The TransforMAP provides a foundation for both understanding and facilitating organisational or personal change. It enables those involved in change to unravel, understand and organise complex and confusing thoughts in a way that enables them to let go of the past and embrace the future; TransforMAP is therefore a powerful tool for gaining buy-in to the need for change. The TransforMAP allows and enables individuals and groups to confront their fears and come to terms with the things they stand to lose as a result of change. Having achieved this, it then enables people to brainstorm what might be possible as a result of change, develop valued options, and finally commit to a new set of targets.

The TransforMAP is a facilitated conversation about change:

• To develop a foundation of understanding during times of change
• To help people to move people on by helping them to understand and organise complex and confused thoughts in times of change
• To facilitate change conversations in groups - small or large and with individuals
• To design various interventions such as meetings, communications, training programmes or indeed complete organisational change processes
• To identify areas to investigate more closely or to do further work on

The TransforMAP is a guide for making headway through the uncertainty, confusing feelings and conflicting thoughts which accompany significant change. It is a basic structure for conversation with yourself or another person embarked on change.

Changes can seem pretty messy because we have so many conflicting thoughts, feelings and urges going on in us at the same time. When someone says, “Things are changing”, it is generally worth asking what they mean by that. Over the years, thousands of answers to that question have seemed to emanate from three different and very distinct ‘Voices.’ Each voice has a particular language and an affect associated with it.

All three voices are at work at once, as if three different people are talking inside our head. Hence the confusion. At any time, one voice will be dominant. While there is an overall sequence, we are wherever we are at any moment. So the TransforMAP may be entered wherever your interest or feeling or need demands.

Each voice has three expressions (or domains):

• A thinking expression which we refer to as the ‘Head’, where we form concepts and pictures and use logic and language.

• An emotional expression which speaks in physical sensations and moods we refer to as our ‘Heart.’

• A kinaesthetic, physical expression – our ‘Feet’ – the seat of our body memory, our urges to get into motion and action, from where we ultimately act out our physical existence.

There is no guarantee that at any one moment these three expressions are aligned with each other.

Our emotions have deep memories and take lots of time and real experience to accomplish a true change of Heart. And so our bodies… our Feet learn through plenty of repetitions. Once learned, these are very hard to forget. Could you unlearn how to ride a bicycle? Have you tried to unlearn a bad habit in a golf swing lately?

If I have grown up with a deeply held belief, and that belief is thrown into question by a world which no longer works as that belief demands, changing my mind to accommodate the new world may well be the hardest journey I will ever take.

Any one of the three minds can lead, but all three must get through the transition before we can really say we have actually ‘Changed Our Minds.’

If changing our mind did not involve our Head, Heart and Feet, it would be easier and faster. If changing our mind did not run headlong into the other drive to maintain a healthy status quo, which comes from our immune system, it would be easier and faster yet.

Each voice must be heard, fully, to genuinely complete a transition. Whatever comes up has a place to fit and a positive reason to be there. Everything is helpful because everything is real. There are no ‘bad’ or ‘good’ voices. Just voices.

When, individually or in teams, we are caught up in the struggle with a transition, the map takes all the feelings and thoughts and activity and gives each a place to rest. It all fits. The sooner they are all heard, the sooner we move on to the rest of our life.

For those who are facing a change in the future, the map is a great planning and awareness tool. The map predicts the type of material which will come from ourselves and others when the change hits. We also remember the processes of past changes and learn what our natural responses are so we know them when they reappear.

For those leading a change, the map is predictive of what to expect and helps the leader:

• Locate where he or she is in the process

• Move along as quickly as possible

• Develop empathetic personal stories

• Appreciate the dilemma of those who have not yet engaged the change

• Develop a creative communications plan for the whole system

Voice 1: Ending.
Endings are afoot when the world we are used to changes, or when the way we think about something no longer makes sense.

ANGST

Angst is the ‘heart’ domain within the first voice – the voice of Ending. In times of change everyone feels like they are losing something - some more than others. These are heartfelt emotions; we feel the angst. In order for people to let go of their perceived losses and move on they must be given the space to state what they feel they are losing.

Ask the individual or group:

• What do you stand to lose as a result of the changes taking place?

• What do you feel is being taken away from you?

• Where does it hurt?

• How do you feel these days?

• Have you experienced a loss like this before and how did it feel then?

• What is missing from your life as a result of the change?

Losses might be real or anticipated, and include: an area of responsibility, our job, a relationship, a material possession or your favourite meal at the canteen.

WORST FEARS

In times of change, when uncertainty rises and we perceive that we are losing things we count on, our mind is racing, constructing a future picture that can look pretty scary. As with Angst, it is essential that people be given the space and opportunity to express their fears. Worst Fears are ‘head’ generated predictions.

Ask the individual or group:

• What’s the worst that can happen?

• What are you afraid of?

• What is keeping you up at night?

In some cases it might be applicable to validate a particular fear through some sanity checking, since worst fears are usually exaggerations. Here is an example exchange to demonstrate how to go about the inquiry:

“What’s the worst that can happen?”

“I could lose my job”

“What would happen then?”

“I’d have to sell my house because I’d have no money”

“Is it true you’d have no money?”

“Well, no. I have enough for three months.”

“So what’s the worst that could happen?”

“I’d run out of money before I could find another job”

The result is cut down to something more real and fact based than where the person started.

RESISTANCE

Our fears are extremely powerful and often, as a result of these, we end up running in the opposite direction. Resistance is the act of doing something to avoid the changes taking place and the fears that have been stated.

Examples of resistance might be the act of continuing with a certain role in the organisation, saying no to the need for a new member of the team or avoiding a change in the invoicing process. Resistance represents our ‘feet’ reacting to our Angst and Worst Fears.

Ask the questions:

• What things are you doing to avoid the proposed changes?

• What are you not doing that would enable the changes to take place?

• What actions have you taken as a result of your worst fears?

• How have you dealt with this type of situation previously?

• What would you have to do differently to act on this change in spite of your fear?

Remember that resistance statements are those things that people do, rather than think or feel. These are actions that people take to resist change, to run in the opposite direction of worst fears.

Voice 2: Reinvention.
Experiments bring the unknown with them. They bring uncertainty as we set aside what we think we know, to explore what may be possible.

RELEASE

The Release domain in the TransforMAP is the ‘heart’ domain of Voice 2, Reinvention. When in Ending most of the energy is focused on negative areas like fear and loss, in Reinvention our focus swings to a more positive mindset. The feeling that unfolds is one of relief and lightness – we have set down some sort of burden. These things are not being trashed; rather they are being put on hold and may re-emerge in a different form later on – they are put in the recycling bin.

By putting things to one side, people are able to open up their minds to new possibilities.

Ask the questions:

• What no longer works?

• What do you keep in your life, which is an impediment to new possibilities?

• What do you keep around you which is a reminder of past problems, leading to unrealistic fears or to mourning losses all over again?

• What could you give up for now that would enable you to experiment with new ideas?

POSSIBILITY

Changes in an organisation, no matter how scary they might appear, actually open the door to new opportunities. The Possibility domain is where we focus on the best things that could happen as a result of change. This is where we use our imagination and in a sense, make it up. Possibilities represent the ‘head’ in Voice 2.

Ask the questions:

• What’s the best that could happen now?

• What would be perfect for you and you alone?

• What would be an exceptional life, work, relationship, house, child, or community for you?

• Assume you are living in the best possible world for you. What are the components of this ideal situation?

EXPLORATION

Explorations are those ventures or trial projects that might enable us to make the most of our possibilities. These are actions we can take in the short term to experiment and discover what is really possible. Exploration is our ‘feet’ investigating what will work as we move forward.

Ask the questions:

• What are the first five things we can think of to get started learning about the possibilities we have outlined?

• Suppose I was a person who had mastered this change. What would I be doing now?

Voice 3: Commitment.
Transformational stories always include the rise of burning intentions, making passionate decisions and commitments, and the work to make something new come true.

PASSION

Passion is the ‘heart’ domain within the third voice, the voice of Commitment. Passion is all about choice, direction, focus and discipline. In the Passion domain we focus on the energising feelings of alignment which propel us forward, to achieve targets.

Ask the questions:

• What’s the level of your energy for the objective we’ve set?

• What are you really committed to in all of this?

• How do you feel about where we are headed?

• What decisions have you personally started taking in order to get going?

INTENTION

Intentions are very specific goals or targets. These are the specific things that the individual or group is hoping to achieve. This may appear as a prize to be won or it may be more of a compelling dream, which inspires tough, direct action. Intention is the ‘head’ in Voice 3.

Ask the questions:

• What are your targets?

• What are the measurable goals you are hoping to achieve?

• What is the real purpose behind this change?

• What has this transition led us to in terms of new outcomes?

• What can we now achieve?

• Our entire history has brought us past a point of decision, into commitment to a new future. What is that new future we are creating?

DISCIPLINE

The Discipline domain helps us minimise the risk to our investment and maximise the return. The focus here is on the new things that we must do, the rules of play and structures that will give us the best chance of succeeding. This is our ‘feet’ getting into action.

Ask the questions:

• What structures need to be put in place to assure that this works?

• What do we need to do to avoid risks becoming reality?

• What will it take to get this done?

• What are the new rules?

• How will we know we’re on track?

Two fundamental rules when using TransforMAP with somebody else:

1. When enquiring into the domains, only ask open questions

2. When playing the story back in sequence, tell it as if you are the other person

This is a starting place to understand the domains of the three voices and use them effectively in conversations with another person or a group, reducing waste and angst, building spirit and vitality, and moving business and lives along.

Download a copy of the map

Download a TransforMAP case study

Only ask open questions - an open question is one that does not contain any element of the answer (it's easier to ask open questions if you keep them short).

Ask questions around all nine domains even if answers are not forthcoming.

If the conversation is in one domain, keep it there until it seems to be exhausted and then ask if it is OK to move on to another topic and ask a question about a different domain.

If you are making notes on a Map, use three different coloured pens, one colour each for head, heart and feet statements.

Try not to interrupt or stop the conversation – instead use your tone of voice and gesture to communicate understanding, concern and support.

Avoid asking "why…" questions - although these seem like open questions, they can be heard as judgemental and lead to a defensive reaction.

Don't judge or challenge what is said, and avoid the temptation to offer advice.

Listen for the typical tone of each voice:

• Voice 1 speaks in absolutes and with negativity, often about others as 'them'
• Voice 2 is open, exploratory and more about 'me' than others
• Voice 3 is focussed, specific and looks to enrol others as 'us'

Build on themes that have emerged in one voice to explore the next voice, and pay attention to body language - this can give us clues that more than one voice is present in the person).

When playing back what you have heard, play back in first person rather than with "you" statements.

Play back in sequence, through the three domains (head, heart and feet) in each of the three voices.

Key learning points:

• We all have all three voices, all are at play within us but sometimes one dominates
• There are no bad voices, all three can help us if we listen to them and use them constructively
• Change takes time, we all go at different speeds but we can make the journey easier by listening to the voices
• It's easier to join people in the voice that dominates for them than it is to convince them to join you where you are

The Business Problem

A communications team was being asked to relocate from London to Reading, as part of a cost cutting exercise by their organisation. In addition to the relocation, the team would take on responsibility for supporting teams across Europe rather than providing dedicated support to the teams based in the south-east of England.

There was a large amount of resistance to this move, mainly due to the fact that many team members would either have to take on a longer commute than they currently had, or would have to move house.

Approach

Voice 1 was dominating all conversations within the team, and there was a need to bring the other voices into play. TransforMAP was seen as a powerful tool for confronting worst fears, exploring different opportunities, and helping the team commit to new directions.

Workflow

The team took part in a session to explore the proposed relocation, using TransforMAP. The conversation was facilitated by an external coach, who established ground rules for the session and began by giving an overview of TransforMAP – explaining what each of the domains within the voices meant. The group were asked to share their feelings, thoughts and actions about the changes, and the facilitator captured key points on a large map on the wall. The conversation began in Voice 1, but moved back and forward between all three voices during the course of the session; at the end the facilitator played back what he had heard by putting himself in their shoes, and asked whether the story made sense and was an accurate reflection of what the group was experiencing.

The Process

The following is a summary of the output from the session.

Voice 1: Endings

Angst:

• Feelings of sadness, anger and frustration

• A ‘bad feeling in the pit of my stomach’

• Sleepless nights

Worst Fears:

• I won’t get on with people at the new office

• The additional travelling will mean that I won’t perform well

• I’ll have to regain reputation

• If I have to move, my children will hate school, and my partner will be unhappy

Resistance:

• I’ll worry about this later

• I’m too busy to check the new place out

• The family will enjoy the change when they get there, we just need to get on with it

Voice 2: Reinvention

Possibility:

• Meeting new people

• Moving out of the city creates opportunities to take up a new hobby or sport

• Exciting and different work

• Changes in other teams might lead to opportunities for travel

Release:

• Existing work relationships

• Existing social network

Exploration:

• Visit new location and check out the area

• Search the web and check out housing and schooling

Voice 3: Commitment

Passion:

• Embrace new job with confidence

• Enthusiasm for new house, location and social circle

Intention:

• Establish clear objectives in new job

• Clean handover in old job

• Family perceive benefit in move

Discipline:

• Visit within a month

• Get family there within 2 months

• Put transition plan together

Conclusion

By exploring the situation using TransforMAP, team members were able to share their fears and concerns. Through this exploration they were able to let go of certain things and buy into new possibilities. Finally, the majority of the team was able to commit to the relocation and has since settled in its new office space. Some team members made the decision to gain alternative employment in another department.

As a result of exploring the situation using TransforMAP, some people realised that they could live where they had done previously and put up with a longer commute, whilst others took advantage of lower house prices in the new office location. In short, the conversation enabled context to be set and people to get their feelings out in the open; the majority were able to embrace a move that they previously objected strongly to.

We need to take a trip through the history of the TransforMAP. It's a pretty good yarn, a long, patient road to what is on your screen. It stands on some strong shoulders of therapists and writers I want you to meet. Any of their work makes good reading.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The first work came from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. "On Death & Dying" is her 1969 seminal observation of five stages of human progression through our last days.

She opened a wide door for examining the process of human death - a conversation taboo in American culture then and even now.

While it is not a paragon of graphic clarity, it fascinated me, because it contains two stellar notions. First, there is a mighty transformation at the end. Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, we shed all vestiges of our prior existence as we will soon shed our body, and live however briefly in an transcendent state. Engineer that I was at the time, the question I took away was "How the hell does that work?"

Second, and no less compelling, the bliss state, if you will, co-exists in time with the trauma of our mind getting to grips with the reality that it will soon have no host body to fuel it and carry it around. We are doing both dances at once. One more “How the hell, etc.”

Many conversations later, these two came clearer and are embedded in the TransforMAP.

Stanley Keleman

In 1974, Stanley Keleman published "Living Your Dying", a call to use the many 'little deaths' we suffer - losing loved ones, jobs, our health, the car keys, the prowess of youth, and so on - to prepare ourselves for our 'big death', the end of our physical existence.

If you or someone close to you is facing their own end, take some time and read this book to them. Keleman deftly moves us away from the myths of dying promulgated by our culture toward a direct experience of each moment. Elegant work.

But in my early thirties, I was not interested in the physical dying. At seventy four he is speaking right at me. Anyway what was of immense value at the time was the notion of a turning point. Keleman introduced this simple graphic early on, a profound idea which stuck with me. Here is my version of Keleman's graphic and his words to describe it.

"Important events occur in everyone's life that are the focus of new directions. These turning points signal that one way of living is over and a new way is emerging; they are the right of passage in the life...

“Turning points are emotional journeys. They are life's upswellings. They are the intersections and intensifications of new encounters, new images, new impulses, catalyzing, brewing riches, charging the atmosphere. They are the roots of new directions and self-formation. They are the shapers of our bodies."

One of the joys of reading Keleman is his capacity to find the lyrics and the music in his writing.

The turning point I was interested in was that move from angst, worst fears and avoidance into the transcendent, joyful, freedom to embark on the next stage of discovery. But, I need to back up just a bit in the story to give us all the pieces and parts for the new construction I was about to draw.

Roger Gould

In the mid seventies I partnered with Roger Gould, a psychiatrist from Los Angeles. Together we designed executive workshops and a weekend experience for referrals to Roger's practice. Roger's mantra was, "You aren't sick, you are just changing." His fine book, "Transformations", is the study of male adult aging and staging. While it became a pretty stormy relationship, I'll always be grateful to Roger for how available he was with his work. I took away a couple of gems which find their way into much of my work.

First, new energies are always stirring inside ourselves. They want to be heard and recognised and nurtured and grow to be an actor on our stage. Call it an emerging talent or quality. Perhaps it is latent, and is called forth in our life circumstances. Perhaps it was just dropped into our unconscious realms by the Force. Probably both. No matter, something is always emerging. If left un-addressed, the energy becomes disruptive, we may feel victimised by it, and if suppressed may make us sick, and in the extreme, kill us. In our workshops we sought to give voice to these emerging qualities, by providing a protected place to explore them, with air and light and time. We midwifed the renegotiation of the self to integrate the birth of this fledgling entity with the rest of the powers that were.

The second gem I received was a look at what goes on as we attempt to bring the emergent voices into our conscious view. I've called this the Learning Edge and covered it in detail elsewhere. But if you haven't been to that particular elsewhere yet, here is a recap.

When we make the slightest move into action with the emergent energy, our body reacts emotionally with a set of sensations which warn us mightily not to go there.

"I used to talk about my plan to leave engineering and take up this new career doing change work. For a year, whenever I started talking, I had about five minutes before my throat felt like I'd been hit hard in the neck. I could barely wheeze out any words."

Once those sensations start raging, our heads imagine a nightmare of awful things. We try avoiding the pain by pulling in our horns and backing away from the edge to safer ground. Roger went to work testing all the fear, uncertainty and doubt in our heads, cutting the demons down to size.

I saw people go through a turning point as Gould worked to demystify the demons. And once through, as in Kübler-Ross's work, they moved to a new perspective. From being held back and stuck, into a positive, innovative attitude as they re-invented and renegotiated their lives.

Back to the story. Between Kübler-Ross, Gould and Keleman, I could draw a new picture.

After struggling on the edge, doing the work to finish the past and open the door to a new future, we would swing through the turning point, shedding the outworn stuff of our lives, heading into a transformed, albeit uncertain, personhood.

I shared this story widely. One day a hand went up with a question. The fellow suggested that he was Italian. My drawing and the story seemed so Northern European, so cold and so dark, that he was put off. I could not disagree. What could I do, he asked, to put some heart and hope into this dreary slog into despair and back?

In one of my finer improvisational moments, I turned the drawing on its head, he being Italian and all, and told the story all over again as a climb towards an ideal. As we climbed we had to put down more and more baggage. The higher we climbed the closer we got to our deeper purposes, our dreams, our ultimate possibility. At the very top, we had no kinetic energy, but immense potential if we just took one step onward. With that step we accelerated through another turning point into a new focused life. It was a helluva performance if I do say so myself. The crowd got high on it as did I. So I kept it in the act. Two pictures of the territory, two ways to describe the journey.

But even with these maps, I didn't have conversations or tools, only descriptions of the territory.

A friend visited one day and I did a proud show and tell of both stories. He offered that for him the down and dark story preceded the up and light story. They were really connected. Lights went on. Damn. Where had I been? The output of one was the input to the next. I was thrilled because it seemed undeniably true. And humbled because I had not seen that relationship earlier.

His insight was the key to the TransforMAP as a description of the territory, almost thirty years on. But we aren't there yet, there was more to be revealed.

This 'more' would have to wait until I encountered Voice Dialogue.

Hal and Sidra Stone

Hal Stone is a Jungian psychologist, artist, and leader. It was my good fortune to know, travel and learn with Hal and his wife Sidra when Hal was head of the Center for the Healing Arts in Los Angeles. Hal and Sidra pioneered the art of the voice dialogue - engaging sub personalities in dialogues of discovery. While most therapists still were looking for a well integrated personality, Hal observed and worked with inner characters possessed of their own agendas, voices and complexities.

In 1989, Hal and Sidra summarised thirty years of their work in their book, "Embracing Our Selves". If you hope to master this work, Hal and Sidra are a required read.

Hal and Sidra do not certify anyone in Voice Dialogue. They don't see it as an 'it', rather an adjunct to otherwise good training. And so people have borrowed freely from their insights. I am one of those fortunate thieves. Hal and Sidra's work goes deep and has immense range. I use just the teeny idea that since our amazing mind constantly presents our waking awareness with a seamless picture of the world, we can define a voice to speak with or listen to, and our deeper mind will conjure an excellent, working facsimile of what we have asked for. Not that I'm making stuff up here. While we might not need reinforcements at this point I want to mention two more writers/therapists.

Roberto Assagioli

In 1974, Roberto Assagioli, an Italian psychotherapist wrote "The Act of Will" as part of his pioneering work integrating and extending the efforts of his comrades, Jung, Freud and Maslow. 

From the introduction...

"Roberto Assagioli is one of the masters of modern psychology in the line that runs from Sigmund Freud through C.G.Jung and Abraham Maslow. Himself, a colleague of all these men, he was among the pioneers of psychoanalysis in Italy, though he pointed out that Freud had largely neglected the higher reaches of human nature. Over the years Dr. Assagioli has developed a comprehensive psychology known as psychosynthesis. Psychosynthesis sees man as tending naturally toward harmony within himself and with the world. Dr. Assagioli's concept of the will is a key part that vision."

Psychosynthesis envisions our personality as a collection of sub personalities who come on and off stage as necessary to get us along in life. There is a very big cast of characters, but a handful seemed dominant players at any one time. The Will is the stage director who can woo, cajole, and lead the many voices to play nice and be on and offstage as required to make life work. Our Will has volition, making truly new choices, where the sub-personalities seem stuck in habitual patterns.

If this sounds like an entrée to voice dialogue, it is exactly that.

Beyond the Will, Assagioli - the Spirit or the collective unconscious we all share. George Lucas captured the idea profoundly as the Force in the Star Wars saga. We discussed this earlier in this series. As you will see, our work relies on something like the Force when we reflect stories of our clients back to them. More on that later.

Piero Ferrucci

Ferrucci was a student and colleague of Assagioli's. "What We May Be" is marvellous workbook, offering guided imagery experiences to meet and mature the 'baby' subpersonalities. As if parenting recalcitrant teens, Ferrucci takes them on learning journeys to build a creative relationship with the Will/stage manager, and to improve their perspective on one another. In and of itself it is a powerful therapy.

Page 114 holds this sweet, telling excerpt ...

"Inner dialogue is suited for all occasions, but it is particularly useful in certain special moments, such as when: we are facing an important choice, we are in crisis, we think that nobody understands us, we want to tap our inner wisdom, we feel lonely, we are ready for a change, or we want a free session.

“But the effects of inner dialogue can go well beyond the unblocking of an impasse... we can learn how to rely on our Self rather than following the pressures of other people or of our own subpersonalities. We can discover how to take the whole situation into account instead of being influenced by intense but unimportant elements. There is also the possibility of finding that the solution of a problem can always be found at a level higher than the one where the problem itself lies. Moreover, we can avoid all the complications that follow decisions make in a superficial, hurried, heedless way."

By now this should sound quite familiar. All but the free session!

Ferrucci makes Assagioli's work very accessible. If you aspire to doing psychological counselling, Stone, Assagioli and Ferrucci have true riches on offer.

With Hal, Roberto and Piero on my side I grasped the sense of a subpersonality with feelings, a logical component and the ability to act out in the physical world. And groups of these varied characters on stage together.

I appreciated what was happening when someone, confronted with a new situation, could be excited by it and be speaking the word "yes", while their head rotated side to side, saying "no", while they perspired and turned a new shade of red, and their feet tried to get them out of the room.

It became possible to have a conversation with the feet, or the perspiration or the guy who was completely up for the journey or the head saying no.

Today's TransforMAP

I've listened to hundreds of people talk about their experience of disruptive change, from within or without. I've teased out the emergent energies, the baby selves, and helped find them a place at the waking table. No matter who else showed up, three distinct voices have consistently come to the fore, informing my graphic thinking as the two turning points connected into the current version. Each voice has its own affect, vocabulary and agenda. With the idea and trust in Voice Dialogue and the perspective and practices of Psychosynthesis, I had a way of being in the room to engage the voices and build stories around their individual and collective experience.

The voices

Voice 1 - The voice of endings and avoidance who reacts to inner or outer disruption with angst, scary thoughts and avoidance. Its modus operandi seems to be "make it go away". 

Voice 2 - The voice of reinvention who takes an opportunistic, innovative, learning path to let go of the outworn past, dream a new dream and begin learning its way into that dream, re-imagining the dream as it goes. His or her M.O. is "make it up".

Voice 3 - The third voice synthesises a focus, a coherent target, a time to make the bet, the scope of the bet and methods to realise the possibility. He or she is the Captain of John Luc Picard's frequent Star Trek order to "make it so".

Each voice is described in three aspects I continually noticed in my client's stories about what they were facing.

The thinking component, the 'head'. The affective component, the 'heart'. The kinaesthetic, physical actor, the 'feet'.

From its beginnings as a story of the stages of dying with turning points, it took about ten years for the TransforMAP to emerge as a dynamic, conversation of discovery.

This is the work as it stands - a comprehensive transformational landscape, brought alive through exhaustive listening and fair story-making, the hallmarks of good Voice Dialogue.

Thanks for going down memory lane with me. My heart sings every time I think of these generous and remarkable pioneers and all they left for us to work with.

Now that the full TransforMAP is in front of us, we can get to the nuts and bolts of the language, the structure, and the art of the conversation.

To recap, Endings is the voice of disruption, angst and avoidance - the first voice onstage when the upheaval hits home. Our work is to assist Voice 1 to make an ending and reveal what we must carry into the possibility of the future for our own good.

Reinvention retires the old story, re imagines the possibilities for the future, and conducts learning experiments to rediscover the world as it is now. Our work is to assist Voice 2 to make up a renewed existence out of strengths and joys of the past with new insights, desires and purpose.

Commitment takes the hand-off of a passionate direction, sets targets, puts the money on the table and sees to the disciplines necessary to realise a transformed existence. Our work is to assist Voice 3 to make it so.