Transformative experiences are the most powerful events in our lives. They shape and define us. They are what we secretly crave, what we strive for, and what we cherish most, both personally and professionally. They are the events upon which our lives turn and our destinies unfold. And through us, transformative experiences can change the world.
What if we could understand how transformative experiences work across a range of human experiences? What if we could use that understanding to intentionally design “the transformative” into our lives and the lives of others? And what if we could harness this understanding for leadership—designing transformative experiences to motivate, elevate, and inspire those we lead? Imagine the possi- bilities for leading the way to a more positive and inspiring world.
After all, this is how we describe our very best leaders—at work, in innovation, teaching, coaching, parenting, the arts, and every other domain. Transformative leaders seem to have an innate and ineffable ability to touch our hearts, provoke our minds, stretch us beyond ourselves, and conjure experiences that change our lives and make the world a better place.
Is there a code or formula for leading in this way consciously, deliberately, and strategically? Is there a body of knowledge we can harness to become masters of this art? How can we become trans- formative experience designers?
While there is no singular one-size-fits-all recipe for designing transformative experiences, there is indeed a research-based method, which I present here in this book as Experience Design Leadership using the methodology of ELVIS: Experiential Learning Variables & Indicators System. But before we get into all that, we must ground ourselves in a simple yet profound truth:
Transformative experiences do not happen to us, they are created by us . . .
whether we realize it or not.
Over the past two decades in my work as a social scientist, I’ve been exploring the nature and psychology of transformative experiences in an effort to understand what they are and how they operate. I have been extremely privileged to work with exceptional leaders en- gaged in efforts that shape our world and affect all our lives—from contributing to NASA and the Space Shuttle Program, to collabo- rating with Jane Goodall for over 15 years on her world conservation efforts, to leading cutting-edge education research for the National Science Foundation, to leading groups on international travel and other adventures, to directing three documentary films, to working on the psychology of leadership with some of the largest and most influential companies in the world.
This work has led to a fundamental understanding at the core of how transformative experiences unfold. People typically describe their most transformative experience as something that happened to them and over which they had very little control. But on closer investigation, these experiences—including what they mean in our lives, our capacity to fully participate in them, and their outcomes— ultimately come from within us, regardless of the external triggers or circumstances. The transformative in our lives is not simply waiting for us out there somewhere; its possibility and its potency are quietly waiting for us in here.
Why is this? How is this? And how can we unlock this latent potential? Imagine if we could understand how transformative experiences work and use that understanding to intentionally bring the extraordinary into our own lives? What if we could become expert designers of experiences that propel the growth and transformation of others, whether we play the roles of leaders, educators, parents, artists, or friends? Becoming skilled at the art of transformation is to harness a life-changing tool that allows us, as Henry David Thoreau put it, “to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” That is what this book is about.
