20. Transitions in Business

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.

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 futureBridges points out that the seven stages that follow are not necessarily cut and dried, and that these are but a way of showing how organizations develop and where they could possibly meet with change and transition.

The beginning of everything, this is when the founders begin to conceptualize an idea for a business entity. Most of the activity in this period is simply brainstorming and conceptualizing, trying to get the idea into words that can be articulated and understood.This is literally the “birth” of a company. Some dreams never get to this phase, but those who do, get to go through “infancy” and “childhood”. Some ventures flounder during their first months before things pick up, while some ventures flourish almost overnight.