The Change Curve is a popular and powerful model used to understand the stages of personal transition. It helps you to think about how people might respond to change.
Experience, patterns of behaviour and current emotional state underpins how people will respond to change. So, understanding the differences in behaviours and emotional responses can help leaders and can help facilitators to respond appropriately by looking to get the best from people.
It’s important to remember that these are ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ responses to change.
Listen to Joshua Freedman talking about the emotions of change.
Change Transitions
William Bridges created a model called Change Transitions, connecting with the idea that change was not a one-off event. This feels very important in our work facilitating groups of people who are in recovery. By nature, this process like any other change is a journey, a ‘transition’, and not a step by step guide that everyone follows in the same way.
Therefore, as facilitators we need to consider where the people in our groups may be on their transition and indeed where we are ourselves. All of this impacts our internal state as facilitators and an awareness helps us to be present as our facilitation supports the transition of others.
Personal Reflections
Take some time to think about and record your responses to the following questions.
Think about where you are in your recovery transition, what will you need to be mindful of when you are facilitating?
Think about the behaviours you might see from others in each of the three stages of the Transitions Model, how can this help you in your facilitation?