In my series on human flourishing I’ve covered the four spheres of transformation:
Every business that is (or should be) in the transformation business is, I believe, covered by one or more of these spheres. (If you can think of one that isn’t, please do click on the link at the end of the post to let me know! There are other questions there for which feedback is appreciated too, including what spheres your business is in.)
Here, the chapter continues with a short section on how to embrace the spheres in your business, including if you offer commodities, goods, or services, not just experiences or transformations.
I trust it will be of value to you.
Joe
============
Embracing the Spheres
If your enterprise fits anywhere among these four spheres of transformation, then you need to think about how you design & depict, create & stage transformative experiences, guiding your customers in achieving their aspirations. And if you do not already guide transformations today, consider how you can bring one or more of these spheres into your business, extending and even subsuming your current offerings – goods, services, or experiences – into transformation offerings focused on why people buy whatever you offer today.
Contemplate how you fit within the four spheres
No matter what those economic offerings might be, contemplate how you fit within the four spheres. Even if you never offer transformations, you can contribute to human flourishing through one or more of them. Consider just some of the possibilities: In commodities, organic produce can boost health & wellbeing, while working the land can assist in finding purpose & meaning. In goods, financial instruments help attain wealth & prosperity, while books – self-help volumes among them – help in gaining in knowledge & wisdom. In services, banks, credits cards, and ticketing help attain wealth & prosperity, while classes, videos, and tutoring offer gains in knowledge & wisdom. And in experiences, fitness centers, spas, and yoga boost health & wellbeing, while religious gatherings, retreats, and communal memberships help in finding purpose & meaning.
Remember too how the Progression of Economic Value, well, progresses: each offering subsumes the ones below it. Transformations are only ever guided through experiences; experiences are staged atop service activities; services are delivered using physical goods; and goods are manufactured out of commodities. You and your business can contribute at any of these levels – and can contribute more effectively and create more value by recognizing the ends to which your offerings are the means.
You need not confine yourselves to any one sphere
Moreover, you need not confine yourselves to any one sphere. Intentionally embracing more spheres and doing so more fully can magnify the value of your offerings. For example, my alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, embraces all four spheres with its Whole Student Initiative. In an interview in the Institute’s quarterly Spectrum publication, MIT Chancellor Melissa Nobles speaks of it this way:
There are three key elements in our approach: supporting academic success, fostering community and well-being, and cultivating personal and intellectual growth. We want students to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them as they drink from the proverbial MIT firehose. We help them uncover new passions and embrace new experiences as they learn to care for themselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually.[i]
You can see health & wellbeing, knowledge & wisdom, and purpose & meaning right there. The only sphere missing is wealth & prosperity, which Chancellor Nobles addresses in answer to the next question, describing how MIT seeks “to ensure that an individual’s financial situation does not create a barrier to experiencing all that MIT has to offer.”[ii] While the initiative is new, embracing the spheres of transformation is not, for as Nobles says, “We are building on decades of transformative work across MIT seeking to improve the student experience and ensuring academics and research, especially in science and technology.”[iii]
Finally, if you already are in the transformation business, I am sure you can identify your enterprise within these four spheres, somewhere. But you don’t necessarily need to, for there is great overlap between them, with wellbeing and prosperity closely aligned, and with wisdom and meaning necessarily affecting each of the others. They also support each other. Knowledge enables prosperity. Prosperity enables wellbeing. Wealth and health govern and influence the pursuit of purpose. Having that purpose fuels the pursuit of wisdom, engenders wellbeing, and shapes a personal sense of what it means to be prosperous. And around we could go.
Note the overlap between the spheres, for they together foster human flourishing
For again, at the intersection of the four spheres, at their very heart, lies the shared commonality: they together foster human flourishing.
Joe Pine
© 2025 B. Joseph Pine II
__________
Please do fill out this form to provide me with feedback on embracing the spheres of transformation: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScT9cxElVCxPz4UszSV445R5_L95SqeTovMzDKw0Qv0DwKYJw/viewform
[i] Melissa Nobles, quoted in “Educating the Whole Student at MIT”, MIT Spectrum, Fall 2024, https://betterworld.mit.edu/spectrum/issues/2024-fall/educating-the-whole-student/.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.