How to Transition Through Change: Navigate 3 Stages

When Faced With Change, Focus On the Transition

We’ve all heard the famous quote: “Change is the only constant in life.” And we know that to be resilient, both personally and professionally, we have to face change head on and get to the other side.

Effective leaders understand that success requires more than just coping with change — and that the goal is not to “get by.” These leaders accept that change is happening; they hone strategies for dealing with the unknown; and they shift their behavior to accommodate new situations and challenges.

What’s the Difference Between Change & Transition?

To manage change, first understand that there is a difference between change and transition.

• Change is defined as the situations and occurrences that impact organizations and individuals. Change creates the need to move from the way things used to be to the way they are now, such as a new boss, a move to another location, or a shift in policy. Learn our 5 Tips for Adapting to Change.

• Transition is the internal psychological process of adapting to a new situation. Transition can happen quickly or slowly. It is the process of moving successfully from the old to the new. Here are our tips for navigating the 3 stages of transition.

Tips for Navigating the 3 Stages of Transition

Transition involves 3 stages: an ending, a neutral zone, and a new beginning, according to William Bridges, a leader in the field of change management.

Stage 1 of Transition: Accept the Ending

Let go of the past; honor and grieve the ending, but accept it. To fully experience change as an ending, try these 3 strategies:

• Admit to yourself and others that the change has occurred. Leading change by example requires honesty and authenticity.

• Actively seek information from all relevant sources. Learn more about the nature of the change without first judging it.

• Take note of what has been lost and what has been gained. Take the view that different is not right or wrong. It is just different.
  

Stage 2 of Transition: Live in the Neutral Zone

This may be the most uncomfortable transition stage. This is the time of confusion, of living with a clear ending but having no clear beginning. It is also the time for clarity to develop and point you to a new beginning. Try these 4 strategies as you navigate the neutral zone:

• Realize that uncertainty is an integral stage between an ending and a new beginning. Don’t expect to know everything or to be perfect.

• Set short-term goals to move through uncertainty. As you advance toward a new beginning, take stock of what you need to accomplish those goals and identify opportunities that will help you move forward.

• Look backward to the ending and acknowledge what you had. Look forward to the beginning and the possibilities it could create.

• Connect to your values. When you feel uncertain and confused, your personal values will provide direction.

Stage 3 of Transition: Reach Your New Beginning

Utilize the clarity that developed in the neutral zone and accept the challenge of working in a changed environment. Think of this phase as a fresh start. Try these 3 strategies as you settle into your new beginning:

• Jump right in to meet new people. As you learn the ropes, give all relevant parties a place in the new beginning.

• Create strategies for tackling new problems. When you meet new challenges, re-emphasize the reason for the change and recognize that reason as why you are beginning anew.

• Find ways to mark your success. Acknowledge small wins.

People experience organizational change in many different ways, and the process of transition will vary. As a leader, you must deal with your own personal uncertainty and resistance to change. Recognize that your process of going through endings, neutral zones, and new beginnings will affect your work and the people around you. You can learn to become a more successful change leader.

With greater awareness of the human side of transition, you and your organization will be be able to move through change with grace.

This article is provided by: www.ccl.org

The Busier You Are, The More You Need Quiet Time

In a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates argued that serious thinkers and writers should get off Twitter.

It wasn’t a critique of the 140-character medium or even the quality of the social media discourse in the age of fake news.

It was a call to get beyond the noise.

For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work products requires something all too rare in modern life: quiet.

He’s in good company. Author JK Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson, and psychiatrist Carl Jung have all had disciplined practices for managing the information flow and cultivating periods of deep silence. Ray Dalio, Bill George, California Governor Jerry Brown, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have also described structured periods of silence as important factors in their success.

Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Physician Luciano Bernardi found that two-minutes of silence inserted between musical pieces proved more stabilizing to cardiovascular and respiratory systems than even the music categorized as “relaxing.” And a 2013 study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, based on a survey of 43,000 workers, concluded that the disadvantages of noise and distraction associated with open office plans outweighed anticipated, but still unproven, benefits like increasing morale and productivity boosts from unplanned interactions.

But cultivating silence isn’t just about getting respite from the distractions of office chatter or tweets. Real sustained silence, the kind that facilitates clear and creative thinking, quiets inner chatter as well as outer.

This kind of silence is about resting the mental reflexes that habitually protect a reputation or promote a point of view. It’s about taking a temporary break from one of life’s most basic responsibilities: Having to think of what to say.

Cultivating silence, as Hal Gregersen writes in a recent HBR article, “increase[s] your chances of encountering novel ideas and information and discerning weak signals.” When we’re constantly fixated on the verbal agenda—what to say next, what to write next, what to tweet next—it’s tough to make room for truly different perspectives or radically new ideas. It’s hard to drop into deeper modes of listening and attention. And it’s in those deeper modes of attention that truly novel ideas are found.

Even incredibly busy people can cultivate periods of sustained quiet time. Here are four practical ideas:

1) Punctuate meetings with five minutes of quiet time. If you’re able to close the office door, retreat to a park bench, or find another quiet hideaway, it’s possible to hit reset by engaging in a silent practice of meditation or reflection.

2) Take a silent afternoon in nature. You need not be a rugged outdoors type to ditch the phone and go for a simple two-or-three-hour jaunt in nature. In our own experience and those of many of our clients, immersion in nature can be the clearest option for improving creative thinking capacities. Henry David Thoreau went to the woods for a reason.

3) Go on a media fast. Turn off your email for several hours or even a full day, or try “fasting” from news and entertainment. While there may still be plenty of noise around—family, conversation, city sounds—you can enjoy real benefits by resting the parts of your mind associated with unending work obligations and tracking social media or current events.

4) Take the plunge and try a meditation retreat: Even a short retreat is arguably the most straightforward way to turn toward deeper listening and awaken intuition. The journalist Andrew Sullivan recently described his experience at a silent retreat as “the ultimate detox.” As he put it: “My breathing slowed. My brain settled…It was if my brain were moving away from the abstract and the distant toward the tangible and the near.”

The world is getting louder. But silence is still accessible—it just takes commitment and creativity to cultivate it.

This article originally appeared on Harvard Business Review & was written by Justin Talbot-Zorn.

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