In the world of transformative and vertical learning, a “heat” experience is one where we recognize that the way in which we are making sense of something no longer seems to apply.

Some assumption or belief we have been holding—one which had previously been hidden from awareness— is no longer a match for the situation, circumstance or event we currently face.

The most salient quality of a Heat experience is a feeling—often of fear or anxiety.

Typically, such an experience becomes one from which we attempt to ‘recover’—one we try to escape from. One from which we try to get back to a familiar equilibrium.

We might ‘learn’ something, but typically such a learning is not transformative: it simply solidifies a currently existing status quo (e.g. “I’ll never say THAT again!” or “Wow! Now that’s something to avoid in the future!”), rather than helping us move to a new, more enabling one.

However, the emotional energy of that experience can become a point of transformative leverage, when it is processed within a particular kind of ‘holding environment’. A psychological container in which a particular quality of insight arises—insight that leads one to embrace a newer, more enabling, more empowering assumption or belief.

More and more, the role of the coach, the facilitator, the consultant, manager… and friend… necessarily includes the capacity to catalyze just such an environment.