Leading Change and Transitions

When leaders are implementing a major change initiative, they need to be aware of two factors: the change itself, and what’s called the transitions. In his work on how people respond to profound changes in their lives or their work, author William Bridges makes big distinctions between change and transitions.

Change is structural, mechanical, and situational. Things like moving, retirement, a corporate reorganization, or even major revisions to policies and procedures are changes. Accompanying the change is the transition—the psychological and emotional aspects. Transitions are what people go through as they internalize and come to grips with the details that the change brings about.

Change is focused on the outcomes the change produces. Transitions are the emotional tolls that have to be dealt with before, during, and after the change. And, here’s the point: unmanaged transitions mean unmanaged change. Leaders who focus only on the mechanical aspects of change and ignore the emotional aspects will fail in their change efforts, will likely seriously damage their careers, and will certainly leave their people demoralized and distrustful.

The three phases of transition

As change happens, there are three transition phases: Ending, Neutral Zone, and New Beginnings, each with its own psychological and emotional considerations.

• The Ending is just that: the “death” of the old ways of doing things. The old is gone, the change has started, and there’s no going back.
• The Neutral Zone is the phase where the old is gone but the new isn’t fully operational and people are unsure and even feel lost.
• New Beginnings is when people start to understand and appreciate the new, have increased energy in dealing with the new, and discover a new sense of purpose that makes the change work.

The critical point about these phases is that they’re each laden with huge amounts of emotion, negative behaviors, dysfunction, and even performance paralysis. Leaders must accept these realities and work with them rather than try to dismiss them. Think about your own life and the changes you’ve been through—death, divorce, children leaving home, moving across the country, employer change, major increase or decrease in business, retirement. Each change is accompanied by prominent emotional issues that, if not managed well, can really mess with the change.

Emotions about change are common and leaders must anticipate them

The first thing a leader has to do is realize that their people’s emotions about major organizational changes are a given. They can’t be managed away or dismissed as unacceptable. The old “get over it and get with the program” approach simply doesn’t work. So, what to do?

• Identify what’s changing and, just as importantly, what’s not changing. Be as clear as possible in your communication.
• Identify who’s losing what, and who’s keeping what. Describe it in as much detail as possible.
• Accept the reality and importance of subjective losses. Just because a leader doesn’t feel negative emotions about the change has nothing to do with what their people might feel.
• Don’t be surprised by some people’s overreaction. Some people handle major change better than others, but expecting everyone to handle the change as well as those who adapt quickly is not helpful.
• Acknowledge the losses openly and sympathetically. Don’t try to “fix it.” Just listen. When dealing with these emotions, people’s biggest concerns are being listened to. Listening validates, values, and respects workers. And, that’s what they’re looking for most of all.
• Expect and accept the signs of grieving. Denial, anger, anxiety, sadness, disorientation, and depression—coupled with decreased work performance—are all signs of deep grief over the loss of the old ways of doing things.

Communication is essential

Information is critical to everyone who’s subject to the change. Unfortunately, leaders often make rationalizations for poor communication. Things like…

• They don’t need to know yet.
• They already know. We announced it. We don’t need to go over it again.
• I told the managers and supervisors. It’s their job to tell everyone else.
• We don’t know all the details ourselves; there’s no point in saying anything until everything has been decided.

In the absence of information, people create their own stories about what’s going on which, in turn, can create more emotional turmoil and poor work performance. The rumor mill runs wild.

Leaders should put into words exactly what it’s time to leave behind and what will be maintained. Without guidance, people do one of three dangerous or unproductive things:

1. They don’t dare to stop doing the old things, so they perform the old along with the new. That means a large amount of potentially duplicate work and associated confusion about which way to do things.
2. They make their own decisions about what to stop doing and what to keep doing, thus guaranteeing unnecessary mistakes
3. They throw out everything done in the past—but they don’t have clear guidance on how to perform the new.

In short, the first task—and the ongoing task—of transition management is to convince people to “leave home.” Leaving home leads people into the Neutral Zone.

Wandering in the desert—the Neutral Zone

As a metaphor, William Bridges uses the old Biblical story of the Israelites wandering for 40 years in the desert. In the ancient world, the average human lifespan was about 20 years. What that means is that at the end of 40 years, or two generations, there’s no one alive who remembers what it was like living in Egyptian bondage and no one left who “wants to go home,” thinking that even the old was better than wandering. Bridges’ metaphor is that Moses getting people out of Egypt was the change. Getting Egypt out of the people was the transition—the Neutral Zone of wandering in the desert. Outlook, attitude, values, self-image, and ways of thinking that were functional must be left behind before people can be ready for life in the new reality.

Change leaders can’t afford people wanting to go back to the old. As change management author John Kotter said, never underestimate the power of the culture to kill the change. Leaders must ask how they can make this interim period between the old and the new not only a bearable time during which the organization and everyone’s role in it is enhanced, but also how we can come out of this shift better than we were before the transition started. Once again, listening is key.

New Beginnings

After being in the Neutral Zone where everything is in flux, people want the new but they still have concerns or fear about it. Beginnings make demands for new behaviors and require a new commitment. Beginnings can reactivate some of the old anxieties that were triggered by the Ending.

What leaders can do is explain again the purpose behind the changes.  They have to paint a picture of how the outcome will look and feel by creating a story, a narrative, that provides guidance. They have to describe a step-by-step plan for phasing in the new (story again), and they have to give each person and department a part to play in the new story.

The diagram above depicts the change in energy level and commitment over time as the change and transition are carried through.

1. The initial change event produces shock, which lowers energy and performance levels
2. When disbelief kicks in, there can even be active resistance to the emotional turmoil
3. Following that is another decrease in energy that’s the result of anger and self-doubt and, the low point…
4. Acceptance that the change is going to happen regardless of how people feel about it
5. The energy then increases as people test the new ways
6. People look for ways to determine new meaning in their new behaviors
7. Integration, along with increased energy, happens as more people embrace the change. Just as importantly, leaders must keep reinforcing the what and the why so that people don’t slip back into old performance or back into negative emotions.

Change begins at the end of our comfort zone.

Major change is never easy but with forethought, a keen focus on constant communication, and a realization that the emotions that accompany change are normal and are to be respected, change can be successful. Leaders have to get themselves out of their own comfort zones if they’re going to convince their people to get out of their comfort zones and get behind the change.

For more information on these ideas about transitions, do a web search for some of William Bridges’ publications. It will be an eye-opener to the “human side” of change.

 

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Resources

• Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes.  William Bridges.
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.  William Bridges.
• Leading Change. John Kotter.
• Leading at a Higher Level.  Ken Blanchard.