Chris Wise

Changes And Transitions

This workshop is about the process of change and why it often results in disappointment and failure in organizations. It is also about how we can help

It doesn’t really matter how or why change happens in organizations, whether it is externally imposed or internally driven. It is usually sold to everyone as an opportunity for renewal and growth. Even when some people leave or are made redundant those remaining often have new jobs and responsibilities and they are expected to embrace this so-called dynamic opportunity.

Managers are then baffled when they are confronted with confusion, demoralization and disillusionment as staff fail to commit and lapse into lethargy and depression. What has gone wrong?

Change is always stressful. Even those things we want, like a marriage, a new house or baby. Workplace change is always problematic. This is because there are two elements to change, not one. The transition is what people forget about.

Transition is the internal process that accompanies the external event. It is actually well understood but when ignored it will do you in. Those angry, depressed people at work have failed to negotiate the transition, to deal with the difficult emotions around loss and the important task of creating a new identity.

It is not unknown for organizations to re-organize again in a desperate attempt to put right the perceived failures of the first one but failure is again the result because the accompanying transition is ignored and the same mistakes are made.

We can help. We have helped others. This workshop helps managers and staff to engage with the transition, the emotional impact of change. It may be like no other workshop you have been on. We use creative methods such as painting, role-play, puppets, psychodrama and other creative techniques to locate and work with each person’s individual response to the change that has occurred. We also explain what has happened but the explanation without the creative element doesn’t work. Just like change and transition you have to engage with both elements: intellectual understanding and emotional engagement.