Embracing Transition Transformation is the true destination of
Embracing Transition “Transformation is the true destination of transition. How transition does this is a mystery” William Bridges
Change and Transition • “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by • • • their right names. ” Chinese proverb Transition is the psychological and spiritual process people go through in coming to terms with change. Change is external and concrete, e. g. changing a job, moving house. Change happens pretty fast, however, inwardly the psychological transition happens much more slowly.
Distinguishing Transformation and Change “This is the great, grave distinction between change and transformation. Change refers to adaptation, reaction, without necessarily involving any newness of being, a new creative energy flowing from the center which acts with creative power upon surrounding events. ” (Flora Slosson Wuellner)
Losses and Endings It isn’t changes themselves that people resist. It is the losses and endings that they experience and the transition that they are resisting. You have to deal directly with the losses and endings. What is actually endings and who is loosing what? What are you going to miss?
Transition Most developmental psychologists are of the opinion that transition involves a three phase process: - ending - neutral zone - beginning again
Beginnings Depend on Endings “Before you can begin something new, you have to end what used to be. Before you can become a different kind of person, you must let go of the old identity. Before you can learn a new way of doing things, you have to unlearn the old way. So beginnings depend on ending. ” (William Bridges 1997, 19)
“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. ” (T. S. Elliot. “Little Gidding” 1942)
“Viewing ministry solely as a service one renders sets the stage for frustration and disappointment in retirement, turning what should be a time of personal growth and development into disillusionment and depression. ” (Francis Blouin. What Is My Mission in Retirement? Review for Religious Jan. -Feb. 1999, 83)
Transitions in Scripture • • • Three important moments of transition occur in the Gospels: The moment Jesus decides to leave home and travel to the Jordan to investigate his cousin’s John’s actions. The “feast of Holy Saturday. ” The interim between the Ascension and Pentecost. (Thomas Sweetser & Mary Benet Mc. Kinney 1998, 7).
“If you want to live, you need to give yourself over to the way of transition – to let go when life presents you with a time of ending, to abandon yourself to the neutral zone when it is where you find yourself, to seize the opportunity to make a new beginning when the moment presents itself” (Bridges 2001, 42).
Six Functions Served by Transition • Reorientation: transitions reorient us so that we can mobilize our energies to deal with the new situation. • Personal Growth: reorientation brings us to a new a more authentic relationship with the world around us. • Authentication: refers to the inner face of growth, a way of being that is truer to who we really are
• Creativity: this refers to the creative opportunities that come to us in the chaos of the neutral zone. • Spirituality: it is in the neutral zone (“desert”) that we most readily encounter the Sacred. • Renewal: transitions renew in recapturing the energy that permits us to be reborn anew.
Four dimensions of Loss • Disengagement: separation from whatever it is • • • you have lost. Disidentification: the way the loss destroys the old identity you had. Disenchantment: the way the loss tears you out of the old reality you accepted unthinkingly. Disorientation: the way you feel bewildered as a result of the loss (Bridges 2001, 62 -63).
Three Phases of Transition ending neutral zone beginning
Transitions on an organizational level “The single biggest reason organizational changes fail is that no one thought about endings or planned to manage their impact on people. . . They forget that while the first task of change management is to understand the destination and how to get there, the first task of transition management is to convince people to leave home. ” (Bridges 1997, 32).
The Diagram • In transition there is an ending, then a neutral phase and only then a new beginning. • You are in more than one phase of transition at the same time. • The movement through transition is marked by a change in the dominance of one phase.
Neutral Zone. “It’s not so much that we’re afraid of change or so in love the old ways, but it’s that place in between that we fear. . It’s like being in between trapezes. It’s Linus when his blanket is in the dryer. There’s nothing to hold on to. ” Marilyn Ferguson. “One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to loose sight of the shore for a very long time. ” Andre Gide
Neutral Zone “The neutral zone is like the wilderness through which Moses led his people. That took 40 years, not because they were lost but because the generation that had known Egypt had to die off before they entered the Promised Land. ” (Bridges 1995, 37)
Normalize the Neutral Zone • People need to recognize that it is natural to feel • somewhat frightened and confused in this noman’s land. “The neutral zone isn’t just meaningless waiting and confusion – it is a time when a necessary reorientation and redefinition is taking place, and people need to understand that. It is the winter during which the spring’s new growth is taking shape under the earth. ” (William Bridges 1997, 37)
“Most of us have more freedom than we ever use, and the older we get the more inefficiently we squander it. You go around like a dog at the end of a chain for so long that when you get off the chain you hardly know how to run. ” Fr Peter Crysdale.
New Beginning “The world fears a new experience more than it fears anything. Because a new experience displaces so many old experiences. . . The world doesn’t fear a new idea. It can pigeon-hole any idea. But it can’t pigeon-hole a real new experience. ” (D. H. Lawrence)
Ambivalence Towards Beginnings - Beginnings are strange things. People want them to happen but fear them at the same time. Beginnings feel frightening for a number of reasons: Beginnings establish once and for all that the ending was real. New beginnings may trigger old memories of failure in the past. For some people new beginnings destroy what was a pleasant experience in the neutral zone. (Bridges 1997, 51)
Zones of Stability Toffler (1970) suggests that we can cope with large amounts of change provided one area of our life is relatively stable. Stability zones are frequently associated with: • People – family, long-standing friends • Ideas – a religious belief • Places – e. g. home • Things – favourite objects • Organizations – to which one belongs
Your Stability Zones • What are your stability zones and how well do they serve you? • Do you invest enough in your stability zones? • Are there changes you want to make in your stability zones, and how you use and maintain them? (Leonie Sugarman. Life-Span Development 2 nd Ed. 2001)
Questions to Ponder • What is it that your life is calling upon you to • • • deal with at his moment? What “chapter” of your life is now over? What is it time for you to let go of? How are you experiencing the in-between time? How are you coping with it? How are you drawing on the Christian tradition to help you interpret your experience?
Now I Become Myself: May Sarton “Now I become myself. It’s taken Time, many years and places; I have been dissolved and shaken, Worn other people’s faces. . . “ As you read these lines what arises for you about your own life journey, about where you’ve been and where you are now? (Parker Palmer: The Courage to Teach: Guide for Reflection and Renewal. 2007, 72).
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