What Does Transition Look Like and Who Will Lead?
Illuminaire Volume One was a refreshing publication to read.[1] Karise Hutchinson effectively laid out the purpose of the publication
“I created Illuminaire Press to provide a platform that harnesses the collective wisdom from research and practice, bringing science and strategy of leadership together through story and art. In my experience, it is the triangulation that comes from knowing the research data, applying the wisdom from tried and tested leaders, and listening to personal stories that provides a sound foundation for the leadership journey of becoming. And art? Well, because art is not only a source of beauty; it can inspire and speak without words”[2]
In this volume Hutchinson explored 4 themes of leadership, The Power of Influence, which the title alone brings Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold book to mind as well as Simon Walker’s The Undefended Leader.[3] Healthy Leadership is the second theme, again in title alone reminds me of Edwin Freidman’s The Failure of Nerve.[4] The last two themes are Leading Transition and Creative Leadership. Leading Transition is what I am going to focus on for this post.
Declining Births = Smaller Enrollment
This week our campus community will be notified of change that is set to happen. Now to be honest, everyone on campus is aware of the situation, this is not what Annabel Beerel calls a “New Reality.”[5] For years now the campus community has known that it was beginning to operate in a deficit mostly due to declining enrollment. COVID funds slowed the bleeding for a couple years but those are all spent. This graph demonstrates a problem that is impacting universities nationwide. The birthrate in
the United States since the 1970’s had a peak around dropped significantly until around 1975. Since then it fluctuated up and down with a peak around 1990 and again in 2007.[6] Jon Marcus, says that since the Great Recession, which began at the end of 2007, birthrates have been declining, and this spring is when those born in. [7 This means that on paper the existing decline in enrollment will continue to persist for the foreseeable future. Our board of trustees has commissioned the university president to balance the budget within three and a half years. To start things off, the big change that is coming is a reduction in force across campus. Besides knowing that faculty size will be reduced by 9 -13 people, we (faculty) do not know how big this reduction is. People whose contracts are not being renewed are being notified this week.
The Three Steps of Transition
But this isn’t about the change, this is about the transition. Hutchinson writes “Transition is not another word for change. While change can be described as external, imposed on an individual or organization, transition is the state that puts people into the internal psychological process of adapting to a new situation.”[8] My question is how will our leadership lead this campus through its transition? Hutchison mentions the three steps of transition
Step One – Saying Goodbye, goodbye to the way things were.
Step Two – The Neutral Zone, the place where internal transformation takes place that readies people for the future. This can also be referred to as what Glenn Williams calls the “hallway of transition” which he cautions people to realize that the hallway can be extremely long.[9]
Step Three – “Moving forward and reaching the new beginning.”[10]
Saying Goodbye – How will our leadership help us say goodbye to the existing structure of the University? If programs or entire departments are cut, how will our leadership help us say goodbye? While all the reductions won’t be formally announced, allowing people impacted to share the news with those they want, I do hope that as the academic year ends that there can be celebrations for what those programs and people brought to the university. Think of a funeral or celebration of life service for a loved one and the psychological processes involved with those transitions. At those events we reflect and celebrate how our lives were made richer by them, yet we also know that we must face the reality of a life without them.
The Neutral Zone – As the current campus community walks down the hallway of transition, I have many questions, and the answers vary from person to person. How long is this hallway? How illuminated is the hallway? Who walks with us down the hallway? Every member of the current campus community is being impacted in some way and entering this transition. I appreciate how Williams talks about supporting someone in transition, how asking “how are you feeling?” is not the most helpful question but instead asking “how can I help you right now? Or is there someone I can introduce to you to help you on this part of your journey? Or even, do you need a sounding board to bounce off some ideas with?[11] Will leadership step up and ask these questions? Will I be able to ask these questions of faculty, staff, and students? I also appreciate how Hutchinson discusses the “importance of connection to something shared” as a means of helping people through the transition.[12] While our mission and vision remains the same, I wonder what leadership can do to produce a sense of unity as we walk down the hallway together?
Moving Forward – Because I do not know as I write this what the full reduction will look like, I really do not have a vision for what moving forward entails. However, our leadership does know, and I will be interested to see what they do to help the campus community to internally embrace the new beginning (an interesting event occurred last week, our entire academic affairs office and CFO resigned effective immediately).
We know that life is full of transition, and they are not always easy. I have no idea what this t
ransition will look like, how I will be impacted; I pray that God would give me the words to say and a Christ-like attitude as I navigate this transition with the rest of the campus community.
Because as Hutchinson says, Art “can inspire and speak without words,” Microsoft Copilot created this image for me including the misspelled word.[13] I give you the freedom of interpreting this hallway of transition.
[1] Karise Hutchinson, Iluminaire: Bringing Life & Light to Leaders across the World, Volume One, (Antrim, Ireland: Illuminaire Press, 2024).
[2] Hutchinson, 10.
[3] Camacho, Mining For Gold (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019); Walker, The Undefended Leader, (Carlisle, CA: Piquant Editions Ltd, 2010)
[4] Edwin Friedman A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. (New York: Church Publishing, 2007).
[5] Annabel Beerel, New Realities. Coffee With a Purpose, July 18, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhYKuXagBuA
[6] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Births: Final Data for 2022, National Vital Statistics System 73,(2) April 4, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr73/nvsr73-02.pdf
[7] Jon Marcus, A Looming ‘Demographic Cliff’: Fewer College Students and Ultimately Fewer Graduates, NPR. January 8, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/08/nx-s1-5246200/demographic-cliff-fewer-college-students-mean-fewer-graduates.
[8] Hutchinson, 85.
[9] Hutchinson, 95
[10] Hutchinson, 86.
[11] Hutchinson, 98.
[12] Hutchinson, 89.
[13] Hutchinson, 10.
About the Author
Jeff Styer
Jeff Styer lives in Northeast Ohio's Amish Country. He has degrees in Social Work and Psychology and currently works as a professor of social work at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Jeff is married to his wife, Veronica, 25+ years. Together they have 4 beautiful children (to be honest, Jeff has 4 kids, Veronica says she is raising 5). Jeff loves the outdoors, including biking, hiking, camping, birding, and recently picked up disc golf.8 responses to “What Does Transition Look Like and Who Will Lead?”
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Oh Jeff, from your blog and the text this last week, it sounds as though there is a lot of uncertainty on your college campus right now. As the leadership moves through these next few weeks, are they beginning to share pertinent news that will help those left behind to keep working? What are you doing to help you not get lost in the transition?
Diane,
Today, from a peer I learned which faculty members were not having their contracts renewed. I don’t know about any staff members. There was a campus wide meeting today for faculty and staff but I was at a Continuing Education training on Human Trafficking all day and was not able to attend. I did talk to my department chair and it sounds like the meeting was not real informative. To not get lost in the transition, I am praying for our campus community and staying focused on fulfilling my responsibilities. I am talking with others in the department and around the university as we try to process everything.
Hi Jeff, Transition is scary, and it sounds like this will be a challenging season to walk through. In what ways have you started Step 1: Saying Goodbye for yourself? If you are interested, I have a helpful worksheet that helps individuals to reflect on transition, gains, and losses. It has been beneficial for me in the past. I would be happy to send it to you. I will remember to pray for you in this uncertain time.
Today, I learned from a peer the faculty members whose contracts are not being renewed. So, I think part of saying goodbye will be to mourn the loss. I am closer to some of faculty than others. Those that I am close, to I will try to share a meal with them and make myself available to just be there. I will also be processing everything with other faculty and staff members throughout the semester. We have a good supportive department.
Yes – I would love the worksheet.
Jeff, I am sorry you and your campus team is going through this challenging time. In dealing with transitions in the past, is there a step that you find the most challenging for yourself? If so, what have you found is helping you work through this now as you step into a new transition?
Kari,
The hallway of transition is difficult because I am so impatient. I want to know answers for the future NOW!!!. I try to ground myself in both the present and the past. I remind myself of God’s faithfulness in my life and the life of my family and try to enjoy and make the most of each day as they come. For this transition, I am going to continually need to tell myself that God will take care of those who are being let go. Each one of them loves God and God is faithful to them. I need to pray for them and wait patiently to see the wonders God will do in their lives through this transition.
Jeff, thanks for your transparency. This is a challenging season for all. What have you done in past transitions that has worked, that might help you as you face this transition? What might you do differently as a result of having read Illuminaire?
I think I have said goodbye well in the past. What comes to mind is pastoral transitions. At the end of 2020 our church’s pastor of 10 years left. As we have moved forward I have continued to tell myself that we are not getting another Pastor Jack, that season is over and we must trust God with what is next. Our hallway of transition lasted until that start of last year when we finally found a long-term pastor. Interestingly, our denomination calls the pastors that we had in between transitional pastors. Their goal is to help the church look inward and address underlying issues so that the church is healthier when the next full time called pastor arrives Having read Illuminaire that title makes a lot of sense.
I really like the idea from Illuminaire of checking in with those impacted by the change and see how I can help them with the transition by asking “what do you need right how? or how can I help you? Rather than just doing an emotional check in of how are you feeling?