[MUSIC]
I came to Stanford to explore transformation.
It is what matters most to me, and
as a world that has caused me as much pain as it is pride.
I'm not alone.
Society is as obsessed with transformation as I am.
We're fascinated by the before and after, who you were then and who you are now.
On Instagram, it's the 10 year challenge.
In nature, it's the caterpillar turns butterfly.
I spent my career in education facilitating change.
As a mixed race, Jewish woman, I wanted to ensure that
organizations changed to embrace marginalized voices.
So I worked for organizations that create transformative
experiences while they were undergoing drastic internal change.
Things like scaling local to national,
transitioning CEOs, infusing equity, and inclusion.
I had a front row seat to transformation of all kinds.
It showed me that even the experts still struggle to create and
define transformation.
And that's the thing.
Do any of us really know what transformation means when we say it?
Because if we want to change lives, organizations, and
the worlds, we need to start defining how we do it.
I'm here to end the before and after dichotomy.
I want to shift us from seeing transformation as an outcome to a process,
and there is no process more famous,
no transformation metaphor more cliched than the caterpillar turns butterfly.
I actually love this metaphor, and
as a former elementary school science teacher, I'm very familiar with it.
>> [LAUGH] >> The caterpillar to butterfly
captures transformation's magic and mystery.
Yet, what happens inside the chrysalis phase is unquestioned,
unheard of, and untouched, and that's the mistake.
We should be talking about the chrysalis, the true hero.
The chrysalis holds the key to how we can define transformation.
So let's focus on the chrysalis because what happens inside is
absolutely mind blowing.
A caterpillar makes her chrysalis from the inside out.
To prepare, she anchors herself to a home, usually a twig.
>> [LAUGH] >> She then bursts her head open to shed
her skin.
The underlying layer is the chrysalis.
The chrysalis protects her and camouflages with the outside worlds
with the hope that no one notices what's about to happen.
Inside the chrysalis, she then actively breaks down,
she liquifies, turning completely into mush.
The only thing left are her essential structures for breathing.
Yet, even as mush, she knows how to rebuild,
she builds each structure carefully, her legs,
her wings, the patterns on her body.
And when ready, she breaks free until finally, she can fly.
When caterpillars break down, they know how
to create new, better versions of themselves.
They can even remember their time as a caterpillar once they became a butterfly,
what they smelled, what they liked, what scared them.
At each step, this transformation is active,
messy, intentional, and personal.
This is how we can define transformation.
This is the magic.
And I've learned this firsthand.
I experienced a couple of personal transformations.
It took me years to truly accept my identity
as a black and white, Jewish woman.
Yet, what truly taught me the process of transformation,
to define it in real time was,
of all things, a bad break-up.
>> [LAUGH] >> A couple years ago, I was ending
a five-year relationship, starting a new job, and learning to live in a new city.
Feelings of finding myself were front and center.
I was angry.
I was sad.
And I was surrounded by people that created transformation every day.
How do you do that?
I never got that question answered, which is why I'm here,
waxing nature metaphors and divulging my story of liquifying.
>> [LAUGH] >> We need to talk about the breakdown.
I went through the same steps as that caterpillar.
Step one, I anchored, the San Francisco Bay Area, and later Stanford.
Transformation often happens in these immersive learning experiences because
you're rooted in a place to do the work.
Step two, shed skin and form protection.
I simultaneously switched jobs, moved, ended a relationship, and
applied to business school.
>> [LAUGH] >> In many ways, my chrysalis has been
my business school experience, from application to today.
Step three, break down.
I definitely broke.
I sat alone and slept alone.
I cried every single day.
I screamed.
I don't scream.
>> [LAUGH] >> I
laid on my bedroom floor, my version of mush.
I was so lost.
Step four, Thoughtfully put yourself back together.
I found me.
I started writing again, after five years, poetry mostly, and letters.
I righted my wrongs and
accepted there were wrongs that I would never be able to right.
I practiced presence, balance, and gratitude.
I actively, intentionally, changed for the better.
Step 5, break free, fly, and remember where you came from.
To be honest, I'm not here yet.
>> [LAUGH] >> I'm in the messy, mushy middle.
And I love being in my chrysalis.
It gives me direction for when to say yes and no.
And for how to prepare for what's next.
That's the process, and we can all prepare for what's next because it's so
much more than my transformation.
It's why so many of us are at Stanford, to search for
transformation ,to welcome it, to facilitate it.
Yet, we don't just come to Stanford to be transformed, we do the work.
We thoughtfully choose opportunities that constitute our legs and wings,
our careers, and organizations Maybe we're all in the messy middle.
At Stanford, and as a society, right now.
We have the power and process to be better
because we can do more than change lives, organizations, in the world.
We can transform them.
But it won't be enough to repeat the words.
We're going to have to break them in ourselves,
all the way down, in order to build back up into something beautiful.
>> [APPLAUSE].
[MUSIC]