Welcome to the next installment of 90-Second Tools to Manage Transition. Today we will focus on the keys to a successful transition.   

But first, a quick recap: 

• The key to managing change is how we manage our internal experience of change.

• Change happens to us. It is the external events that cause us to revisit our plans.

• Transition is what we think, feel, and believe about the change and how we gather the energy to deal with it.

How to Ensure A Successful Transition? 

Step 1: See where you are in the transition process. 

We can see it by identifying where we are in the transition process. 

Step 2: See it rather than be in it. 

The real power comes from letting ourselves and others experience the transition process without pushing it away or letting the related emotions drive the bus. 

Meditators have been doing this for thousands of years. More recently, the business world has begun to tout the benefits that this “dual awareness” brings to the workplace when we can see our own thoughts and emotions and those of others without pushing them away or letting them drive the bus. 

 Why is this awareness helpful? 

• We don’t finish the transition process until it has run its full course.  But we almost always want to skip ahead to the end. 

• Trying to bypass a part of the transition process or pushing away our emotions about transition keeps us stuck in a loop, like being on a hamster wheel. 
  

• Letting our emotions drive the bus is a recipe for a bumpy ride and may cause us to get stuck or wind up in the wrong spot. 

• The neutral zone can be really uncomfortable because we want everything nailed down. However, innovation is often born at this stage if we can leave a bit of a room for something new to emerge.

Step 3: Use the tips in the next 90-second tool to complete the transition process  

*The concepts in this communication are adapted from William & Susan Bridges' "Managing Transitions", 4th edition, 2016