Preparing for bluebell blooms with fellow weed pullers. Balls Bluff Park.
We interrupt this weed pull to celebrate the arrival of Spring.
With the baboon news barrage we’re witnessing right now, it feels tempting to lock myself in my house and watch Season 3 of The White Lotus. Instead, I don my hiking shoes and head outside.
That’s how I’m navigating the massive corporate, political and personal transitions we face. I’m doubling down on good nutrition, sleep, and exercise.
Why does this matter? Because the first step to navigating big transitions starts with understanding the anatomy behind them.
Transitions are different from change management. They refer to the internal mindsets and beliefs that we experience in response to change.
When we unpack and embrace those internal mindset dynamics, we can lead change with greater confidence and trust. Ignore them and the rogue resisters will undermine you at every turn.
Over the past three decades, I have met resisters at several organizations, including a major media company, a Seattle-based software juggernaut, a global investment bank, and a $36B chip manufacturer.
In my work with Chip Conley and MEA, I learned the three specific stages of every transition:
- Endings – This marks the grief stage. This requires us to let go of what no longer serves us. This might include our identity, relationship, habit—or our outdated corporate strategy. In my experience, most Western cultures love to skip this stage and just “move on.” That seldom works, leaving traces of sadness, denial, and low productivity.
- The Messy Middle (MM, aka the Neutral Zone) – Welcome to the land of liminality! This marks the disorienting time moving from “old/current state” to an enlivening “future state.” My best clients allocate MM time for experimentation, knowing most interviews or hypotheses will fail.I tend to feel frustrated and impatient during this stage. Yet Messy Middle offers the greatest potential for reinvention. Staying curious and reflective helps me immensely.
- New Beginnings – You step into a renewed brand identity or direction. You and your family (or team) feel clear, confident, and aligned. My best clients create metaphors and avatars to cement their new direction and identity. Spreadsheets and revenue targets do not serve us well in stage three; they strictly serve as supporting materials. Rituals also work brilliantly during this transition stage!
While these insights may not be new, we can easily forget them—and expect to skip one stage. That throws us into an endless loop of grief or change resistance. Preeminent expert William Bridges (1933-2013) cautioned us against that approach.
As you reflect on how the swirl of events are affecting you, consider the Transition Prism™ I created below…
Copyright 2025, Lisa Nirell. All rights reserved. Developed with napkin.ai.
Successful market facing leaders must confidently dance across all four dimensions concurrently. In his recent LinkedIn post, Section CEO Greg Shove reminds us that “marketing organizations that leverage AI will be 20% smaller…and the whole team is now either medium or high-value employees.”
Imagine the implications on our company vision from 2024, our “fixed org chart” from 2023, and our outdated professional development plans that HR painstakingly designed just 15 months ago!
If you’re fixed on just one prism dimension, you’re obsolete. Sit with that for 30 seconds.
This post is meant to poke and provoke. I want you to anticipate this new cadence of change because I’ve witnessed a spike in the rate of high-stakes transitions in the past two years. The transition train is not slowing down for us. With the right community, tracks, and toolkit, we can better prepare and thrive.
That’s why I’m committed to helping leaders navigate both personal and organization transitions in 2025.
Are you facing either type of transition? Then you’re invited to these upcoming in-person cohorts:
- The Art of Experimentation – Boston May 8-9. Learn the six keys to successful experimentation used by senior leaders from AARP, Blackbaud, CoStar Group, College Ave, Eat the Change, Junior Achievement, and more. We celebrate our 10th innovation cohort in partnership with Tufts University. Three spaces remain– Details here.
- The Midlife Innovator –Santa Fe NM, Rising Circle Ranch, November 13-16, 2025. Our 2nd cohort, in concert with Chip Conley, marries 2,600 acres of desert awe with a proven transition curriculum. We help you navigate transitions and design a new future. Perfect for successful executives leading high-stakes personal or company transitions. Read how Amazon, AARP, Coca-Cola and Belmont University have benefited from this program here.
How might we help you shine brighter in 2025 and beyond?
This post was completely written by me — a human. I did not use generative AI.
© 2025, Lisa Nirell. All rights reserved. lisanirell.com.