Skill Refresh: Managing Transitions Part I

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  everyone. This is Melissa Sorenson, and I'm here with a

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  skill refresh, part of a video.

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  Siri's where we're gonna be revisiting some key topics today.

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  We're gonna dig into managing transitions model by William Bridges,

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  specifically the first part of that model.

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  And given the current context, we're gonna be looking at

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  it through the lens of managing crisis transitions.

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  I thought I'd be helpful to revisit the full model

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  for a moment.

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  And remember that there's three different phases.

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  The first is ending, losing, letting go.

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  Next is the neutral zone.

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  And finally the new beginning at any point during the

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  transition were likely experiencing all three of these to some

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  degree. Today we're gonna focus on the first, but there

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  will be follow up videos for the next two.

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  I think it's also helpful to remember that this model

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  focuses on transitions which are slightly different than the change

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  itself. The transition folks.

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  On the psychological side of the emotions and experiences, we

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  might have a CZ.

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  We're navigating change so important to remember that transition's begin

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  with endings, and that's the ending of the way things

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  were and the way things used to be.

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  And so we're gonna cover about five different steps that

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  you can use to help navigate this first phase.

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  The first is to identify who's losing what, and this

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  might take some perspective taking for various layers of our

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  community. Ah, at Middlebury, we value things like immersive learning

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  face to face instruction and connection.

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  We're a tight knit community, and so this shift, remote

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  working learning brings a huge amount of change, or add

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  to that the increased uncertainty and disruption clock caused by

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  this current crisis.

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  But there's a lot of things that were navigating that

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  we might be feeling a sense of loss over that

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  might include the proximity to our students and colleagues losing

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  access to our campus faces and resource is there might

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  be other and maybe some deeper losses were feeling around

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  things like a sense of control or security, stability losing

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  the structure and routine of the previous form out of

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  our work on also navigating new boundaries between work and

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  personal life.

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  As we work from our homes, a chapter in our

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  organization's history is over, and a chapter in our world

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  is over, and at this point it's important that we

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  spend some time seeking to understand what that means for

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  members of our community.

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  As we begin to understand some of the losses were

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  experiencing, it's important to emphasize, empathize and acknowledge those losses.

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  Now you and I are going to experience the same

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  loss to the same degree in the same way.

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  And so it's not our role to judge or downplay

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  someone else's loss, but to acknowledge and accept that that's

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  real for them.

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  Your loss.

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  Israel for you, my loss.

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  Israel for me.

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  And it's our acknowledgment that matters and our ability to

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  empathize, which is our ability to connect with the emotion

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  behind the loss.

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  It's also common at this point to be seeing signs

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  of grieving, and that might look like denial, anger, bargaining,

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  anxiety, sadness, depression or disorientation and feeling lost.

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  It's important that we, as individuals can express those feelings

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  that we can create space for others to express those

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  feelings and offer extra support, encouragement, information and empathy as

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  were able our ability to communicate about these.

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  Bring those losses out into the open, uh, open could

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  be an important part of the healing process.

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  So as we begin to understand that, it's also we

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  might also look for opportunities to address those losses.

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  There's a lot that's been taken away.

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  Is there anything we can restore at this point and

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  so that might be contact with team members?

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  Maybe that's validating the importance of members of our community.

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  We're feeling a shift in their role or shift in

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  their contributions could be a focus on retraining and developing

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  new skills and helping people regain a sense of control

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  over a changed workload.

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  It might be space to connect and reflect and gain

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  a sense of understanding of the current situation.

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  At this point, it's also important to continue to provide

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  as much information as possible and really focus on clarity,

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  communicating about what's known and what's not known, and that

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  could be vulnerable to say We don't know if all

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  the answers right now, but given what a big I

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  mean what an enormous situation that we're navigating.

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  It's natural that there's a lot of unknowns and some

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  decisions have been made in other decisions, haven't to communicate

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  with clarity about what is and isn't decided and what

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  is and isn't known, but we also might want to

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  focus on the ability to care for the past and

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  continuity. It's an important focus for us to say Our

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  mission continues our care for one another continues our creativity

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  and amazing community continues, especially that the fact that we

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  still believe the world means the work that we're doing

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  and the amazing work of our alumni and students.

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  I can also be an important moment.

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  Thio Consider ways to bring the past with us, and

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  maybe that something as simple is using a video backdrop

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  on Zoom of Campus or your office.

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  Remember into connect with neighbors that you would have bumped

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  into when walking around campus or the way civil creatively

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  honor some of the commencement traditions.

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  Even though it's gonna be a virtual format, endings can

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  show the continuity of what really matters.

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  They're not comfortable, but they're an important part of individual

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  and organizational growth, especially even the endings we didn't ask

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  for, which is a lot of what we're experiencing right

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  now. They can still be a source of learning and

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  growth and may even bring about positive changes within our

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  organization in our community.

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  Hang in there, ending, losing Letting go is not an

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  easy face to navigate, but If you're feeling a sense

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  of loss right now, are experiencing grieving you're not alone

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  on. It's a sign you're on the path to the

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  new beginning, so thank you.

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  And I hope you tune in for the next couple

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  videos around managing transitions.