In studying transformations, I’ve read a number of philosophical, sociological, and psychological books on the subject. Several of them have given me ideas for frameworks, including this one inspired by philosopher Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago. She wrote the book Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming, which focused on the desires that people have for change in their lives.[i]
Dr. Callard focuses on transformation as a change in values, or “valuing” as she calls it. Early in her book on a section on “Valuing and Aspiring” she writes:
We have a rich vocabulary for the many forms that positive practical orientations can take: in addition to valuing, we speak of desiring, wanting, loving, approving of, being attracted to, caring about or for, endorsing, preferring, being identified with, seeing as valuable, feeling impelled to, etc. Setting aside other differences between such terms, we can group them roughly into two psychological strata. There is a shallower stratum to which “desire,” “urge,” and “attraction” often belong, and a deeper stratum – one that runs closer to the heart of who the person in question is – to which “value,” “endorsement,” and “identification” usually belong. These terms are quite flexible, and context can suffice to make clear that, in a given case, the urge in question is a deep one, or the endorsement a superficial one. One marker of whether a given term, in a given context, runs shallow or deep is whether we’re inclined to preface it with “mere” – mere desire, mere attraction, etc.[ii]
For Callard and most others that I’ve read, “true” transformation results only from deep changes in values, character, or identity. Behavior or other types of change is not enough, even if the scale of the change is large. In fact, she says that “When a pursuit is large in scale without being transformative [meaning encompassing a change in values], I will describe the agent as ambitious”, and on that same page calls “a small-scale change in what one cares about ‘self-cultivation’”.[iii]
Economic Transformations
Even though this way of thinking is perfectly appropriate for the field of philosophy, in business this is much too strict. In thinking about transformations as a distinct economic offering, people desire change, not only large-scale change but small-scale change as well, and increasingly seek help from businesses in making all manner of changes in their lives, and in their selves. As my colleagues and I wrote in the Harvard Business Review:
Even though we’re all filled with hopes, aims, and ambitions, significant change is incredibly hard to accomplish on our own. Enterprises should recognize the economic opportunity offered by the transformation business, in which they partner with consumers to improve some fundamental aspect of their lives – to achieve a “new you”.[iv]