Transitions are universal. They include the important and familiar
milestones of starting kindergarten, graduating from high school or
college, and becoming employed, parents, or retirees. These transitional
moments, however, also include unexpected or unanticipated events like
losing a job, joining a running club, or experiencing a global pandemic.
In each of these moments, individuals, groups, and organizations
experience the anxiety, self-doubt, worry, and uncertainty associated
with these novel experiences. Our natural response to these moments is
to avoid, side-step, or hurry through until this moment of transition is
over.
What if we invested time, training, and space to learn, experiment with
and strengthen our ability to wrestle with and successfully navigate
these moments of transition? Whether a significant transition like
moving into a new school or just shifting from one project to the next,
we need to build strategies and techniques to leverage and learn from
the discomfort that individuals experience during these moments. This
book offers names and faces for our feelings, thoughts, and reactions in
our transitions. It is based on sound research and data collected by the
author and other researchers but is also based on the author's
experiences, mistakes, reflection, and learning from doing the work in
different contexts. It includes a framework to learn to stay in these
transitions, embrace dissonance, and leverage these moments of
discovery. Whether you want to introduce this transitions framework and
strategies in a classroom, boardroom, or your own life, this book is for
you and your organization to start the intentional work to create
spaces, and time to name, feel, explore, reflect on, and move through
the myriad transitions occurring during our personal and professional
journeys.
