Highlight from 'Managing Transitions' by William Bridges, Susan Bridges

Misplaced faith in the picture’s power to make a transition happen is encouraged by a misunderstanding that is common among people who design change projects. Such people typically go through their transitions before they launch the changes, while they’re still struggling with the problems and searching for solutions. By the time they are ready to announce the change, they have long since put their endings and their neutral zone behind them, and now they’re ready for a new beginning. But they forget that middle management is probably just entering the neutral zone and that most workers have not even made their endings yet.