Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

by William Bridges

The business world is constantly transforming. When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people; it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change.

As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, transition is successful when employees have a purpose, a plan, and a part to play. This indispensable guide is now updated to reflect the challenges of today's ever-changing, always-on, and globally connected workplaces. Directed at managers on all rungs of the corporate ladder, this expanded edition of the classic bestseller provides practical, step-by-step strategies for minimizing disruptions and navigating uncertain times.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Management, Psychology, Personal Development, Self Help

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

William Bridges is an internationally known speaker, author, and consultant who advises individuals and organizations in how to deal productively with change.

Educated originally in the humanities at Harvard, Columbia, and Brown Universities, he was (until his own career change in 1974) a professor of American Literature at Mills College, Oakland, CA. He is a past president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. The Wall Street Journal listed him as one of the top ten independent executive development presenters in America.

[source]

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from my workplace because we are getting bought out by another company. I attended a Working Through Transition class and all of the attendees received a copy of this book.

This book is actually a guide for management to lead their employees through a successful transition. There is an ending, a neutral zone, and a new beginning.

This book is not exactly geared for an employee finding out they are getting laid off.

I will say it appears my company is doing a good job of managing this transition, at least as far as the suggestions and guidelines of this book. I found it interesting about the life cycle of organizations. It was also interesting to see what you should and should not do during a transition time. I think this book could be a valuable tool for managers. It wasn't, however, terribly meaningful to me in my particular situation.

This isn't a book about how to cope with the upcoming stress of job loss that is looming on the horizon. I've been there, I've done that. It isn't pretty. (At least this time, I don't think it will be worse.) It's fine to talk about not being able to let go of something good, trying to find a place in a confusing neutral zone, and embracing something new, but my mortgage is going to need paid. My work place might have done better by handing out copies of managing stress related to a job loss, including financial stress. This is not the fault of this book, however. (I tried to get something meaningful out of it since I had to read it, but unfortunately a sense of cynicism caused me to make sarcastic comments in the margins.)

There are several typos in this book in the form of missing words which was rather irritating. One Latin quote did not make sense to me because of the lack of the "being verb". I don't speak Latin, but something seemed off. "Omnia uno tempore agenda" looked like it would be translated "Everything one time done". The quote is actually "Omnia uno tempore erant agenda" - "Everything had to be done at once". Better proofreading would have helped.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The news that the grant which funds the work my team and I do was ending prompted me to return to this book I first read parts of when another "sea change" was coming to the AVID world: the retirement of Mary Catherine Swanson, and the appointment of a new Executive Director. Much was changing, and Chapter 3 of this Book ("How to Get People to Let Go") helped me gain perspective on managing my own feelings of grief, as well as helping those around me figure it out. It was the end of an era for the AVID Program, and the changes in the organization have only grown more rapid in the time since then.

Now that the "final" transition is at hand (at least in terms of most of us in the CA Regions), I decided to read it from cover to cover. Bridges helps the reader understand the difference between change, which is constant, and transition, in which people's worlds are fundamentally altered. Although the author comes from a manufacturing and management focus, most of the book's advice remains relevant for me. Reading from both the perspective of someone who is "being transitioned" and from the angle of someone charged with leading my team through the resulting transitions, I gained immensely from the many acronym-themed processes, like the four P's (purpose, picture, plan, and part), and GRASS (guilt, resentment, anxiety, self-absorption, and stress). The final quote sets out the challenge:

"Our moral responsibility is not to stop the future, but to shape it . . . To channel our destiny in humane directions and to ease the trauma of transition." Alvin Toffler. We'll be working through that process together as a team for the next year. I recommend Bridges' book "Transitions" for those going through transitions; for those who lead others who must also make the passage, this book hits the mark. >^..^<

[Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to read this for work. I did learn some useful things, or had things I knew on a gut level articulated. So, this was useful and has given me a lot to think about. My big issue with it though is that it's very much written with a corporate model in mind. If you're looking to manage transition in a corporate setting, this book is more for you. But libraries play by different rules. I was able to adapt a lot of things, but skimmed sections on venture and takeovers and certain behaviors specific to the corporate sector. My other beef with this is that the book is full of quotes and scenarios from great thinkers and situations from history, but...

None of them are be women.
None of them are by anyone nonwhite.

It's not good. I have a couple of books by non-corporate, nonwhite, nonmale people to supplement this.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the ‘classic’ texts on “change management” is Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges, originally published in 1991 and last updated in 2009. William Bridges, an American author, speaker, and organizational consultant, emphasizes the importance of understanding transitions as a key for organizations to succeed in making changes. One of the theses of the book is that ‘transition’ is the psychological process of adapting to change and it is this that Bridges spends most of his time unpacking. He argues that transition consists of three phases: letting go of the past, the "neutral zone" where the past is gone but the new isn't fully present, and making the new beginning. As he defines it, transition is psychological and a three phase process where people gradually accepts the details of the new situation and the changes that come with it.
The starting point for Bridges’ Managing Transitions framework lies in his distinction between “change” and “transition.” For Bridges these are not the same: “Change is situational: the move to a new site, the retirement of a 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.” Change is fast; transition is slow.
After a transition, people will adopt new behaviors, adapt their mental frameworks, and adopt new identities. “Transition” involves change on a personal, internal level whereas “change” may not. Bridge argues that “it isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.” That is, it is the personal and psychological side of change related to people’s transitions that is difficult to manage rather than the explicit program of planned activity such as installing new computers or putting in place new incentive programs or reorganizing a workforce.
Bridges asserts that because transition is a process by which people “unplug from an old world and plug into a new world,” –in other words, ‘transition’ is a process that starts with an ending and ends with a beginning. Accordingly, Bridges describes the process of managing transitions in terms of three components of activity:
1. Ending, Losing, Letting Go
2. The Neutral Zone
3. The New Beginning
One of Bridges key propositions is that “the starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome, but the ending you’ll have to make to leave the old situation behind.” People can be attached to the old ways, and the transition can be initially marked by people becoming angry, sad, frightened, depressed, anxious, confused, and exhibiting bargaining behaviors. Endings can be managed by treating the past with respect, helping compensate for losses, giving people plenty of the right information, marking the endings, and helping define what is over and what isn’t. Ministers who have ever moved into a new church setting will immediately recognize the dynamic that Bridges is describing. Perhaps one of the more helpful points of the book is that it is important to mark endings. The last thing an organization needs is an incomplete ending that requires a whole new round of losses to finish the job before people have had time to heal!
After people have let go of the past, they enter what Bridges calls “the neutral zone.” The neutral zone “is a nowhere between two ‘somewheres’ . . . while you are in it, forward motion seems to stop while you hang suspended between was and will be.” The neutral zone is a place of both risk and opportunity. It is risky because people are unsure of the process being made and may become anxious, during which time productivity may fall. Hence, there are dangers in this stage of transition. Old weaknesses, compensated for in the old arrangements, may rise to the surface. People may get mixed signals between the old regime and the new, and people may become polarized one way or the other, leading to tension and discord. In addition, until the new regime becomes embedded, the new arrangements are vulnerable to internal or external shocks.
For all these reasons, transitions through the neutral zone need to be managed carefully. People can deal with understandable change if it is part of the bigger one. Unrelated, unexpected change may be the straw that will break the camel’s back. Bridges provides a number of mechanisms for this, including creating temporary support systems and short-term goals and redefinition of the activity in the neutral zone in terms of more familiar activity or metaphors. The neutral zone is also, however, a point of creative opportunity: as people and systems “unfreeze” from the old systems and have not yet “freezed” back into the new systems, there is tremendous opportunity to identify and realize changes and find new ways of doing things.
Finally, a new beginning is made. Bridges distinguishes between “starts” and “beginnings.” A start occurs when people start doing new things, when they start enacting the changes. A beginning only occurs, however, when the personal psychological and behavioral change takes place and people take on new behaviors and identities. A “start” and a “beginning” are two quite different things: “A start can and should be carefully designed . . . A beginning can and should be nurtured, like a plant. Starts take place on a schedule as a result of decisions. They are signaled by announcements . . . Beginnings, on the other hand, are the final phase of this organic process that we call “transition,” and their timing is not set on the dates written on the implementation schedule. Beginnings follow the timing of the mind and the heart.”

It is important to understand the transition process and where people are in it. Only when you get into people’s shoes and feel what they are feeling can you help them to manage their transition.
In order to manage beginnings, Bridges suggests it is necessary to first manage the endings and neutral zones. In addition, transition managers must define the “4P’s” defining the path into the future: the purpose of the transition, the picture or vision, the plan, and the part for each person to play. In addition, being consistent (avoiding conflicting messages), building momentum with “quick successes,” symbolizing the new entity, and celebrating successes can all help with successful transitions.
Bridges’ book has some excellent tools for the manager (or person leading an organization through change). For example, Bridges provides the following tool to identify what is ending and who is losing what:
1. Describe the change in as much detail as you can
2. Identify the secondary changes that the change will probably cause – and the further changes that those changes will cause
3. Determine how people will be affected – who will have to let go of something?
4. Think of these from the subjective viewpoint of people affected
5. Beyond these losses, is there something that is over for everyone?
Another useful recommendation is that Bridges proposes the creation of a Transition Monitoring Team – a group composed of individuals from across the organization holding various roles, whose sole purpose is to provide a feedback on the status of the transition across the organization.

In terms of critical assessment, Bridges framework for managing transitions has many strengths. Bridges puts management of the human side of change at the forefront, and highlights the psychological and emotional component of change. In addition, the book is full of insights and tools culled from Bridges’ experience as a consultant helping organizations manage transitions. Bridges’ Managing Transitions is deservedly a classic in the Change Management literature.
However, there are several weaknesses that deserve mention. First, the language used to describe Bridges’ key concepts often does not facilitate sending his message as clearly and unambiguously as it could. For example, the phrase “the neutral zone” is (to my mind) somewhat ambivalent and meaningless: a simple change to perhaps “the transition zone” or even something more poetic such as “the long dark night” might be more meaningful to readers. Similarly, the fundamental distinction between “change” vs. “transition” and “starts” vs. “beginnings” is not as sharp as it could be, and consequently the reader needs to expend more effort to determine exactly what Bridges means by these central terms in his framework.
A second weakness is that Bridges sends somewhat conflicting messages about the three phases of transition. In two successive sentences, Bridges asserts firstly that “you need all three phases, and in that order, for a transition to work” and secondly that “the phases don’t happen separately; they often go on at the same time.”
The third and fourth issues are that Bridges does not clearly relate the management of change to the management of transitions, and that Bridges emphasis that managing transitions starts with letting go of the old. Clearly a great deal of planning is typically done to manage changes: how should these or do these inter-relate with the management of transitions?
Both these issues can be highlighted by considering an organization undergoing change in a managed fashion. Before change is implemented, the change has typically been planned, stakeholder impacts have been analyzed, and the roadmap has been laid out and communicated. The “4P’s” of purpose, picture, plan and play laid out in Bridges’ third stage of “beginnings” have been well developed and extensively communicated. That is, the management of change is typically well advanced well before anyone needs to start letting go of anything and begin transitioning to new arrangements and identities. From a change management point of view, Bridges’ model seems temporally out of order. In addition, once the change is announced, people are immediately exposed to the new possibilities, the purpose, the new vision and the new roles and people may begin to see themselves in these new roles and behaviors. That is, transitions can start equally as much with beginnings as with endings. Demanding that transitions must occur in a definite temporal order is unrealistic and may retard rather than help develop an understanding of the transition process.
Similarly, for transitions purely on an individual level, take the example of someone transitioning to a new job. In terms of change, the process may start with planning their new role and identity and making the mental shift towards being potentially in a new role. This may be followed by applications and interviews in which the possibilities become progressively more tangible, followed by their appointment into the new role. Only well into the process – after appointment to the new role – is the old role released. However, the transition to the new role may not be completed until arriving in the new role and settling into new relationships, expectations and responsibilities. The point here in even this simple example is that the transition may well be well developed at an early stage of conceptualizing new roles and identities well before releasing the old, and the inter-relations between the management of change and the management of transitions may be quite complex involving internal psychological states, constructions, attributions and emotions.
A fifth shortcoming of Bridges’ framework is that while Bridges emphasizes individual psychological transitions, including grief related to the loss or ending, and the need to develop new identities, behaviors and understandings, Bridges’ framework does little to discuss the sociological and cultural dimensions of change for an organization. Major change typically impacts not only individual people but also cultural shared values, behaviors, and collective identity. Bridges does not detail how these shared characteristics are influenced and evolve during transition, and keeps his framework centered on the level of managing individuals though transition.
Bridges framework is full of insights and remains a highly useful framework for conceptualizing and managing change (ok, transitions) for both organizations and individuals. It is a vital component in any change manager’s toolkit. However, critical assessment of the framework can lead to fruitful directions for further developing, extending and applying it. In my opinion, these kinds of models are vital for the church context because there is such a significant chance to underestimate the grieving process of change (in the endings). This book will prepare the minister to think about the subjective experience people undergoing transitions and help deal with it in a principled way.

[Ruta Alb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Change is the only constant in life, affecting various aspects of our existence. In his book "Managing Transitions," Dr. William Bridges explores how people navigate change, whether at home, in daily life, or at work. He explains that when change occurs, we initially experience grief as we let go of the past. This is followed by a period he calls the "neutral zone," where we feel disoriented and uncertain. It's a phase where things are no longer as they were, but not yet as we would like them to be. Finally, we move on to accept the change and embrace new beginnings.
Our lives revolve around these three phases. The book primarily focuses on organizations, emphasizing the importance of considering the human side of change. It provides insights into recognizing which phase individuals are in and offers guidance on what to do and avoid during each phase of the transition. The examples in the book illustrate what works and what doesn't, helping readers understand people's feelings and thoughts during change. This book is extremely useful for anyone looking to implement changes with minimal resistance.
So, what did I take from this book to myself?
"People tend to "overreact" to a change when they are reacting more than we are. But when we think that way, we overlook two things: first, that changes cause transitions, which cause losses, and it is the losses not the changes, that they are reacting to; and second, that it's a piece of their world that is being lost, not a piece of ours, and we often react that way ourselves when it's part of our own world that is being lost. Being reasonable is much easier if you have little or nothing at stake."

[Mark Kaech · Rating 5 out of 5]

To echo my friend that recommended this book, I wish I had read this years ago.

[Cole Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book when navigating organizational and leadership transitions!

[ASHLEY · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not exactly what I was looking for though it is a good read for dealing with organizational change within ones business.

[Molli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written more for the manager/executive handling major transitions (plant closings, mass layoff, etc.) than the layperson dealing with more day-to-day changes, but very thought-provoking and highly re-readable. A bit idealistic, perhaps, but certainly geared at erring on the side of sensitivity and compassion.

[Ralf Kruse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insightful book. The simple model to orient the journey of a transition is great and for well to my experience of supporting transitions.
It would be helpful if all the people running a digital transformation would read such books before they start their to simplistic rollout plans ...

[Alyssa Foll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every leader needs to read this book. It doesn't matter your context -- non-profit, religious organization, start-up, established corporation, etc. -- if you lead people and are instituting any kind of change, you need this book.
What William Bridges makes abundantly clear is that change happens all the time, but transition does not. In other words, a company could change from one electronic health record to another (a change) but that doesn't mean that the workforce is comfortable on the new system, that they are working efficiently, or that they aren't finding workarounds to do something the "old way." This means that transition has not yet taken place.
I will certainly be referring to this book for a long, long time to come. This should be on every leader's shelf and referenced regularly.

[Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure I only read chapters 1-5 as part of a class assignment. I really enjoyed it for a silly reason. I looked at the book and the title and thought it would be a bore. When I got into it, however, there were lots of good stories to illuminate the points being made. Good job Mr. Bridges.

[Penny Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good foundational work for organizations about to go through a major change. Feels a bit dated, 29 years after it was first written (and 10 since this update). I swear I either read this as an undergrad psych major, or in grad school.

[Beatriz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for those people leading reorganisation and change and for those that need to understand them.

Transition = change + humans
Every transition requires an ending, a neutral zone and a new beginning.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent work on the process of change, applicable both personally and organizationally. It is much more concise and focused than the original Transitions book and reads more like a work by Lencioni.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am retired. It's time to remove business books from my "to-read" shelf because I am no longer interested in them.

[Ricardo Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another essential asset in the manage's toolkit. This book helps you to understand the human side of the organization while dealing with transitions: it makes you understand that you have to manage the multiple psychological states of the people you lead, not only the plans and outcomes. The first determines the latter.

[Anand Rajasekar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book to read when your team / organization is going through a major change. Learnt a lot on how to view when change starts and begins. I felt the book was a little verbose, nevertheless an excellent read.

[Tommy Kiedis · Rating 5 out of 5]

As organizational health specialist Pat Lencioni says, "change and transition are very different animals." In Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change, Bill and Susan Bridges are going to help you tame the transitional beast. As they say, "If you want to know where--and how--to start charting your way through chaos, this book is for you." (p. xv)

Transition can be chaos. The author's note, "It isn't the changes that will do you in; it's the transitions." Why? Because change is situational, transition is psychological. For example, moving out an old CEO and bringing in a new CEO in is simple; helping the organization walk through that shift is hard. Connections to the old leader can be difficult to release. Trust in the new leader can only come with time. Normalcy has been uprooted; it will take time to re-root.

For me, the heart of the Managing Transitions is their diagram, The Three Phases of Transition found on page 5.

1. Ending, Losing, Letting Go: Letting go of the old ways and the old identity people had. You can't experience a new beginning unless you have a successful ending.

2. The Neutral Zone: Going through in-between time when the old is gone but the new is not fully operational. Critical psychological realignments and repatternings take place here. This can be an emotional wilderness as letting go and new connections takes place. It takes time!

3. The New Beginning: All the good things that happen as the organization comes out of the transition to make the new beginning. New identify and energy is found here.

It is important to note that while these are sequential stages, the stages of the transition process overlap. Moving from one to the next is less about walking through a doorway and more like slowing merging from one lane to the next. Bridges and Bridges write:

Perhaps it would be more accurate to think of them as three processes and to say that the transition cannot be completed until all three have taken place.

Understanding the basic concept behind managing transitions (the three phases) is easy, but actually managing all that transition is hard. That's why the authors devote the balance of the book to explaining how to do it.

Managing Transitions is such a helpful tool. It has served me well as I transitioned to the presidency of Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary and Graduate School. Here are a few of my takeaways:

1. Transition: Transition takes longer than change. 160
2. Transition: Transition takes massive amounts of energy. 179
3. Ending: People are not in the market for solutions to problems they do not see. Sell the problem that is the reason for the change. (p. 18)
4. Letting go: It is the losses, not the change that people are reacting to . . . "that it's a piece of their world that is being lost, not a piece of ours." Work to determine what people are losing (p. 30-31). It helps when we parade the past (celebrate it) not denigrate it.
5. Letting go: People will get depressed over the change . . . "People need to go through it, not around it." People need to experience their sadness. It's okay. It's necessary.
6. The Neutral Zone: The task here is two-fold: (1) to get your people through this phase in one piece, (2) to capitalize on the confusion by encouraging them to innovate. (p. 49) Set short-range goals (p. 53).
7. The Neutral Zone: Use a Transition Monitoring Team (TMT). (1) This team must have a clear purpose (not decision-making or managing). (2) Don't give it to ae VP. (3) The TMT must have the leader's ear. (4) The team has a limited life-span. (5) Report back what you hear from the TMT. Makes sure you turn every setback into an opportunity to improve (p. 55-58). See also page 170
8. The New Beginning: People must make a new beginning and these beginnings should be nurtured like a plant. (p. 66) "You need to explain the purpose behind the new beginning clearly." Help people understand the purpose of the new beginning for the organization and for them. (p. 69) IF YOU DON'T HAVE THIS, IT WILL BE VERY HARD TO GET OUT THE NEUTRAL ZONE. You need to give people a picture of the new future (p. 72-73)
9. The New Beginning: It is 7 parts communication and 3 parts strategy. Here are four rules: (1) Be consistent in your messaging; (2) Ensure quick successes (short-term wins); (3) Symbolize the new identity - what symbolic gestures can help here? (4) Celebrate the success! (p. 78-82)
10. Transition, Development, and Renewal: There are seven stages of organizational life: (1) Dreaming the dream; (2) Launching the venture; (3) Getting organized; (4) Making it; (5) Becoming an institution; (6) Closing in (becoming an unresponsive bureaucracy); (7) Dying.

IMPORTANT: Transitions are the dynamic interludes between one of the seven stages of organizational life and the next.

11. All the other stuff: Listen. People are most resistant when they are most at home.

Lessons from "How to Deal with Nonstop Change:
1. Change-addicted leaders are dangerous leaders. (p. 113)
2. When you have too many changes to manage effectively "you simply have to cut some out." (p. 113)
3. Change requires knowing clearly what you are trying to do. (p. 117)
4. Rebuilding truth: See pages 119 -120 for eleven insights.
5. SELL PROBLEMS, NOT SOLUTIONS. People will let go of "outlived arrangements and by-gone values more readily if they are convinced that there is a serious problem that demands a solution.
Until someone buys the problem, they won't buy the solution (p. 122, 140)

Quotes to ponder:
1. Change: Diseases always attack men when they are exposed to change. Herodotus
2. Change: Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof. John Kenneth Galbraith
3. Transition: We think in generalities, but we live in detail. Alfred North Whitehead
4. Letting Go: Almost anything is easier to get into than out of. Agnes Allen, American Writer
5. Letting Go: The past is to be respected and acknowledged but not worshiped; it is our future in which we will find our greatness. Pierre Trudeau, Former Canadian Prime Minister
6. Neutral Zone: An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly understood. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly understood. G.K. Chesterton
7. New Beginnings: "Beginnings are always messy." John Galsworthy, British Novelist
8. New Beginnings: One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. Walter Bagehot, British Political Scientist
9. Non-stop change: "On the whole the great ages have been unstable ages." Alfred North Whitehead
10. Management by objectives works if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don't. Peter Drucker

If you are walking through change and transition, Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change is a must-have tool for your leadership toolbox.

[Justin Tapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges, PhD and Susan Bridges (Book Review #15 of 2022)

I'm reviewing the 3rd Edition that is supposedly updated for the "new work environment," but I found it to not really be reflective of the types of work environments most modern graduates face. I'm writing in 2022, after having seen how something like more than 20 percent of the U.S. workforce changed jobs last year, with most leaving for higher wages in an incredibly high-demand environment. This book is more about managing change in factory or office settings (such as the government) where people work the same job for 20+ years and workforce retention isn't a problem. There also isn't much in the book reflecting the pressure of international competition or workplaces that integrate operations and offices from multiple countries. It has a real 1980s feel (the original edition is 1991).

That said, I work in a government office where the managers change every 2-3 years but the workers they supervise do not, frequently having 20+ year careers. Processes change -- new software, new criteria for performace evaluation, new administration policy goals-- but the people largely do not. I chose this book because part of my role is to help manage change in the office and I try to find ways to improve our processes and performance.

If anything, this book helped me distinguish the difference between "change" and "transition." Now, I think of change as being where you're headed (A function like: Y = MX + B, if you will). Transition is the first derivative, it's the rate at which you're going there or what you're encountering along the way. The author uses the term "neutral zone" to describe the "in-between time" when you're teaching a new process or setting up temporary processes or roles on the way to the final state. "You can't skip the neutral zone," you have to lead and counsel through it, which is the challenge.

The book is essentially about managing the psychology of change in the workplace. Change is a threat, primarily to the identity and world of the people you're managing. You must identify who will be threatened or harmed and figure out how to help them. Helping them includes selling the change with honesty; what is the cost/benefit to the person and the organization? Openly discuss the losses they will feel and let them overreact. Don't denigrate the past; honor it. Communicate regularly and honestly; personal integrity and consistency (in rules and rewards) are essential to maintaining followers.

Some portions of the book relate to executives, such as looking at the seven stages of organizational life and "organizational renewal." Every organization starts out with a dream-- can you identify the original dream of the company from where it is now, or the way it's trying to change? Understanding where a company is at in its lifecycle, from Dream to Dying, is important. Forecasting is incredibly hard, but product lifecycle forecasting is essential to company executives. How much time until you need to launch your next version, or find the next product or service to provide? "Change-addicted leaders are dangerous," they're usually charismatic and sell their ideas well, but this is why boards exist to bring some checks and stability. In some places, the book is technical and appears to mainly apply to large corporations like an IBM or a GE (considered successes of "organizational renewal" at the time of writing).

The workforce is facing individual threats to how they do things, their role, their identity. The manager needs to make sure they understand the "Four P's." First, the Purpose of the change -- what is the goal, what is the threat, that necessitates the change? The manager needs to paint the Picture-- what it looks like when we get there, and even beyond. Workers need to know the Plan, that it exists (even if yet incomplete or imperfect). Crucially, everyone needs to know his/her Part in the Plan. They need to be and truly feel involved in the Plan and the entire process. They must have "skin in the game," in other words and see that the manager does as well. (It helps if the CEO is also seen as having real skin in the game accountability if the plan fails.)

A manager should find ways to show his staff the cost of the problem or threat--sell the problem. The author used the example of having employees call customers to hear their complaints directly. Managers must also set clear and consistent goals during the "neutral zone," and be aware that any perceived unfairness or inconsistency will be met with hostility. Managers must listen and try to protect what their employees truly care about. Include them in the process. If the company is downsizing, get their input: "How should we downsize?"

The author includes some interactive surveys of activities one should do and rank order, then gives his thoughts. As a consultant, he also leads teambuilding exercises on transition. But he is definitely writing in a world where there are fewer job options and less dynamic change. The most modern part of the book is where he acknowledges that change can spin off additional changes, requiring more transition and stress. I did like his anecdote of leading a transition toward the shutting down of a particular factory. The workers understood the why, their roles in the transition, and had a part in the plan of how the plant would shut down and how they would be compensated. Morale improved as did productivity. Unfortunately, company leadership responded to the increase in productivity by announcing the plant would remain open a while longer, which the employees rightly felt was taking advantage of them and they mutinied. Productivity plummeted and the end was bad for all parties. That's a lesson in integrity and consistency.

I manage a team of seasoned individuals with different and pretty clearly-defined roles, and I mainly try to effect change in processes or how we do things with a focus on modernization and efficiency. For example, when I started work in the office nobody knew how to view others' Outlook calendars, even though they'd been using MS Office for years. Now I've tried to transition them to using it when scheduling meetings in order to reduce the number of time-consuming emails back and forth about availability. (This is real world stuff but not real sexy for a book.) The Four P's are a helpful takeaway for me as our office is in a global competition with other offices for scarce resources. We have to change what we do, key members need to devote time to learning new skills, in order to help us compete. I need to include them in formulating the plan in how we do that, and help them see the benefits of change, coaching them through the transition. I need to be consistent in goals and in how I reward them. I may want want staff to learn a new process, but that interference may be a threat to her immediate manager. Focusing on the why and the benefit to the employee, protecting what they care about, is important in effecting change.

In all, I give the book 2.5 stars. You can pick and choose what's applicable or still relevant in 2022.

[Sarah Cupitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lowkey didn't expect this to be a business book with a butterfly on the cover. Some good photos.

Notes:
- To create meaningful, lasting change, we need to appreciate that change in the workplace happens on two levels – a situational level and a psychological level. And if we don’t address both intentionally, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.
- Preparing your team for transition is as important as planning the change itself. Without framing the change within a transition plan, the engrained habits and culture will undermine even the best of plans, regardless of whether they benefit everyone.
- The lesson here is that before you implement your big new idea, you should start by analysing exactly how this change will alter attitudes, habits, and ways of working at an individual level. How will roles expand or shift? What new skill sets are needed?
- What will this transition require from you as a leader? How can you embody the change you expect from others? How can you involve your team in how this change is done?
- When shifting the status quo, letting go can be the hardest part. It might even evoke a grieving process. This isn’t just your staff being difficult, or being stubbornly set in their ways. It’s a natural step in coming to terms with the end of a comfortable stability. A lot of people will be anxious about their jobs, or mourn the skills they have developed that allow them to thrive in the current way of being.

Quotes:
- “Endings occur more easily if people can take a bit of the past with them. You are trying to disengage people from it, not stamp it out like an infection. And in particular, you don’t want to make people feel blamed for having been part of it.”
- Those who honestly mean to be true contradict themselves more rarely than those who try to be consistent.
- “The second warning is not to overwhelm people with a picture that is so hard for them to identify with that they become intimidated rather than excited by it.”
- If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.
- There is no squabbling so violent as that between people who accepted an idea yesterday and those who will accept the same idea tomorrow.

[Geoffrey Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

External changes can lead to periods of transition. These can be losses in relationships, or changes in your home life, work, career or finances and/or personal changes. Internal shifts such as spiritual awakenings, psychological insights and/or changes in self-image can also result in periods of transition.

Transition periods have three parts-an ending (of something), an in-between space and a new beginning. Each period or phase can be difficult, but the in-between space can often be the most confusing. We want to rush through it to the other side, when most often we need to just sit with it and see where it takes us.

If you are in the midst of some life change or feel unsettled, anxious, or just plain old ‘discombobulated’, you may be in a period of transition.

You are okay. What you are feeling is normal. You are not going crazy. Read this book to help find your way. It is easy to read and written in a manner that is both engaging and informative

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change is a follow-up to Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes. Two major differences:
1) The first book is about transitions and change in life, broadly, but using a lot of examples from transitions that happen in the workplace.
2) The second book is all about facilitating transitions and big changes within organizations and companies, and very little about changes that happen in personal lives. All the examples come from workplace situations.

The first book is useful in my line of work (pastoral care) but the second less so given I am not a part of management of my organization. For the target audience (managers), this book is very useful.

[Pavleras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book has been a valuable experience. This book put a name to different phases you go through when changing from one state to another one. transition readiness is specially interesting to assess the organizations williness toward change.

Besides, the author provides many areas where leaders could act when supporting a transition.

A must for transition developers and organizational coaches to understand a common issue I organizations nowadays

[Craig Davison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every manager of teams/people should read this. Especially if your organization is undergoing change. (and what organization isn't, these days?). Great next steps and check lists for you to leverage any time you need to reference. Be warned: you will wish you'd read this earlier as you reflect on how you could've managed change better. Live and learn!

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, and a very good read for anyone who has to manage people going through important changes. I have used this for students, for women and men transitioning from welfare to work and for adjudicated youth trying to make changes in the way they are living. Really insightful.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on how to manage yourself and other through change out there. Why is it good? Two primary reasons - approachable in writing style, easy to understand and apply theory. A very useful fairly quick read.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book if you are in management, which I'm not. Also, the book might make more sense if you have read Transitions: Making sense of life's changes, which I have not, but am going to read next.

Overall, I like his theory. I'm just struggling how to apply it to my life right now.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical guide for managing transitions in the workplace. Strong emphasis on the person over the end result and drives home that there are subjective and humanistic aspects to transitions.

Fast and engaging read, especially for people who are new to reading books about business/management.

[Scott Mabry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for the people side of change!