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"When going through a core systems change, a leader created a board with images of common emotions—fear, excitement, anxiety, curiosity, anger, etc. Every week as they were implementing a new phase, she asked her employees to mark how they felt about the upcoming component. They then met the morning of to discuss those emotions, ask any questions, brainstorm how to overcome, set goals, etc. Due to this, she created a safe space for her employees as they navigated through this first stage."

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We held weekly team meetings during a core system conversion giving our employees a platform to express concerns and ask questions

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"Not in his goals but in his transitions man is great." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Bridges Transition Model helps organizations and individuals understand and more effectively manage and work through the personal and human side of change. The model identifies the three stages an individual experiences during change: Ending What Currently Is, The Neutral Zone and The New Beginning. Developed by William Bridges, the Bridges Transition Model has been used by leaders and management consultants for more than thirty years.

What is the difference between change and transition?

Change is the external event or situation that takes place: a new business strategy, a turn of leadership, a merger or a new product. The organization focuses on the desired outcome that the change will produce, which is generally in response to external events. Change can happen very quickly.

Transition is the inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about. Empathetic leaders recognize that change can put people in crisis. The starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome but the endings that people have in leaving the old situation behind.

Change will only be successful if leaders and organizations address the transition that people experience during change. Supporting people through transition, rather than pushing forward is essential if the change is to work as planned. This is key to capitalizing on opportunities for innovation and creating organizational resilience.

What are the stages of transition?

Endings

Transition starts with an ending. This is paradoxical but true. This first phase of transition begins when people identify what they are losing and learn how to manage these losses. They determine what is over and being left behind, and what they will keep. These may include relationships, processes, team members or locations.

Neutral Zone

The second step of transition comes after letting go: the neutral zone. People go through an in-between time when the old is gone but the new isn't fully operational. It is when the critical psychological realignments and repatternings take place. It is the very core of the transition process. This is the time between the old reality and sense of identity and the new one. People are creating new processes and learning what their new roles will be. They are in flux and may feel confusion and distress. The neutral zone is the seedbed for new beginnings.

New Beginnings

Beginnings involve new understandings, values and attitudes. Beginnings are marked by a release of energy in a new direction - they are an expression of a fresh identity. Well-managed transitions allow people to establish new roles with an understanding of their purpose, the part they play, and how to contribute and participate most effectively. As a result, they feel reoriented and renewed.

What is the transition management process?

Transition management in organizations addresses the inner psychological process that people experience during change. Successful transition management involves these steps:

1. Communicating with the organization about why the change is needed.

2. Collecting information from those affected by the change to understand its impact on them. Gaining their investment in the outcome.

3. Doing an audit of the organizations' transition readiness.

4. Educating leaders about how the change will affect individuals in the organization to manage the transition effectively.

5. Monitoring the progress of individuals as they go through the three stages of transition.

6. Helping individuals understand how they can positively contribute to the change and the importance of their role in the organization.

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Bridges Transition Model | William Bridges Associates

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The Bridges Transition Model helps organizations and individuals understand and more effectively manage and work through the personal and human side of change. The model identifies the three stages an individual experiences during change: Ending What Currently Is, The Neutral Zone and The New Beginning.

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https://www.ncu.edu/blog/six-ways-implement-positive-change-job

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Six Ways to Implement Positive Change on the Job

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It’s not rocket science to understand that a happy, positive work environment is more pleasant than one filled with gloom, doom and negativity. It’s also not a stretch to think that a positive workplace can help the bottom line. How does a manager implement positive change to create this upbeat corp…

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It is human nature to resist change. However, to keep up with a constantly evolving marketplace, organizations must be adaptable and growth-oriented. To quell the resistance that inevitably accompanies transformation efforts, a few change management exercises could go a long way.

What is a change management exercise?

Change management exercises are games or simulations that motivate employees to accept change and actively engage with the change process. When posed in a positive, zero-stakes setting, these exercises minimize resistance and make change a fun event.

The exercises below are just a few examples of activities that will get employees excited about upcoming change.

1. Cross Your Arms the "Other" Way

Gather employees and ask them to cross their arms. Then, once they are comfortable in that position, ask them to fold their arms the other way. It feels quite different, doesn't it? Despite the fact that they are only making a slight change to their stance, the feeling is not the same.

Ask your employees to discuss how this small but noticeable change makes them feel. For some, the unfamiliarity of the posture might be frustrating. Or, it might just be a bit uncomfortable. However, the longer they sit with their arms this way, the more comfortable they'll become. Relate this feeling to how an organizational change can feel wrong at first, but begins to feel more natural as time goes on.

2. The Alien at Dinner

In this game, employees pretend that they are an alien sitting at a human dinner party for the first time. While observing the humans around them, the alien employee is asked to note the odd behavior that the humans exhibit while they eat and talk to one another.

This exercise demonstrates to employees the importance of diversity in thought, keeping an open mind, and really considering others' ideas. It helps people learn to question what they have long accepted as normal. Change management exercises like this help staff become more comfortable with assessing how things are done now and how they can be improved.

3. Changing Places

Arrange chairs in a circle and place an object in the center. Ask employees to take a seat, then observe the object. After a minute or so, ask them to get up and change seats. Call on them to describe the object from their new point of view. Then, tell them they are allowed to get up and change seats once more.

Some employees will wish to stay put. However, staying in the same place limits the number of perspectives that they can have. In contrast, each time the employees observe the object from a different perspective, they have the opportunity to notice something new. Change management exercises that illustrate the importance of gaining a new perspective help mollify resistance and show how a change can be beneficial.

4. The Ups and Downs of Change

Create a list of change-related words, such as " transformation," "implementation," "transition," "training," "process change," and more of the like. Read different words aloud and ask employees to step forward if the word evokes a positive response, backwards for a negative response.

After each word, have employees observe the changes in the room and discuss why they chose to step forward or backward. Those who stepped backward may have a stronger tendency to resist change, or at least associate negative emotions with change. Open a dialogue about how thinking of change-related terms in a positive way will actually help them get them farther.

5. The Four P's

With a large sheet of paper or board, create four columns labeled with each of the following words: Project, Purpose, Particulars, and People.

Ask the group to fill out each column depending on how they believe a given change will affect those four entities. By asking employees to articulate their concerns about how a change will affect certain things, change managers can more effectively address their apprehensions. Discussing these concerns will help employees gain a better understanding of the true effects of the change and reduce resistance.

6. Bounce Back

Ask your employees to pair up. Then give each pair a rubber ball and ask them to bounce it back and forth. After a few minutes, ask the group if they were ever concerned that the ball would not bounce up after they tossed it to the ground.

Just like a bouncy ball, organizations will rebound from the challenges produced from change. Change management exercises such as this encourage employees to embrace the movement and understanding that they will recover afterwards, even if a change is uncomfortable at the moment.

7. Can-Do Company

Split the group of employees into teams of 5 or 6 and ask them to come up with a simple, fun business idea that they will present to the entire group. Give each team member a role like planning, design or sales.

After letting the groups strategize for 10 minutes, move a few participants from each group around to other groups. Then introduce one new criterium the business idea must contain. Allow the groups to strategize for another 10 minutes, given the new information. At the end of the session, each group presents their idea and everyone votes on the best one.

This exercise demonstrates the importance of being flexible during the planning process. It simulates the need to work as a team, even amid changes to the team itself, and embracing others' ideas. After, ask the employees to reflect on what good things came out of having a new perspective on the team. How did the end product change from that first round of planning to the second?

Credit: Strategy+business

How do change management exercises look today?

Due to the current climate of COVID-19, most workplaces are closed and employees are working from home. Managers are now tasked with leading teams remotely which requires increased communication and clear expectations around work performance.

Coping with change and empowering employees to rise to the occasion is now more important than ever. As many organizations are finding their footing amidst this sudden shift, embracing change management can maintain business continuity and give employees an engaging way to handle new processes that might come their way.

Change management exercises for remote workers

In light of the present situation, below are two change management exercises that can be done via Zoom with your team to empower them to deal with more unknowns during this period and beyond.

Gather your team on a video call and instruct them to have paper and pens ready. Preface the exercise by saying that drawing skills are not being measured, and each employee should concentrate on simply completing the task.

The manager will begin with an instruction to have everyone draw a house. After a couple of minutes and before the picture is completed, the manager will say that they changed their minds and now want a picture of a boat. Again, at some point before everyone finishes, the manager will change the directions and tell everyone to draw a castle. As the manager keeps changing their mind, employees might begin to feel a bit fed up. After a series of changes, and before engagement is lost, the facilitator should start a conversation about what everyone experienced.

This exercise highlights the frustration that change can elicit and the negative behaviors associated with having to make something new each time from scratch. This is a great way to have employees look critically at which points during the exercise they became frustrated and why. The conversation can broaden to address where sudden pivots have been made at work, how employees rose to the challenge and how making that change inspired innovation or an improved way of doing things.

Ask all employees on your video conferencing call to sign their name 10 times on a piece of paper. This should take a minute, and promptly afterward, ask them to do it again. Once they're done, instruct employees to put the pen in their other hand and do ten signatures, and then repeat.

Initiate a conversation about how hard signing their name was using their opposite hand and any challenges that arose.

Now ask them to sign their signature again 10 times. Most people will use their usual hand, but why did they switch back? The instructions didn't change. The point of the exercise is to demonstrate how difficult change can be, and most people will revert to what they know unless they are making a concerted effort to implement change.

Change Management in Action

Change management exercises help employees more easily acclimate to something new. Even though our natural instincts tell us to resist, embracing change can actually result in a much happier and productive workplace.

When company leadership stays active in promoting change, employees will stay on board and be motivated to actively pursue new challenges.

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7 Engaging Exercises to Minimize Resistance to Change

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It is human nature to resist change. However, to keep up with a constantly evolving marketplace, organizations must be adaptable and growth-oriented. To quell the resistance that inevitably accompanies transformation efforts, a few change management exercises could go a long way.

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We placed a jar at the front of our office where employees could submit questions about the recent changes anonymously. We found that we received far more engagement than during team meetings