Tackling transitions

Transitions abound. Mergers, amalgamations, restructures, funding cuts, changing service models, growing, shrinking, surviving. Whatever the cause, transitions mean that something is lost before something is gained. Energy is often lavished on the structural aspects of change. However, human psychology does not follow the neat linearity of project plans and spreadsheets. The flux and flow of a transition gives rise to anxiety, insecurity, excitement, hope, and sometimes grief. There are distinct phases, but the tricky thing is that people move through these phases in different ways and at different times. Transitions contain enormous potential to do and think differently about a service or product. But they need to be understood. As the transition expert, William Bridges, notes:  “Unless transition occurs, change will not work.”

Project Sisu has worked with many organisations, large and small, during times of transition.

Here are some examples.

Camden City Council 2018

Camden Council is one of the fastest growing local government areas in New South Wales. Whole new suburbs like Oran Park will intensify the population growth already evident in other…

State Library of NSW

Three-month intensive program designed for library personnel facing council mergers and/or significant organisational change processes.

Bayside City Council, New South Wales

Prior to the opening of Rockdale’s new central library in July 2016, spirited discussions about the whole library network and how it could adapt to changing uses, emerging population hubs, digital technologies, and new service possibilities occurred.