Change Management versus Transition Management

Many people are confused with the difference between “Change Management”, and Transition Management. Change is an external event that is focused on an end result or an outcome, and refers to the endless number of initiatives the organization or business is undertaking in order to ensure the strategy works: the new technologies, restructuring, new products or processes, mergers, websites, joint venture or affiliate partners, and so on.

Transition management refers to the people side of the process: what you, your staff, or your partners must go through to let go of the old, move through the confusing time between the old and the new, and ensure a successful new beginning. Transition goes on inside people in response to the actual change event(s) and is highly personal.

Whenever a change is launched, it must be lead and managed. There are five core activities at the heart of Change Management:

  1. Establish a successful foundation for change.
  2. This involves a clear understanding of:
    • Why the change is necessary
    • What is at stake if change is not made
    • What the future direction is
  3. Consider all possible change solutions that address the problems or opportunities inherent in the need for change.
  4. Conduct a thorough impact assessment on the solutions that are being seriously considered.
  5. Decide on the best change solution and design a detailed implementation plan.
  6. Implement the plan, build in feedback loops, and correct as required.

“Change Management” is incomplete in itself. Change management focuses on the situation and on creating an alternative to the status quo. But that new situation will fail if the people who inhabit it and make it work have not, themselves, been changed too.

Change “works” only if it takes root in people’s minds and hearts. Change works only if people go through “transition.” Effective change management alone is not enough. It must be supplemented by Transition Management.

It’s transition, not change, that people resist!

Transition Management

Transition is not just another word for change. Transition is the psychological reorientation that people go through as they come to terms with the external events and the new situation. Change can take place very quickly. Transition may take a long time.

What is needed, in addition to a well planned change management effort, is a transition management plan. There are five core activities in managing organizational transition:

  1. Transition Management – One
    • Develop and execute an effective change management plan:
    • Has the problem or opportunity been sold? Are people aware of it and the consequences of not addressing it?
    • Were representatives of the affected groups involved in the problem solving process before changes were decided on?
    • Is there a well planned communication scenario, covering the who, what, how, and when?
    • Have transition monitoring mechanisms been created? Formal bottoms-up feedback loops built in?
  2. Transition Management – Two
    • Identify where groups and key individuals are in the three-phase transition process:
    • Phase One: transition starts with an ending or a loss. Only after people have left behind the old life, can they grasp the new.
    • Phase Two: a necessary interim, gap, no-man’s land, neutral zone, after the ending. Old identity is gone, the new identity is not yet established.
    • Phase Three: transition finishes with a new beginning.
  3. Transition Management – Three
    • Develop and implement strategies for managing endings and losses.
    • Do people understand exactly what is finished, what is ending, and what is not?
    • Carefully removed anything that would give people an excuse to hold on to the past?
    • Used boundary actions and events to mark a clean break with the past and show that today is really different from yesterday?
    • Are people getting all the information they need? Is communication focused on managing endings?
  4. Transition Management – Four
    Develop and implement strategies for leading people through and profiting from the “neutral zone.”
    The Two Cs: communication designed to:

    • Maintain Connection to the organization, each other, and the work at hand?
    • Show Concern? That manager’s care.

    The Four Ps: communication that clarifies the:

    • Purpose - why are we doing this? Is there a clear sense of purpose?
    • Picture - what is the outcome going to be like?
    • Plan - can people see a path?
    • Part - do people have a role to play? Involved?
  5. Transition Management – Five
    • Develop and implement strategies for helping people to make a new beginning.
    • Do people know what they need to do?
    • People provided with opportunity to practice their newly necessary skills?
    • Work collaboratively with people to help define the new roles and practices?
    • Reward structure supports new appropriate behavior, skills, and knowledge?
    • Publicize and celebrate early successes?
    • Built in responsiveness and flexibility to ensure continued adaptation to changing environment?

This is the fourth in an ongoing series of articles on Change and Transition Management. The next segment explains the process of grieving as it relates to working through change.

It is part of the overall series on Strategic Planning developed to help both Internet Marketers and off-line businesses to succeed in any economy, and in any market.