What it takes to get through the transition. This first phase of transition is referred to as separation or endings, or closure. It's about separating away from the old world as we used to know it. Now, there's a couple things to consider here. As you get clear about what this new thing is supposed to be, we will need to sort out what's over now and what's not. There may be some tangible things like schedules or relationships or customers, products that you have to say goodbye to, there may be some of those things that you will need to bring along with you because they're not over.

So it's very clear that not everything is over. But there will be some things that need to stop or we need to leave behind. Some of the things won't be quite as concrete and tangible. So it might be a sense of identity, it might be some sense of belonging, if you will. So first thing, let's Get clear about what's over and what's not, we need to leave some things behind. And we need to bring some things forward.

So the analogy of packing for the road ahead is a good analogy. On any number of occasions I have found dealing with major changes in work. And I will create at these junctures of major change, I will create three different stacks of things. So go through old filing systems, and create an archive, pile, shred pile, or a keep pile. And the keep, of course is those are the critical things that we'll need for the next three or four months or a year or two, whatever the timeframe might be. So think about packing for the road ahead, focused on what we can count on right now.

Those would be some of the things that will be the stabilizers, those things that are coming forward. We don't have enough information. We don't know everything we need to know yet. But we are starting to pull away from that comfortable familiar old world. So focus on what we can count on right now, to the degree that what you have to let go of is important to you watch for a predictable emotional response. this plays out for people who are indeed having to let go of something that perhaps something that they built.

In fact, we've got an entire generation of people working in organizations right now that are having to let go of policies or procedures or product lines or software systems are whatever it is that they built with their own hands 510 1520 years ago, when they came into the organization, and to see those things that they were really invested in, slip away into the ether of the past can be really a daunting and difficult thing. So this predictable emotional response is really the grief cycle and we're all very familiar with this. denial, shock, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It looks neat and tidy written out on a tagline here on the screen. There's nothing really neat and tidy about this, as you well know. But the important thing to think about here is not everybody's going to have a predictable emotional response.

Some people will be relieved that they have to let go, or they frankly, get to let go of some of these old things. So not everybody's going to relate to this in the same way. So there's some thoughts around separation. So when you think about the changes at work right now, and you think about each of these little dimensions that we've got here in front of you, what might be helpful for you