Well, “refining” my research triad, at any rate. it is so difficult, which means I am not yet there. Y u so hard, research triad refinement?? Sometimes it feels like my brain will burn down to a smoldering nothing while I do this work.
What’s the problem? IN ONE SENTENCE
– there are change agents and then there are change agents. Many are adequate. Few (about 10%, according to Conner) are exceptional.
– The qualities that make a change agent exceptional are things that are not typically encouraged or supported within organizations. (Presence, authentic self, spiritual connection, creativity, other ways of knowing, etc.)
– lots of focus on the tools and processes of change agents, some research on what makes a change agent exceptional or high-performing (as Conner would put it), scant research on what it’s like to actually be one of these people within an organization.
– This matters because companies value the gifts and contributions of their Edgewalking Unicorns, yet some leaders do not understand how these partners work or what to do with them to further their effectiveness within and for the company.
Idea: not enough people are X – the expectation is Y – how do they do it so we can implement it in institutions?
What Walker hears:
– people who are doing this work in this way,
– still not convinced that it’s not grounded theory
– by going down this road, am I not possibly reinforcing a separatist view (those who can versus those who cannot), as opposed to understanding how they articulate how they do it. And part of what they’ll say will be about their personal space and navigating the social space at work
– what are the ways you use that make it work. describe how you do this.
What’s the question?
Think about the phenomenon itself: What is the nature of change-agent-ing? What is the nature of Edgewalking? It steers it away from the idiographic special sauce and brings it to the phenomenon of change agenting. What’s it like to be imbued in that nature?
What is the lived experience of being a high-performing change practitioner/Edgewalking Unicorn within one’s company?
What is the lived experience of the high-performing internal change practitioner who works in ways that are not typical or common within their organization?
What is it like to be a unicorn in a regular world environment and culture?
What is the purpose of this study?
– To explore the lived experiences of various Edgewalking Unicorns
– To better understand what it is like to be one within one’s company
– To shine a light on the significance of these lived experiences for ourselves, others, and the world (Sultan, 2019)
– So that they may recognize themselves in these stories and have a greater understanding of how to work well with these partners within an organization.
What is my rationale for using heuristic inquiry?
At its core, this study is about understanding what it is like for change agents to be viewed as extraordinarily different from the corporate culture in which they operate. I am called to do this research because I live this particularly change agent experience every day. Therefore, my subjective experience with the topic of inquiry holds value, yet my lived experience alone does not provide enough value or insight to help others recognize the lived experience within themselves or help leaders know what it’s like to be us in typical corporate environments.
To enhance the value of my research to the larger community, I would want to follow a methodology that:
– makes space for the researcher’s lived experience, connection, and relationship with their topic of inquiry (Moustakas, 1990)
– invites in the lived experiences of others with equal weight and value (Moustakas, 1990)
– views participants as equals instead of subjects (Moustakas, 1990)
– honors and preserves the whole person in the research as opposed to their parts and keeps the whole person visible within the research (Moustakas, 1990)
– focuses on the lived experience of the person over aspects of the phenomenon activating the lived experience (Moustakas, 1990)
– refuses to completely bracket out the researcher’s experience from the study (Moustakas, 1990)
– leans into the researcher’s alternative ways of knowing for discovering and exploring the deeper, hidden layers of the lived experience (Moustakas, 1990)
– is grounded in humanistic principles – actively invites flexibility, intuitive guidance, openness, and creativity (Moustakas, 1990).
