Managing Transitions

Bridges separates change, which is external and can be announced on a date, from transition, which is the internal process people go through and cannot be skipped. The model has three phases, covering an ending where people let go of the old way, a neutral zone where the old has gone and the new is not working yet, and a new beginning. Most of the book concerns the neutral zone, because that is where productivity dips, anxiety rises and change efforts most often collapse. There are practical chapters on what to communicate at each phase, on handling continuous change with no settled period between, and on what a manager does when going through the same transition as their team. Short, and a useful companion to a process focused change book.