Transition phases of Change Management

Transition according to Bridges & Bridges (2016) is the psychological aspect of desired change which comprises of a three-phase process which helps teams internalize and accept the new and future state that the desired change will bring over time. The three-phase process of transition as described by Bridges & Bridges (2016) are

·        Ending, Losing and Letting go: this process entails the ending and letting go of the old identity and ways of doing things.

·        The Neutral Zone: this encompasses the phase when the old is gone, and the future state is partially operational. This is the critical path for realigning and re patterning of the mental process of resources involved in the transition.

·        The New Beginning: the phase results in the development of new identity, energy and unfolds the new purpose for the change as it begins to work. (p. 5).

The transition could impact business practice both positively and negatively, depending on the management of the transition. The impact of transition on business practice hinges on how the phases of transition are managed. Bridges & Bridges (2016), explained that “psychological transition depends on letting go of the old reality and the old identity you had before the change took place” (p. 7). In explaining this concept dealing with the ending of the situational change intended for the business will portend a positive impact of transition. However, most organization overlook the phase of letting go in excitement for the new beginning while employees are still mourning the loss of their old identity. When this occurs, it is almost certain that the transition will be mismanaged and will portend a negative impact on business practice. Hence, the desired change may not record the desired success, due to unmanaged transition that has now resulted in an unmanageable change. 

This single act of mismanaging transition could nullify the economic and technological justification for the change which the transition was meant to drive. Benetton is a vivid example by Bridges and Bridges (2016); the impact of forgetting to manage transition resulted in the loss of financial and human resources for the company. As enterprise resource planning analyst, deploying new system application require the helping user's transition from the old application to a new application, and it involves lots of training that prepares them for the beginning of the new. Also designing a transition management plan for the neutral phase is essential as this help to log all loss complaints to design an improved and comparable process for the new application is valuable to the acceptance.

Reference

Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. (2016). Managing Transitions: Making the most of change (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press.