Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It isn't the changes that do you in, it's the transitions..." (more)
Key Phrases: transition management plan, nonstop change, organizational life cycle, Getting Organized, New York, Promised Land (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Bookviews blog, October
“Filled with excellent advice for those in leadership positions who need a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization.”

Product Description

From the most trusted voice on transition, a revised edition of the classic practical guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change.

The business world is a place of constant change, with stories of corporate mergers, layoffs, bankruptcy, and restructuring hitting the news every day. Yet as veteran consultant William Bridges maintains, the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions. In the best-selling Managing Transitions, Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization.

Directed at managers and employees in today's corporations, Bridges shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change. Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. When the book was originally published a decade ago, Bridges was the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. With new information and commentary on layoffs, corporate suspicion, and the increasing tumult in the business world, Managing Transitions remains the definitive guide to dealing with change.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 2nd edition (May 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738208248
• ISBN-13: 978-0738208244
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,017 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 146 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answers the question: Why most organizational change fails?, February 24, 2000

By	J. Lipsey (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change (Paperback)

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.

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The first step of any project should be to read this book., August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change (Paperback)

The main message of this book - "Never lose sight of the fact that is not so much that you are starting something new but it is that you are stopping something old". The something old that you are stopping is the system that people have used for years. It might be the worlds worst system but it was theirs and you are going to take it away and replace it with something they neither understand or have been a part of selecting. This book helps you deal with that issue. Read it first - then start re-engineering.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, tactical and easy to follow. Invaluable., March 17, 1999

By	K. Brick (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Transitions: Making The Most Of Change (Paperback)

This books helps one get one's arms around the "soft" - but most difficult - side of change. I cannot tell you how many brilliant implementation plans fail because consultants and organizations did not plan ahead and take into account the material covered in this book. Checklists and clear descriptions help even the most analytical types understand the human side of change and tactics needed to make change successful. I recommend this book to all my friends - from McKinsey consultants to ministers and non-profit managers.