Most people are quite uncomfortable with change; the reasons why people detest any change are explicable. People resist a change or oppose it out rightly. That’s the reason why it is important to understand importance of feelings as change proceeds, and why they need to be guided through it. William Bridges’ Transition Model is a helpful framework in change management.

While most people expect changes are meant to be positive. A lot depends on individuals how they make things better, easier, and to fast-track the route to success. In organizations sometimes the hard-working employees end up being the number one obstacle to a new initiative. Bridges’ transition model helps dealing with the people-aspect of change management. It helps in turning them from obstacles to supporters. As an organizational consultant, William Bridges found that the most important responsibility was of guiding people through transition for successful change. He identified three stages of transition and his model strives to help business leaders to understand the feelings people go through a change process.

Bridges highlights the difference between transition and change. Change is speedy, and people often have no say when it happens. But transition is a slower process that happens internally. Transition is what goes on inside people’s minds as they go through a change process. Employees get affected by change when it transits from one stage to the next.  Therefore, business leaders must change their approach to people management in an empathetic development. The three stages of Bridges’ Transition Model are as follows:

Ending, losing, and letting go: When people first learn that they will have to face a change and their ‘comfort zone’ will be disturbed, they experience an emotional upsurge. If organizations fail to understand and acknowledge this fact, their employees might resist change all the way through a change initiative. When people see a change coming their way they feel afraid, they tend to rebuff, they feel angry, they feel disorientated, frustrated. And in short, they experience insecurity. Dealing with these feelings requires patience. People must be encouraged to be open about their emotional reaction to change and be understood by their superiors and peers about the way they feel. Throughout the change process discussions must be going on so that employees take initiatives on their own.

Employees must be told what their role will be, what their prospects would be the emoluments, the reporting relationship, their future growth in organization everything should be discussed with them.  Bridges believed that the emotional reaction to change is most important to be handled. Emotional health and wellbeing is something that shouldn’t be discarded.

The Neutral Zone: In this stage people are confused and puzzled; they are not sure if the change is good, bad or ugly. They feel uncertain and irritated. It all depends on how nicely managers administer the change process. Employees struggle with their new workloads and new tasks. Each person experiences the change differently depending upon his capacity. This phase is like a flyover between the old and the new. People take time to get detached from the old style, in this stage they try to adapt to the new. People experience resentment towards the change initiative. They are lost in their own world trying to cope with change. Their morale is low and therefore the productivity is also low. Employees carry anxiety about their role, status and identity.

Factually this stage can be one to initiate creativity, innovation, and renewal. This is a great time to encourage people to try new ways of thinking, practicing and working.

Employees must be guided by managers with patience. Their guidance is incredible, it is very important as people go through this neutral period. This can be an uncomfortable time, because it can seem unproductive, and in this little progress is being made. Frequent meetings and sharing feedback is a good solution. When people enter the neutral zone, they are not yet entirely comfortable with change and will still need a lot of encouragement.

The New Beginning: After a while, after few days pass things seem to start falling into place. People start seeing the real results of the change process. They might or might not see the positive result. Employees see how their efforts are starting to pay off. Suddenly, it all makes sense to them. The emotions are positive. They feel energized, they want to learn more, and they feel committed to their role. Naturally, this state of affairs should be sustained as the working atmosphere is positive. This is a time for celebration and rewards coming in pocket.

But, sometimes people can still slip back into stage 2 – the neutral zone. The results cannot be taken for granted, therefore it still necessary for managers to be vigilant.

Strength of the model: This framework focuses on transition, not change. The difference between these is subtle but important. Change is something that happens to people, even if they don’t agree with it. Transition, on the other hand, is an internal process, it happens in our minds. Change can happen very quickly, whereas transition usually is a slow process.

Changes occur in our lives at regular intervals, whether we are aware of them or not. As part of our nature as humans, we normally do not like major changes and the fear of the unknown that accompanies change. Some changes paralyze us emotionally. To handle changes in our life, we need to accept that we need to internally strengthen ourselves. And, we all need guidance and mentoring at each stage.

Life does not always comply with our wishes; it throws some good, bad and some ugly challenges.  If anything is constant, it is only change. It means that change is something that occurs continuously, change is an always-to-be-expected condition. We go through different stages of life cycle; from infancy we go to growth stage, from growth to maturity and from maturity to decline stage. At different stage of life, we get involved in different activities. Our millstones in life are compared with others. While comparing, if the focus is put on the wrong person, we become miserable. The fact is that we can control our own life, when we constantly compare ourselves to others; we waste precious energy focusing on other peoples’ lives rather than our own. Comparisons often result in bitterness.This post is about transition in life. Transition is the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

The difference between change and transition is subtle but important. Change is something that happens to people, even if they don’t agree with it. Transition, on the other hand, is internal: it’ is what happens in our minds as we go through change. Change can happen very quickly, while transition usually occurs more slowly. For example, one global transition that is taking place is – in the next 25 years, the world needs to change its energy system and sharply reduce its carbon footprint in order to address global climate change. To do this, energy demand growth must slow down on a global basis and decline in some regions, and our fuel mix must change. Transitions always consume time.

Another example is the country of Sweden had a problem; they drove on the left side of the road. Not a problem in itself, but they used to face a problem when the countries surrounding region which is called the Nordic region, with whom they shared roads, all drove on the right. Anyone who drove in or out of the country had to partake in a complex series of movements to switch sides without causing chaos or, once those foreign drivers found themselves in a country that drives on a different side of the road, they had to maneuver a vehicle not designed for that side of the road. So the Swedish government decided it was time to change.  First, they put the transportation overhaul up to a public vote for illuminating the necessity of a shift in the process of changing. The most important lesson to learn in life is that nobody likes change; people pursue predictability and stability, not change. It took few years to follow the right hand drive and finally Sweden followed it!

One of the toughest transitions you might ever have to make involves moving your place of residence. The longer you lived somewhere, the harder that move becomes. You also find that there are times when you have to go with the flow with family, friends, and employers. We find it very difficult to do things which don’t fit our moral frame, but there are times we force ourselves to do so. Mikhail Gorbachev was a committed member of the Soviet Union Communist party. But, despite believing in the ideals of Communism, he saw many things were not working and so was willing to introduce the radical reform policies of Perestroika and Glasnost – which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism in the East.

King Ashoka (304–232 BCE) was an Indian Emperor who ruled over a huge Indian Empire. He conquered Kalinga in a bitterly destructive war, in which thousands were slain. The lethal war with Kalinga transformed the unforgiving Emperor Ashoka; when he saw the loss of lives, loss of resources, he felt remorse, and he felt power is dangerous, he instead felt that power must be used for betterment of people. After Kalinga war Ashoka the great felt an urge of finding peace; he went through an inner transition and he became a patron of Buddhism. After seeing the slaughter he had caused, Ashoka embraced Buddhism and preached a new doctrine of non-violence, toleration and peace. Transitions are internal.

Annie Besant (1847–1933) was born in a middle-class family in Victorian Britain. She rebelled against the social norms and became a campaigner for social equality and trade unions. She later became interested in spirituality and became a Theosophist. In her later life, she became a campaigner for Indian Independence and was the leader of the Indian Congress party.

Often when we lose near and dear ones the vacuum teaches us to cope with challenges in life.  We feel helpless to cope with the emptiness, when children go for far off places for job, we feel empty.  Our life is actually a constant series of an immense number of transitions. There are some so tiny as to be hardly noticeable and whose impact kind of slips up on us. Our relationships with people around us changes gradually, our experience in work changes us, our experience with friends and peers changes us. Some changes are subtle while some changes knock us. All said and done life is a series of transitions.