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The purpose of this paper is to explore the process by which individual change occurs.

This conceptual paper presents the intentional change theory (ICT) perspective on the role of positive and negative emotion in individual level intentional change. Existing emotion research is reviewed to provide a framework for discussion.

ICT offers a new understanding on the role of positive and negative emotion in the process of intentional change. The positive emotional attractor (PEA) triggers constructive cognitive and physiological responses that enhance an individual's motivation, effort, optimism, flexibility, creative thinking, resilience and other adaptive behaviors. The negative emotional attractor (NEA) triggers another process by calling attention to current social and environmental stressors that may compromise an individual's effectiveness. While both emotional attractors play an important role in intentional change, it is critically important to leverage the beneficial effects of PEA arousal.

Through thorough understanding of the PEA and NEA coaching and other ways of helping adults change can be enhanced. ICT is currently used worldwide in MBA classrooms, executive education programs and executive coaching contexts. Research on the impact of positive and negative emotion in intentional change can enhance these practice applications.

To date, no one has conceptualized the PEA and NEA in this manner. This proposes an enhancement of the previously developed notions of the value of positive emotion and positivity.

This study examined the impact of resonance expressed by the positive emotional attractor (PEA) and dissonance represented by the negative emotional attractor (NEA) created by medical students during diagnostic encounters with standardized patients (SPs) (laypeople) from the clinical skills exam (CSE). Secondary data were collected from 116 videotaped CSE encounters between SPs and medical students. Associations among the PEA and NEA states, and medical student effectiveness measured by SP, faculty, and differential diagnosis scores using moderated multiple regression analysis were determined. Results suggest that the PEA and NEA are powerful conditions for determining medical student effectiveness in clinical encounters.

The aim of this paper is to link complexity theory to the intentional change process by examining the role of emotional attraction. A research study currently underway on intentional change theory (ICT) in a healthcare context is presented.

This paper uses the concept of “attractors” from complexity theory to suggest that emotion affects the process of intentional change in different ways dependent upon whether the emotion is positive or negative. Determination of the emotion in this way proposes the existence of either a positive emotional attractor (PEA) or a negative emotional attractor (NEA). The paper discusses positive psychology's perspective on the differential impacts of positive and negative emotion. The paper also outlines an ongoing research project at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center which examines the concept of PEA and its effect on diabetes self‐management as well as its consequent role in improved health.

A review of the literature and subsequent development of hypotheses and the conceptual model, indicate education for chronically ill adults must be purposeful and directed toward a self‐perceived need for personal change; include their own disease experience; allow them to become active participants in learning; and lastly, the learning process should be considerate of individual cognitive ability.

ICT could address the needs of chronically ill patients as its focus is a self‐directed journey to personal change and learning. The potential of ICT is enormous given that diabetes is a national problem that has reached epidemic proportions.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an insight, through an examination of the American Civil Rights Movement and the Anti‐Apartheid Movement in South Africa, into how desired change occurs at a national or cultural level of social organization.

The words and actions of two key figures in these national change movements are analyzed through the use of intentional change theory, and its constituent elements of discontinuous change, reference groups, the ideal self and emotional attractors.

The findings lead to the suggestion that great leaders, at times of national change, articulate a shared ideal or national vision and are primarily grounded in the positive emotional attractor. Furthermore, they appeal to their followers' cognition and affect.

While these two figures are prominent historical figures in their respective change movements, it is naïve to suggest that they were solely responsible for the change. Future research could look at the many other figures and factors that played a role in these tremendously complex and sensitive change processes.

This paper has important implications for people involved in change efforts at the national and cultural level. It provides evidence from two exemplary cases that could be applied to other such situations.

This paper develops an insight into how desired change occurs at a national or cultural level of social organization. In a world riddled with tension, violence and poverty, this insight is potentially of great value.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework for understanding and formulating team intentional change.

Based on a critical review of existing theories of group development, gaps in the literature regarding how teams can and should develop, especially when the change is intentional and has a desired direction, are examined. A set of propositions is offered to address these aspects of group development that have been neglected by the literature.

A systematic and critical discussion of the core literature on group development showed: the complex and discontinuous nature of change in groups was neglected, because the group was not treated as a complex system; the literature has not dealt with group development processes when the change process is intentional (it has been descriptive of what occurs), nor has it examined which are key drivers of group change; existing literature on group development have predominantly seen negative emotion as catalytic to group development, and they have ignored the role of positive emotion. Therefore, drawing on positive psychology, complexity theory, small group research literatures, and Boyatzis' intentional change theory, a prescriptive theoretical framework for explaining intentional group change and development is offered and discussed.

A prescriptive model or theoretical framework with a set of hypotheses are proposed that explain intentional, and positive group development processes.

In this chapter, we offer a definition of a particular type of coaching, one focused on achieving sustained, desired change in the individual being coached. We also discuss a theory of intentional change, which we suggest explains why coaching in this manner indeed leads to sustained, desired change in individuals. We explore the coaching relationship in terms of the quality of the relationship and the competencies required by those who create that relationship. We also suggest that coaching has two faces: coaching with compassion and coaching for compliance. The latter often takes the form of trying to help someone in need. In these situations, the desire to help overcomes the knowledge that arousing motivation to change is more important than a short-term fix. We further offer that potential benefits exist in terms of the compassion one experiences from coaching others and we address the risk of not doing so. We provide a guide for the coaching process. And finally, we conclude with a discussion of the implications for future research on coaching and leadership development.

Change, and in particular intentional or desired change, has not been understood nor systematically studied. By applying concepts from complexity theory to intentional change theory, the purpose of this paper is to provide a new level of insight into why and how sustainable desired change can occur at all levels of human/social interaction, from individual to teams to organizations to communities, countries and the globe.

Using research from over 30 years of longitudinal studies of individual and organizational change, the concepts are explored and implications proposed.

Sustainable, intentional change is on the whole discontinuous. It occurs through a series of five discoveries or emergence conditions. It is driven by the interplay of the positive and negative emotional attractor. It follows the described process at all fractals of human organization.

Extensive empirical research has been done at the individual level, but only case studies at the organization and country levels.

Every person seeking to explore, understand, or facilitate sustainable, desired change can be helped by the model and understanding how it functions.

The theory of intentional change is relatively new to the literature, as is the use of complexity theory.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the role of emotional and social intelligence in family business leaders and how it can lead to a shared vision and dramatic increase in success of a family business.

Single organization case study interpreted through Intentional Change Theory.

Using emotional and social intelligence, two fifth‐generation family business members inspired others by building resonant relationships with them. They created a shared vision among the various stakeholders in the family, the organization and the community. They got others excited about the vision using positive, emotional contagion. The contagion and resonance spread to others in the family, organization, and region.

Although a case study, the implications for future research are to focus on the shared vision or lack thereof in family businesses, focus on resonant leadership, and multi‐level leadership.

Visionary leadership, with emotional intelligence (EI) and resonance can inspire renewal in organizations, families and regions.

Research on the power of vision and EI to transform businesses is emerging, but none of it has focused on family businesses, and in particular, multi‐generational ones. This paper shows how such leadership can transform a family, its business, and a region.