Book Review: Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges

Our Suzuki work is based on a very obvious fact that people tend to take for granted: children learn the languages that surround them. There’s another very obvious fact that people often take for granted: it’s that human beings have emotions. In his book, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, William Bridges writes sensitively about the feelings of loss, loneliness, and fear that typically accompany transitions. He also writes about the behaviors these emotions can generate. His insights have much to offer our community as we undergo a deeply emotional transition.

Widely considered the expert on organizational transitions, Bridges weaves in guidance about how organizations can help their people process those feelings. His approach uses these difficult emotions as raw materials to generate positive transformations. Before working in organizational communication, Bridges was a literature professor. Readers see evidence of this background in his writing, which is both elegant and accessible.

In my graduate studies in social work, my minor was in administration. Bridges’ writing resonates with the principles we learned. His use of the emotional world dovetails with the theories that provide the foundation for my current work as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. 

To understand how Bridges makes use of feelings, readers must first understand the distinction he makes between “change” and “transition.” He views change as the thing that happens—to take an example from the SAA, that would be a new Executive Director starting her term. On the other hand, transition is the psychological work that happens when the previous holder of the position retires and members “internalize and come to terms with the details of the new situation that the change brings about” (Bridges 1991, 3).

Bridges says that transitions have three parts—an Ending, a Neutral Zone, and a Beginning. This review will focus on the Neutral Zone that our community finds itself in now as we face our new beginning. To describe the feelings of the vast Neutral Zone, Bridges quotes author Marilyn Ferguson: “It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love with the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear…It’s like being between trapezes…There’s nothing to hold on to” (1991, 45).

This feeling of being in midair flags the two challenges of the Neutral Zone—helping people process the feeling and harnessing the transformative power that is possible. While Bridges acknowledges that this can be a painful and difficult period, he also notes that “the Neutral Zone is the individual’s and the organization’s best chance to be creative, to develop into what they need to become, and to renew themselves” (1991, 9). When I read this, I thought about how the SAA is in the middle of working out its approach to online teacher training. Bridges is an optimist and sees this neutral zone as “the time when repatterning takes place: old and maladaptive habits are replaced with new ones that are better adapted to the world in which the organization now finds itself” (1991, 10).

Bridges’s observations about the emotions people experience during transitions come as no shock to me in my psychotherapeutic work. People who have had a loss of a person or thing they love—even if the replacement is marvelous—often feel “lost and confused,” as he noted. These feelings generate a whole slew of questions, such as “What are the rules? Who’s in charge of what? What does the new strategy do to the old priorities?” (1991, 180).

In a transition, it’s common for people to feel scared as they search for answers to these questions. These fears, in turn, can generate all sorts of reactions. Bridges writes that “transition is like a low-pressure area on the organizational weather map. It attracts all the storms and conflicts in the area, past as well as present. This is because transition ‘decompresses’ an organization. Many of the barriers that held things in check come down. Old grievances resurface. Old scars start to ache. Old skeletons come tumbling out of closets” (1991, 121).

Although old issues can come back to haunt an organization, this book contains a positive message throughout: “Every transition is an opportunity to heal the old wounds that have been undermining effectiveness and productivity” (Bridges 1991, 121). The key is for those in leadership to provide opportunities for people to process their feelings, and Bridges gives page after page of ways leaders can create structures for the people in an organization to process the losses.

Not surprisingly, the primary way leaders help is through communicating. As Bridges reminds us, “during endings people crave information, although, ironically, they sometimes have trouble remembering it after you have given it to them. Stress can cause that” (1991, 179). Bridges feels that it is essential to communicate problems with everyone in the organization. “By sharing these problems, you align yourself and your people on one side and the problems on the other. The polarity is not between you and them; you are allies, not adversaries. If relationships have been frayed by change, this is a chance to rebuild them” (Bridges 1991, 77). Also, not surprisingly, Bridges believes that the basis for good communication while in the Neutral Zone is listening.

Bridges’ sound advice is followed up later in the book with some useful guidance that is an essential element in my clinical work: “Reassurance doesn’t reassure.” He points out that reassurance doesn’t last forever, but “what lasts a long time is the mistrust generated by false reassurances” (Bridges 1991, 140). At another point in the book, he advises, “Listen to people carefully and tell them what you think they are saying. If you have it wrong, accept the correction and revise what you say. People trust most the people whom they believe understand them” (Bridges 1991, 140). Bridges also tells us we shouldn’t argue with what we hear. It both stops the conversation and convinces people that you don’t understand them or don’t care what they’re feeling (Bridges 1991, 31). 

This book contains so much helpful guidance for the SAA that it is impossible to list everything; however, this part seemed pertinent: “Show how endings ensure the continuity of what really matters” (1991, 41). For example, he cited a company whose purpose was to produce the best possible containers making the switch from plastic to glass. Again, I think of the inclusion of online relationships in teaching, administration, and teacher training. Our Suzuki principles can remain intact, even if the way we deliver some of them changes.

The other topic Bridges devotes a considerable amount of space to is the essential task of developing trust: “There are two sides to trust: the first is outward-looking and grows from a person’s past experiences with that particular person or group; the second is inward-looking and comes from the person’s own history, particularly from childhood experiences. The level of truth that anyone feels is fed by both of these sources. You have control over the outward-facing source, so start there” (1991, 119).

Trustworthiness is achieved by “actions that are within your power to take,” Bridges tells us. He recommends to “do what you say you will do,” “share yourself honestly,” and “don’t try to push others to trust you further than you trust them” (1991, 120). Not surprisingly, excellent listening skills factor into his essential ingredients for building trust. As musicians, we are particularly well suited to practice this behavior.

Bridges isn’t big on schlock and doesn’t support the idea of giving everyone a “We’re Number One!” T-shirt (1991, 149). Curiously, I also discovered that he is not a fan of memos. “When you put things in writing, people can’t claim later that they weren’t told. Memos are actually better ways of protecting the sender, however, than they are of informing the receiver.” They should not be used “to convey complex information—like how a reorganization is going to be undertaken” (Bridges 1991, 22).

As I was reflecting on Managing Transitions, particularly about the loneliness and the feeling of being between trapezes, I remembered something that world-renowned psychoanalyst Jack Novak, Ph.D., said about young children who are overwhelmed with big feelings—“they can sometimes lose track of the love they feel for their parents. At those moments, the parents’ job is to hold onto the love.” 

One of our challenges during the transitions we find ourselves in—as we’re in that free-floating space between trapezes—is to hang onto the love that we have for each other. There’s been dissent in our organization lately, and plenty of the bad feelings that can come with it. The pandemic and the emergence of online work have also forced many fast-paced and surprising changes and accompanying transitions. The pandemic has taken away two in-person conferences from us, which have always been powerful community-building events. We are down our usual hugs. Bridges’ guidance can help us rediscover and hang onto the love we have for one another and transform it into something even more wonderful.