Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change Paperback – Abridged, September 22, 2009

William Bridges is one of the world's leading experts in the area of managing the human side of change. Bridges originally introduced the notion of "transition" in his first book, Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes (1980), which was a primer on coping with the tumultuous life changes we all face on a personal level. In Managing Transitions, Bridges applies the concept of transition within the context of organizational change.Bridges asserts that transition is not synonymous with "change." A change occurs when something in the external environment is altered. In an organizational setting this would include changes in management, organizational structure, job design, systems, processes, etc. These changes trigger an internal psychological reorientation process in those who are expected to carry out or respond to the change. Transition is this internal process that people must go through in order to come to terms with a new situation. Unless transition occurs, change will not work.Bridges believes that the failure to identify and prepare for the inevitable human psychological adjustments that change produces is the largest single problem that organizations encounter when they implement major change initiatives.Unfortunately, many managers, when confronted with predictable change-induced resistance by those charged with implementing a change, respond in punitive and inappropriate ways that only serve to undermine the change effort. Due to their lack of understanding of transition, they do not possess the skills to facilitate it effectively.Leaders and managers often assume that when necessary changes are decided upon and well planned, they will just happen. Unless the transition process is handled successfully by management, all that careful decision making and detailed planning will matter little.We must face the fact that for a change to occur, people must own it. Unless people go through the inner process of transition, they will not develop the new behavior and attitudes the change requires. Change efforts that disregard the process of transition are doomed.Bridges presents the reader with a simple three-phase transition model that eliminates much of the mystery surrounding the human side of change. He then provides would-be change agents with a series of checklists that serve as a road map for managing transitions in the real world.Both research and experience remind us that although a change can be implemented quickly, the psychological process of transition takes time. Transitions can take a very long time if they are not well managed. Few organizations can afford to wait that long for the results.The good news is that leaders can learn basic transition management strategies. Armed with these skills, they can lead employees through complex and difficult changes with renewed energy and purpose, and can actually accelerate the process of transition.With as many as half of all major organizational change efforts failing, leaders must learn new strategies and skills that will increase the odds of success. Bridges has provided us with a toolkit for managing the human side of change that is well worth considering.

This book is great! I was/am dealing with some pretty significant transitions -- the sudden death of my 21 year-old daughter, and a major division re-org at an S&P 500 company. Several months earlier, my VP had mentioned the book and suggested that all of his direct reports to read it. I did and it really hit home.The author does an excellent job of describing the emotional and organizational impact of change and the mechanics of the process we use to get through it. We use the same basic process to deal with all change -- personal and professional -- and it has been very helpful to understand how it works. There is also a section in the book about the life cycle of an organization and that was illuminating. The book provided some tools to help me make critical decisions.I bought six copies of the book and have given them out to friends and co-workers.

Being an IT consultant, two of my main concerns are Project Management and Change Resistance. The combination of these two usually helps or dooms a project. "Managing Transitions" is the first book I have read that focuses on HOW to deal with change, instead of staying only in the WHAT should change, or WHY change is necessary.In summary, "Managing Transitions" divides change into beginning, transition, and closure. It also suggests taking people's feelings into account, and giving them as much information as can be given, in order to get the trust of the ones going through change.It gets four stars because in most chapters it talks about upper management as knowing exactly what has to be done, and it is only at the end that it acknowledges they may be wrong too. Since this is a book directed to managers, that is understandable. Most of its focus is in showing superiors how to lead their subordinates through change. However, it also devotes one chapter to explain how to deal with personal change.With 125 pages, it is easy to read. In this "Who Moved my Cheese?" age, Bridges book is getting much less attention than it deserves.

Working with a non profit in transition, I came across this book. It gave me words for what I was observing in many around me, and then action steps for how to calm the anxiety that was forming in hearts as one change seemed to come after another. Because it deals with human reactions to change and transition, it applies in many settings beyond business. Plus there are insightful directives for leaders who are aware of change coming long before others and already had time to process it personally. The author reminds those leaders to walk patiently with the people they lead as the people need to walk through the internal emotional/intellectual process and cannot immediately "jump on board" for all things new! The author has practical points for speeding up that process so the whole team stays in synch.

Read this book for school, it was decent and taught me a bit but some things just seemed like common sense. An active teacher who participates and works with their students is always better than a book.

This book helped me understand the ways that people in my organization experience change, and also helped me become more perceptive to change. There are a lot of things that happen in our organization that I didn't really notice as significant changes, but this book helped me realize how deeply those changes can be felt, and how important it is to manage the transitions well lest the difficulty of staff in making the transition undermines the potential of the change to greatly benefit the company. Very well written, with lots of good advice. Not too long, and every piece is useful. Plus, the check lists at the end of each chapter help recap and make the advice concrete.