Bridges three phases of transition

Bridges (2004) illustrates transitions in three phases: endings (past), neutral phase (present), and new beginnings (future). According to Bridges, change is situational and transition is psychological. The endings phase depicts a safe zone but there is the awareness the ending will end to start a new life with change. The neutral phase encompasses the adjustment to the new change. The beginnings phase embraces the acceptance of the new change.

In comparison, Duck’s first stage, stagnation, according to Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols (2016), people have their heads stuck in the sand. This must be recognized quickly to take action upon. Although these two stages have the comparison of people being stuck, the difference is that Duck advocates leaders to drive people to get them out of this hole while Bridges recommends people do this by themselves. Duck’s second stage is preparation which typically onsets the moment the “news” comes out. Here lies panic and anxiety with the people. His third stage is implementation and sets the “blueprint” for both the organization and the mental maps for the people. I think of the Wizard of Oz’s “Follow the yellow brick road,” to get to “Oz.” Duck’s fourth stage is determination. The reality is there, but so is resistance. Leaders must be skilled in driving forward. Finally the fifth stage is fruitation. Duck describes this as seeing the benefits of all the hard work put into the transition change. In contrast, the Bridges model focuses on the conversion of the people and not so much the emotional factor that the Duck model does. The Bridges model cannot be used as an independent tool for change management, it appears to be much less detailed than Duck’s model.

Understanding emotional responses to change are necessary in order to succeed with implementing change. A paradigm shift needs to occur to not viewing as undesirable and unwanted, but view rather as a realization of essential human experience. Emotions inform the individual about the significance of the on-going situation through the person’s lenses. Relationships can be affected, therefore acknowledgement and coherence are necessary by the leader.

Tesla changed its organizational culture by empowering their workforce to help the company stand out. They optimize employees to achieve creative and innovative behaviors. On the flip side when autonomy and empowerment are taken away from employees, tragedies such as what happened to SEARs evolve. Edward Lampert took over (was ill-fitted for the position), and failed to use his employees as an asset. The company was forced to maintain traditional values that worked early on, but not in today’s world. Leaders were “dismissive” making for a toxic environment (Halzack, 2017).

Bridges W. (2004). Transitions: Making sense of life’s changes (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press

Cawsey, T.F., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2016). Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Halzack, S. (2017). The Washington Post. The big missteps that brought an American retail icon to the edge of collapse. June 1, 2017.

Post #2

Change is situational; it is the external event that is taking place, a new strategy, a change in leadership, a merger or a new product. The organization focuses on the outcome that the change will produce, which is generally in response to external events. Transition on the other is the inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about. The starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome but the endings that people have in leaving the old situation behind. Getting people through transition is essential if the change is actually to work as planned” (“What is”, n.d.).

Bridges (2004) provides profound insight into how people react to and deal with change; he illustrates this using three phases: ending, neutral and beginning. Transition begins when people identify what they are losing and learn how to manage these losses, they determine what is over and being left behind, and what they will keep (“What is”, n.d.). Duck introduces a five-stage framework called the "change curve" for understanding and managing the human element of the change process. Unlike Bridges transition model, Ducks change begins at the third stage (implementation).

The last two steps of both models are similar, the determination stage of Duck’s model and the neutralize phase of Bridges is when people go through an in-between time when the old is gone but the new isn’t fully operational, it requires managers to recognize the emotional trap and pursue the new vision with high energy (Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016). Duck’s fruition stage and Bridges new beginning phase is when the energy is release in the direction, it is the time that the hard work pays off (Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016).

Understanding emotional responses to change is a critical component of effectively leading change because it (a) develops self-awareness by making it able for leaders to recognize emotions as they happen, (b) emotional management – leaders with emotional intelligence are able to regulate themselves and stay in control, (c) make leaders communicate effectively by conveying direction and know what to say to motivate and inspire others (Fletcher, 2012).

After the phenomenal and long-lived success of its Windows operating system and suite of Office products, Microsoft was stagnant and rife with turf wars between major business units that often viewed each other more as competitors than partners in the same company. After being named CEO in February of 2014, Satya Nadella undertook a major restructuring of the massive company to do away with the destructive internal competition. Products and platforms would no longer exist as separate groups, but rather all Microsoft employees would begin focusing on a limited set of common goals including:

reinventing productivity and business processes

building the intelligent cloud platform

creating more personal computing

In September 2016, Nadella shook things up again with the merging of the Microsoft Research Group with the Bing, Cortana, and Information Platform Group teams to create a new AI and Research Group. With about 5,000 engineers and computer scientists, its goal is to innovate in artificial intelligence across the Microsoft product line.

Cawsey, T. F., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2016). Organizational change an action-oriented toolkit. Los Angeles: Sage Publ.

Fletcher, S. (2012, May 30). 5 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence is Critical for Leaders.

Retrieved July 9, 2018, from https://leadchangegroup.com/5-reasons-why-emotional-

intelligence-is-critical-for-leaders/

Troyani, L. (n.d.). 3 Examples of Organizational Change Done Right. Retrieved July 9, 2018,

from https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/3-examples-of-organizational-change-and-why-they-got-it-right

What is William Bridges' Transition Model? (n.d.). Retrieved July 9, 2018, from

https://wmbridges.com/what-is-transition/

Post #3

Both Bridge's Transitions Model and Duck's Five-Stage Change Curve model address the emotional side of change.

Duck's model , which has five stages, compared to Bridge's three, begins with "stagnation," where people aren't really aware of external threats and must be forced into change by either an external force or a strong internal leader (Cawsey, Deszca and Ingols, 2016, p.51). After stagnation, people enter "preparation," where change is announced and leaders align. Then comes implementation when change truly begins, both operationally and psychologically with people's "mindsets and work practices." After implementation comes determination when people realize that the change is real and they must adapt their ways, thought they may not be happy about it, and so leaders must be extra vigorous and enthusiastic about the change. The final step is fruition, when the change has been fully implemented and their is renewed energy in the organization from acceptance and comfortability with the change that has taken place (Cawsey, Desza and Ingols, 2016, pp.51-52).

In Bridge's model, which is designed to help leaders guide other through change (Bridges' Transition Model, Guiding People Through Change, n.d.), people go through three emontionally-charged stages. First is "ending, losing, and letting go" where people are very likely to experience negative emotions such as fear, anger, distress, and frustration. To address this, Bridges suggests a high level of communication about the change and especially about how people can take their current skills and know-how and operate successfully in the new environment.

After this stage comes a "neutral zone" where people are likely to experience skepticism and anxiety and exhibit lower morale and productivity while they try and adjust to new ways of doing things. Here, it is important for leaders to create small, measurable goals in order to show the team they can meet new expectations and be successful in the change.

Last is the "new beginning" stage where energy is higher and people are open to and excited about learning and performing. In order to solidify the change and keep people engaged, leaders should lead by objectives and tie individual goals to organizational goals (Bridge's Transition Model, Guiding People Through Change, n.d.).

I found Bridge's Transitions to be more relatable than Duck's model. I've seen several changes take place in my own organization since I began working there six years ago, and I definitely have witnessed stages such as these. Duck's model is very similar, but it seems just a bit more dramatic to me, with wording like "a forceful demand for change" and "dramatic announcement of change from an internal person" (Cawsey, Deszca and Ingols, 2016, p. 51). I don't believe change always happens in such a manner, and so it seems a little over-the-top for me.

I do know, however, that attending to people's emotions during change is really important to making your team feel like they are being taken care of and that they matter. I am someone who prefers to leave emotion out of my business decisions and operate from logic. This leads me to making better decisions, but I am prone to forgetting that others are not all like me and need to have the emotional side of change addressed.

Recently, we split up one of our team into two, from a sales and marketing team to two teams, one which focuses solely on sales and one which focuses solely on marketing. The leader of the original division was transitioning out as the leader of the sales division so she could focus solely on marketing. A few months into the transition period, we held quarterly reviews and she revealed to me that she sometimes felt as if she was being pushed out of the organization. That hadn't been my intentions at all, but because I didn't pay attention to how she would feel about the transitions, I put her into an awkward position. This is why it is so important to not brush emotion to the side and to address it head on.

References:

Bridge's Transition Model, Guiding People Through Change. (n.d.). In MindTools. Retrieved July 9, 2018, from

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/bridges-transition-model.htm

Cawsey, T. F., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2016). Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit (3rdrd ed., pp. 51-52). Thousand Oaks, CA:

SAGE Publications, Inc.