Understanding Transitions - The Secret to Leading Change

We’ve heard time and again that the only constant is change. A significant amount of leadership energy is focused on managing change and all of its complexity. Whether it involves the installation of a new software program, the movement of work to China, India or Mexico, or a long term focus on cultural transformation, change will always be present as businesses continue to innovate in order to remain competitive. In my coaching work with organizational leaders, successfully leading change surfaces regularly as an issue.

As stated by William Bridges (2003), it isn’t the changes that do you in. It’s the transitions. Change is situational: the move to a new site, the retirement of the founder, the reorganization of the roles on the team, the revisions to the pension plan. 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.

Successful transition requires a balanced focus on the needs of the employees as well as the business as both adjust to change initiatives. Leaders of change can gain valuable insights by understanding the different stages through which people move as they face change. Specifically, Bridges describes three phases of change – the ending, neutral zone, and the new beginning – and offers suggestions for how businesses can support employees as they progress through each.

We identified three main areas for Brad’s development. First, we felt it would be helpful to re-examine his assumptions on how to motivate his team. Second, we agreed on the importance of focusing on strengths in addition to weaknesses. Third, he wanted to expand the leadership styles he used with his team.

The Ending, Losing or Letting Go Phase

In this initial phase, employees directly face the change and experience a range of emotions including fear and anxiety as their sense of normalcy, identity and security are thrown off balance. To offer support through this grieving phase, Bridges suggests that organizations help employees let go of those roles, identities, and/or competencies that served them in the past by doing the following:

• Give visible support
• Highlight areas that are not changing
• Provide people opportunities to informally interact and discuss concerns
• Build on the past rather than discount the past
• Be sensitive to people who are at different stages of accepting the change
• Help people identify what they are holding onto and why
• Communicate more than usual
• Be extra tolerant of mistakes

This is not to suggest that you allow negativity to prevail or enable unnecessary whining or complaining. You do however, want to provide people a safe place to air their fears and concerns. If they can get these worries off their chest and feel heard, they will be more open to moving into the next phase and closer to meaningful action.

The Neutral Zone or Impasse Phase

In this phase, employees may have let go of the old reality, but have not yet embraced the new. The old is gone, but the new is not yet fully operational. Therefore, leadership support is critical in ensuring that employees do not get stuck in this phase, otherwise they might sabotage the change. According to Bridges, this is where critical psychological repatternings take place.

American Futurist Marilyn Ferguson beautifully characterizes this phase by saying “It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear…It’s like being between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold onto.”

Several potential dangers exist in the neutral zone, including:

• A rise in anxiety and a drop in motivation. People are disoriented and self doubting. They are resentful and self protective, often hunkering down on their own or in camps. Energy normally given to work is sucked up by basic coping tactics.
• Absenteeism. People in the neutral zone miss more work than at other times.
• Old weaknesses, previously compensated for, re-emerge in full bloom. For example if customer service has always been weak, it gets even worse in the neutral zone. Communication problems also worsen.
• People may lose confidence in the organization and turnover might increase.
• Because of the ambiguous nature of the neutral zone, people become polarized. Some move forward, and others hold on to the past. Consequently consensus breaks down easily.

It is for the above reasons that managing the neutral zone is so important during a period of significant change. Some ideas for successful management of the neutral zone include:

• Normalize the neutral zone by helping people to understand it. People often expect to be able to move straight through from the old to the new. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy trip. It’s a journey that takes time. According to Bridges, it’s the winter during which the spring’s new growth is taking shape under the earth.
• Allow for creativity and new ideas. Because the neutral zone can be somewhat chaotic, it can also be more hospitable to new ideas than when times are more settled. Capitalize on the confusion by encouraging people to innovate.
• Encourage people to share their feelings.
• Set shorter term goals and celebrate small successes.
• Encourage and strengthen healthy intragroup connections.
• Restrain the natural impulse to push prematurely for certainty and closure.

The New Beginning or Renewal Phase

This is when people develop the new identity, experience renewed energy and discover an entirely new sense of purpose and meaning that makes the change begin to work. Bridges offers some powerful distinctions between starts and beginnings. A start can be designed, like an object. A beginning should be nurtured like a plant. Starts take place on a schedule. Beginnings are the final phase of this organic process called transitions and their timing is not set by the dates written on an implementation schedule. Beginnings follow the timing of the mind and heart.

Like any organic process, beginnings cannot be made to happen by a request, demand or planned activity. They happen when the timing of the transition process allows them to happen, just as flowers and fruit appear on a schedule that is natural and not subject to anyone’s will. That is why it is so important to understand the transition process and where people are in it. While beginnings can’t be forced according to your personal wishes, they can be encouraged, supported, and reinforced. The key things leaders can do in facilitating beginnings include:

• Explain the basic purpose behind the outcome you seek. People have to understand the logic of it before they will turn their minds to work on it.
• With your people, co-create a picture of how the outcome will look and feel. People need to experience the outcome imaginatively before they can make a visceral connection to it. Without this, employees may just go through the motions.
• Lay out a plan for realizing the outcome and allow input into the plan.
• Provide employees a part to play in both the plan and the outcome in such a way that their part plays to their strengths. People need to know that they are able to make an impact. They want a tangible way to contribute and participate in a way that aligns with their own talents and gifts.

By understanding how to balance both the human and business needs of the organization and by incorporating the suggestions provided by Bridges regarding transitional phases, leaders are better positioned to successfully lead through change. An executive coach can provide invaluable support to leaders as they chart and navigate their course for transversing change. If you would like to know more about how to successfully navigate transitions, please give use a call at 316.634.2328. We’d love to talk!

Reference: Bridges, W. (2003). Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press.