Why People Really, Really Like Using The Word, “Transformation”

Before AI came into our lives and 75% of all LinkedIn posts became all about it, 75% of all LinkedIn posts were about “Digital Transformation.”

How recruiters are using “DT” to find better candidates, how sales is using DT to get better leads, how Granny’s cat is using DT to get more kibble.

Yes, technically, AI is a form of DT. But DT goes back a while. As far back as the first digital computers in WWII, even as far back as Ada Lovelace inventing algorithmic machine coding in the mid-19th Century.

DT has been around for so long and means so many things to so many people that it’s actually become a pretty meaningless term. It’s more of a polysemic, a portmanteau, and umbrella term, an idea with no fixed address.

But we use it anyway, because it’s useful and we like it.

Why is it useful, and why do we like it so much? Because it’s two treats in one. First, there’s the “digital” part, the practical bit, which tells us the means, the tools we have to master, the tech we can actually touch with our hands. 

Second, there’s “transformation,” the constant in all great stories.
Luke Skywalker goes from nowheresville farm boy to Jedi Master who restores hope to the galaxy. David goes from skinny shepherd kid to warrior king. 

Elizabeth Gilbert goes from a bored, uninspired lady to someone who learns to live, laugh, and love. 

Mulan goes from an unimportant villager to soldier in disguise to ultimately the one who saves the army.  This is why people pay money to watch movies. We sit there, watching characters transform themselves from something ordinary to something extraordinary. It’s mythology 101.

That’s why our sales pitches always begin with a promise to transform the industry, transform your business, transform your life, or transform the world itself. 

Because that is how human beings find meaning.

By definition, a meaningful experience is one that turns us into a wiser, kinder, stronger, more enlightened, wealthier, happier, more complete version of ourselves. Or the exact opposite, but at least we learn something. Even if it’s painful.

Transformation. That’s all anyone is really selling. Because at the end of the day, that’s all anyone is really buying.