Personal, Educational and Organizational Transformation

Joseph Campbell got it right. There is one universal path that leads through all of life’s challenges. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Campbell, The hero with a thousand faces. New World Library, Novato, 1949), he introduces The Hero’s Journey. For five decades I have been a catalyst for social, organizational, and personal change, and I have been a change Sherpa. For much of that time, I have also been a student of the human dynamics of change. In this chapter I share the most important lessons on change I have learned through The Universal Change Journey, a transformation framework I have created based on The Hero’s Journey. This chapter can serve as your personal Sherpa as you create your change story, prepare for the journey, plan for the journey, take the journey, and live the new reality; it can also serve as a guide as you support others through their transformations.

The art of facilitating and embodying the essence of transformation is a life-long pursuit of growth and reawakening. As facilitators of transformation, we are hopefully, in our successes and failures, learning and transforming ourselves at the same time as we are holding the space for transformation of others. Our growth as facilitators, teachers, and leaders is dependent upon our willingness to flow, move, and create a safe space with the collective needs and capabilities of the participants that we are working with in mind. Our ability to facilitate great change is equal to our own understanding of these shifts within ourselves. In this chapter, I explore the qualities of a facilitator, the principles of transformation, and the skills necessary to facilitate transformation for a group or individual. Most of the concepts that are explored are applicable to both the facilitator and the participants. My own life research into the art of transformation has suggested that there is no beginning or ending, no facilitator or participant, but an infinite flow of growth and exchange as both parties embody and understand what has to be let go of or embraced for transformation to occur.

In this chapter, I take you on a journey that leads to the creation of a new version of yourself. I share my transformational journey and how it fuels me to help others live their life to the fullest. I challenge you to examine your own consciousness, and I teach you how to help others expand their self-awareness through practical tools that you can use to coach others as they create their own transformations.

Here are key ideas and principles that we will explore in our journey:

My hope is that you learn how to use the Transformation Model on yourself and to help people achieve their dreams. Welcome to the journey where you begin to think differently!

This chapter explores the development of an innovative teaching method through integrating Eastern and Western philosophies that may create moral leaders. In a course, Self-Actualising Leadership, students are required to write two reflexive journals examining how their leadership is informed by virtues and are encouraged to examine this as an embodiment through the Eastern Vedic chakra system. The chapter describes the teaching innovation and the transformational learning that takes place, elucidated through student comments that are written in assignments. The chapter contributes to our understanding of transformation processes by demonstrating how virtues are stable and enduring through habitual practice; are multidimensional through integrating emotional, physical and spiritual perspectives; and may become the communal narrative for creating self-other awareness for a flourishing society.

One of the objectives to develop the Center for Sustainability Mindset and Social Responsibility (CSMSR) of Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Ipmi or popularly known as Ipmi International Business School is to transform students into implementing the sustainability mindset. This chapter is about developing the sustainability mindset by practicing several forms of experiential learning discovery journey programs. The sustainability mindset is introduced through different approaches such as presenting award-winning business supporting SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), understanding the web of life, Aim2Flourish projects, eco-literacy campaign, detective challenge (understanding biospheric orientation), green projects, respecting diversity through virtual reality cardboard, designing life journeys, awareness campaign, developing life commitments to answer the global trend, conducting community engagement impacting people and planet, conducting business as an agent of world benefit, and writing a contemplative paper in the form of a letter to my unborn child. The 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations are embedded in the learning process.

The endeavors to transform students’ perspective into having a sustainability mindset was designed to contribute to the personal transformation discussions. The results have shown that students were engaged after going through the four frameworks of system perspective, ecological worldview, and emotional and spiritual Intelligence, each through the thinking, heart (being), and hand (doing) approach and had shown a new transformed mindset through their acts and commitments as seen through interviews, observations, their campaigns’ program to the communities, their writings, and life commitments/plans.

The chapter outlines and describes transformation from various perspectives and levels of engagement using various elements of transformation that are discussed from both the Indian and the US perspectives. Models of transformation from the Indian paradigm of oneness or non-duality are used to interpret the elements, process, and knowing of transformation. Personal and organizational transformation merges into lived experience facilitating a mental shift from understanding to presence in the now. Various and diverse points of view and their energies merge into one experience of transformation and beauty bringing together and synthesizing transformation as an experience of presence rather than a mere tool or concept.

Today’s world is becoming increasingly more complex, fast in its changes, and, thus, obstinate in seeing to that human projections do not become a reality. Thought systems, which for centuries provided satisfactory expectations for the future of companies and humanity, have become obsolete and even prejudicial for their inefficiency, waste of energy and time, and for creating habits. This chapter aims to present the foundations and process for an alternative thought system (or metamap)—the Metamanagement Model—which, based on the Integral Metatheory (Wilber); theory of complex systems, Cynefin Framework (Snowden); and concepts such as antifragile (Taleb), sociocracy (Comte, Boeke, Buck, and Endenburg), holacracy (Koestler), deep democracy (Mindell), vulnerability (Brown), psychological safety (Edmondson and Kahn), and verbal human development (Kegan, Cook-Greuter, and Tolbert), dynamically and simultaneously act in three key dimensions of organizations, individuals, relationships, and systems, to promote evolutive transformations in systems for companies to pursue a desired direction. This text was based on bibliographic research, case studies of Consultoria Chie clients (Eileen Fisher, Kunumi, and Fazenda da Toca, among others), and author’s personal experience as an executive at DBM do Brasil, Natura Cosméticos, and Fleury Medicina Diagnóstica. The result is that the Metamanagement Model can help build companies that transcend the limits of organizations as we see them today toward more collaborative models, with ecosystems of multiple interactions that lead to the emergence of a fairer and more inclusive society.

This chapter addresses the issue of family businesses’ need for transformation from a systemic view. A systemic perspective is utilized to analyze the most common issues inherent in family businesses. The author illustrates key transformative challenges that most family businesses face and must resolve if the core systems are going to meet developmental and systemic challenges. Suggestions are offered for several kinds of interventions that help sustain the family, the family business, and its wealth over generations. The author utilizes cases that show how the issues impact the different family business systems with successes and failures. The author also suggests consultative competencies that are needed by the consultant wishing to assist the transformation process.

Interpersonal relationships are fundamental both in the private and in the organizational sphere. They must be managed with a strong respect since people can remain wounded and blessed by the other. In companies, there are specific organizational tools that can contribute to transform personal wounds into relational blessings, that is, the organizational rituals. Rituals, indeed, are able to strengthen relational bonds and increase the sense of cohesion among people belonging to the same organization. However, companies are not always aware of rituals’ presence or are not able to adequately manage their own rituals. This could happen when—rather than facilitating the transformation of a wound into blessing—control mechanisms exercised within companies generate manipulation practices that ruin relationships. Given this picture, we think that recognizing spontaneous rituals within an organization—through specific managerial leverages—could help to overcome relational wounds and to create an environment favorable to people’s well-being.

Leaders have always faced challenges that require profound transformations. The work of the philosopher Michel Foucault is a major reference for transformation both on a personal and on a organizational level, since he campaigned to contribute to a better society, even if it meant questioning ideas and proposing new approaches in a world that was changing rapidly. Considering that a society cannot improve and innovate without a profound transformation, it is advisable to reflect on the microprocesses that lead to such a transformation. How many managers have been able to shake up the hierarchy and thus replace old, dusty practices with innovative practices, thanks to their sense of leadership? What do we have to learn from Foucauldian philosophy on this subject? We argue that there can be no organizational transformation without individual transformation. We discuss a new transformation model first at the individual level, then at the organizational level, based on leadership from the rich Foucauldian literature.

Career resilience is the ability to bounce back and thrive in the face of workplace and life adversities. It plays a key role in enabling women to defeat hardships and create change in their lives. In this chapter, we explain why it is relevant to explore career resilience among females; we outline some strategies at the personal and organizational levels that have proven to assist women in enhancing their career resilience. Finally, we share stories of highly resilient women who transformed their careers and influenced other women around them.