Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

by William Bridges

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. —CHINESE PROVERB

It is a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead—and find no one there. —FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, AMERICAN PRESIDENT

Transition, on the other hand, is psychological; it is a three-phase process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the details of the new situation that the change brings about.

Getting people through the transition is essential if the change is actually to work as planned.

“Just because everything has changed, doesn’t mean anything is different around here.”

Because transition is a process by which people unplug from an old world and plug into a new world, we can say that transition begins with an ending and finishes with a beginning.

If paper inserted into a fax machine is inserted sideways, it will cut transition time 15 percent. But then he added that he thought they’d have trouble implementing the idea because it would mean changing behavior.2

With a change, you naturally focus on the outcome that the change produces.

Transition is different. The starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome but the ending that you’ll have to make to leave the old situation behind.

Once you understand that transition begins with letting go of something, you have taken the first step in the task of transition management. The second step is understanding what comes after the letting go: the neutral zone. This is the psychological no-man’s-land between the old reality and the new one. It is the limbo between the old sense of identity and the new. It is the time when the old way of doing things is gone, but the new way doesn’t feel comfortable yet.

the gap between the old and the new is the time when innovation is most possible and when the organization can most easily be revitalized.

Figure out exactly how individuals’ behavior and attitudes will have to change to make teams work. To deal successfully with transition, you need to determine precisely what changes in their existing behavior and attitudes people will have to make.

Analyze who stands to lose something under the new system. This step follows the previous one.

“Sell” the problem that is the reason for the change. Most managers and leaders put 10 percent of their energy into selling the problem and 90 percent into selling the solution to the problem. People aren’t in the market for solutions to problems they don’t see, acknowledge, and understand.

Put team members in contact with disgruntled clients, either by phone or in person. Let them see the problem firsthand.

Talk to individuals. Ask what kinds of problems they have with “teaming.” When an organization

Talk about transition and what it does to people. Give coordinators a seminar on how to manage people in transition.

Start holding regular team meetings.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another. ANATOLE FRANCE, FRENCH WRITER

I’m not afraid of death. It’s just that I don’t want to be there when it happens. WOODY ALLEN, AMERICAN FILMMAKER

So instead of telling the truth, managers substitute a fabrication of half-truths and untruths. Not only do these later turn out to be outright lies, but managers often trip themselves up with inconsistencies and new stories to cover the old inconsistencies.