Book Summary Preview : Managing Transitions 2nd Edition This article is based on the following book: Managing Transitions 2nd Edition Making the Most of Change By William Bridges Perseus Publishing, 2003 ISBN 0738208248 160 pages

As corporations are not immune to change, what with mergers, corporate re-organization, bankruptcy and the like, it falls upon leaders to show their subordinates the way through rough times caused by changes. However, changes are not always managed properly.

Transition is what occurs during the time when the old and the new ways of doing things are being sorted out, and is undeniably one of an organization’s biggest growing pains. Managed well, it can become the chrysalis that turns the organizational caterpillar into a butterfly. Managed poorly, however, and the whole process has the potential to become a multi-million dollar squashed bug.

It does not, however, mean that transition is meant for the suffering of employees. William Bridges shares techniques in managing transition, turning a potential for disaster into an opportunity for radical growth and the building of a foundation of a company’s future.

What Causes Change?

All living things have life cycles, and the same goes for organizations. Like human beings, they grow and develop, and when they can no longer develop to keep up with the market or meet the needs of operation, it dies or closes down. Change occurs when a certain thing has been “outgrown” and must be replaced with something new. For example, the operating system used by a startup company of twelve people can hardly be used by an international corporation with twelve hundred employees.

Seven Stages of Organizational Life

Bridges points out that the seven stages that follow are not necessarily cut and dried, and that these are but a way of showing how organizations develop and where they could possibly meet with change and transition.

Stage 1: Dreaming the Dream

The beginning of everything, this is when the founders begin to conceptualize an idea for a business entity. Most of the activity in this period is simply brainstorming and conceptualizing, trying to get the idea into words that can be articulated and understood.

Stage 2: Launching the Venture

This is literally the “birth” of a company. Some dreams never get to this phase, but those who do, get to go through “infancy” and “childhood”.

Some ventures flounder during their first months before things pick up, while some ventures flourish almost overnight. However, the measure of a venture is not its profit or the number of clients, but how they operate. Usually ventures will have a very loose, very informal system in place. There are no hiring policies, no SOP, no fixed rules. For now, the company runs on a “making it up as you go” basis.

Stage 3: Getting Organized

When a company reaches the Organizing stage, it begins to lose some of its steam. This is because the people within it are forced to slow down and take stock of where they’re going. . . . .

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