1.5 - About University

5.8H UMAN T RANSITIONS: HELPING P EOPLEW ORK THROUGH M A JOR C HANGEInspired by William Bridges, Susan Campbell, and Virginia Satir.Leaders often assume that if change is logical from a management perspective, people willadjust. The process of change inside people, however, is more like distress and disruption thanadjustment. Before people can accept and adjust to change, they frequently go through a transitionperiod. This period is often evidenced by low morale, increased stress, and decreased productivity.This tool offers a practical, straightforward approach to help leaders minimize thestress and downtime associated with human reactions and adjustments to change.T HE CRITICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHANGE AND TRANSITIONChange:• The actual physical move, restructure, or change of location, procedures, equipment,and so on.• This change takes place outside the person, and relatively quickly (e.g., being movedto another city, getting a new manager).Transition:• The human reorientation that people go through in coming to terms with a change(e.g., coming to feel like a new city is home or that a new manager is a trusted colleague).• This inner transition often takes much longer than the outside or physical change. Thetransition is internal and emotional (i.e., feelings-based). It requires a new way ofunderstanding and looking at things.For example, your staff may have complained about their obsolete desktop computers andsoftware. Finally, you, their leader, have the budget and priority to have the SystemsDepartment make the change. The switchover—the change—is brief, often less than an hourper desktop. But what do you, as their leader, hear after the change? Often complaints! Thistime it’s about the new desktop systems: “The new keyboards don’t feel right and some keysare in new places.” Or “The new operating system doesn’t look the same as the old one. Whereare my critical files?” And so on. Although the physical change was relatively quick, the emotionaltransition that takes place inside of people—becoming proficient and feeling at easewith the new equipment—may take a number of weeks. Given this situation, your initial reaction,as their leader, might be to interpret staff complaints as ingratitude. But wait!Understanding the nature of human transitions will help you accept these complaints as thenatural responses to change they are.Downsizing and layoffs are all too common, and many people in the North Americanworkforce have had personal experience with this type of transition. Here is an example of howone company managed this change and the human transition that accompanied it, with sensitivityand respect for its workforce.160 SECTION 5 TOOLS FOR LEADING CHANGE