Change and Transition - Part I

The biggest challenge facing community benefit leaders today is moving their organizations toward a new reality.

"It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions."

That's the first line of Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, first published in 1995 by William Bridges (he released a second edition in 2003). [I recommend getting a copy if you want to know more.]

Bridges is an expert in managing the human side of change. In the late 1970s, he introduced the notion of "transition" in his first book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes. During that "I'm OK/You're OK" era, he laid out how to cope with life changes of the personal kind.

In Managing Transitions, he applied the concept of transition within the context of organizational change.

Bridges asserts that transition is not synonymous with "change."

A change occurs when something in the external environment is altered. In an organizational setting this would include changes in leadership, structure, job description, systems, or processes. The process of deciding to do something different is pretty straight-forward. And then the "change" can be announced (usually with some fanfare in a memo from the President that starts with "Effective immediately ...")

It’s the transition that can do you in, and that’s the part that requires mindful and intentional leadership.

The changes you announced in your memo trigger an internal psychological reorientation process in those who are expected to carry out or respond to the change. Transition is this internal process that people must go through in order to come to terms with a new situation. Unless transition occurs, change won't work. And that's when the organization's President wonders, "Didn't they get the memo? Didn't they read it?"

Two things conspire to make this so: The Past and The Should Be.

The Past
Sometimes, people get stuck in the organizational "way we've done things around here." Often, no one can remember WHY we do things that way. But it's the way we do them. And so it literally hurts to change, even if everyone rationally understands why it's important to change. Organizational culture is profoundly persistent, so even newcomers to the organization get co-opted incredibly quickly.

The Should Be
Sometimes, people get stuck on what they feel their present reality "should be" instead of facing what is. For example, they "should" still have the net worth they had "before October 2008." And, even though they KNOW things have changed, they want to pretend and cling to the old mindset.

It's like those cars with bumper stickers: "I'D RATHER BE ... skiing, golfing, shopping, whatever." But the thing is, you're NOT (skiiing/golfing/shopping/whatever). You're driving a car on the freeway. And the sooner you deal with the reality of that fact, the better.

Next: How to provide the clarity that will move you through the transition ASAP.