Abstracted from

The silent drama of Breakpoint change (transformation) is found everywhere in nature, from the shift a tree goes through when it slows its growth and produces fruit to the more spectacular metamorphosis of the lowly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. The tree has become quite different, covered with plentiful fruit, and the butterfly will never return to be an earthbound caterpillar. As we move up the ladder of complexity to the changes experienced by individuals and organizations, nature ups the ante considerably. Transformation of human behavior requires basic changes in our thinking patterns and alteration of our worldview.

A "worldview" is a set of shared assumptions that make up our fundamental idea of how the world works - how things fit together. It is largely unquestioned. It is "the way things are." We accept the traditional wisdom of a worldview the way we do eating or breathing; we are not conscious of the thoughts forming our worldview. It is simply the way things have always been and always will be.

In nature, the common sense way to do things is very different from orthodox human wisdom. The science of natural change and growth shows that at critical points in the development of anything the rules shift. The tree, for example, as it matures, slows down its quantitative growth and changes to qualitative growth. It switches its internal relationships and starts suddenly to bear fruit. It enters into a new relationship with its neighbors, becoming an integrated part of a complex and interdependent ecosystem. It shares its space and provides shade, habitat, and nourishment for other plants and animals. It goes from independent, getting bigger, to interdependent, sharing, connecting, and developing deeper relationships. Unfortunately, most individuals and organizations don't respond this naturally or successfully to these Transformative changes.

Transformative Wisdom

Understanding natural Transformative change processes helps us prepare for our entry into the 21st century. It will show how totally new phenomena spring into being, how long periods with little change lull us into complacency. Most important, we will look underneath change itself, interpreting how change really works, and what forces drive change.

Land and Jarman suggest the following overriding principles and rules be used in guiding individuals and organizations through the process of Transformative change:

1. Creating what has never existed before, not depending on improvements to what already exists.
2. Making deep and powerful interdependent connections with one another, not excluding people based on differences or separating functions.
3. Being pulled to a new kind of future, not being pushed by the past.

Every single cell in a tree, in a caterpillar, or in a human being grows and develops not based on its history but by being pulled forward by its internal picture of the possible future. That future is inscribed in the DNA, the genes that reside in the nucleus of every cell. That way, every part of the system can pull together toward the common future.

These principles are simple to enumerate. Yet they mock historical knowledge. They run counter to our most basic, long-lived, and cherished beliefs and assumptions about how the world works.

Just as the scientists who created the technological advancements of our contemporary world had to change their minds about nature's laws, so too can we shift to a unique, but more natural, way of thinking. It was Einstein who recognized, "The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation." Nature specializes in change; she's been in the business the longest. We can learn a lot from her.

The Master Pattern of Change

Albert Einstein penetrated the deepest marvels of nature by envisioning himself riding through the universe on a light beam traveling at the speed of light. In this case, imagine yourself as a passenger riding on the edge of a tiny particle of sand.

At this minute, your piece of sand, also known as silicon or quartz, is being subjected to immense heat inside a volcano. The temperature rises so much that your grain of sand becomes liquefied. You're surrounded by confusion, turmoil, and chaos as other atoms hurl past in every direction. All is tumult and disorder. Slowly, the heat dissipates, and as it does your tiny atom of sand begins to settle into a comfortable relationship with other silicon atoms. Slowly gathering together, the atom forms layers, fitting snugly into a tiny quartz seed crystal. As more and more atoms join the group, the world around you changes radically. The wild ride has settled down. Your trip has moved from disorder to order. You just passed through a natural Breakpoint!

The ride, however, has just begun. The hardening quartz, of which you are now an integral part, starts growing rapidly as additional atoms fuse together, forming large quartz molecules, growing ever bigger Taking shape around you, the almost transparent crystal provides some rules of arrangement, order, and regularity. The ride is smooth and even, continuous and comfortable. The bonds between the silicon atoms have formed molecules that are so strong it seems nothing from outside can intrude on your secure world. Just as you are relaxing, expecting the gentle ride to continue indefinitely, the quartz crystal runs into an immense surprise. What is happening couldn't be predicted based on the past.

Suddenly foreign atoms make their way into the crystal. Atoms of copper and magnesium intrude between you and other silicon atoms, spinning things around, grabbing loose atoms and electrons, changing the composition and arrangements of the crystal. Within the crystal new bonds are formed as old configurations vanish; the rules and orderliness you depended on has gone completely. Nearly overcome by confusion, you can't fathom what's happening. You just passed through another Breakpoint in the Transformative process!

As you look around, you find that many of your new bonds with strange atoms are even stronger than before. Light is now refracted in many directions, suffused with beautiful colors. Actually, you notice that what was once a comfortable but rather dull neighborhood is becoming varied and interesting.

You have just taken a trip from plain old sand to become a quartz crystal and finally emerged as a precious amethyst. You have experienced two powerful Breakpoints of transformation where the rules around you shifted totally.

This same trip through Breakpoints is what happens when modern scientists and technicians copy nature's approach and grow silicon crystals, cut them into tiny wafers, etch them, and then add new and different atoms to bring a totally unique possibility into being. By going through two powerful Breakpoints, the cheapest and most common substance on the planet suddenly becomes the most expensive and important - A semiconductor, the basis of today's revolutionary transistorized technology. Instead of a powerful computer needing a giant, specially cooled building with complex and expensive vacuum tubes, it can use millions of transistors on several square inches of transformed sand run by flashlight batteries. The new system is many, many times cheaper, faster, smaller, and cooler. Taking that ride on board a piece of sand to become an amethyst required a volcano and many years of cooling. Modern technology not only reduces this same process to days, but also creates the special properties of a human-designed semiconductor.