Change and Transitions

As I was sitting on a flight to Mumbai the other day, I was reading an article in the New York Times by Jane E. Brody. It was about people with incurable cancers who pursue therapy beyond any hope of benefit. Let me quote from that article :

"There are many reasons this happens. Some patients won't acknowledge that their death is imminent, and some doctors won't admit to them that nothing more can be done to contain the disease. [...] And some patients hope to ward off the Grim Reaper until after a special event, like a child's graduation or wedding or the birth of a grand child."

That article reminded me of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' book On Death and Dying in which she describes the stages of grief patients go through after the announcement of a terminal illness, the Human change curve that was derived from it, and how it is often used in Change Management.

It may seem extreme to compare a change in the workplace with the announcement of certain death. However, you can use the same curve for both cases to describe the personal journey from Denial to Acceptance and beyond.

In Change Management, we distinguish between Change and Transition.

Change refers to the practical elements of the project, whereas Transition deals with its psychological aspects. People affected by the change will have to cope with it as an external factor, but they will need to go through their own internal journey.

They will need to let go of the old ways of doing things that they have known and mastered for years and learn new ways of doing things.

Many questions arise to which they need answers and doubts cleared in order to make sense of the change and ease their own transition :

Denial : Is this really happening ?

Anger : Why me ?

Bargaining : Give me some time and the situation will get better.

Depression : Why bother ?

Acceptance : I can't fight it, I may as well get on with it.

Of course, a series of factors influence the length (Time) and amplitude (Morale + energy = Performance) of every single individual's curve. These may include how deeply the change affects an individual, the resilience of the individual, the interaction of simultaneous changes, how much control or the influence an individual has over the change, etc.

Once an individual has reached the Acceptance stage, he will be willing to try out new approaches, make new discoveries and, eventually, integrate these into their new "way of being", replacing the old ways of doing things by the new ways of doing things.

And finally, in the specific case of Change Management, once all the individuals in the organization have reached this stage, the change will be deemed successful.

So, how is your organisation managing the change and the transitions of your people ?

Because, as William Bridges said in his book Managing transitions, "It's not the changes that will do you in, it's the transitions".