Last week I introduced the Types of Aspirations framework in Part One by discussing the philosophical underpinning of identity change, and in particular discussing metamorphosis as the aspiration for wholesale change in identity.
That was about thinking epistemically; Part Two here is about thinking economically and transformationally. It provides the 2x2 framework for the four types of aspirations, discusses each type, and how to approach transformation offerings based on these aspirations. And again I will come back to these four types when discussing transformation offerings more fully in the chapter on the Delta Model.
At the end of this post is a feedback form covering both Parts. I do appreciate any thoughts you have.
Joe
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Thinking Economically
As you can tell from these examples, metamorphoses that involve a wholesale change in identity are real, impactful, even momentous – but remain few and far between. The vast majority of transformations fall short of that ideal. So even though the idea of “true aspirations” and “true transformations” as metamorphosis seems perfectly appropriate for philosophy and other fields, in business it is much too strict. In thinking about transformations as a distinct economic offering, people want not just deep but “shallow” change as well – and everywhere in between. And aspirations for identity transformation do not have to involve such sweeping change that you no longer even recognize your former self (whether as an individual person, organization, business, or community).
So think of aspirations as having two primary dimensions: quality of change and scale of change. With quality of change, aspirations can range from differences in kind to differences in degree. Changes in kind involve do indeed transform your identity, how you think about yourself and the world around you, your beliefs and values, your motivations and behaviors. They are about being in the world. Changes in degree, on the other hand, do not transform your identity but rather affect your aptitudes, capabilities, skills, and other such arenas of how you interact with the world, more about doing than about being.
Think of aspirations as having two primary dimensions: quality of change and scale of change.
And then aspirations for changes in both kind and degree can range in scale from large to small. Large-scale aspirations seek to affect us greatly, whether in identity or other aspects of self, endeavoring to shift the trajectories of our lives. But we also long for changes on a smaller scale, ones that may not be life-transforming but nonetheless affect us in ways important to us. There’s no need to denigrate such aspirations with term such as shallow, superficial, or insignificant, for they still represent human longings for change in our lives – and economic opportunities for business that can help individual people, organizations, businesses, or communities achieve such aspirations.
These two dimensions then yield four different types of aspirations, as seen in the figure.
Aspirations of Metamorphosis
To expand a bit on aspirations for metamorphosis already discussed, note that these are large-scale changes in kind, that do indeed transform core elements of identity. Many of these aspirations, if fulfilled, may be so large and so central to your being that they are indeed “epistemically inaccessible” as Paul puts it; you are so transformed that you have a hard time even recognizing your past self – and that past self would find its future self foreign.
You are so transformed that you have a hard time even recognizing your past self!
People do largely long for metamorphosis with their eyes open, although of course many pregnancies are surprises, many armies use a draft or even conscription, and religious conversions can happen in a Damascus moment. In such cases, the conception of self may precede the transformation of self, with the aspirant seeking to reconcile the two. In other cases the change in the conception of self comes after the actual transformation, as with “imposter syndrome” where, say, a lawyer graduates from college, passes the bar to officially become a lawyer, joins a company, and yet feels deeply inadequate to the tasks he's expected to do, because he’s never done them. He feels like an imposter, unable to get comfortable in his own lawyerly skin. So he “fakes it ‘til he makes it” by acting as if he knows what he’s doing, until eventually one day he realizes he no longer thinks about the disconnect, and then says “Well, now I am a lawyer!”, even though he long was a lawyer in the eyes of the government, his company, their clients – everyone but himself.[i] (Not all conceptions of self reflect reality.)
Other large-scale areas of self/being/identity where we can change, whether serendipitously or aspirationally, include worldview, beliefs, values, purpose, and way of life – which apply as equally in and to businesses as they do to individuals, with “way of life” shuffled to way of working, way of managing, way of organizing, etc.
Aspirations of Cultivation
There are other elements of identity, however, that involve not wholesale, comprehensive changes but nonetheless affect who you are. Such elements lie not at the core of your being but further out on the periphery. They certainly change your identity, but involve aspirations that you can take or leave, may desire for only a time, or may change your mind about without affecting your core identity. After philosopher Agnes Callard’s use of the term – her book Aspiration, quoted above, inspired the thinking that went into this framework, as well as most of the terms[ii] – think of cultivation as such small-scale changes in kind.[iii]