Change is not new. It is a fundamental aspect of the human experience. Researching indigenous cultures and their traditional approaches to change, I encountered a pattern of guiding change that is universal and timeless and that has great relevance today.
From this research, along with my understanding and experience with human and organization development, I have evolved The Liminal Pathways Change Framework. Liminality comes from the Latin and means threshold or margins. The framework illustrates the three fundamental phases of the change process—Separation, Liminality or Transition, and Integration—and it highlights the presence of an inner process (orange beads) and the outer structure (blue beads) that are part of a guided change process. Working purposefully with both the inner and outer dimensions creates a crucible of transformation which can also be appreciated as a kind of chrysalis. This dual focus is usually absent from our more contemporary Western approaches that emphasize step-by-step processes for leading large systems change.
This Liminal Pathways Change Framework is a simple but powerful guide to the territory of change. It is particularly useful to help normalize uncertainty and ambiguity that is part of the betwixt-and-between, and to appreciate that the creative tensions that reside there are the source out of which the new emerges.