Who Defines the Ending?

Election Season: Reflections on Change in a Democracy

In this interview Ann Caton, partner at Potomac Group, talks about the dynamics and impact that the health care debate caused. What she shares can help us understand the continued ripple effects that are still playing out today. She discusses the pitfalls in how the health care debate was approached in terms of process and communication. In 3.5 minutes, she succinctly covers issues that are alive in today’s current events, and certainly in the dynamics of an approaching election season. There is a juicy piece near 2min 15sec.

It would take a systems level thinker like Ann to bring together the theoretical “transitions” model from William Bridges (which developed around individual and organizational level change) and combine it with large scale societal change and a political process that is still unfolding around health care.

In “transition” language, the Obama administration missed the first two phases needed in a change effort like this: ending and neutral zone. Instead, they went straight for the 3rd stage: new beginning.

Ann’s analysis to this national level change process is equally applicable to change efforts in our own organizations. Namely, that people believe new efforts start with beginnings, but they don’t. There start with endings.

You might ask, how do new effort start with endings?

What Ann tells us, is that “change” and “transition” are different. If we don’t understand the difference, we’re really missing the boat. “Change” describes the situation or event - moving to a new site, the new reporting system or database, hiring a new manger, or in this case, launching a new healthcare system. “Transition,” however, refers to the psychological process that takes place and can be triggered by these events. It’s the process of internalizing and coming to terms with the new situation.

Transition takes place in a 3-phase process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with a new situation:

1) Ending – letting go of old ways & old identity
2) Neutral zone – the old is gone but the new isn’t fully operational
3) New beginning – people develop new identity, experience new energy & sense of purpose

We need leaders on the political stage and in our organizations who not only identify the necessary changes that need to take place, but also how to manage transitions. Even if we support the change, we might have difficulty with the transition process. This is where good leaders and managers can play a role.

Ann points out that the Obama administration skipped the first two steps and as a result opened the door to the opposition to define what had ended, in this case the narrative was that “our America” had ended. The process was open to this kind of backlash, that could be anticipated and tapped to provide energy for a stronger outcome if there could be an operationalized understanding of the transition process.