{"id":17647,"date":"2018-05-18T01:46:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T08:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=17647"},"modified":"2018-05-18T01:47:04","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T08:47:04","slug":"17647-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/17647-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Turn and Face the Strange"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I\u2019ve never tried before.\u201d \u2013 Mae West[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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My first work experience with organizational change and transition came when I was a brand new government employee at the age of 21. We were told there would be a major reorganization (forever nicknamed THE Reorg) and we would get more information. That information came in the form of two huge charts on the wall. One was an organizational chart and the other was a floorplan of our building with a seating chart. We were told to find our names on both charts and report there. If our name was not on the chart, we were told to report to Personnel (our version of HR) to receive our new assignments in a different division. That\u2019s it. Needless to say, it didn\u2019t go over well. I was very lucky. Since I had only been there a few weeks and was an entry-level hire, my job stayed the same and I reported to the same person in the same place. Everything else was absolute chaos. For months, people filed complaints, refused to do their jobs, or secretly delighted in their new situation. It was over a year before everything settled down. A year later, a new reorganization was announced. Let\u2019s just say they did a better job of communicating this time (and every time thereafter). One thing we quickly learned is that reorgs and moves are a way of life in state government. No one likes them, but state employees dance to the tune played by legislators, politicians, and public interest groups. That is a reality of life.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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I was a state employee for almost 20 years. One of my final assignments was to be a part of the team that built a new customer service unit from the ground up \u2013 essentially re-centralizing everything that was decentralized in that first reorganization. We were supposed to do it without upsetting people (yeah, right) and create a transition process that would keep chaos to a minimum. We did not do that. We did create a transition process, but our \u201cwhite paper\u201d on the transition reminded the head of our division that there was a historical bias against reorganization and that even people who were excited to join the new service center would need to process all of the negative stories they would hear. I never found out if they took our suggestions to heart as I left state government before the center was fully implemented.<\/p>\n

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Reading the book, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change<\/em>, by William and Susan Bridges, took me through the changes I have experienced in work, churches, and in my own life. Every story or point made me thing of situations I could have handled differently as a leader, frustrations I experienced as a follower or bystander, and successes I witnessed in the different settings. This book feels like it neatly wraps up many of our previous leadership books, particularly Lowney\u2019s Heroic Leadership<\/em>. Lowney says, \u201cWhen leadership is working, it hurts.\u201d[2]<\/a> Leading people is messy, especially when we are training others to be leaders \u2013 the best of the best.[3]<\/a> What happens, though, when the \u201corganization\u201d that requires change and transition is me?<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>I confess to having a bit of a panic attack while reading the first chapter of this book. I had just started writing out my timeline to finish my dissertation work, and realized that my draft needs to be submitted in six months \u2013 three weeks after my daughter\u2019s wedding. I began to realize how many changes and transitions will be happening over the next year and it hit me that a major chapter of my life (NINE years of grad school) will be ending and it will be time to start a new chapter. I need some sort of a guide to make that transition and this book is it.<\/p>\n

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Bridges notes that there are three phases of transition that take us from the old way to the new way:<\/p>\n