WorkWonders Newsletter
Making your relationships at work, work
May, 2012 |
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Greetings!
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Bev Rosen, MSW, MBA
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We often talk about how people are uncomfortable with changes for all sorts of understandable reasons. In business, we need to learn why they resist and oppose change and understand how they are feeling as change proceeds. Our mission is to help guide them through it and so that in the end, they can accept it and support it. Recently a lot of my friends have gone through an epidemic of change - the loss of their parents. I just got back from a destination wedding where I reunited with many of my friends in Chapel Hill, NC where I lived for 23 years. At my table sat four friends who were now single because their husbands had died. Each was at a different stage of their transition and it brought me back to Bridge's Transition Model. Change is something that happens to people, like a merging of departments or getting a new boss with a different management style. Transition, on the other hand, is internal: it's what happens in people's minds as they go through change at their own pace. Perhaps this model can apply better not only to our professional transitions but also to our personal ones. I remember utilizing this model when I was called in to do critical incident counseling when a popular senior leader was killed overnight in a car crash and everyone in the company needed some help with their grieving. |
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Bridges Transition Model
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 This model highlights three stages of transition that people go through when they experience change. These are: 1. Ending, Losing and Letting Go 2. The Neutral Zone 3. The New Beginning Stage 1. Ending, Losing and Letting Go The biggest "ah-ha" moment is that Bridges starts his change model with Ending - when people first are presented with a change. This stage is marked with resistance and emotional upheaval, because people are being forced to let go of something they are comfortable with. At this stage, people may experience these emotions: fear, denial, anger, sadness, disorientation, frustration, uncertainty, and a sense of loss. How to Help It is important to accept people's resistance and understand their emotions. It's important to try to get everyone to talk about what they're feeling and that you listen emphatically and communicate openly about what's going to happen. People often fear what they don't understand so the more you can educate them about a positive future, and communicate how their knowledge and skills are an essential part of getting there, the likelier they are to move on to the next stage. In my critical incident counseling, I was called in to teach the managers how to help the employees. But I soon saw they were resistant to that - they needed to go through their own experience of loss and were not ready to take on a "supervisory" role. Read more... |
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Recommended Books on Change and Bridges' Model of Transition
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"Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change" ~ William Bridges
"10 Ways to Effectively Deal with Change" ~ Laurie Calzoda
" Who Moved My Cheese" ~ Spencer Johnson
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Featured Training of the Month
|  "Staying Healthy in a Desk job" How many of you want to work in a healthy environment? Yes, organizations do have some responsibility for providing a safe and healthy work environment. Many go beyond this and provide wellness programs in-house that include risk management assessments, gyms, walking clubs, weight watcher meetings, and on-site nurses or dieticians. But many of us don't work for huge lucrative companies and yet we lead stressful sedentary job. Therefore it's a bigger challenge to maintain our health through exercise, good nutrition, an understanding of ergonomics, and emotional balance - all practices to minimize fatigue and stress. We also are at risk for developing muscular-skeletal problems due to poor ergonomics or improper positioning in our work stations. In this workshop, we believe that the responsibility for maintaining your health at work ultimately is yours. We'll learn how to: - Identify risk factors which cause musculoskeletal disorders and how to reduce those risks.
- Practice simple exercises that help relieve muscle tension and fatigue.
- Determine how to eat nutritionally at work or when you are getting food in the fast lane
- Rest, relax and sleep better.
- Leave work at work
- Develop the motivation to implement your personal action plan for a healthier work environment
This workshop is fun and filled with on-site practice and activity. By the end we will have a series of options that you can try to constructively defeat non-healthy aspects of your behaviors.
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Past Learning Events
|  Bev completed the following trainings in May - "Staying Healthy at a Desk Job" - workshop for leaders at the Maryland Library Association's annual meeting.
- "Conflict Resolution" - a ½ day workshop for a Maryland State Agency of leaders, currently in a leadership development program.
- "Fighting Procrastination" - guest presenter at Piggy Bank Promotion's Blogtalk radio show. (Click here to listen)
- "Coaching for High Performance: The Manager as Coach" - a ½ day workshop for a training organization providing state-wide training for non-profit organizations.
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To discuss these or other workplace/workforce challenges, contact me, Bev Rosen, President of WorkWonders for your free 30 minutes consultation.
Please call (410) 583-1847
E-mail bevrosen@workwondersnow.com or visit www.workwondersnow.com.
Sincerely,
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 Bev Rosen, MSW, MBA WorkWonders |
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