Managing Transitions

As a means of demonstrating Process Consulting, I am offering a webinar on April 9th from 11am-12pm EST (contact me for details!) on Managing Transitions (link to register below), helping leaders understand their role in identifying and expressing emotional implications of change.

Early in my career I prided myself as a community change agent. I could pull together a group of colleagues, identify a program, or cultural element that wasn’t “working” and together we “fixed” it. We told people how they could be involved in our process; problem solving for solutions, engaging in action steps and assigning accountability. I relished pulling together groups, finding problems and fixing them. We were change agents on behalf of all. Bring me my flowers.

As my responsibility increased within organizations, I noticed people were ok with some change, but the process, pacing and execution wasn’t always welcome. Yes, they said, we like systems that are more fluid, but we don’t like you changing things without explaining why or how it would affect us or even asking us what we think. I was baffled by the frustration as our intentions were good and our changes solid.

It wasn’t until I learned about culture, transitions, curiosity, and inclusivity that I began to see the difference between change and transitions. William Bridges puts it best in his book, Managing Transitions, Making the Most of Change.

“Transition is the psychological process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external, transition is internal”

(Bridges, 1991).

In reading Bridges and every Edgar Schein book that included Humble in the title, I realize I have been making the mistake of coming at my “change” projects from the perspective of logic and systems rather than seeing it as transitions through stages of “Endings: letting go of the past, Neutral Zone: a sense of limbo of not knowing what changes mean and Beginnings: people embracing new changes.” (Bridges, 1991) I learned to ask questions and understand that people and systems don’t change because they are comfortable with and dependent upon the constructs they create. I underestimated the emotional side of losing comfort in predictability. I started to ask, “How are things going?” and following up with, “what does that mean to you?” “How might we do that differently?”

Through asking questions, individuals are able to acknowledge emotions, talk about the past and process new ways of being together. Through communicating plans, individuals have time to process, understand leadership's motivations, and imagine a world they have yet to inhabit. Transitions take time and care, and instead of constantly parroting “this is going to be hard, hang in there”, I want to shift the mindset of listening, helping and learning as we identify where an organization wants to be and how we can get there together. The possible benefits of change belong in the context of the emotional side of transitioning.

Walking alongside,

Lukie Wells

Senior Design Partner
Design Group International

You can sign up for my Workshop here 

t yourself in an immersive environment. Visit an aquarium where you can be surrounded by fish.