CO-STAR Blog - Sharing insights about synagogue life

When your synagogue is trying to make a change become permanent–a part of your congregation’s system–there are many ways to increase the chance of doing so.

A few weeks ago, I made a presentation in Philadelphia to a lovely group of rabbis involved with STAR’s Synaplex™ and PEER Initiatives. My good friend, Rabbi Phil Warmflash, Executive Director of the Jewish Outreach Partnership of Philadelphia invited me to speak with them about Synaplex as a catalyst for systemic change.
By coincidence, I had recently purchased a book by William Bridges, Managing Transitions. Given my assigned topic of “systemic change,” I was curious to read what Bridges had to say about the difference between “changes” and “transitions,” two terms often used interchangeably although they are different.Bridges writes:

Transition is different (from change). The starting point for dealing with transition is not the outcome but the ending that you’ll have to make to leave the old situation behind. Situational change hinges on the new thing, but psychological transition depends on letting go of the old reality and the old identity you had before the change took place. Organizations overlook that letting-go process completely, however, and do nothing about the feelings of loss that it generates. And in overlooking those effects, they nearly guarantee that the transition wilt be mismanaged and that, as a result, the change will go badly. Unmanaged transition makes change unmanageable. Transition starts with an ending. That is paradoxical, but true.

So when you need to make changes in your synagogue, what can you do to ensure success?Remember that for a change to succeed it requires a period of transition. That means enabling people to speak about their positive or negative feelings created by the change, finding continuities with the past when they exist, or honoring the past by acknowledging that the status quo has given birth to new opportunities.

Equally important, give people the resources to feel confident with the change and communicate (which means both listening and explaining) key milestones along that transitional road to the desired change so that people celebrate and understand progress.

No matter how hard you try, a few people will still look on the past wistfully. After all, as we read repeatedly in the Book of Exodus, if the Israelites could miss slavery in Egypt, it shows that letting go even of painful situations still leaves a void filled by nostalgia. But distinguishing between a change and a transition, and helping people make it through, is one of the most important tasks of leadership.
B’shalom,
Rabbi Hayim Herring