Transformation Begins Here

We all want change—whether in our personal lives, our families, our workplaces, or even our communities. But real transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It begins with one small but powerful step: awareness.

This blog explores the transformation process through the lens of Whole Health Leadership, quality improvement, and personal experience. Over the post, we’ll explore:

1. Awareness – Seeing clearly what is.
2. Root Cause – Understanding why the problem exists.
3. Action – Taking intentional, small steps toward change.
4. Integration – Embedding change into daily life so it lasts.

I’ll share lessons from healthcare leadership, my own faith journey, and frameworks such as the VA’s Circle of Health, the Baldrige Excellence Framework, and the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. You’ll see how these principles apply not only to organizations but to everyday life—finances, relationships, wellness, and even grief.

This is more than theory. It’s a roadmap for living, leading, and healing.

Join me as we begin where all transformation starts: with awareness.

Awareness – The Beginning of Transformation

“I was told recently by one of my mentors, Sally, that my capstone project is an awareness project.”

That simple statement stuck with me. Awareness. Yes, it is the first step—whether in making a plan, improving a system, transforming a life, or healing a broken heart. Nothing can truly change until we become aware.

Even recovery movements like Alcoholics Anonymous recognize this. Step One begins with awareness: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” Awareness is the foundation of healing.

I’ve seen awareness transform my own life:

• Family: When my parents divorced, my mother handed me the book, Co-Dependent No More, by Melody Beattie. I became aware of how enabling and co-dependency ran through my family, and through me. Painful, yes, but it was the beginning of freedom.
• Healthcare Leadership: As a quality leader, I learned that you can’t fix what you don’t understand. You must uncover the root cause before improvement can begin.
• Whole Health Leadership: The VA’s Circle of Health begins with “What matters to you” rather than “What is the matter with you.” That awareness reframes the entire healing journey.
• Finances: I recently noticed that my credit card debt was rising, even though I wasn’t using the cards. Upon investigation, I discovered over $600 per month in unused subscriptions. Cancelling them lifted a burden—not only financially, but also mentally and emotionally.
• Grief: When my son Joshua was murdered, the poem Footprints, which had hung in my mother’s kitchen, became my lifeline. I became aware that God had not abandoned me. He was carrying me.

Awareness is always the beginning. As Scripture reminds us:

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
—Psalm 139:23-24

Next we explore the Root Cause – Why awareness is not enough.

Resources:

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2023). Circle of Health.
• Beattie, M. (1986). Co-Dependent No More. Hazelden Publishing.
• Alcoholics Anonymous. (2001). The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Root Cause – Going Deeper Than the Surface

Awareness tells us there’s a problem. Root cause analysis reveals the underlying reasons why a problem exists.

In healthcare, this is known as root cause analysis. In quality improvement, it’s the “Five Whys.” In personal life, it means asking uncomfortable but necessary questions.

When I saw my credit card debt rising, awareness got me started, but root cause analysis revealed the subscriptions silently draining my finances. Without going deeper, I would never have solved the problem.

The Baldrige Excellence Framework uses the A-D-L-I cycle: Approach, Deployment, Learning, and Integration. The “Learning” step asks: What’s really happening? Why are results the way they are?

In Whole Health, the VA teaches us to ask not, “What’s the matter with you?” but “What matters to you?” That shift exposes root causes. A patient might say, “I want to play with my grandchildren again.” Suddenly, the root cause isn’t just pain, it’s lack of mobility, stress, or poor nutrition.

Root cause awareness allows us to treat systems, not just symptoms.

“The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.” —Proverbs 20:5

Next, we discover Action – How to move from awareness into change.

Resources:

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2023). Whole Health Library.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2022). Baldrige Excellence Framework.

Action – Small Steps That Create Change

Awareness opens the door. Root cause shows us what’s behind it. But without action, nothing changes.

In quality improvement, we use the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. In goal setting, we set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). In faith, we are called to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).

For me, action often starts small:

• Cancelling those hidden subscriptions.
• Pausing for a few minutes of mindfulness in the morning.
• Asking “What matters to you?” instead of rushing to fix what’s wrong.

Each small action compounds into a bigger transformation.

Remember: you don’t have to leap. You just have to step.

The next step is Integration – Making the transformation last.

Resources:

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2023). How to Improve.
• Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management Review.

Integration – Making It Stick

True transformation happens when awareness, root cause analysis, and action become integrated into daily life.

In the Baldrige model, integration is the final step, embedding learning into systems so the organization grows stronger over time. In the 12 Steps of AA, integration happens as individuals sponsor others, live out their recovery, and pay forward what they’ve learned. In Whole Health, integration means aligning all the dimensions of health—physical, mental, emotional, financial, vocational, and spiritual—so that life becomes whole and sustainable.

Integration asks:

• How do I make this change part of my identity?
• How do I reinforce it through habits, relationships, and systems?
• How can I ensure that growth continues even when things become challenging?

When I realized God had carried me through my darkest valley, I didn’t just become aware; I began to live differently. Grief became an integral part of my story, but so did resilience, forgiveness, and a sense of purpose.

Integration is when the lessons you’ve learned become the life you live.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” —Matthew 7:24

Resources:

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (2023). Circle of Health.
• Alcoholics Anonymous. (2001). The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2022). Baldrige Excellence Framework.

Integration became real for me in the deepest valley of my life.

In 2012, my son Joshua was murdered. That trauma nearly shattered me. I leaned on faith, on stillness, on the awareness that God was somehow carrying me through the unthinkable.

And then, in 2021, my son Matthew died in a car accident. I had already walked the road of grief once, but losing both of my sons, the only children I gave birth to, was a pain I could barely imagine surviving.

But here is what I became aware of: I had once spent nine years in infertility programs, believing I might never be a mother. And yet, God gave me two amazing sons. Their lives, though far too short, were filled with meaning and impact.

Now, I carry the awareness that my sons’ spirits travel with me. Their impact didn’t end; it continues through me. That awareness gives me the strength and purpose I need. It allows me not only to survive but to thrive and to share my story so that others may find transformation in their own journeys.

Integration means transformation is no longer just something I talk about—it is something I live.

Transformation is possible. I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it in healthcare systems, in families, in communities, and in my own faith journey.

Awareness is always the first step. But it is never the last.

Awareness leads us to the root cause.
Root cause leads us to action.
Action, when repeated, leads us to integration.
And integration leads us to transformation.

The Bible says:

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” —Romans 12:2

That renewal begins with awareness, seeing clearly what is, trusting that God is with us, and stepping forward into the life we are meant to live.

So let me leave you with this question, the same one the VA asks every veteran in Whole Health:
What matters to you?

Because when you become aware of what truly matters, you can begin the journey of transformation.

Scripture References:

• Psalm 139:23–24 — “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (New International Version)
• Proverbs 20:5 — “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.” (New International Version)
• James 1:22 — “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (New International Version)
• Matthew 7:24 — “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (New International Version)
• Romans 12:2 — “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (New International Version)