Paul C. Godfrey

Marriott School of Management

Transitions

Change: Three key emotional phases

Unfreezing Change Re-freezing

Ending Neutral Zone New Beginning

• Disengagement

• Dismantling

• Disidentification

• Disenchantment

• Disorientation

• Settling in

• Sense of security, permanence

• Ability to “move forward”

• Anxiety up, motivation down

• Other weaknesses emerge

• Confusion/ creativity

The transition is not so clean . . .

people need to do all three at the same time.

The importance of endings

Every beginning is a consequence. Every beginning ends something.

Paul Valéry, French Poet

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones open for

us.

Alexander Graham Bell, American Inventor

Some useful “rules”

• Endings always come before beginnings

• Endings usually recycle old ending scripts

• There is no timetable

• Your ending is not my ending

Planning for better endings

• Identify who will be losing what

• Who will have to let go of what? Peer group? Roles? Promotions? Values? Expectations?

• What will be over for everyone?

Managing better endings

• Accept the reality of subjective losses– Don’t tell people to “suck it up”– Listen and don’t stop the conversation

• Don’t be surprised by overreactions– People are losing part of “their” world– Transition deficits—a readiness to grieve that only needs a

new trigger

• Think of the symbol behind the substance– Actions as symbols of trust and values

Managing better endings

• Acknowledge losses openly and with sympathy

• Expect signs of grieving– Anger– Bargaining– Anxiety– Sadness– Disorientation– Depression

Managing better endings

• Compensate for the losses, where possible– What can we give to balance what’s being taken away?

• Treat the past with respect– Don’t denigrate the past– Acknowledge that the past got us to the present– Let people take a piece of the past with them

• Show that the ending ensures the continuity of what really matters

The importance of communication

• People don’t listen to what they don’t want to hear

• Consciously overcommunicate– Giving out uncomfortable information models how to do it

• Define what is over and what isn’t– If people don’t know the difference they become paralyzed

Two Cautions

• Remember the marathon effect

• Measure twice, cut once

A final thought

The first task of change management is to help people understand the desired change and make it

happen

The first task of transition management is to convince people to leave home.