Sustain

The Sustain phase refers to using a rich variety of practices that we have learned over the years to perform and adjust automatically. They are generally learned in distinct settings, where work skills are acquired in educatonal or work settings while life skills are acquired at home or in the community. Practitioners, whether of work or life skills, may not use the same terminology, but they do base their actions on extensive experience and distinguish their own approaches from both simpler and more complex approaches. We know this from 350 developmental interviews in over 100 domains of work and life, in which 100% were able to identify four or five levels of complexity for their own domain of expertise (one interviewee attributed the differences to talent rather than development, but nevertheless discriminated).

Beginners have little concept of what it takes to sustain domain. Explorers get an idea of what practice in a domain might be like but rarely are able to conceive of what it might take to master it thoroughly enough to help less experienced users. We need to explore a new domain before we can become experts, and we need years of plying a trade or profession or thriving at home or in our communities before we become masters.

We organize our knowledge of the sustaining phase into four categories based on where they are mostly learned:

1. Work professions are learned primarily in educational settings.

2. Work trades are learned primarily on the job.

3. Social life is learned in community settings.

4. Personal life is learned at home.

See the section below for how we used human needs to organize our domain examples.