I focused the final chapter of the book on the three phases of transformation – diagnosis, encapsulated experiences, and follow-through. This is the overarching framework for guiding transformations, and brings together most every idea, principle, and framework in the book to show you where and when to apply them.
Sometimes aspirants are not ready to undergo the transformation they desire.
One of the things I talked about regarding diagnosis: sometimes aspirants are not ready, for myriad reasons, to undergo the transformation they desire. If your transformation offerings prove likely to encounter such situations, then you want to preface diagnosis with – to use another medical term – triage. I introduced it this way:
Sometimes aspirants have aspirations that are deleterious to themselves and restrict their own flourishing – in which case, you have that fiduciary responsibility to set them straight. Sometimes they delude themselves in where (and who) they are today or in their ability to achieve their aspirations. It can often be of benefit, then, to preface the diagnosis phase with triage to determine whether a transformation opportunity actually exists for this particular aspirant at this time.
If not, you can guide aspirants to a proper understanding of the situation and work with them on an interim transformation to get them to the point where they can realistically achieve their initial desire.
The example I used for such transformation triage was the US Army with its recruit assessment (joining the military being a classic metamorphic transformation), but then it goes further to provide the option for failed recruits to work hard to eventually pass the required tests:
For example, in 2022 the US Army created the Future Soldier Preparatory Course for recruits who could not meet its academic or fitness standards. For those who still want to join the Army, they can head to Fort Jackson, SC, for special instruction and training, with standard tests every week that mark would-be recruits’ progress. Every three weeks (up to 90 days), if they meet the same standards as everyone else, they can then join the Army. As of fall 2024, with a 95% graduation rate, the US Army has almost 25,000 soldiers it would not have without the prep course.
I wish I had used this term in the book, but think of this as a pre-transformation transformation. (Suggestions for alternative terms welcomed!)
I hadn’t planned to write about this here on Substack, but then The New York Times printed a front-page story in last Monday’s (October 6, 2025) edition on the Future Soldier Preparatory Course! As it the Times’ wont, it took a very human approach to the subject in its article, “This Program Rescued Army Recruiting”, highlighting recruits going through the process more than what the Army gets out of it – although it did make clear the Army could not get close to meeting its recruiting goals without transforming thousands of failed aspirants into ready recruits every year. (Which then sets up the transformation of ready recruits into trained soldiers.) Indeed, about 22,000 of the Army’s 60,000+ recruits this year graduated from this course.
“Many said they had come to Fort Jackson because they saw no other choice.”
As Times journalist Greg Jaffe notes of those he interviewed in the program, “Many said they had come to Fort Jackson because they saw no other choice.” One “was tired of being homeless”. Another “graduated from an online college that promised him an I.T. career but instead left him $90,000 in debt. Others had joined to escape home or to make their families proud. Some said their recruiters had told them that military service would protect their undocumented parents from deportation.”
Even when the aspiration is the same, the starting points can greatly affect how the transformation should proceed.
In other words, they come to the Army with the desire to become a US Army soldier –the “to” part of the from/to statement of aspirations and the “Y” part of the “I was X, now I am Y” formulation – but each one came from their very own X. Note that even when the aspiration is the same, the starting points can greatly affect how the transformation should proceed. As I wrote in the Introduction to the Delta Model:
You must therefore get very individual with each aspirant.
No two transformations are ever alike simply because every customer is unique. It’s certainly possible to have one standard transformational process – US Army bootcamps come immediately to mind – but everyone reacts to that process in ways unique to them. Even drill sergeants know they can’t yell in the same way to every recruit all the time.
Something that Jaffe made clear in documenting some of the interactions drill sergeants had with the recruits he interviewed!
There were some differences in what particular jobs people wanted in the Army. Highlighting one particular recruit, Joseph King, 42 years old, Jaffe recounted:
Joseph joined the other trainees who had finished the test. Those who had passed spoke in hushed tones about the Army jobs that might now be available to them. One trainee was hoping to be a helicopter mechanic. Another wanted an airborne infantry slot.
“I don’t care what job I get,” a third said, “as long as I get out of here.”
Even pre-transformation transformations can contribute mightily to flourishing
It’s clear that even this pre-transformation transformation contributed mightily to the flourishing of the recruits:
The Army still needs the program to make its recruiting goals, said Lt. Gen. Brian Eifler, the Army’s top personnel officer. The program also offers benefits that are harder to measure, he said. It has become a lifeline for people searching for housing, stability and a piece of the American dream.
A key reason for that was getting the recruits to focus on their “why”s. Regarding new recruits that came in every Monday:
Once they were in formation — backs straight, heels together, feet at a 45-degree angle — an officer gave them some advice. “This is a place where you find your motivation,” he explained. “You figure out your why, and you stick with it.”
On recruit’s why “revolved around her undocumented mother, who had immigrated from Mexico a year before she was born. Her recruiter told her about a program called ‘Parole in Place,’ which allows the parents, spouses or children of active-duty service members to avoid deportation.” Others “talked about providing for their families and pushing themselves out of their comfort zones.” And for Joseph King it was this:
“I’ve touched a lot of lives,” he said. “That was the main purpose. To see them leave and do good in their lives makes me happy.”
And when he lost the necessary weight, sufficiently reduced his girth, and took the necessary exam on the last possible occasion,
This time Joseph passed. He was on his way to basic training and a new life as a soldier.
Should you guide pre-transformation transformations?
Are there times in your business where you encounter customers who, for whatever reason, cannot at this time truly achieve their aspirations? If so, how might you perform triage to find out? And then can you create the option of guiding a pre-transformation transformation to prepare them for your full offerings and greatly increase, if not ensure, that they can become who they want to become?
If you do so, then like the US Army you, too, can be a force for human flourishing in the world.
Joe
© 2025 B. Joseph Pine II