MANAGING TRANSITIONS:
Surviving and Thriving Through Change
September 19, 2014
Prepared by Ray Patchett
Patchett & Associates
Based on the work of
William Bridges
Managing Transitions:
Surviving and Thriving Through Change





Introduction/Overview/Key Concepts
Endings/Letting Go
The Neutral Zone/Adjusting
New Beginnings/Clarifying and Following
Through
Conclusions and Implications
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Introduction/Overview




Context/Change Is Scary
Change and Transition are Different
Bill Bridge’s Transition Model
Transitions: A Three Phase Process
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Change Is SCARY!




Many change efforts
are a failure
Change efforts are
expensive
Change efforts are
risky
Many change efforts
succeed
It’s the UNKNOWN
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
How Do You Feel When Managing
Change?
Share your story about
managing CHANGE
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Change & Transition Are Different
C H A N G E I S S I T U AT I O N A L
Reorganization of a
team/organization
Retirement of the leader
Pension plan revisions
Layoffs
Budget cuts or funding
Moving to a new facility
TRANSITION IS PSYCHOLOGICAL
A three-phase process to
help people understand
and successfully manage
change:
1. Ending, Letting Go
2. The Neutral Zone
3. The New Beginning
“It isn’t the changes that do you in, it’s the transitions.”
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Bridge’s Transition Model
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing Transitions:
Helping People through the Three Phase Process
2. Neutral
Zone
1. Ending,
Letting
Go
3. New
Beginning
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Group Exercise
Individually
Please identify and
share a story where
you experienced:
Ending
Neutral Zone
New Beginning
Identify a “key
change” topic
????
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Endings/Letting Go Overview





Defining/Clarifying Endings
Guidelines to Help People Let Go
Grieving's Five Stages
Checklist to Manage Endings
What I Can Do to Help
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Defining and Clarifying Ending and Letting Go
 A concluding or terminating-when something comes to an
end
 Cycle is complete
 Project is finished
 To conclude, consummate,
finish, wind up or wrap up.
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Endings/Letting Go
Small Group Exercise
Individually identify an “ending” you have experienced—work or
personal– and answer the five questions:
1. Identify what is ending or came to an end?
2. What did you have to give up or let go?
3. Did you or someone else initiate it?
4. How did you feel? Who else was affected?
5. How effectively did you hand the letting go phase?
When everyone has answered individually, share in the small/full group
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Guidelines To Help People Let Go
 Listen empathetically—Don’t argue:
 Accept the reality of what is being said
 Don’t show surprise by overreacting
 Treat what is being said with respect
 Give people support, encouragement :
 Do It Again and Again
 Follow up after you meet or talk with them:
 Email, phone call, etc.
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Guidelines To Help People Let Go

Acknowledge the losses openly and sympathetically

Compensate for the losses or endings:
 Help them through the process

Mark the endings:
 Celebrations, events, parties, etc.

Show how endings are a natural process no matter how
difficult they may be to accept
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Grieving: A Key Step In Letting Go
Recognize the stages of Grieving
(Elizabeth Kubler Ross, 1969)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance
HOPE!
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing Endings: A Checklist
Have I:
1. Identified who is likely to lose what?
2. Provided people with accurate information?
3. Assessed the realities of the losses people will
experience?
4. Recognized these losses with them?
5. Provided space for people to grieve?
6. Found ways to help people through the process?
7. Identified ways to mark the ending?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
What suggestions can I/we make and what actions
can I/we take to help people deal with the endings
that are taking place?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
The Neutral Zone Overview






Defining and Clarifying the Neutral Zone
Dangers
Confusion
Creative/Innovative Time
Checklist to Manage the Neutral Zone
What Can I Do to Help
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Defining And Clarifying The Neutral Zone
 A nowhere between two
somewheres
 You hang suspended between what
was and what will be
 An in between time when the old is
gone, but the new isn’t fully
operational
 A very difficult time – everything is
in FLUX
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Neutral Zone Small Group Exercise
1. Identify what will be occurring
2. Clarify where/how uncertainty and confusion will
most likely take place
3. Determine where there are likely opportunities for
innovation and creativity to occur
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Understanding Dangers In The Neutral Zone
People’s anxiety rises and their motivation falls
People feel disoriented and self-doubting
Energy is drained from work into coping tactics
Old weaknesses, previously patched over,
reemerge
 Problems with communication and trust in
leadership at all levels




© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Understanding Dangers In The Neutral Zone
 People are overloaded, frequently get mixed-signals and systems
are in flux
 Priorities get confused, information is miscommunicated and
tasks go undone
 Given the ambiguities it is easy for people to become
polarized/disinterested in their work
 Teamwork is undermined, as is loyalty to the organization or
previous leadership
 Worn down and tired, people often respond slowly and halfheartedly
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
The Neutral Zone Is Characterized By:
 Uncertainty
 Confusion
 Ambiguity
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
It is also a time for
Innovation & Creativity
 A time more hospitable to
new ideas
 Capitalize by encouraging
people to be creative
 Do things differently
 Encourage experimentation
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing The Neutral Zone: A Checklist
Have I:
1. Done my best to explain that the neutral zone is an
uncomfortable time?
2. Protected people adequately from inessential further
changes?
3. Created temporary policies, roles, reporting relationships,
and organizational groupings to get us through the neutral
zone?
4. Set short-range goals, realistic output objectives and
checkpoints?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing The Neutral Zone: A Checklist
5. Found ways to keep people feeling that they still belong to
the organization and are a valued member of it?
6. Set up a Transition Monitoring Team?
7. Seen to it that people build their skills in creative thinking
and innovation?
8. Found the special training programs we need to deal
successfully with the neutral zone?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
What suggestions can I/we make and what actions
can I/we take to help people deal with the neutral
zone?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
New Beginnings Overview
 Defining and clarifying new
beginnings
 A psychological phenomenon
 Get your house in order
 Checklists for new beginnings
 What can I do to help
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Defining And Clarifying New
Beginnings
 The act or process of bringing or being brought into
existence
 The initial step in doing something
 New Beginnings involve:
New understandings
New values
New Attitudes
New identities
 Beginnings take place when people make an
emotional commitment to do things the new way
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Defining And Clarifying New
Beginnings
 People discover the new sense of
purpose and identity that make
the change begin to work
 Experience a release of new
energy in the new direction
 A psychological phenomena
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Cultivate New Beginnings: Get Your House In Order





Clarify your basic purpose
Paint a picture/vision
Provide clear strategic direction
Lay out a step-by-step plan
Engage people so they have an active part to
play in the New Beginning
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing The New Beginning: A Checklist
Have I:
1. Accepted the fact that people are going to be
ambivalent toward the beginning I am trying to
bring about?
2. Taken care of the ending(s) and the neutral zone,
or am I trying to make a new beginning happen
before it possibly can?
3. Explained the Purpose, Picture, Plan and the Part
people will play?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Managing The New Beginning: A Checklist
4. Checked to see that policies, procedures, and
priorities are consistent with the new beginning?
5. Built into my plans some occasions for quick
successes?
6. Found ways to celebrate the new beginning?
7. Found ways to symbolize the new identity—
organizational and personal—that is emerging
from this period of transition?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
What suggestions can I/we make and what actions
can I/we take to support the new beginning?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Conclusion And Implications
 Three major issues
 Communication
 Trust
 Accountability
 Actions within your power to take
 Transition Management as a Skill
 Reflections/Observations
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Actions Within Your Power To Take: Communication
 Overcommunicate
 Actively listen to people
 Ask questions for clarification and to develop
shared understanding
 Ask for feedback
 Don’t be surprised if your trust-building is
viewed suspiciously
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Actions Within Your Power To Take: Trust
 DWYSYWD
 Try extending trust of others a little further than
you normally would
 Don’t confuse being “trustworthy” with “being a
buddy”
 Be Your authentic self
 Don’t try to push others to trust you any further
than you trust them
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Actions Within Your Power To Take: Accountability





Choose to be responsible
Initiate action
Keep commitments
Understand what matters to people
Tell the truth
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Transition Management Is A Key
Leadership Skill For Dealing With Change
 Use the concept of Ending, Neutral Zone and
New Beginning as a framework to make
managing transitions understandable.
 Leaders are in a constant state of transition and
have to know how to manage themselves, their
teams and organizations through the transition
process.
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Reflections & Observations
 What needs
clarification/discussion?
 What takeaways or highlights
stuck in your mind?
 What is most relevant to your
situation?
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES
Wisdom Source & Experience
© PATCHETT & ASSOCIATES LEARNING SERIES