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Staring Down The Change Elephant - Just Letting Go!

Guest post by: Ben Nash

Article Overview: The single biggest reason for the failure of organizational changes is that no one has thought about endings! When changing things for the future many people forget they must let go of some things in the past or present. While the first task of change management is to understand the desired future, the first task of transition management is to convince people (maybe yourself) that you have to leave the past behind.

Staring Down The Change Elephant - Just Letting Go!

The single biggest reason for the failure of organizational changes is that no one has thought about endings! When changing things for the future many people forget they must let go of some things in the past or present. While the first task of change management is to understand the desired future, the first task of transition management is to convince people (maybe yourself) that you have to leave the past behind.

Transition management involves moving through three distinct phases:

1. Recognizing that the past must be left behind
2. Navigating through a “neutral zone” in which people may need help, support, and structure to discover new beginnings
3. Embracing new beginnings – new energy is found and a new identity is claimed

Look at what is going on in the world right now—most people agree that we need to change our financial system, our sources of power away from oil, our spending beyond our means. So what is preventing us from changing? It is our unwillingness to leave the status quo, to move beyond what is familiar, and to let go of the past to embrace a different future. Change managers need to help people stare down the big elephant in the room: to help people to just let go! Check out William Bridges excellent book Managing Transitions - Making the Most of Change for more information.

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Article Tags: change management, hr blogs, human resources, human resources blogs, organizational changes, transition management



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Re: QUESTION: What was the last book you read? Would you recomme - [quote="Trent Brownrigg":3dahpr94]Right now I'm reading [i:3dahpr94]How to Win Friends and Influence People[/i:3dahpr94] by Dale Carnegie. I'm not finished yet but I can already say that I highly recommend it![/quote:3dahpr94] This one is an Evegreen Trent. I have just finished reading The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony. It is a true story and takes place on a game (animal) farm in Zululand South Africa. I found it amazing and learned a whole lot about the intelligence of elephants. Very inspiring story. MichelleJ
Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Are you an Opportunity Addict? - 1) if you find yourself saying yes without thinking about how it will affect your other priorities 2) you have over 10 projects/inventions going on at the same time and this seems normal to you 3) you have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on manufacturing, prototypes, etc. not to mention thousands of hours of your time....but you havent followed through on any of it 4) most of your projects are falling behind or have completely fallen off your radar....which is fueling your frustration The first step in recovery is to recognize this as a pattern of self sabotage. If you are clear in what your overall goals and objectives are, you should be able to create a lens through which you measure opportunities. You create your life, and your to do list. Change, Add, Remove, Adjust time-lines - whatever you like. But remember that every piece of unfinished business - stays that way J


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