The following are minimal suggested prerequisites, nice-to-have qualities, and background skills that make learning DMAP (advanced dialectical metasystemic analysis and problem-solving) considerably easier. These minimal or suggested prerequisites are particularly applicable if you use DMAP for general applications.

If you work at a think tank, an intelligence agency, at the highest level of corporate research, planning, management, and problem-solving, or at the highest level of government analysis and problem-solving, you will be dealing with extremely high levels of complexity, either in individual or multiple interconnected, interacting, and interdependent complex adaptive systems. If you are in the second group, you will also need to learn and practice the additional recommended foundational skills and requirements listed below.

A strong commitment and substantial reading, effort, and practice are required to gain a comprehensive understanding of this new DMAP methodology and to develop and apply the skills it demands. If you become one of the individuals who can master the DMAP analysis and problem-solving methodology, you should be very proud. Currently, you are part of a unique and small cadre of exceptional individuals that probably numbers less than 1,000 worldwide.

The recommended minimal DMAP prerequisites:

Please note that not every DMA practitioner may agree with these prerequisites, and not every DMAP task will necessarily use all of them.

1. One should be 27 years old or older. Below that age, the brain is not sufficiently developed to have enough synaptic connections to handle the mental bandwidth required to process this advanced methodology.

2. One should be at least above average intelligence and highly persistent. The DMAP methodology and process are very complex and challenging. If you are not highly persistent on a chosen challenge, it is not likely that you will be able to master the required skills.

3. One must be able to consciously separate oneself from one's thoughts, feelings, ideas, or biases. If you do not have this skill already, it must be practiced extensively in various drills. This skill often comes naturally to some people who have been long-term meditators.

It is challenging to conduct advanced analysis and problem-solving using dialectical metasystemic methodology on complex adaptive systems unless you have also developed the ability to dispassionately view your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and biases as mere external objects rather than as a subjective, internal, and intrinsic part of who you are.

In the highly recommended DMAP book, Superintelligence by John Stewart. Stewart offers numerous thought-management and thought-subject-object-separation exercises. This book also explains the challenging and sometimes paradoxical DMAP learning process in great detail, drawing on the author's personal experiences as a proficient DMAP user and evolution theorist. If you're serious about mastering the DMAP skill and the other essential DMAP skills, this is a must-read in addition to Laske's three new books describing the methodology.

4. One should be highly motivated to learn this new tool and skill for some significant personal or group benefit. In numerous places, we say it is challenging repeatedly because we want you to have realistic expectations about the effort and persistence you will need to put in to get the amazing benefit once you've mastered the skill.

DMAP will set you apart from peers who lack it, but it does not come easily or quickly for most individuals, even the most talented and accomplished. It is only through persistent, careful material review and extensive practice that one attains the level of proficiency that will significantly magnify one's future life, career, and benefits.

Additional recommended foundational skills and requirements for analyzing and problem-solving multiple interdependent, interacting, and interconnected complex adaptive systems

The following additional foundational skills are helpful now and, in many ways, essential for complete and deep DMAP competence. The paradox around these skills is that, if you have them now, at some level, you also will have to temporarily suspend the following analysis approaches at different points in mastering the dialectical metasystemic analysis and problem-solving process.

This is because DMAP thinking is different. While still utilizing the following earlier thinking methodologies, it transcends them in the final stages when modeling and analyzing complex adaptive systems. (The numerous reasons for the paradox of temporarily suspending the skills listed below when doing the final stages of DMAP are explained in detail in the highly recommended new book Superintelligence by John Stewart.)

Maybe you intend to use this advanced analysis and problem-solving methodology in smaller, less complex, and critical situations. In that case, not everything on this second requirements list below is essential, but having or eventually developing the skills on the second list will make success DMAP easier at any level.

Don't worry if you don't have all the following skills. Some of these skills may also be easier to develop after you have achieved the dialectical metasystemic analysis methodology:

1. Rational, analytical thinking,

2. Classical logic,

3. Scientific falsification principles and scientific methodology,

4. Statistical and Big Data analysis principles,

5. Bias checking knowledge,

6. At some point, to do the DMAP process, you will also need to be proficient in systems thinking and knowledgeable about the principles and characteristics of complex adaptive systems. This is because the DMAP works unbelievably well for analyzing multiple complex adaptive systems interacting with each other, and if you do not understand systems thinking well enough, you will miss too much in your final analysis.

Here is some good news. We just finished our six-page white paper that takes individuals through the basics of the first six items on this list. Click here to quickly and easily tune up your basic skills in 1 through 6 above.

7. Be at the social-emotional development level of at least the fourth of the six levels on Robert Keegan's (of Harvard) Evolutionary Balances scale. (Please do not skip the social-emotional development chart in the preceding link to Robert Keegan. It is a marvelous description of social-emotional development across numerous frameworks.)

Social-emotional development is often associated with the development or utilization of right-brain capabilities. DMAP strongly utilizes right-brain capabilities in the later stages of advanced analysis and problem-solving. The most proficient DMAP users we have observed are at level 4 or above on Keegan's social-emotional development scale. (We have, however, witnessed one individual who was adept at DMAP but low in social-emotional development. That individual was autistic, highly focused, and what would commonly be considered somewhat obsessive.)

It is not uncommon for gifted, primarily cognitive, left-brain individuals (particularly men) to be significantly deficient in social-emotional development. Fortunately, one can increase one's level of social-emotional development by studying its principles and behaviors and practicing the techniques of socially emotionally well-developed individuals. Otto Laske also wrote Measuring Hidden Dimensions (MHD) volume 1, subtitled ‘The Art and Science of Fully Engaging Adults.’ It significantly refines Robert Kegan’s social-emotional thinking in both English and German. (below.)

We strongly recommend that individuals seeking the highest levels of personal social-emotional development and proficiency in DMAP read Laske's additional book, Measuring Hidden Dimensions (MHD), volume 1. It will not only open you up to the highest levels of human development but also provide guidance on advancing your current social-emotional development.

This social-emotional developmental information, when applied and mastered, will significantly ease your ability to perform high-level DMAP. It will also improve your life because enhanced social and emotional development facilitates improved social and career interactions.

Click here to buy Laske's other social-emotional development publication, Measuring Hidden Dimensions: The Art and Science of Fully Engaging Adults (MDH).  Wolfgang Pabst, the German science publisher, has MHD in both English and German. You might be able to get a used copy of this book on Amazon here. Laske, the originator of DTF methodology (the 28 dialectical thought forms), offers a course on understanding and fostering advanced social-emotional development here. 

8. A subskill necessary for effective D map work is the ability to turn one's own subjective thoughts into external objects. Robert Keegan did a lot of work in this area and it is explained elsewhere in our materials.

9. Ideally, one should have a high or very high IQ. This will make mastering the DMAP skill significantly easier. We have repeatedly observed that individuals with average to slightly above-average mental abilities struggle and fail far more often than gifted, high-IQ (140-170) or very high-IQ (170-200+) individuals. Learning this methodology successfully and applying it to analyze and solve complex problems across multiple interacting complex adaptive systems is intense and truly mentally challenging. 

10. It should go without saying, but no one who is not proficient in DMAP and has demonstrated that proficiency should be teaching DMAP to others. D map is not a linear, left-brain, logical checklist; it is a methodology that, when used properly, engages both the right and left brain in linear and non-linear, holistic thinking.

Here is where the DMAP challenge gets deeper for some individuals 

Many gifted individuals who are left-brain cognitively dominant, with lower right-brain social-emotional development, have considerable difficulty separating themselves from their biases and thoughts and turning them into unattached external objects. Instead, their biases, opinions, and ideas are closely "attached" as internalized "subjects" and not external objects. This issue creates many problems in DMAP analysis and problem-solving because it is generally invisible to the individual. If you are left-brain dominant and know you have lower social-emotional development because you have looked at Robert Keegan's levels of emotional development and found yourself on one of them, be sure to get the book shown in the image above.

Mastering DMAP is so challenging that even individuals with well-developed skills in both brain hemispheres will still struggle to achieve high-level team DMAP skills. While reading and practicing the three essential books on DMAP by Otto Laske, to make it easier for you to learn the DMAP skills, also get the new book, Superintelligence by John Stewart.) From someone proficient in that skill, this Superintelligence book offers an excellent, detailed picture of the many challenging aspects and process steps of the DMAP learning and mastery process.

We have also just finished a new white paper on metacognition, DMAP, and Superintelligence. If you are strongly committed to learning this new skill, it should be quite helpful for basic exercises and other things you will need to know and practice. Click here for this new white paper.

Tips for Reading Otto Laske's original and follow-up training materials

Eventually, Laske will be recognized as the individual who did much to advance a second great Enlightenment in the methodologies of advanced thought. However, as impressive as it is, this new analysis and problem-solving methodology also presents significant challenges for readers. Although Laske says that anyone can be taught complex systems of dialectical thinking, his books are difficult for most individuals. His writing style is concept-dense and requires careful attention to each definition or perspective he presents. He may often take you through a dozen interrelated or sequential conceptual spaces in one paragraph.

He also uses statements from multiple languages to express nuanced aspects of that dialectical perspective. Consequently, we strongly recommend that you look up those foreign language statements because Laske hides important subtleties in them, and every word he carefully selects