Quotes from William Bridges

Change comes more from managing the journey than from announcing the destination

Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities.

The single biggest reason organizational changes fail is because no one has thought about endings or planned to manage their impact on people. Naturally concerned about the future, planners and implementers all too often forget that people have to let go of the present first. They forget that while the first task of change management is to understand the desired outcome and how to get there, the first task of transition management is to convince people to leave home.

In the neutral zone, people are overloaded, they frequently get mixed signals, and systems are in flux and more unreliable. It is only natural that priorities get confused, information is miscommunicated, and important tasks go undone. It is also natural that with so much uncertainty and frustration, people lose confidence in the organization's future and turnover begins to rise.

It is for these reasons that managing the neutral zone is so essential during a period of enormous change. Neutral zone management isn't just something that would be nice if you had more time. It's the only way to ensure that the organization comes through the change intact and that the necessary changes actually work the way that they are supposed to.

Lacking clear systems and signals, the neutral zone is a chaotic time, but this lack is also the reason the neutral zone is more hospitable to new ideas than settled times. Because the neutral zone automatically puts people into Bessemer's situation, it is a time that is ripe with creative opportunity.

Establish by word and example that this is a time to step back and take stock, a time to question the "usual," and a time to come up with new and creative solutions to the organization's difficulties. Explain how business as usual chokes off creativity and explain why the present is the best possible time to generate and test new ideas. Model this new manner yourself by taking time to step back and question how your own job is done.

The task before you is therefore twofold: first, to get your people through this phase of transition in one piece; and second, to capitalize on all the confusion by encouraging them to be innovative.

Provide opportunities for others to step back and take stock, both organizationally and individually: schedule offsites, process reviews, surveys, and open conversations; offer people the chance to review their careers and refocus their efforts in areas of growing interest to them.

Encourage learning in the areas of discovery and innovation. This is the time for even more creative thinking and greater focus on innovation.

Encourage experimentation. People always have ideas that they have been wishing they had the chance to try, and they naturally generate solutions to problems they've been living with. What they seldom do, without encouragement and support, is try their ideas. Too often experimentation seems to people a risky undertaking that requires someone else's blessing. Give it yours.

Selling problems is, in fact, the investment that pays long-term dividends by making people more ready for particular organizational transitions—and for a world of continuous change in general.

Embrace losses, setbacks, or disadvantages as entry points into new solutions.

Look for opportunities to brainstorm new answers to old problems. You have lived with them for so long that you may have unwittingly given up any hope of solving them. Break through this block, not by finding the single right answer but by finding 10 or 20 new answers—the crazier, the better.

restrain the natural impulse in times of ambiguity and disorganization to push prematurely for certainty and closure. It is tempting to rally around, to have "everyone pulling together," in the neutral zone, but be careful that you don't unwittingly squeeze out dissent or other ways of thinking.

And although it may be hard to think about larger issues while you are in the immediate turmoil of a transition, you must finally deal with them if you are to understand not only what is happening, but why, when, and how it is happening. In other words, I am not telling you to stop bailing - just to cast an eye over the map and think about where your little boat is heading.

If you cry, "Forward," you must make clear the direction in which to go. Don't you see that if you fail to do that and simply call out the word to a monk and a revolutionary, they will go in precisely the opposite directions? ANTON CHEKHOV, RUSSIAN WRITER

Successful new beginnings are based on a clear and appropriate purpose. Without one, there may be lots of starts but no real beginnings. In fact, there may be one start after another in a sequence of changes that tires out everyone without solving the underlying problems. Without a beginning, the transition is incomplete. And without transition, the change changes nothing.

The purpose, the picture, and the plan all omit something: a part for them to play. Until that is provided, many people will feel left out and will find it difficult to make a new beginning.

You also need to give people a role in dealing effectively with the transition process itself. The easiest way to do this is to be sure that everyone has some role on one of the planning task forces, climate survey groups, problem-solving circles, or transition monitoring teams.

Giving people a part brings their firsthand knowledge to bear on solving problems. Joint decisions are not necessarily better than unilateral ones, but including people makes their knowledge available to the decision-maker, whoever that may be. 4.?The knowledge thus provided is more than the facts about the problem—it also includes the facts about the self-interest of the various parties affected by the situation.

Second Law of Organizational Development: the successful outcome of any phase of organizational development triggers its demise by creating challenges that it is not equipped to handle.

Finally, everyone who plays a part is, tacitly at least, implicated in the outcome.

Rule 1: Be Consistent The first form of reinforcement is consistency of message. Every policy, procedure, and list of priorities sends a message, but if you aren't careful, your messages will be conflicting ones.