William Bridges - Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change

PRAISE FOR

Managing Transitions

Pick up any business book today and you will find words about unending change. What better guide for this unrelenting change than someone who has spent decades studying and reporting on how to survive it? If you need that guidegrab this book! William and Susan Bridges provide a road map to get through the most difficult work and life passages.

Beverly Kaye, founder, Career Systems International; coauthor, Love Em or Lose Em

This richly updated new edition of insightful Managing Transitions, by William Bridges, filled with fresh and compelling examples, will be indispensable for leaders trying to guide their organizations through a period of unsettling change by managing the pain and uncertainty of the neutral zone. A timely update to a timeless book.

Sally Helgesen, author, The Female Vision, The Web of Inclusion, The Female Advantage, and Thriving in 24/7

Managing change is a way of life in todays organizations, yet too often its handled poorly. Thats why Managing Transitions has become the essential guide on how to do it right. This new, revised edition deftly guides the reader through the organizational change process from start to finish, offering practical advice grounded in the authors vast experience working with every size and type of organization. This book is must reading for every leader, manager, and employee undergoing a change process. Come to think of it, doesnt that include just about everyone?

John Alexander, president, Leadership Horizons and former president and CEO of the Center for Creative Leadership

The most important idea I have encountered about organizational change is this: great change requires human transition. Decades of experience have proven that no magic set of steps, no financial incentive, no clever argument, and no threat can guarantee that a workforce will embrace change. People need real help in psychologically transitioning to a new situationand that help is available here. In this fourth edition of ManagingTransitions, William and Susan Bridges further expand their proven approach for helping people and organizations embrace real change.

Walter McFarland, coauthor of Choosing Change and board chair emeritus for the Association for Talent

Managing Transitions is an essential guide for leaders and Chief People Officers who are navigating transitions and change within any organization, It is also a handbook in life for dealing with endings, new beginnings, and the disruptive neutral zone in between. This book provides a pathway to human and authentic leadership and a way to gracefully navigate through the changes we all face in life.

Gabrielle Toledano, EVP and chief talent officer, Electronic Arts, Inc.

Susan Bridges has done something generous, courageous, and brilliant with her updating of this classic and treasured book by Bill Bridges. In a collaborative process with the ideas of her late husband and business partner, she has made the language, concepts, and examples fresh again and available to a new audience. Bills ideas have been fundamental to my own practice, and now they will inspire a new generation of leaders and change-makers to be wise, humane, and strategic, as they move their complex organizations through an increasingly challenging and complex set of realities.

B. Kim Barnes, CEO, Barnes & Conti Associates and author of Exercising Influence: Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and In Your Community

Change is constant in todays global business environment, and yet change management continues to be a challenge for most organizations. Thats why Managing Transitions remains an important book; it identifies the critically important role that understanding the human side of transition plays in effective change management. This updated edition is a must-read for anyone who wants to lead change successfully.

Tony Bingham, president and CEO for the Association for Talent Development

OTHER BOOKS BY WILLIAM BRIDGES

Transitions

The Way of Transition

JobShift

Creating You & Co.

The Character of Organizations

Surviving Corporate Transition

A Year in the Life

This fourth edition first published in 2017 by Nicholas Brealey Publishing

An imprint of John Murray Press

An Hachette UK company

First edition published in the UK in 1995

Foreword 2017 by Patrick Lencioni

The right of William Bridges and Susan Bridges to be identified as the Authors of the Work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, or be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Nicholas Brealey Publishing was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters.

Editorial production by Lori Hobkirk at the Book Factory

Designed by Cynthia Young

Set in Adobe Garamond

ISBN 978-1-47366-450-0

eBook ISBN 978-1-85788-425-8

Nicholas Brealey Publishing

John Murray Press

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London, EC4Y 0DZ, UK

Tel: 020 3122 6000

Nicholas Brealey Publishing

Hachette Book Group

Market Place Center, 53 State Street

Boston, MA 02109, USA

Tel: (617) 263 1834

www.nicholasbrealey.com

www.wmbridges.com

Dedicated to the memory of William Bridges

and the legacy he left

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