Transitions, Bill Bridges
Study Questions
Mgmt 445
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Explain the meaning of the title.
How did Bridges come to write this book?
Explain what the phrase “anatomy of change” might refer to.
Why is letting go so difficult to do? Be prepared to share a personal example.
What is your “typical response to ending things?”
What are the events that have brought change into your life in the past year?
What does Bridges mean when he writes, “that adulthood unfolds its promise in a
rhythm of expansion and contraction, change and stability”? (p. 40)
8. What is the chronology of your own experience with transition? (p. 51)
9. In the chapter on “Relationships and Transitions,” Bridges discusses the systems
aspect of families and interpersonal groups (pp. 65-70). Explain.
10. Review Bridges’ transition checklist (pp. 73-76). Which suggestion seems the
most useful to you? Why?
11. Choose an idea from Chapter 4, “Transitions in the Work Life,” that seems
especially appropriate to your own life and discuss.
12. What is it time to let go of in your own life right now? (p. 87).
13. What is standing backstage, in the wings of your life, getting ready to make its
entrance? (p. 88).
14. Discuss/explain the five different aspects of the natural ending experience (pp.
109-123). Give personal examples.
15. What is the neutral zone all about? Have you experienced it or has anyone you
know experienced it? How has it been?
16. Which one of Bridges’ suggestions for finding the meaning in the neutral zone
seems the most helpful to you? Explain
17. How does it happen that “when we are ready to make a beginning, we will shortly
find an opportunity” (p. 159)?
18. Why do people have difficulty with new beginnings? (p. 164-166)
19. What suggestions does Bridges offer to help facilitate the “growth and
development” of new beginnings?
Please note: the page numbers cited are for the 2004 version of Bridges’ book.
See EW if you have an earlier version since the page numbers will vary.