know-how" gained only through trial and error—something AI lacks without a physical body.

• Perspectival Knowing: The ability to occupy different angles, like seeing a merger through the eyes of an intern and a shareholder simultaneously—something AI can simulate, but cannot actually occupy.

• Participatory Knowledge: The deepest layer of lived experience and "skin in the game" where AI, effectively a "ghost," cannot go.

We also begin our journey through the stages of vertical development, starting with the First-Person Perspective. We’ll look at how the impulsive stage of our infancy sets the foundation for basic trust through presence, consistency, and sustained attention. We then move into the "sandbox" of individual power, where we learn the vital lessons of autonomy, initiative, and celebration.

In a world of unprecedented horizontal information, AI can give us the "how," but it cannot give us the initiative to pick up the shovel. Join me as we learn why understanding our own inner world is the most significant competitive advantage a leader can have.

Vertical development cannot be a purely academic, “smart” endeavor. It is hard-won in our most difficult moments of life. So, here’s a peek into my personal experiences of what this journey looks like.

This also lives on my Substack: https://innerlifeofwork.substack.com