It's time now to explore the challenge of leading people through transition. Remember, as I said earlier, that transition is the experience we go through when something changes, and this reorientation or this process of adapting to the change internally, can play out individually and collectively. A few things to remember about leading people through transition. First of all, not everybody moves at the same speed, or at the same time, typically, those least impacted by the change will go through transition, both sooner and faster. People at the strategy table, always go through transition before anyone else, because they're already thinking about what needs to happen and why things need to happen. They're thinking about the changes and internally they're already starting to adapt They realize that or not, not wrong to have people move at different speeds and at different times, but it can be a challenge if everyone's not aware of that.
For every change however insignificant or however major it is, there's always transition. The transition starts with something coming to a close separating away from the comfort and familiarity of your world. While the project team is trying to get everyone on to the new thing as soon as they can, it helps to understand that people need to let go of the old before we can embrace the new memory can get in the way, or memory can be a real support and comfort during major times of transition. That past baggage or the resonance from recent changes or long distance changes can get in the way of major changes if that memory is negative. If the memory is positive, it will support, new and current changes. So often when we're dealing with transition The past is in the present.
In some cases, a whole new era is taking shape. That's especially true if your organization is over in that institutional phase of its lifecycle and trying desperately to either at least re engineer, perhaps more ideally to rejuvenate the place and renew. This is a big daunting challenge. And it really is a whole new era for the organization. I've worked in many organizations over the last decade or more, that truly are building the foundation for the next hundred years of their organizations history. We've got to recognize that change and transition are inextricably connected.
Just like the two phases of breathing, inhaling, and exhaling. So while we are unconsciously breathing every minute of every day inhaling and exhaling, if we compromise the exhaling part and focus only on the inhaling part, it doesn't take us long to run into trouble. organizations need to recognize this with an excessive amount of attention being put onto the change or the inhale, and very little attention put on to the transition, which is the exhale doesn't take long for an organization to become changed out. The capacity has been exceeded. So we need to help an organization literally breathe with change and transition work. Just like we breathe as human beings inhaling and exhaling.
The challenge is that for humans, inhaling and exhaling is automatic. It's not automatic for organizations to deal with change and transition. We've created organizations to deal with change. But there's an enormous amount of work that needs to be done around helping people through transition. Helping people adapt, helping people reorient, to move away from the familiar and learn what is required so that they can step into and help shape the new world is becoming an incredibly important skill. Organizations have been focusing a lot on change, and it's time to start helping them focus more on transition.
What we're going to do is look at each of the three phases of transition, and explore what we can do in each one of those phases to lead people through all phases of transition.