Transformative Learning Experiences--Personal Integrity--Core Values

Transformative learning experiences literally produce transformation and change in a person.  Normally this learning requires a conscious process of reflection and time to integrate the change with the core values of the individual.

Personal integrity forms a bridge between core values and transformative learning experiences.  We may or may not be aware of a life purpose, though our core values may have been guiding us to make certain choices throughout our lives.

To illustrate this idea three friends were having a conversation today about Joan Baez and a new documentary on her life available from Amazon.com. A recent news article went into what the documentary is about.  The conversation focused on the integrity and core values that Joan Baez has demonstrated in her life.  In the beginning of the documentary, Joan Baez says that she would prefer not to be labeled.  If someone needs to label her, she would prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, "and if you have to have a third, it can be folksinger.

I graduated from high school in 1964 and from college in 1968.  Joan Baez and the other folk singers were "the voices of our times."   I hope that my life with reflect the integrity and core values I see in the life of Joan Baez.


When I went back to graduate school for my doctorate degree, I decided to focus on how to help adults and organizations learn to change.  When it came time to conduct research and to publish a dissertation to advance knowledge, I chose to explore how to help people learn to deepen their ability to reflect on their experience.  I finished my course work in three years, then took 3.5 more years to conduct the research, analyze it, and get it ready for publication.

As I reflect today on the choices I have made in my life, I believe that the major choices have been aligned with my core values, personal integrity, and sense of purpose.  All of us--at least most of us--experience life in a series of ups and downs rather than in straight lines.

Some people measure the value of life with a bankbook.  For me, the value of my life has little to do with a bankbook--that, too, has had a series of ups and downs.  I measure the value of my life by what I have learned and by how I have been able to make a positive difference in my own life and in the lives of others.

Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, in the movie, Groundhog Day, demonstrate a series of transformative learning experiences--with true transformation coming late in the movie.  It is very helpful when an enjoyable movie can demonstrate a concept and Groundhog Day (filmed in Woodstock, IL) does it well.