Lives Change for the Better

We use linguistic analysis of recorded pre- and post-evolution interviews to learn where, on a progressive scale from “Non-Functional” to “Action, implementation, and Positive Change”, participants feel their lives are. We collect data three times: pre- and post-evolution and a year after graduation. 

Our participants come to our training describing themselves generally as non- or minimally functional.

• After graduation 18% report that they are starting to see a path out of their dysfunction, 48% are planning action and 30% are taking action and implementing positive changes in their lives.
• A year after graduation, 60% report that they are actively implementing positive changes in their lives, and nearly 40% are developing action plans.

This graph shows, in the black columns, the distribution of a sample of our participants across stages in their “before” interviews. The gray columns show that same distribution from the “after” interviews. The red columns show the interviews conducted a year after graduation.

Details of Our Methodology
As outlined in our first tenant, warfighters must be allowed to determine their own successful outcomes, therefore we tailored our research to account for this self-determination.
We have observed that participants come to us in one of these five stages with one or some of these attributes:

1. Non-Functional – Views self as a broken/disordered/helpless “patient”, house bound or otherwise isolated, requires care to survive, has little or no purpose or hope, likely (but not always) medicated.
   
2. Minimal Function – prefers to be isolated, un/underemployed, has difficulty with relationships, haunted by memories, struggles with hyper-vigilance/arousal, probably medicated.
   
3. Light Bulb Transition – realizes origin of issues, what life patterns need to change, not a helpless/powerless patient, hopeful about getting control of life, starting to reconnect with earlier warfighter identity and self-esteem.
   
4. Acton Plan Development – sets self-directed goals, may be angry because of lost time or harm caused by psychopharmacology, rallies social support, becomes analytically critical about information sources, understand the need to move forward vs. longing for the past.
   
5. Action, Implementation and Positive Change – implementation of plan at each participant’s individual ability, acceptance of one’s reality, progress assessment, goal reevaluation/realignment, gratitude, service to others.
   

We define progress as participants moving through these steps toward Stage 5. 

We extend our affection and gratitude to Ann Majchrzak for her support and guidance regarding this study. Ann was the USC Associates’ Chaired Professor of Business Administration for the Marshall School until her retirement in June 2022. She taught and did research on digital innovation. Her contributions, ranging from the study’s start until today, made it possible.