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Title: Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges ISBN: 0201550733 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.73
Rating: 4
Summary: The first change management book I've found.
Comment: Being an IT consultant, two of my main concerns are Project Management and Change Resistance. The combination of these two usually helps or dooms a project. "Managing Transitions" is the first book I have read that focuses on HOW to deal with change, instead of staying only in the WHAT should change, or WHY change is necessary.
In summary, "Managing Transitions" divides change into beginning, transition, and closure. It also suggests taking people's feelings into account, and giving them as much information as can be given, in order to get the trust of the ones going through change.
It gets four stars because in most chapters it talks about upper management as knowing exactly what has to be done, and it is only at the end that it acknowledges they may be wrong too. Since this is a book directed to managers, that is understandable. Most of its focus is in showing superiors how to lead their subordinates through change. However, it also devotes one chapter to explain how to deal with personal change.
With 125 pages, it is easy to read. In this "Who Moved my Cheese?" age, Bridges book is getting much less attention than it deserves.
Rating: 5
Summary: Answers the question: Why most organizational change fails?
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: This is an excellent work that can guide one through change
Comment: At 50 years of age, having served two previous Governor's as a department director, I learned I was not being re-appointed by the newly elected Governor. I knew I would survive, but fear was a daily feeling. My brother referred Dr. Bridges's book to me. I read it in two days. I found this book to be one of the most helpful I have ever read. I have a MSW degree, but never heard anyone describe "transition" as he has. It was "right on the money!" Since reading the book I have informed colleagues and friends about it. I purchased three copies for friends who are going through difficult times. In every case they have said how much this book helped them. It is worth reading any time, but especially if you are undergoing a change in your life and you don't understand the reason you feel so strange.
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Title: Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes by William Bridges ISBN: 0201000822 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: December, 1980 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Leading Change by John P. Kotter ISBN: 0875847471 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Way of Transition: Embracing Life's Most Difficult Moments by William Bridges ISBN: 073820529X Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 04 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations by John P. Kotter, Dan S. Cohen ISBN: 1578512549 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations by Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, George Roth, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith ISBN: 0385493223 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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