From the most trusted voice on transition, a revised edition of the classic practical guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change.

The business world is a place of constant change, with stories of corporate mergers, layoffs, bankruptcy, and restructuring hitting the news every day. Yet as veteran consultant William Bridges maintains, the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions. In the best-selling Managing Transitions, Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization.

Directed at managers and employees in today's corporations, Bridges shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change. Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. When the book was originally published a decade ago, Bridges was the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. With new information and commentary on layoffs, corporate suspicion, and the increasing tumult in the business world, Managing Transitions remains the definitive guide to dealing with change.

I am a church consultant helping churches develop functional structues for today's needs and demands. The book is a tremendous help for churches. I reccomend a transition team and providing each one with a copy of the book. Trainning the team with this material will help guide the church managening the transitions that are sure to occur when changes need to be made.

Sam Gore, Director Towards A Fruitful Ministry Inc. a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping churches and other faith based organizations. www.towardsfruitfulministry.com

Managing Transitions is a good book. It gets a bit cumbersome at points but most of the points the author makes are valid points whenever you are facing transitions of any kind in an organization, the tips the book provides are good to know and they reinforce many of the things readers have already learned. If there is any knock on the book it is that it merely reinforces learning, it doesn't really facilitate anything significantly new.

In Managing Transitions, William Bridges sets out to help managers and others who want to introduce change - be it a total organisational restructure or simply trying to get people to do things differently.

The book is very practical - both easy to read and to apply the key concepts. Divided into four parts, Bridges takes the reader through how to understand just what change is, how it affects us, and most importantly, how to lead change. The key concept of leading change in this book, whilst not new, is the best that I have seen it explained. That is, that leading a change process is a three step process - "getting people to let go", "managing the transition (between the old and the new)" and "launching the new beginning".

I particularly liked the checklists at the end of each of the major chapters. Not only do they summarise the chapter content, they become a key planning tool for implementing change. They could also form the basis of a very effective training program on change.

This is one of the best books I have read on change and is highly recommended to anyone who is faced with leading a change process.

Bob Selden, author What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

In Managing Transitions, William Bridges sets out to help managers and others who want to introduce change - be it a total organisational restructure or simply trying to get people to do things differently.

The book is very practical - both easy to read and to apply the key concepts. Divided into four parts, Bridges takes the reader through how to understand just what change is, how it affects us, and most importantly, how to lead change. The key concept of leading change in this book, whilst not new, is the best that I have seen it explained. That is, that leading a change process is a three step process - "getting people to let go", "managing the transition (between the old and the new)" and "launching the new beginning".

I particularly liked the checklists at the end of each of the major chapters. Not only do they summarise the chapter content, they become a key planning tool for implementing change. They could also form the basis of a very effective training program on change.

This is one of the best books I have read on change and is highly recommended to anyone who is faced with leading a change process.

Bob Selden, author What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

It isn't the fact of change that causes organizational grief, it is managing the psychological transition between the old and the new.

In my experience, most organizations do not handle this phase well. In their haste to move on, leaders and managers often forget the very real investment individuals have made in the past, Even when the need for change is understood and appreciated, people still require a plan to move ahead.

Dr Bridges has been working in this field for over 30 years. The strength of his work is in providing a framework for leaders and managers to consider the personal aspects of change.

Considering the human aspects of change management should have always been important. In these days, when so much of an organization's production capital is people, effective management of change is even more critical.

I recommend this book, and other work by Dr Bridges, to all leaders and managers who have responsibility for organizational change. You won't find all of the answers here, but you will definitely find the issues well covered.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith