19. Business transition Of management

We have all heard the saying “the only thing constant is change”. This goes for everything - from the human life cycle to the stars above. However, it is also a basic truth that people, being creatures of habit, are resistant to change. Especially when it threatens something that means a lot to them - their day to day way of living, such as major changes in their place of employment.

As corporations are not immune to change, what with mergers, corporate re-organization, bankruptcy and the like, it falls upon leaders to show their subordinates the way through rough times caused by changes. However, changes are not always managed properly. Transition is what occurs during the time when the old and the new ways of doing things are being sorted out, and is undeniably one of an organization’s biggest growing pains.

Managed well, it can become the chrysalis that turns the organizational caterpillar into a butterfly. Managed poorly, however, and the whole process has the potential to become a multi-million dollar squashed bug. It does not, however, mean that transition is meant for the suffering of employees. William Bridges shares techniques in managing transition, turning a potential for disaster into an opportunity for radical growth and the building of a foundation of a company’s future.

All living things have life cycles, and the same goes for organizations. Like human beings, they grow and develop, and when they can no longer develop to keep up with the market or meet the needs of operation, it dies or closes down. Change occurs when a certain thing has been “outgrown” and must be replaced with something new. For example, the operating system used by a startup company of twelve people can hardly be used by an international corporation with twelve hundred employees.