7 Mins
Published: August 20, 2025
Projects with excellent change management are seven times more likely to achieve project success than those with poor change management. And excellent change management means managing both the new processes and the needs and emotions of the people involved in the change.
The Bridges Transition Model, introduced in 1991 by change consultant William Bridges in his book Managing Transitions, addresses people's emotional reactions to change. It helps leaders and teams understand, preempt and plan for the natural psychological shifts that accompany changes.
But for many change practitioners, the Bridges Model falls short when it comes to practical, actionable strategies. Combined with the comprehensive and structured Prosci Change Management Methodology, organizations can confidently lead successful transitions.
Find out how you can pair the Bridges Transition Model with the Prosci Methodology to make your change initiatives more likely to deliver results.
Understanding the Bridges Transition Model
The Bridges Transition Model provides a lens for understanding what people experience internally during change.
It differentiates between change—the external event or circumstances— and transition—the internal process of moving through that change.
Transition is not linear. It’s the psychological journey people take to adjust, recalibrate and ultimately embrace a new reality. The model equips leaders to recognize and support people through the emotional aspects of change, which is critical to achieving results.
Bridges outlines three key stages of transition:
Bridges transition model
Endings
Every transition begins with an ending. People must first let go of familiar roles, relationships and routines.
This stage often surfaces emotions such as sadness, anxiety, resistance and confusion. When leaders acknowledge these responses and offer support, they lay the groundwork for trust and forward movement.
Neutral Zone
This in-between space where the old has been released but the new isn’t yet fully realized. The Neutral Zone can feel disorienting. People are asked to navigate ambiguity, reevaluate priorities and explore new ways of working. While this phase is marked by vulnerability, it also holds tremendous potential for creativity and transformation.
New Beginnings
As clarity and confidence grow, people begin to adopt new behaviors, commit to new roles, and move with purpose. Momentum builds. The transition culminates in renewed energy, engagement and ownership, key indicators of successful change.
Supporting people through these stages is essential for sustaining change outcomes. Ignoring the emotional dimension can disrupt the change initiative and make it difficult for people to commit to and learn new ways of working.
Research shows that when organizations address the emotional side of change, they can reduce turnover and make transitions more effective. The Bridges Model creates space for reflection, which helps people make sense of the past and move forward with confidence.
The Limits of the Bridges Model of Transition
The Bridges Transition Model delivers compelling insight into how people experience change. But for organizations seeking to lead change effectively at scale, the model has critical limitations.
No structured change management process
Bridges offers a valuable perspective on the human response to change, but it does not outline how to lead change strategically. There’s no roadmap for initiating, managing or sustaining change. As the International Journal researchers point out, Bridges helps explain what teams feel but stops short of providing a formal process for moving from insight to action.
No guidance on measurement
The model lacks direction for tracking progress, adoption or outcomes. This leaves leaders without the data they need to manage performance and reinforce change. By contrast, Prosci research shows that structured approaches with defined metrics are nearly seven times more likely to deliver results on time and within budget.
Organizations need tools that measure what matters.
Limited scalability
Bridges is best suited for small teams or localized initiatives. It does not account for enterprise-level complexity or provide mechanisms for governance and oversight, which presents challenges for large-scale efforts. Without a plan for scaling support, organizations risk inconsistent adoption and unchecked resistance.
Resistance to change is normal. But without strategies to address it proactively, it can undermine even the most well-designed initiatives. The Bridges model offers no guidance for mitigating resistance across a diverse workforce or managing it over time.
Recognizing these gaps creates an opportunity. By pairing the insight of the Bridges model with a structured methodology, actionable metrics and enterprise-ready strategies, leaders can guide people through change more effectively and deliver stronger outcomes at scale.
Combining Bridges With a Structured Approach to Change
The Bridges Transition Model offers valuable insight into the emotional experience of change. When paired with the Prosci ADKAR® Model, it gains the structure and measurability needed to drive results. Together, they create a holistic view of individual transitions that supports successful organizational change.
The ADKAR Model is a proven, outcome-oriented framework that helps people acquire the five elements of successful change:
Awareness – Understanding the need for change
Desire – Motivating support for change
Knowledge – Training to facilitate change
Ability – Building the capability to implement change
Reinforcement – Embedding new behaviors
Prosci ADKAR Model
Endings with Awareness and Desire
The Endings phase is where individuals begin to disengage from the current state. To support them, leaders must clearly communicate what’s changing and why. Establishing Awareness builds clarity. Inspiring Desire helps people choose to participate, even while navigating the discomfort of loss.
For example, at Butler University, leadership proactively communicates the upcoming changes during a library system migration. This approach reduced resistance and increased acceptance, with 47% of staff reporting they were ready for change before it even began.
Neutral Zone with Knowledge and Ability
The Neutral Zone represents uncertainty and ambiguity. It’s where people need structure, skill-building and support. Our ADKAR Model provides the guidance: Knowledge equips people with the right information and tools; Ability helps them put their Knowledge into practice.
During MSD’s ERP rollout, structured training and coaching produced measurable impact. The company achieved an 80% employee adoption rate and saw minimal disruption, far outperforming industry benchmarks for similar transformations.
New Beginnings with Reinforcement
New Beginnings require sustained support. It’s not enough to reach implementation. Reinforcement secures lasting change by embedding new behaviors into the culture.
Butler University Libraries marked its post-migration success with symbolic events and active recognition of new workflows. As a result, 77% of staff successfully transitioned into their new roles within three months.
By aligning the emotional intelligence of Bridges with the structure of our ADKAR Model, you can guide people through change with clarity, care and purpose. This integrated approach transforms readiness into results and creates momentum that lasts.
Metrics and Dashboards for Successful Transitions
Effectively measuring emotional engagement and progress during transitions is essential for guiding successful change. These key performance indicators provide actionable insights into individual readiness, capability, and the emotional response to change:
- Employee sentiment scores – Capture emotional reactions to change in real time. Through self-reported questionnaires or pulse surveys, leaders can identify emerging resistance, disengagement or morale issues. When applied with the Bridges Transition Model, these scores help monitor emotional stages and determine where targeted support is needed most.
- Adoption rates – Track how quickly and thoroughly individuals embrace new systems, tools or behaviors. These metrics provide a direct measure of change uptake and indicate whether awareness, desire and reinforcement strategies are effective. Low adoption may reveal deeper issues with communication, training or leadership support.
- Skill development milestones – Measure whether individuals are acquiring the necessary knowledge and abilities to operate effectively in the future state. Tracking progress toward key training objectives confirms that people are equipped to apply new skills confidently and contribute to sustained outcomes.
A practical dashboard layout includes:
- A sentiment trend chart that visually represents changes in employee emotions (e.g., frustration, anxiety and engagement) captured through regular surveys
- An adoption rate tracking graph indicating overall compliance and department-specific adoption progress
- A skill milestone progress chart, detailing overall skill development stages
Key Transition Metrics
The real-time visibility of these metrics enables leaders to adjust communication, support and training strategies promptly, proactively address emerging issues, ensure smoother transitions, and reinforce long-term organizational effectiveness.
Practical Tools and Templates
Prosci offers robust, downloadable resources to drive effective change implementation. The Communications Checklist provides practical guidelines to ensure clear, timely and consistent messaging throughout the change lifecycle, facilitating employee awareness and reducing confusion.
The Sponsor Start-Up Checklist outlines crucial steps leaders must take to visibly champion and support change initiatives, greatly enhancing employee motivation and reducing resistance. This resource is especially important because a lack of resources is one of the primary challenges sponsors face in fully supporting change efforts.
Sponsor Challenges
Additionally, the Resistance to Change Checklist outlines the practical steps to prevent and manage the natural resistance that will come with any change. Together, these tools help organizations proactively address emotional and practical challenges, supporting smoother, more successful transitions that benefit both employees and organizational goals.
Comparative Framework Quick-Guide
Several frameworks can guide organizations through change. Each contributes valuable insights, but also reveals notable limitations.
Lewin’s Change Model (Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze) provides clarity on breaking habits and solidifying new ones. However, it may oversimplify the complexity of real-world change.
Kotter’s 8-Step Model emphasizes clear leadership steps, from establishing urgency to embedding change in organizational culture. Still, its top-down structure may overlook the personal experience of change and lacks mechanisms to guide individuals through the process.
Bridges’ Transition Model centers on the emotional experience during different stages of change. While it offers valuable perspective, it doesn’t really address the often chaotic nature of real transitions and doesn’t provide structure for managing transitions.
To address these gaps, organizations turn to the Prosci Methodology, which integrates the ADKAR® Model for individual change with the Prosci 3-Phase Process for organizational change.
How the Prosci Methodology closes common gaps
Traditional change models offer useful perspectives but often lack a complete, scalable approach. The Prosci Methodology bridges these gaps by combining organizational structure with individual guidance.
Closes the structure gap (seen in Bridges and Lewin)
The Prosci 3-Phase Process offers a repeatable, scalable framework for planning, managing and sustaining change—from initial strategy to long-term adoption.
Closes the individual transition gap (seen in Kotter and Lewin)
The Prosci ADKAR Model provides a clear path for guiding each person through change, addressing awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.
Closes the measurement gap (seen across all three):
Prosci emphasizes defined success metrics, including adoption, proficiency and utilization, enabling organizations to track progress and adjust strategies in real time.
Closes the scalability gap (especially in Bridges)
The methodology is adaptable across initiatives, business units and industries, supported by tools like licensing for enterprise-wide capability building.
A case in point is Sunflower Electric Power Corporation. They faced high resistance during an ERP implementation. By applying the Prosci Methodology, including our ADKAR Model, they built internal change capability and significantly improved project outcomes. Post-project, they launched an enterprise-wide Organizational Change Management initiative, demonstrating how structured, scalable change management transforms both immediate results and long-term resilience.
By addressing these critical limitations, the Prosci Methodology empowers organizations to lead change more effectively. It creates a unified approach where strategy, structure and people align and enables change that delivers long-term results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are a few questions people often ask about the Bridges Transition Model:
What are the three stages of the Bridges Transition Model?
Bridges identifies three distinct emotional stages:
- Endings – Letting go of the old ways, often marked by feelings of loss
- Neutral Zone – A period of uncertainty and recalibration
- New Beginnings – Embracing and committing to new roles and behaviors
How does the Bridges Transition Model differ from other
change management models?
Unlike structured frameworks (e.g., Prosci 3-Phase Process, Prosci ADKAR Model, Kotter’s 8-Step Model) that focus primarily on actions and processes, Bridges emphasizes the emotional and psychological experiences individuals face during transitions. It uniquely addresses the internal journey rather than just external changes.
Can the Bridges Transition Model be used with other
change management approaches?
Yes. Bridges complements other models by focusing specifically on emotional aspects. It integrates effectively with action-oriented frameworks, like Prosci’s ADKAR Model, to provide both psychological insight and structured actions for successful organizational change.
What practical tools or templates are available to support teams
during each stage of the Bridges Transition Model?
Practical Prosci resources include the Communications Checklist, Impact Assessment worksheets and Sponsor Checklist. These tools support clear communication, help manage emotional reactions, and reinforce behaviors during each transition stage.
Make Bridges Actionable With Prosci
Bringing together the Bridges Transition Model and the Prosci Methodology empowers organizations to fully address the emotional and practical aspects of change.
By intentionally pairing the human insights of Bridges with Prosci’s human-centered tools and actionable strategies, you can transform uncertainty into clarity, emotions into momentum, and transitions into lasting success.
