Embracing Transitions Gracefully

As summer turns to autumn here in Minnesota, I’m noticing Nature’s graceful transition into the new season. The leaves are beginning to fall, but their absence doesn’t yet impact the trees’ fullness. The few tumbling leaves are just a sign of approaching change. Some trees are shifting to orange or red, while others remain fully green. Our beloved tree colors aren’t expected to peak for another three weeks or more, but these early signs help us ease into the new season.

Our temperatures are fluctuating also, with the highs not reaching summer heights and the lows gradually dropping at night. Today’s high temperature is 87 degrees Fahrenheit (30 °C), which won’t last beyond today. Nature is signaling change.

Nature is a great teacher when it comes to embracing transitions gracefully, moving from one cycle to the next gently but persistently. There’s usually a clear signal that autumn is near—like a night or two of temperatures close to freezing, and they don’t last long. As the day warms up, we almost forget about that temperature drop, and we’ll likely have a hard frost next month.

This time of year, jumping forward to fall traits and back to summer characteristics is like a dance. We dance gracefully back and forth along the border from one season to the next.

How humans experience transitions

Human transitions are similar to those in Nature, but our brains or culturally constructed frameworks often impose different rules. This can make our change patterns less graceful.

Consider three ways we approach transitions, described in metaphors:

• Dipping your toes into the water: This is where we test the water temperature. We might do this several times and even shiver if it’s cold. With this approach, we gather information before venturing into the lake. Our organizational version of this pattern is testing and researching to collect information. The information we gather shapes how we resist or embrace transition at work.
• Running and jumping into the lake: This approach is for the brave, the reckless, or the “I want to get the waiting over with” type of person. With this mindset, we don’t stop to check the temperature—we jump right in and live with the consequences. We take risks without hesitation and do our best to maximize the potential of what we find. There’s no gentle “nudge and wait” process, just a distinct move to the next destination. This type of transition might be rare in Nature, although in Minnesota, we sometimes wake up to a couple of feet of snow when there was none the day before.
• Sitting on the beach and refusing to enter the water: This is for people who don’t want to cross the threshold from one state of being to another. If we have this mindset, we decide not to go into the lake based on what we assume we’ll find. We might think the water is too cold, and sitting on the beach is cozy and warm. And despite others’ encouragement to jump into the lake, we stay on the shore.

Nature embraces transitions as an inevitability in the passage of time. Nature doesn’t stop or resist, but accepts that the next cycle will occur. It shares signals that transitions are coming, and these signals are a taste of what it will feel and look like in the near future. The signals give us time to prepare and decide how we’ll handle the change.

If we follow Nature’s example, we can combine all three metaphoric approaches in one. We can create a roadmap for navigating gradual transitions much more gracefully. This approach begins by readily testing the water at the first signs of change to gather the information we need to proceed. Then, we’d wait on the shore while we process that information. Instead of hesitating there, however, we’d eagerly jump into the water knowing that the time is right.

Which metaphor is closest to how you approach something new? How can you combine different approaches to embrace transitions more gracefully?