William Bridges (1991) has very clear ideas about what leaders need to do to make change work. Bridges says that what often stops people from making new beginnings in a change process is that they have not yet let go of the past. He sees the leader as the person who helps to manage that transition. We see this as a particularly useful frame of thinking when an inevitable change such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization or site closure is underway.
In Organizations Really Work we referred to his three phases of transition:
- ending;
- neutral zone;
- new beginning.
Leadership for the ending
Here is Bridges’ advice for how to manage the ending phase (or how to get them to let go):
- Study the change carefully and identify who is likely to lose what.
- Acknowledge these losses openly – it is not stirring up trouble. Sweeping losses under the carpet stirs up trouble.
- Allow people to grieve and publicly express your own sense of loss.
- Compensate people for their losses. This does not mean handouts! Compensate losses of status with a new type of status. Compensate loss of core competence with training in new areas.
- Give people accurate information again and again.
- Define what is over and what is not.
- Find ways to ‘mark the ending’ (see box).
- Honour rather than denigrate the past.
MARKING THE END
When a large public owned utility company in the UK split up into a myriad of small privatized units, there was a great sense of loss. Old teams and old friendships were breaking up. It was the end of an era. The organization held a wake, at which everyone moaned and complained and generally got things off their chest. There was much talk late into the night. The transition moved more smoothly after that event as people began to accept the reality and inevitability of the ending.
Leadership for the neutral zone
The neutral zone is an uncomfortable place to be. This is the time when for instance, the reorganization has been announced, but the new organization is not in place, or understood, or working. Anxiety levels go up and motivation goes down, and discord amongst the team can rise. This phase needs to be managed well, or it can lead to chaos. A selection of Bridges’ tips for this phase are listed below :
- Explain the neutral zone as an uncomfortable time which with careful attention can be turned to everyone’s advantage.
- Choose a new and more affirmative metaphor with which to describe it.
- Reinforce the metaphor with training programmes, policy changes and financial rewards for people to keep doing their jobs during the neutral zone.
- Create temporary policies, procedures, roles and reporting relationships to get you through the neutral zone.
- Set short-range goals and checkpoints.
- Set up a transition monitoring team to keep realistic feedback flowing upward during the time in the neutral zone.
- Encourage experimentation and risk taking. Be careful not to punish all failures.
- Encourage people to brainstorm many answers to the old problems – the ones that people say you just have to live with. Do this for your own problems too.
Leadership for the new beginning
Here are some of Bridges’ ideas for this phase:
- Distinguish in your own mind the difference between the start, which can happen on a planned schedule, and the beginning, which will not.
- Communicate the purpose of the change.
- Create an effective picture of the change and communicate it effectively.
- Create a plan for bringing people through the three phases of transition, and distinguish it from the change management plan.
- Help people to discover the part they will play in the new system.
- Build some occasions for quick success.
- Celebrate the new beginning and the conclusion of the time of transition.
STOP AND THINK!
Reflect on an organizational change in which you were involved. Did the ‘sticky moments’ suggested by Rosabeth Moss Kanter arise, and how were they dealt with? What could have been done differently by those leading the change?
Imagine that the organization you work for as a line manager is about to be taken over by one of your key competitors. You have been told that everyone in your area will still have a job, but you will have to learn about the other organization’s way of doing business and drop many of the products and services you deliver now. Use the William Bridges’ tips to list some of the things you would need to start doing to enable the transition.