Personal Transformation

Inspiring Lives: Personal Stories of
Sustained Transformation and
Implications for Organizations ©
Presenter: Dr Myrna Araneta, Ph.D.
Copyright: ACONSULTINGGRP © 2009

On the eve of
Halloween…three
pumpkins were talking to
each other…
 The first pumpkin said, “I don’t want to be a Jack-o-lantern because I
don’t want to change. I’m going to stay just the way I am now.”
The second pumpkin said, “I want to be a jack-o-lantern, but I don’t want
to let go of any part of me. I’m going to paint a face on me, so I’ll look
like a jack-o-lantern.”
The third pumpkin said, “I want to be a real jack-o-lantern and give light,
so I’m going to cut me some eyes, a nose, and a mouth and get rid of my
insides.”
So when Halloween came: the first pumpkin was just any regular
pumpkin, the second one had a painted face, and the third one
glowed and was transformed to a real jack-o-lantern.
Source: Sustained Personal Transformation-© 2009
Copyright: ACONSULTINGGRP. © 2009

Pumpkins Story’s- Analogy to
Humans
 Choosing to stay the way we are--Some refuse to change,
despite change happening inside and around them (holding-
on to what has defined us in our lifetime... E.g., culture,
passion for acquisition and self-interests, etc).
 Choosing to change externally--pumpkins that painted
their faces—change are more on the outside vs. inside (e.g
relocation, physical changes).
 Choosing to give up those that no longer “fit” with who
we are to make way for a new consciousness to evolve-
intentionally letting go of previous ways of thinking and
acting –to pave way for a new consciousness to evolve and
transform the person (change of heart).
Copyright: ACONSULTING GROUP, LLC. © 2009

This study is about…..
 Examining the circumstances and
journeys that inspired individuals to
initiate personal change which led to
sustained transformation.
 Applying the lessons learned from
participants to organizational
transformation.

Scope of this Study
 Focus was on intentional transformative change
occurring in adult life (midlife).
 Generated insights about the circumstances and
experiences that inspired individuals to initiate
change--specifically in two important areas were inner
change and life turning points become visible:
– Work (career, profession and vocation)
– Relationships (with an individual, institution or an
organization
 Excluded were individuals whose life
experiences forced “change” on them.

Change maybe Intentional or
Unintentional
 Intentional (self-initiated) change- a conscious, voluntary
decision or choice to change followed by a striving to
achieve a goal.
– conscious choice of a goal
– Effort to make the goal a reality
 Unintentional- caused by external circumstances forcing
the individual to change or evolve in order to survive
(natural disasters, emotional and physical losses, divorce,
etc. )
Copyright: ACONSULTING GRP © 2009

What were the
Research Questions?

Research Questions
1. What circumstances provoked intentional
adulthood change?
2. What were the individual’s pathways to
permanent transformation?
3. What outcomes accompany intentional change?
4. What did they gain and lose from the change?
5. What were the lessons learned through
transitions that they could recommend to others
who are embarking on similar changes?

How were Participants Selected?
 Experiences were about the phenomenon in question-
i.e., circumstances that led to self-initiated change
 Agreed to participate and sign a release permission to
collect personal information.
 At middle adult age (between 40-45 age per Levinson’s
definition) was the time when change was initiated.
 Personal change was not caused by chance, nor by
external forces.
 Change that occurred were either in career, vow,
profession or relationships with an institution,
organization or with an individual
 Change initiated was sustained up to the time of the
interview.

FINDINGS
Themes

Circumstances
 Intentional Change are triggered by a confluence of multiple
circumstances rather than a single event.
 Internal situations or conditions of the participants were significant to
the change decision (e.g., presenting opportunities, intellectual curiosity,
spiritual, social, moral provocations, in search of something missing in their
lives, realization that previous approaches were no longer working, doing the
right thing).
 Childhood experiences and parental influences showed up as one of the
contributing factors (e.g., honoring a mother’s dying wish, undo parents’ life
mistakes (substance abuse and addiction) in the family, reclaiming early life
exposures provided by parents, etc.).
 External events provoked an internal dilemma, creating disorientation,
growing dissatisfaction with their situation, or dissonance that violated
values and sense of security (e.g., sense of right and wrong and the need to
rescue someone from an unhappy situation, feelings of isolation in a life-
threatening situation).
Contributing Circumstances Provoking Intentional Change

Themes That Characterized the Pathways From
Transition to Transformation
 The decision to change (leave previous life structure) did not
just happen overnight. Timing ranged from two to twenty
years. Once change began, what was to come next unfolds or
evolves a day at a time. The experience was very different
from the corporate world or usual ways of planning and doing
things.
 Images and metaphors were used as powerful markers and
tools for understanding the unfolding path to transformation
 In their respective journeys, they had to prepare for it, make
mistakes, overcome obstacles, and must have tenacity and
determination.
 Choosing the unknown from the known required risk-taking
and the capacity to tolerate living with ambiguity for an
extended time.

Themes That Characterized the Pathways to
Transformation
 Presence of support and network of relationships while
maintaining positive outlook
 Individuals painstakingly reflected, deliberated about their desire to
change, discussed it with others before they finally took relevant
action.
 Feeling outside of one’s comfort zone—like a new creature, unsure
of one’s footing because the rules of engagement for one’s view of
the changed world are very different.
 Being open, humble and receptive to challenges and difficulties
 Spirituality emerged as a core aspect of some experiences. A sense
of connection with a god and inability to resist being called to be or
to do something. Some clearly experienced a mental conversation of
some sort with a god, who provided the pathway to transformation
.
Copyright: ACONSULTINGGRPGRP© 2009

Outcomes
 Change in their perceived self-identities and a heightened
awareness of life’s important priorities. What seemed important
pre-transformation experience, were no longer deemed valuable
post-transformation.
 Change in how they perceived themselves relating to others and
a change in their views of the world.
 Change is irreversible. Retrospectively, there is a general sense of
fulfillment, wholeness and acceptance of their transformed lives,
new work; and the remaining years ahead.
 At most, it has been 10 years since their life change occurred.
They do not feel they ever wanted to go back to their previous life
structures.
 Change in how they related to their belief in a “god” or how they
understood and expressed their spirituality. This spiritual and
sacred sense filled them with heightened awareness of life’s purpose
and meaning.
Outcomes of the Transformation Experience

Gained or Lost
 Gains of a happier and more meaningful life outweigh the losses.
Life is an accumulation of experiences. Every experience we have
builds upon what we did before that further enhances future
experiences.
 Self-doubt and difficulties are inevitable once the decision to
change starts. No matter what happens, with hope and action you
eventually are going to get through the challenges and difficulties.
Personal circumstances dictate the kind of choices one makes.
Given different circumstances, their choice could be different.
Nobody has the right to stay in a very unhappy situation. One needs
to act with a leap of faith because no one ever knows beforehand if
the change would be for the better or for the worse.
Life as a road, goes up and down—-winds and stretches out to the
horizon. Good and bad things will happen but the focus must be on
the ones that are important and enhances one’s life.
Themes of Meaning and Making Sense From What was Gained and Lost

Lessons Learned
 Consider your financial resources and other obligations
responsibly. Ensure your intended change does not create financial
distress for others who are dependent on you.
 Have the presence of unwavering support from a network of
relationships who will support you. Be humble enough to go to people and
ask for support.
 Living simply (live below your means) has allowed individuals to
see through their successful change process.
Never close your doors to opportunities. Give it a great deal of
thought, go ahead, and try it. If you fail, then get up and try something
else. You learn from every single experience that can expand your
thinking.
 The new life structure has its own challenges. Life scars are there, you
don’t lose scars. It’s how you deal with them. Exercise strong
determination and positive expectation to forge ahead and realize your
intentions.
LESSONS LEARNED-RECOMMENDATIONS TO
OTHERS

CONCLUSIONS

CONCLUSIONS-What provoked intentional
change in adulthood?
 There is no one straight path to transition leading to
transformation. It is lengthy, evolving, challenging and
sustaining process.
 A confluence of circumstances paired with certain
threshold of discomfort have to be reached before people are
inspired (motivated) to intentionally change.
 The circumstances of each individual play a significant
influence on what could ultimately trigger a transition and
the pathway to transformation (we can not separate
intentions to change from social roles, relationships with
others, events in one’s life and the person’s stage of
development)
 The timing of adult intentional change that could lead to
transformation do not appear to be as clear and predictable.

CONCLUSIONS-What provoked intentional
change in adulthood?
 Whereas externally triggered transitions (e.g. death of a
loved one, natural disaster, end of one’s career) tend to be
abrupt and often involve immediate changes, intentional
change leading to transformation typically is internally
motivated over a period of time.
 Transformation cannot be planned to happen; instead, it is
an unfolding and evolving process with its own timing,
twists, and turns.
 Awareness (acknowledgment) of own mortality led
individuals to examine and re-evaluate their lives remaining
options.

Laying the
Groundwork
The “Egg”
Gestation period,
self-reflection
Reorienting and
retooling (past and
future focus)
Shifts in self-Individuation
Talk with others
about insights
Putting back
pieces to
reshape a new
identity
Experiencing
Unfamiliar
Ground
“The Caterpillar”
Testing
Unfamiliar
Ground
“The Pupa”
Transition
Emerging
on New Ground
“The Butterfly”
Descriptive Metaphor Theory on Sustained Personal Transformation ©
Note. Copyright 2009 Myrna R. H. Araneta, Ph.D.

Phases of Sustained Transformation
 Phase 1 (or the egg stage)-Laying the
groundwork through self-reflection. Needs
ample gestation period and reflection
preceding transitions
– Like the egg in a gestation period, there
maybe a great deal of conditions that could
prevent the gestation from moving to the next
phase.
e.g., holding on to what has defined us
through our lifetime (parental conditioning
and the unique culture/predispositions that
created our paradigms.

 Phases 2 –(caterpillar or larvae)-experiencing
the unfamiliar ground—a feeling of
disorientation and uncertainty.
 Person reflects and consults with others
 Person experiences inward assessment of how
the “shift” is challenging one’s core beliefs,
sense of security, meaning structures and
paradigms about the self-identity.
 Going into the journey of change, one may
never know fully whether or not the outcomes
of the change will be for better or worse.

 Phase 3- (the cocoon or pupa stage). Testing the
unfamiliar ground. Reorienting and retooling
oneself.
 This stage reported the experiences of participants
while they experimented with their changed “self-
identities” (roles).
 Still living with “ambiguity and feeling outside of
one’s element.
 The person, however, begins to recognize options
for trying out new roles, renegotiating
relationships, and starts building self-confidence
with new competencies needed in a new state.

 Phase 4- (butterfly stage)- Emerging on New Ground –
This stage calls for further inward work—it is the re-
integration process, which is like reconstructing and
putting back pieces to reshape one’s new identity.
– When the person has fully incorporated the new
learning (“I & Me” components, a transformed self
has evolved )
 The stories unanimously reported by the participants they
had enhanced self-awareness and achieved what Mezirow
(1991) calls “irreversible change in terms of their identities,
priorities and lifestyles.”

Key Implications for
Organizations
 Their strategic choice to undertake a
planned change happens because the
systems “negative feedback”—purpose and
mission are still on course. Change
becomes incremental.
 Transformation happens because of their
systems positive feedback loop states their
business purpose and mission are obsolete
and business direction has to change
totally.

Key Implications for
Organizations
 Choosing the pathway of Transformation
for organizations is risky. It is a “leap of
faith”.
 Leaders would not know before hand if the
change in business direction would bring
financial success to the corporation.
 Nevertheless, there are incremental
processes that can be effectively managed
during its transition.

Key Implications for Organization
Transformation
 Organizations need to ignite employees creativity by providing
an environment where innovation is valued, e.g., encouraging
employees to serve in communities on company’s time.
 The organization’s culture needs to provide workplace
practices that support innovation, e.g., encouraging employees
to contribute their meaningful and creative efforts to
sustainable causes which form part of their work projects and
development plans.
 When leaders recognize employees’ creative ways of giving
back to their communities, the company’s culture sends a
message to others that those contributions are valuable part of
doing business.

Key Implications for Organizations
 Building a community of give and take relationships
and networks to share and help spark ideas that result
in learning, innovation and action within and outside
the organization.
 Encouraging individuals, work groups and teams to do
inner work in the spirit of refocusing, collaborating
and nourishing each other in a mutual caring and
respect for the unique value of each person.
 Leaders defining the Organization’s new “Destiny”
(purpose/mission)—what it is called to do and be for
it’s communities, stakeholders and the country in
which the organization (business) is contextualized.

Organizational Transformation
(Cummings & Worley-2001)
 “Organizational Transformations as the organization’s
response to in anticipation of major changes in the
organization’s environment or technology. They maintain
that these changes are often business strategy, which in
turn, may require modifying corporate culture as well
as internal structures and processes to support new
direction” (p.8)
 They assert that “such fundamental changes require a
new paradigm for organizing and managing
organizations and would involve qualitatively different
ways of perceiving, thinking, and behaving in
organizations.”

Some Earlier Findings that Informed this
Research
Studies Major Descriptions
Brans (1985) Interviewed men and women who actively recreated their lives. They shared
common qualities with innovators: “All of them have deliberately made
dramatic innovations in the patterns of their lives” (p. 5). They all have “the
capability to take action given the circumstances of their experiences” (p. 9).
Ebaugh (1988) Major findings show that so-called exiters shared similar emergent patterns in
the sequence of events during their processes of leaving regardless of the
variations in the timing of experiences.
Erikson (1968b) Crucial issues must be resolved before moving on to the next stage of adult
development.
Goodman (1979) Turning points in the lives of 150 men and women were due to choices in their
new social circumstances rather than age or catastrophe. These turning points
are full of attractions and ambivalence. The study posed questions such as how
does one face the options and conflicts of new choices? How does one face the
challenge of growing without losing one’s identity?
Levinson, Darrow, Klein,
Levinson, & Mc Kee (1978);
Levinson & Levinson (1996)
Life structure enables one to live out and elaborate the basic choices and values.
After some period, this choice tends to outlive its usefulness. From their study of
men and women, they identified marriage, family, and occupation as central to
an individual’s life structure.
Tough (1982) Intentional changes happen in response to a person’s motivation for personal
growth and repair a self-perceived deficiency.

Copyright: ACONSULTINGGRP© 2009
Theorist Initiation Middle Ground
Reestablishing
Equilibrium
Bridges (1980) Endings The Neutral Zone New Beginning
Ebaugh (1988) Precipitating event Seeking & weighing
alternatives
Turning point
Creating an ex-role
Hall & Norby (1973) Trigger event Exploration
Trial
Personal choice
Hudson & McLean
(1996)
Stuck in the doldrums Cocooning Getting ready for it
Go for it
Ibarra (1999) Exploring possible
selves
Lingering between
identities
Grounding a deep
change
Jaffe, Scott & Tobe
(1994)
Denial & Resistance Exploration Commitment
Spencer & Adams
(2002)
Losing focus
Minimizing impact
The Pit
Letting go of the past
Testing the limits
Searching for meaning
Integrating
VanGennep (1909/1960) Separation Transition Incorporation
Comparisons and Integration of Transition Models
Note. Adapted from “Career Exchange: Trading the Corporate Career for New
Options,” by M. G. Scheid, 2005, p. 47.

Phases Descriptions
1. Disorienting dilemma.
2. Self-examination.
3. Critical assessment of assumptions.
4. Recognition of shared discontent with others.
5. Exploration of options.
6. Planning a course of action.
7. Acquisition of knowledge and skills for implementing plans.
8. Provisional trying of new roles.
9. Building of new competence and self-confidence.
10. Reintegration of the new perspective.
Mezirow et al., (2000)Transformative Theory’s 10 Phases of
Transformation- Further Informed this Research

Personal Transformation

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