Session #20: The Formational Set: Leadership Transformation at the Threshold of the Mystical

The Formational Set: An Ontological Field Architecture for Researching Leadership Transformation at the Threshold of the Mystical. Presenter: Deborah Rundlett This video is part of The 2026 MSR Research Colloquium, The Mystical and Research: Dwelling at the Threshold of Knowing, which took place on June 11–12, 2026. This session introduces the Formational Set (FS), an ontological field architecture for understanding leadership transformation as recursive identity reconstitution rather than skill acquisition or stage progression (Palgrave, 2025). Drawing on perennial wisdom, systems change theory, and the neuroscience of memory, the FS articulates transformation through five dynamics—Tension, Turning, Threshold, Tending, and Terroir—across nine domains of formation. Particular attention is given to the “ontological gap,” letting go/surrendering… a discontinuous shift from ego-structured identity to relationally embedded being, resonant with descriptions of unitive or mystical experience. The session explores how such experiences may be studied without reduction, proposing a relational, participatory epistemology that integrates first-person inquiry with emerging empirical pathways (the Formational Set Scale). This work contributes to bridging mystical knowing and management research by offering a framework that holds rigor and ineffability in generative tension, inviting new approaches to leadership formation and the study of consciousness in organizational life. Speaker's Bio: Dr. Deborah Rundlett is a practical theologian and theorist–practitioner working at the intersection of leadership, formation, and change. She is the architect of the Formational Set, an ontological framework for whole-leader development, and the founding director of The Meetinghouse, a formational. Her work integrates perennial wisdom, developmental theory, and systems change, and is expressed through writing, teaching, and Poets & Prophets—A Formational Journey for Change Leadership.