Bridges' Transition Model

Bridges draws a line between two things that are often treated as one.

• Change is situational. It is the external event: a new structure, a new system, a relocation, a merger. It can happen on a set date.
• Transition is psychological. It is the inner process people go through to come to terms with the new situation. It follows its own timetable, and different people move through it at different speeds.

Bridges' central argument is that change projects fail less because of the change itself than because the transition is not managed. A system can go live on Monday while the people using it are still holding on to the old way of working.

Bridges' transition model therefore shifts attention from the plan for the change to the experience of the people living through it.

1. Ending, losing and letting go. Every transition begins with an ending. People lose something — a routine, a team, expertise, status, a sense of competence — and they need to recognize and let go of it before they can embrace the new.
2. The neutral zone. The old way is gone but the new one is not yet established. Uncertainty and anxiety tend to rise and productivity can dip. The neutral zone is also a period of creativity, because old assumptions are loosened.
3. The new beginning. People develop a new identity, energy and sense of purpose, and start to work the new way with commitment.

The phases overlap rather than follow each other neatly, and a person can be in different phases for different parts of the same change.

Bridges' transition model therefore describes a process that starts with an ending and ends with a beginning, the reverse of how most change plans are written.

At Harbourside Council, three local offices are merged into one service centre.

• Ending: identify who is losing what, including the less obvious losses such as familiar colleagues and the status of being the expert. Acknowledge the losses openly, mark the end of the old offices and treat their history with respect.
• Neutral zone: explain that a period of uncertainty is normal. Set short-term goals, create temporary roles and routines, keep communication frequent, and invite ideas on how the new centre should work.
• New beginning: explain the purpose of the merger, give a picture of what the centre will look like, share the plan for getting there and make clear the part each person will play. These four elements are often summarized as purpose, picture, plan and part.

Support in Bridges' transition model is therefore phase-specific: what helps in the neutral zone is not what helps at the start.

The model is most useful when a change asks people to give up something they value: a merger, a restructuring, a new way of working that makes existing expertise less relevant, or a long change where fatigue sets in.

It works well alongside a model that sequences the organizational side of change, such as Kotter's eight steps or Lewin's three stages. The organizational model plans what the organization does; Bridges' model plans how to support the people experiencing it.

It is less useful as a stand-alone project plan, because it does not define activities, roles or milestones.

Bridges' transition model is therefore a lens for the human side of a change rather than a full change method.

The model grew out of Bridges' work as a consultant rather than from controlled studies, so its phases are a practical description, not a validated measurement.

It describes the individual experience well but gives little guidance on organizational levers such as structure, systems or incentives.

The neutral zone has no defined length, which makes the model hard to plan against. Leaders sometimes misread it as a phase to rush through, when Bridges presents it as necessary.

Bridges' transition model is therefore best combined with an organizational change approach and with measures of adoption.